Can I Fix These Broken Lenovo Mini PCs?

[@HardwareHaven]

UPDATE/FAQ/RESPONDING TO A LOT OF COMMENTS: I've had a lot of comments recently and have been a bit busy, so I'm sort of responding to a lot of them here. First of all, thanks for all the incredible feedback and advice! I've learned a lot just from this video and appreciate all of you sharing your years of experience and knowledge. There are a few things I'd like to either answer, provide some more clarity, and/or update you guys on so here it goes: - I learned after the fact that flashing the BIOS directly from one mobo to another can be sketchy since OEMs put serials and other info on the UEFI. I guess it's common to edit this in UEFITool or something similar before flashing. Fortunately, I was able to boot into windows on these and use Lenovo's flash tool to not only update the BIOS but also insert the correct serial number. I'm not sure if there are any other issues, but so far I haven't come across anything. One is running debian and the other two are running windows just fine. - I'm aware that the BIOS chip could be faulty or susceptible to failing again on these. I plan to keep two currently and will only sell the one that had an issue with the RAM module. If I have issues with the UEFI corrupting again with either of the others, I'll look into replacing the IC. - I tested the faulty DDR4 module after substantial cleaning to no avail. I might try it in a different system but have no reason to belive it isn't faulty. - It was silly to jump to the CPU as fast as I did, but looking back, its clear to me that I was nervous about losing too much money on the deal and I was hoping to at least confirm that I had 3 CPUs and some RAM I could sell haha. It would've been much smarter to clear CMOS/remove and replace the CMOS battery before doing that. Speaking of which, I wasn't super clear in the video but I replaced all the CMOS batteries of camera giving both non working machines a good amount of time before putting the new one in. - Some people pointed out that I should only change one variable between boots, and this is a good idea when trying to pin down the exact problem. I partly didn't always do that for the same reason as mentioned above; I was hoping to just get a POST to hopefully feel better about buying three dead PCs. Also, if I can get a POST, I can always go back and start adding those same variables to see what was causing the issue, granted that can sometimes not work out and you'll get a POST after resetting something only for it to fail again down the road. So, thats fair criticism, but things are also different when filming a video haha. - Also, I guess I touch my face too much..? 🤔 At this point I'm really just typing my thoughts so feel free to stop reading, but having to explain all of the above is sort of the reason that I get a lot of the somments I do, which don't get me wrong, I love reading the comments and learning from them. However, just realize that for the sake of a video, it's impossible to address every single little thing. Even in a longer format like this. I don't say that to discourage comments. But I do hope that maybe this encourages you to be a bit more positive and open minded when dropping comments on your favorite creators' videos. Just because they or I like waffles doesn't mean that we hate pancakes (or ventoy). Okay I'm done. Thanks for watching this video and reading this mess. Stay curious 👍

[@criostasis]

Ignore hate, take in the constructive comments, keep learning!

[@AndersJackson]

You probably doesn't have time to answer all comments, but reading could be possible. And as you noticed, some people are brittle like a snowflake in hell, so don't bother with hatets, even if it could be hard to do. You really can't please everyone. Try to extract the good information and ignore the rest. And your video set up is good enough that you don't need to make excuses about it. As a musician, I tell you what I have learned from other musicians. Don't ever tell your audience about misses you make, that you could do better, when they tell you are good, or at least not say you did bad. Because you then can take a good experience from them. Just suck that good vibes up and put that into next video. If you get comments about it not being as good as as it can, just comment if it is constructive, and THEN make the excuses/explain why. Not before. Yes, I did not got any bad experience from your videos, when it comes to the production. About the Repair, good that you managed to fix them, I know I would, as I would reprogram the BIOS/UEFI Memory.

