HP Z2 MINI G5 - 6050A3153001-MB-A02(A2) BIOS

[reeluff]

No Boot, No Post, 3 red 4 white. No measured shorts or visible issues on board. Under power on and thermal camera, everything on the board seems to be turning on fine (cpu/ram/gpu etc), power cycles once then during second power cycle device cuts off with the power light error code. Known good cpu and ram.

I have attached the main 32mb bios, and 16mb rom dump. I suspect, either a rom or EC or PCH issue - the PCH under thermal does seem to be quite active, but might just be confused by something coming from the EC. (Not sure if it has something to do with top swap strap (TS), sampled at rising edge pch_pwrok)

The EC chip is NUVOTON // NPCD318HA0DX >> is there any device that can read or write to this? The board has empty JTAG pads if that helps. SVOD/ vertyanov etc...?

In my dump it does look like the 16mb ROM does seem like it has something wrong with it - in uefitool "FfsParser::parseRawArea: one of objects inside overlaps the end of data" / "FfsParser::parse: not a single Volume Top File is found, the image may be corrupted" , and seems to be missing FIT/ security section. I did wipe the 16mb rom chip, installed it blank on board and it did get rewritten on poweron, with a different file to what i originally read off it. The first half was totally blank, missing a lot - but this file in uefitool did show correct FIT and security section though. Still no working device.

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If anyone has known working dump from both 32/16 bins, schematics, or some pointers for which direction to go down would be much appreciated.

[hoaca388]

No Boot, No Post, 3 red 4 white. No measured shorts or visible issues on board. Under power on and thermal camera, everything on the board seems to be turning on fine (cpu/ram/gpu etc), power cycles once then during second power cycle device cuts off with the power light error code. Known good cpu and ram.

I have attached the main 32mb bios, and 16mb rom dump. I suspect, either a rom or EC or PCH issue - the PCH under thermal does seem to be quite active, but might just be confused by something coming from the EC. (Not sure if it has something to do with top swap strap (TS), sampled at rising edge pch_pwrok)

The EC chip is NUVOTON // NPCD318HA0DX >> is there any device that can read or write to this? The board has empty JTAG pads if that helps. SVOD/ vertyanov etc...?

In my dump it does look like the 16mb ROM does seem like it has something wrong with it - in uefitool "FfsParser::parseRawArea: one of objects inside overlaps the end of data" / "FfsParser::parse: not a single Volume Top File is found, the image may be corrupted" , and seems to be missing FIT/ security section. I did wipe the 16mb rom chip, installed it blank on board and it did get rewritten on poweron, with a different file to what i originally read off it. The first half was totally blank, missing a lot - but this file in uefitool did show correct FIT and security section though. Still no working device.

----

If anyone has known working dump from both 32/16 bins, schematics, or some pointers for which direction to go down would be much appreciated.

Serial ?

[reeluff]

serial of what, the main unit, motherboard, or? and where to find it - numbers everywhere. Will add the info, out of interest how does this help diagnose?

[hoaca388]

serial of what, the main unit, motherboard, or? and where to find it - numbers everywhere. Will add the info, out of interest how does this help diagnose?

Try it

[reeluff]

What was your method? 16mb file still the same, a modification to the 32mb file? I think the 16mb file seems a bigger concern.

However, exactly the same fault occuring. I re-read the 32mb bios after flashing your bin, and powercycling the device. The 32mb bios has been changed by something on the board, the 32mb bin that was rewritten by device attached.

I think a known good working 32/16 bin dump would be good starting point.

[reeluff]

The 16mb bin was modified too by the machine after last power on cycle attempt after flashing hoaca388 32mb file, attached

[SMDFlea]

serial of what, the main unit, motherboard, or? and where to find it - numbers everywhere. Will add the info, out of interest how does this help diagnose?

The PC serial number.It will be on a sticker.With the serial we can find the right bios update from HP support,and check if the serial on the sticker matches with the one in the bios.Also the serial is required as per the rules

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/troubl...before-posting

[reeluff]

thankyou, it matches what is inside both 32/16 chips.

[reeluff]

Was asked twice for serial number, rules - fine.

Hoaca gave me a random file, told me to "try it", with absolutely no further context or information of what that file I was told to try was.

Is there a rule to provide useful information for any file told to try, otherwise how do we know what we are being given, whether it is malicious, what was done to the file, how will anybody learn anything.

Thankyou

[reeluff]

All sorted, no worries - figured it out myself.

[Markopik]

Hello everyone,

I have the same HP Z2 Mini G5 (6050A3153001-MB-A02, Rev 1.01, EC: NPCD318HA0DX) with exactly the same problem:
– Board shows signs of life with working BIOS (both 32MB and 16MB chips flashed and verified)
– But I still get 3 red and 4 white blinks (EC error), no POST.

I believe my EC firmware is corrupted or missing.

Does anyone have a working EC.bin dump for the NPCD318HA0DX on this board, or the correct JTAG pinout to flash the EC in-circuit?

I have two working, verified BIOS files (W25Q128JV and W25Q256JV) from my own repairs and am happy to share them with anyone who needs them for this board.

I have the necessary tools (T56, SmartPro X5, logic analyzer, full soldering lab) and can handle ISP or JTAG flashing if needed.

Any help with a working EC firmware, a dump from a working board, or detailed programming instructions would be massively appreciated!
(If you have a verified EC.bin, I’m happy to share my working BIOS dumps or help the community in return.)

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

Marcin

[SMDFlea]

Hello everyone,

I have the same HP Z2 Mini G5 (6050A3153001-MB-A02, Rev 1.01, EC: NPCD318HA0DX) with exactly the same problem:

Attach your backups as an attachment in a zip or rar ,and post the PC serial number.

[Markopik]

Hi,
Serial Number: 8CN1210JV0
The two files attached belong to the new motherboard, which is functioning without any issues.