Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

[waakye]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

Hi mcplslg123,
Thanks for replying. I will be excited if it can be fix.
Btw how was your vacation. Hope you enjoyed it.
Could you please walk me through on as what I need to do.
I will read the schematic to locate the DRAMRST pin.
Thanks again.

[waakye]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

Hi,
Do you mean DDR4_DRAMRST# or H_DRAMRST#?

Thanks

[waakye]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

Hi,
Could someone confirm if this makes a difference.
Initially the bios chip I desolder was W25Q128FVSQ but since one of the pins broke off when I remove the chip I ordered this chip: W25Q128JVSIM.
Are they identical or will that chip have cause the 7 beeps.,?
Thanks again in advance.

[mon2]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

W25Q128JVSIM

Will work fine as a replacement. Not the root cause of the 7 beeps. Just be sure to verify the flash memory against the original file.

[waakye]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

Thanks for confirming mon2.
I will look into that am so puzzled that just changing changing bios chip and flashing bios could resort to a 7 beeps (dead CPU).
Did I screw something up without knowing.
I will report if I make any progress. I am also looking for any pointers.
Thanks again.

[mon2]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

1) cpu power rails - are they being shorted? If the resistance is very low then the CPU is shorted. Respectively, what is the voltage of the CPU power rail?

2) very important to confirm that the bios being flashed is with a compatible image for your logic board. Double check this.

3) do you hear the same error code tone pattern if the RAM sticks are completely removed from the logic board?

[mcplslg123]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

Hi,
Do you mean DDR4_DRAMRST# or H_DRAMRST#?

Thanks

I mean DDR4_Dramrst#

[mcplslg123]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

Will work fine as a replacement. Not the root cause of the 7 beeps. Just be sure to verify the flash memory against the original file.

I disagree with @mon2 on this bios chip. Usually JV and FV suffix are not interchangeable. May not be the case here but i replaced a bios chip (original JV) with FV and correct image was flashed and resulted in no display but when replaced with JV and bios flash, display appeared. It was some HP board but i dont remember the mb marking. Best to check the descriptor region of bios for chip support.

[waakye]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

Thanks mon2 and mcplslg123 for all the helpful informations.
@mon2 when the RAM is removed, I get the same 7 beeps.

I will take some measurements and report back.

Thanks again guys!

[waakye]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

DDR4_Dramrst# measures 1.207V

Thanks

[mon2]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

I disagree with @mon2 on this bios chip. Usually JV and FV suffix are not interchangeable. May not be the case here but i replaced a bios chip (original JV) with FV and correct image was flashed and resulted in no display but when replaced with JV and bios flash, display appeared. It was some HP board but i dont remember the mb marking. Best to check the descriptor region of bios for chip support.

Did some digging and the JV is a faster and same voltage compatible part. So it should work. The fault in the referenced case may have been that the QE bit was not set on the JV part as this is the factory default in comparison to the FV variation.

The QE bit can be programmed by most programming software but you will have to review this configuration manually. If the QE bit is not set, then only normal SPI mode (slower to boot) will be supported. With QE bit set to '1', then QUAD I/O pins will operate to load the firmware much faster.

reference:
https://forum.pjrc.com/threads/62710...-working/page2

@edamas and all interested parties

In reading the spec sheet in a bit more detail for the Winbond W25Q128FV as a result of testing with the SerFlash library I found the issue with using the FV chip.

Basically it boils down the fact that for the Chip to work in QSPI mode the QE bit in the status register 2 has to be enabled like we do the JVSIM flash chip. To be identified as a FV you have to put the chip in QSPI Mode and reread the JEDEC which is not done for the JV chip.

The other possibility is that the vendor is actually checking the JEDEC ID inside the flash device and refusing to boot if there is a mismatch. Each flash device contains a hard-coded ID that can be read by the host. Doubt this to be present but they did exactly this ID check on XMOS designs a number of years ago. The bootloader would check the ID and halt booting if the flash IC was not exactly the same as what they specified at assembly time of the PCB.

[waakye]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

Thanks mon2 for the detailed information. I am guessing if I can get my hands on the same exact chip that might worth a shot at it.
I verified with digikey and they do not carry that chip. Most likely because it's obselet.
Any vendors I can try.
Thanks again.

[mon2]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

Can you post a pic of the original part that was onboard? Perhaps it can be repaired?

[waakye]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

Sure. It's attached. Look at the side and all four pins are broken off.

[mon2]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

While not simple and not impossible, you may have enough meat left on the IC to solder on wire wrap wire. The issue will be how long you can heat up that wire before the solder melts and falls off. Let me check if there are any sources of this part still left.

Update:

Aliexpress appears to be the only source at this time.

To catch up here, you HAVE flashed the JV part with the bios firmware and applied onto your logic board and the board still performs the 7 beeps? If yes, curious on if you still hear the same 7 beeps with this flash device removed or not. Just watch your heat and apply flux if you plan to test this thought.

[waakye]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

Ok. I can give it a try but if you can find a part for me I will take it.
Thanks

[waakye]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

I will try to fix the pins and also I will remove the chip and power on the laptop and see if I get the same beep codes and report back.

[mon2]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

W25Q128FVSQ

Can you confirm the full markings of your flash IC that was on the motherboard?

This is very important.

From the datasheet, found the following - see attached.

With a 'Q' suffix, this implies the flash device as sold from Winbonard is indeed in QSPI mode.

This means that your JV flash will NOT be the same until you manually enable the QSPI mode using your programmer tool.

Personally do not use the same tools but can you share screens of the options for the JV flash device ?

You are looking for the 'QE' bit and by default, it will be '0' and you want to change this to '1' and continue to flash the device. Then test again.

[waakye]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

Thanks mon2.
This is the marking on the chip: Winbond 25Q128FVSQ 1633

[waakye]

Re: Alienware 17 R3 power on and shuts itself off and stays off

Hi,
I have attached the option menu of the chip. Let me if that is sufficient. Btw am using Neo programmer and CH341A black edition programmer. The volage modification is done to supply the chip with 3.3V.
Thanks