[@bishoydoozy2133]

can you tell me how you identified the Bios chip.. i have the same unit.. not working same issue.. i bough a programmer to try this but not sure how to locate the chip

[@HardwareHaven]

@@bishoydoozy2133 sorry for the delay. YOu can hopefully find it by looking at the clip that shows the clamp towards the end of the video. I believe it's underneath the cpu fan. It's not the one that's under/near the nvme slot

[@lfcbpro]

Quick note for a little advice and encouragement. 1. Great video, it's very interesting to see some of this content, and I am sure inspires a lot of people to have a go themselves. 2. If you make mistakes, own them, and share them. It is very helpful to people if you share your mistakes too. Seeing someone do something perfectly in an edited video may dishearten other people if they don't find things as easy as they see you do it. 3. Log your steps. Either on a piece of paper or a word doc. Not just so you know where you are up to, but also so you can see your steps the next time you attempt something like this and you can see what went right or wrong, and improve on things perhaps. 4. When messing with things like RAM and slots, set up a matrix and do all of the different combos to see what you have. You may miss a step and move on to something different without completely eliminating an aspect as a defect. 5. Get a anti-static wrist band, not sure how effective they are, but for a few £/$ it can't hurt. Don't work on a PC with the power in, just on the off chance. 6. Check there is a CPU present, lol, I have actually seen it that someone is going nuts over why a PC won't POST, and there is no actual CPU in the comp :))) 7. Ignore any negatives that someone puts in comments etc, YOU DO YOU, enjoy what you do and keep up the great content.

[@Vash612584]

Future tip, if you are just testing for post you don't absolutely need to put thermal paste and cooler back on.

[@TheLionAndTheLamb777]

Athlon XP has entered the chat.

[@TheJonchihuahua]

Intel xenon servers don’t post without cpu and cpu fan.

[@grahamstevenson1740]

@@TheJonchihuahua Oh yes they do ! I do it frequently. The CPU has NO WAY of telling if the cooler and fan are preset. An alternative if you have one that's 'safer' is to stick on something like a spare chipset cooler (no fan or mounting clip) with a dab of h/s paste. It'll 'absorb' a bit of hear for a minute or so. A finger on the heat spreader will tell if it's getting too warm.

[@grahamstevenson1740]

@@TheJonchihuahua He wasn't saying without the *CPU* !

[@phillipsmith4745]

Pentium 4 HT Has entered the chat

[@kylesparrow9564]

I'm only to the first fix so far, but I'd warn that when troubleshooting, you should always try to make only one change at once. For instance, if you're removing the wi-fi card, immediately try booting again. When you change the RAM, put a different stick in the SAME slot. Love the video, and great effort. Keep at it!

[@BustinCasts]

We use this same theory of operation in maintenance of retail fuel dispensers. Always try to keep the changes one at at time, especially on those stubborn issues that are hard to pin down. This is definitely solid advice.

[@justin6822]

Didn't expect to see a full size AM4 CPU honestly haha, great video man!

[@HardwareHaven]

Yeah that was a bit refreshing considering all of the embedded platforms I’ve been looking at recently lol

[@vitoswat]

Those are like Intel T series chips. Same size but less TDP (and performance).

[@OctoomyYTOfficial]

the fog is coming

[@robertfrayer6711]

they toast and burn really easy in these models.

[@supralapsarian]

Wow! Experienced technician, here… NICE WORK! I’m super proud of you for sticking with it and getting this done. How cool a feeling is that?

[@HardwareHaven]

Such a good feeling haha. Thanks!

[@clifffiftytwo]

Retired electrical engineer / computers just a long time hobby. My experience is to suspect mechanical failures before worrying about failed silicon. Surplus computers get slung around a lot and the memory board mountings aren't made to handle violent accelerations. So your instinct to open it up and unplug and plug things is a good one. That said the next thing I worry about is power supply failures - some regulator component allowing 3.3v or 1.8v to go way too high which damages everything it's attached to. For this reason very early in troubleshooting I'd check the power supply rails with a multimeter. That keeps you from plugging damaged components into a good system board or plugging a good RAM, for instance, into a system with a 3.3v rail running at 8 or 10 or 19 volts! A fascinating video which I enjoyed very much - happy hunting!

