Lenovo Slim 7i (Model 14IMH9) - Failed BIOS Update and Stuck in Boot Loop

[yellowtiger]

Hello Everyone,

I'm writing to ask for help on my Lenovo Slim 7i laptop. The model number is 14IMH9 and the machine type is 83D80003US. About two weeks ago a BIOS update for this laptop failed and the laptop has been stuck in a boot loop with black screen ever since. Now when I press the power button, the keyboard lights come on and the fan starts running. However, the screen remains black. The laptop shuts off and reboots automatically after ~1 minute then repeats the whole process again until I forcefully shut it down by long pressing the power button.

I have sent the laptop to Lenovo Support Center. They quoted me ~$700 to replace the motherboard since my laptop is out of warranty. I declined the proposal and they sent it back to me unrepaired. Now I need to find a way to fix it myself.

I have done quite some research. It looks that I can try to use a flasher to flash the BIOS chip to save the laptop. I happen to have a CH371A mini programmer with 1.8V adapter and I have seen posts on the internet that people were able to use it to flash laptop BIOS chips.

Now I need some help on identifying the BIOS chips on the motherboard. I have removed the backplate of the laptop but have not fully disassembled it. I can see some chips on the exposed side. I believe my laptop has dual BIOS chips. So I took a look and found two chips labeled XMC 25QU128CHIQ and XMC 25RU128CHIQ (see attached pictures). Could someone tell me if these are actually the BIOS chips for my laptop? Also if you could point out where the CMOS battery is located from my picture that would be great.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[m1ch43lzm]

Yes, full BIOS is split in 2 chips: XMC 25RU128CHIQ and 25QU128CHIQ, both chips are 1.8V so the 1.8V adapter is required with the CH341A, make at least 2-3 readings of each chip to be sure you get a good reading, especially when using a SOIC8 clip
There's no CMOS battery, instead the RTC is powered by the main battery

Please start a new thread in BIOS requests subforum:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/troubl...requests-only/

You have to include laptop full model, serial number, MTM, etc. in your post as per BIOS requests rules, along with the backups of both BIOS chips: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/troubl...before-posting

[yellowtiger]

Hi m1ch43lzm,

Thanks a lot for your reply! I'll start a BIOS request thread in that subforum after getting good readings from the BIOS chips.

A few follow up questions: 1) if the full BIOS is split into 2 chips, does that mean I need to request two BIOS files (one for each chip)? And when I flash BIOS I'll need to flash both files back to the corresponding chip? 2) Will my DMI information get lost when I flash new BIOS files? Or that will be added into the BIOS files when other members help to provide them? 3) I have extracted the .bin BIOS from downloaded .exe file from official Lenovo website. Its size is exactly 16,777,216 bytes which looks right to me. Can I flash this file to both BIOS chips? I know that this file does not include DMI information but I think that can be added back to the laptop using some Lenovo tool. Am I right?

Thanks again!

Yes, full BIOS is split in 2 chips: XMC 25RU128CHIQ and 25QU128CHIQ, both chips are 1.8V so the 1.8V adapter is required with the CH341A, make at least 2-3 readings of each chip to be sure you get a good reading, especially when using a SOIC8 clip
There's no CMOS battery, instead the RTC is powered by the main battery

Please start a new thread in BIOS requests subforum:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/troubl...requests-only/

You have to include laptop full model, serial number, MTM, etc. in your post as per BIOS requests rules, along with the backups of both BIOS chips: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/troubl...before-posting

[yellowtiger]

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to give an update on this. I started a BIOS request thread in the BIOS Request subforum. Fellow forum member Sparo provided a working BIOS file. I flashed the file to XM25QU128C. Now my Lenovo laptop is back to life! It now boots up into Windows with no problem. I went into BIOS and checked. All DMI information is there. I also tried Windows update and it seemed to work fine. Thanks again to m1ch43lzm and Sparo! You are life-savors.