Packard Bell LJ67 Compal LA-5021P no display.Bios dump

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

I have this laptop and it doesn't want to start. Packard Bell LJ67, mainboard Compal LA-5021P. Lights up, fan spins and that's about it. No display on either internal or VGA. It has Core 2 Duo, DDR3, nVidia GT240 MXM. Came with a fair amount of dust inside so i thought the GPU died, so i reflowed GPU and no change. It seems like it doesn't initialize the CPU, Vcore is 0.9v. Also the heatsinks don't get as warm as they should.

Any pointers would be appreciated. It seems like there's no schematic for this mainboard...

Anyone has a good verified BIOS dump for this model?

[sorinac]

Re: Packard Bell LJ67 Compal LA-5021P no display

here you go

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Packard Bell LJ67 Compal LA-5021P no display

Ok will try to flash, i forgot my programmer at home. Thanks.

Interesting is that i pulled the BIOS chip and now the board doesn't do anything anymore. No lights no nothing. So the BIOS might be good. But i'll still try to reflash it, maybe it's partially corrupted.

[sorinac]

Re: Packard Bell LJ67 Compal LA-5021P no display

la un acer one am patit , se aprindeau ledurile dar fara imagine si era din bios

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Packard Bell LJ67 Compal LA-5021P no display

Done a few of those Aspire Ones, they can easily be recovered from USB drive. But i hope you're right and it's gonna come to life after i program the BIOS.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Packard Bell LJ67 Compal LA-5021P no display

Mersi frumos, iti datorez o bere! (Thanks a lot, i owe you a beer!). Flashed the BIOS dump you provided and the board is working fine now.

[sorinac]

Re: Packard Bell LJ67 Compal LA-5021P no display

I'm glad i could help

[blownelco]

Re: Packard Bell LJ67 Compal LA-5021P no display

Hello,
I think i have a laptop with the same problem.

Where is the bios onto that board is it U60 P3017THF ?

What kind of programmer do i need for that bios?

thanks in advance

[artois7]

Re: Packard Bell LJ67 Compal LA-5021P no display

Hi,

What lead you to the BIOS chip on this? I'd say 90% of threads on here end with a BIOS flash, and I've never repaired a laptop like that in the whole time I've been doing this.

Do you just do it because it's the next easiest step to take?

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Packard Bell LJ67 Compal LA-5021P no display

The BIOS chip is the one in the "wide" SOIC-8 package, wider than all the rest.

As for what led me to it... My nose. This isn't the first laptop i see with this problem. All voltages good and no signs of overheating on the Northbridge, yet the machine does not boot, what's next to check? Maybe you never encountered any so far, but i've seen quite a few systems with BIOS issues, both desktop and portable.

This is also common with the TV guys over here, since quite a few areas of Romania have quite unstable/overloaded power lines. One of the first steps on a TV which is acting wonky, after checking the power supply, is to flash a known good dump for that model. This has the potential to fix *many* weird issues that you'd be hunting like crazy otherwise. EEPROMs do not like power spikes.

I also used to have a Lenovo that i bought *dead*, and expected a power issue. The reason for it being absolutely dead was actually a corrupted EC BIOS...

As for the programmer, i use a simple parallel port interface. 4x 220 or 330 ohm resistors, a female LPT connector, a few wires, a capacitor and a battery. Doesn't get any simpler than this. http://rayer.g6.cz/elektro/spipgm.htm For software you can use either SPIPGM or flashrom compiled with support for the rayer_spi programmer. Instead of this, you can also use a Bus Pirate if you have one of those. Works great with flashrom. I used to use the Bus Pirate but it wasn't mine, and the guy i'd borrowed it from took it back. I made a PCB with sockets for this simple LPT-based programmer, and it works just fine.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Packard Bell LJ67 Compal LA-5021P no display

Sorry, it's a male LPT connector, my bad. Anyway you got it figured out already, something to plug into the parallel port of the PC. I have a PCB design if you want it.

[blownelco]

Re: Packard Bell LJ67 Compal LA-5021P no display

hello,

thanks for that info, i fixed it without removing the chip.

usb stick with KAYF0X64.FD

powered up with fn + esc

lights flashing for while.


repowered board and it starts again.

i hope it will stay ok.

greetings

[KAZILUKMAN]

Re: Packard Bell LJ67 Compal LA-5021P no display

My leptop is ready
thenks

[p0stman]

Re: Packard Bell LJ67 Compal LA-5021P no display.Bios dump

I could get back to life the laptop too, thank you @sorinac.