[@grahamstevenson1740]

Yes, a mechanical 'thump', say from dropping, can dislodge other internals which can cause a no-boot. Always good practice to check that stuff is seated properly.

[@bakkerad49]

Totaly agree with you, also a retired hardware/software engeneer

[@chadmasta5]

I'm not sure if you intend on doing more repairs like this in the future but I think thermal pads would be a good investment at least for troubleshooting. No mess or clean up and the pads are reusable.

[@arielr9614]

Usually not worth the trouble. As long as you have a price of chunk of copper or aluminum to place on top, you are in the clear to handle the initial boot test, the initial heat load is what needs to be wicked away. Even Derbauer uses this method just to check for the post. I usually do this when I get a CPU/Socket combo that seems to be having seating issues. I also do it when doing CPU socket pin repair, sometimes you have to seat and unseat the CPU to check if you got the pins to just the right spot.

[@ArniesTech]

Even besides troubleshooting, I always go for thermal pads. Set it and forget it. No need to renew them ever again :)

[@arielr9614]

@Arnie's Tech Thermal pads degrade just as thermal paste does over long periods of time and heat cycles. I personally have been testing carbon pads out, seems promising for an AIO I keep at the ready on my bench for temp setups. I don't even clip it on, I just lay a bag of lean on it to weigh it down.

[@erichkohl9317]

I like your style. You're upfront about what you can do and what you can't do. I'm in the same boat myself; I'm trying to learn more about electronics because my job is starting to require it, however my formal training is in software/programming.

[@HardwareHaven]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. I try to be as upfront as possible

[@HardwareHaven]

And best of luck with your hardware endeavors!

[@XenHat]

12:20 yes these are the standard business-oriented, non-overclocking BIOSes typically seen in these kind of machines. I have one of these ThinkCentre mini PCs from several generations back and the outside, inside and BIOS look exactly the same. My Lenovo Legion laptop also has a similarly spartan advanced mode BIOS. I've been using my own ThinkCentre as a DNS server and docker host because they're so low-power I don't feel bad leaving it on 24/7.

[@andrewcore7672]

these bioses were present before standardized bioses , i remember similar layouts on my single core cpus to celeron dual (2004 before) pretty sure licensing or using this one cuts costs

[@BestJerome]

Finding an entry-level diagnostic technician who can guide me through logical diagnostic steps is beneficial. Thanks!

[@DrDipsh1t]

From now on I'm using coffee filters for paste stuff... As soon as you mentioned them, the light bulb went off and I knew immediately your reasoning. Brilliant

[@First_Grafter]

I really enjoyed the video! It was interesting to see the whole process

[@HardwareHaven]

Glad you enjoyed it! A bit of a long burn, but I like those types of videos haha

[@First_Grafter]

@@HardwareHaven it's a mini adventure and you can never predict what will happen!

[@HardwareHaven]

Haha yeah that’s a good way of putting it

[@StraightToThePoint217]

How is this comment 5 days old when this was posted hours ago?

[@First_Grafter]

@@StraightToThePoint217 Patreon Early Access :)

[@frozendude707]

These large OEM machines often have a reset feature for the system management chip (it can crash and freeze sometimes), usually just holding the power button down for 60 seconds when connected to power will get it going if the firmware will not get to the screen init stage.

[@miscbits6399]

Adding to this, vurtually all modern systems have a "last ditch" bios recovery method usually involving a small USB stick with a file names bios.sys (super.rom on supermicro, a BIOS recovery ISO for Lenovo (which may or may not work from USB, apparently needs to be on CDrom on some units (with the CDrom plutgged into a specific port) These models have lots of threads about bios update failures and the hoops which need to be jumped through to recover. Lenovo appear to have dropped the ball quite badly

[@BenRook]

A little luck, a lotta work swapping stuff around, and 1-2 bad RAM chips later...you have all three pc's working! Enjoyed watching this little journey.

