Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

90%, just to give you an idea how long it's taking....

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

And, of course, it failed, writing at 93%. Maybe the chips bad? Maybe I should just solder the good chip onto the bad board and see what happens?

[diif]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

Over 3 hours to write 4MB ? That doesn't sound right to me. My Ch341A takes about a minute to write 8MB.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

Even though the program gave an error at 93%, it kept going. It finished. I redumped it and compared it to the previous good dump and it checks out, so I'll try soldering it later tonight. I really hope it was a bad flash, if not, I'm out of ideas, expect for getting yet another replacement board....

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

Over 3 hours to write 4MB ? That doesn't sound right to me. My Ch341A takes about a minute to write 8MB.

Yeah, I know there's definitely something wrong here. This is the first time I've tried writing. It said it took 3 hours, 28 minutes and some odd seconds. It only takes maybe 20 seconds to read, 20 seconds to verify, 20 seconds to erase....but writing, oh man! I wonder if it showing as an EPP / I2C device had anything to do with it. Isn't I2C a serial type chip? Maybe they're really small and maybe it was sending one bit at a time or something? That doesn't make sense though, because it reads and verifies real fast like. Just writing took FOREVER!!!!

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot that would be greatly welcomed!!!!

[Agent24]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

Do you have the latest software/firmware for the programmer?

My Willem programmer came with outdated software which couldn't handle half the chips it was supposed to.

[diif]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

Did you try writing the other BIOS chip ?

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

Do you have the latest software/firmware for the programmer?

My Willem programmer came with outdated software which couldn't handle half the chips it was supposed to.

This programmer came with nothing. So, I bought that CH341A Programmer software from the developer, SkyGz. He gave me the latest version 1.31. It used to be free, but now it costs 5$ - 10$ (I paid 10$ and gave him a 10$ donation). I can't find firmware for the programmer. Is there even firmware available? I found drivers. First, when I plugged it in, Windows found drivers. It originally showed as a serial device with a com port. I'll try switching the jumper back and see if it shows as a serial device. I think there's really two separate devices here. Both have a vendor ID of VID_1A86 but the EPP / I2C one has a PID of PID_5512 and the serial one has a PID of PID_5523. I downloaded the latest version of the drivers from wch.cn. I believe they're the people who make the CH341 IC.

Anyone know anything more about these programmers? Why are there two devices, one serial, one parallel? I thought maybe one was for 24 (I2C / EEPROM) type chips and one for 25 (SPI / BIOS)type chips...

The back of the device says YJ and has a circle around it, then under that, it says MinProgrammer. On the front, it says CH341APro.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

Did you try writing the other BIOS chip ?

No sir. I had just written to the BIOS chip that was on the e-bay machine, took a shower, then went to bed. My nose is all stuffed up and I feel like crap! I keep on sneezing too. Anyway, think I should try that? Writing to the known good BIOS chip to see if it's really slow?

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

Switching the jumper on the programmer from what I'm assuming is CMOS logic (it's in Chinese) to TTL logic (moving it from pins 1-2 to pins 2-3) makes the device show up as a serial port device in Device Manager. USB-SERIAL CH341A (COM11). If I show hidden devices, I see a bunch of these, with different COM port numbers. So I believe the COM port changes sometimes.

The CH341A Programmer software does NOT detect the device when it's connected this way though. I don't know why. But other people with this device say the same. I can only use it when the jumpers on 1-2, not 2-3. By default, it comes on 2-3. This made it really hard to figure out why it wasn't working, until I saw the youtube video telling me to put it on jumpers 1-2.

There's an option in the program that says SST/ESMT chip use AAI program mode. This chip says PCT on it, but the program detects it as an SST chip and only lists the SST version of this chip. I'm thinking maybe SST bought out the PCT company? Anyway, I wonder if that option might have something to do with the slowness of the write operation.

[diif]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

I have just the basic CH341A. I've never changed jumpers and it's read all the chips I've stuck in/on it. I use version 1.18 that stj provided a while back. I run Windows 7. It needed drivers, I believe I got them from this YouTube link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0ChYNwunUE

The fact there was an issue with the POST and then it takes 3 hours to program, suggests to me that it's faulty.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

Finally, a little progress!!!! I replaced the BIOS, still 5 long beeps. I took the RAM chip from the first slot (DDRIII1) and moved it to the second slot (DDRIII2). I got it to POST!!!! But the keyboard doesn't work. I can't get into the BIOS. It doesn't boot. It says hit ESC for startup, then it says hit F1 to boot. Numlock and Capslock doesn't turn on or off. It's as if the keyboard isn't registering. There's no PS2 port, just USB. I've tried a different USB slot but no luck.

Any ideas for the RAM? I'll take the board out and check the pins. I originally had two sticks in, one in DDRIII1 and one in DDRIII3...I'm thinking both DDRIII1 and DDRIII3 are dead.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

I have just the basic CH341A. I've never changed jumpers and it's read all the chips I've stuck in/on it. I use version 1.18 that stj provided a while back. I run Windows 7. It needed drivers, I believe I got them from this YouTube link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0ChYNwunUE

The fact there was an issue with the POST and then it takes 3 hours to program, suggests to me that it's faulty.

I think the 3 hour programming was unrelated to the PC issue. I feel there's issues with the device. Jumpers 2-3 make it show as serial. I have drivers for that, but the program, the same one you use, just version 1.31, doesn't detect it on jumpers 2-3. This is probably the case with yours as well.

I wonder if I used version 1.18 if it'd write a lot faster. I almost remember some people saying something about the later versions having some issues. For what it's worth Diif, you might want to think about purchasing a registered copy. It's real cheap and the way I understand it, you'll get free updates for life...

[diif]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

"If it's not fu***d, don't fix it"
If I come across a chip I can't program then yes I'd consider it. Until then, there is nothing to think about. I've had zero issues unless the chip was faulty.

Check those memory slots with a microscope.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

"If it's not fu***d, don't fix it"
If I come across a chip I can't program then yes I'd consider it. Until then, there is nothing to think about. I've had zero issues unless the chip was faulty.

Check those memory slots with a microscope.

I gotcha. I was just thinking that it'd be worth purchasing a copy to support the programmer, that's all. I've written some open source programs before and donations are always nice. That's all I meant about buying a registered version.

I don't have a microscope but I do have a couple magnifying glasses. If slots 1 and 3 don't work, but slots 2 and 4 do (independently), does that imply it might not be the physical slot but one of the components that connect to it (ie, a capacitor or something?) The northbridge deals with RAM but the southbridge deals with USB and SATA / PATA controllers, right? I cannot seem to boot into an OS yet and the keyboard doesn't seem to be recognized. The seller of the board said there were problems copying files. I wonder if there's something wrong with the southbridge.

I'll concentrate on the RAM issue first though.

Thanks for all the help guys!!!!!

[diif]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

It could be the southbridge, it could also be the BIOS.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

Diif, I don't know a lot about the newer processors, but I remember someone saying a while back about the Intel processors having the memory controller built into the CPU. I think this AMD processor is the same. So I flip the board over and start following the traces from the RAM slots. They appear to go to the CPU socket. Then guess what? We notice the felt cover under the metal bracket there looks like someone had tried to pry it up with a screwdriver in an area. I tell my wife we need to remove the metal bracket and the felt cover to look for broken traces. But what I found extra odd was the area where they tried prying the felt up.

Almost all of the felt was covered with the metal bracket, except this one area. This area of the felt went out a bit. Then I started looking at the metal cover, and guess what? There's an area on the metal cover that goes out!!!! Someone must have switched the metal bracket but put it on wrong!!!!!! I say oh no! We remove it and we can see three black spots, where two of the polymer caps grounded to the bracket.

We're trying to remove them now, but it's really hard. My 120 watt iron can't even begin to warm up the solder. We're going to try hot air to remove them on the old board and then practice drilling some of the other ones out until we got it down good, then we'll drill out the two bad ones. I tried pulling a little on those two caps and they just came right off. Only the metal leads are in the board now.

Hopefully, replacing those two caps will fix at least the RAM, but I'm hoping it magically fixes the USB problem as well!!!! That'd be wonderful!!!!!!

If it doesn't, I'll throw the old BIOS dump back on there and see if the USB starts working.

[diif]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

Don't drill. Just solder to the legs that are left.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

Okay. It'll be hard, because I'll have to solder from the top side of the board. They're very short leads. Or can I solder directly to the top of the old leads? They appear to have some rubber on them, that I can probably snip off, if I had too.

Thanks for the advice! Glad I came and read before I went down and tried drilling.

I wonder why these polymers are sooooo hard to remove. This isn't the first board I came across like this. I'm going to test the ones we removed with the hot air. We had to use a very high heat and it took a very long time. I'm hoping it didn't damage the polymers, but if I did, I can just order two new ones.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for an HP M3970CM repair.

I think I'm going to just scrape this board. In the end, it costed 20$. Now that I replaced those two capacitors, none of the RAM slots work. 2.5v 820uF polymers. Blah!