[@WolfgangsChannel]

Nice video as always :) And yes, you can absolutely yank an AM4 CPU out of the socket when you pull on the heatsink.

[@HardwareHaven]

WOAH! Appreciate the comment from such a legend! And thanks for the info as well haha

[@johnpaulbacon8320]

As a follow-up warning ; you can "Yank" any PGA based Cpu out of it's socket. That happened to me with my AM3+ that I was running before I initially switched from AM3+ to AM4 and that's a part of why I had to switch.

[@kenabi]

i've done it to just about all flavors of pga cpus you care to name with shorter pins. sometimes the cooler mounting just doesn't give you the choice, sometimes you can rotate a bit to break the connection first. once they moved away from the pin length that was on socket 7, and to some degree socket a and 370 (due to the small die size, mostly), it became ridiculously easy to rip the cpus out once the thermal paste had effectively transitioned to an adhesive. thankfully, i haven't had pin failure from any of these yanks, but its still worrying when dealing with the cases that don't allow you to twist it to break it free. que sera sera.

[@JMassengill]

Nice work. I would have never considered the BIOS as the problem. Excellent fix.

[@HardwareHaven]

Thanks Johnny!

[@TaskForce-nr7sd]

Keep track of the troubleshooting on three slips of paper, one for each system. Each sheet has a table to track which components are working or not.

[@thepoliticalstartrek]

I am certified reseller . One big issue they had with those models. Is the hybrid drives in it would fail due to heat. Replace with ssd and they are fine. Also, Lenovo uses pcie white list. So to replace wireless card it has to be on the list. You can tell if it is stock tam from Lenovo look for FID#.

[@miscbits6399]

There are a number of modified bioses available with the whitelist removed (and a couple of crowdsourced bios mod sites which will attempt to do it if you have the bios image) I had to do that to get 5GHz/802.11ac support on my T62i laptop It's irritating, to say the least

[@ArniesTech]

Absolutely beautiful. Love these Lenovo Mini PCs. And what I do love even more is when people give things a second life, instead of tossing them into the trash bin! 💪🙏

[@CRSolarice]

It is against federal law in the USA to throw any kind of electronics in to the garbage. They should be turned in to a certified electronics recycler; some townships do have programs until someone starts abusing the system and they get sick and tired of dealing with the crap... Then they stop them solid with no chance of reopening them. All the same if a person is caught throwing electronic components into the trash it can be some serious fines and big not worth the hassle.

[@Jeroen_a]

@12:12 because you loaded default values. The default is Enabled. Secure boot works with certificates and checksums before the operation system it does it's wizardly things and either loads the OS when the check is complete or refuses to boot an OS. Resetting to Set-up mode clears all checksums and certs that were remembered. You should also enter in to this option so it shows load default keys (or something along the lines of that). You are then set to go. The error you got on booting to the OS was related to the secure boot settings.

[@r_owbot]

Hey hardware Haven! Nice video, I like the PC's because how easy they are to dismantle too! I have not watching ur videos because of school, and the ones Ive watched, I forgot to comment or Im just lazy. I can see you are loving to create content! Your videos are much better than the ones that you were a small KZbinr. By the way, you are growing fast! In the previous, previous previous video, I swear I saw you were at 50k and now you are at 70k!! I can't wait for your reaction to hit 100k subs!!!

[@alejandroglfm]

Wait what??? I was looking for one of this and throw my ventoy with pfsense and use it as a router!!! Just in time man, keep up the good content!

[@HardwareHaven]

Haha nice!

[@notyou2235]

I work IT and our business has hundreds of these PCs deployed across the building. In my time working there, I've actually never dealt with one of these broken PCs. They're a breeze, and they ship WITH a Lenovo mouse and keyboard (they're alright) in simple packaging. It's often one of our company laptops, which, to Lenovo's credit, are SO easy to repair.

[@spillsndebris]

I really enjoy doing this too. You are very calm and thorough in your troubleshooting. Gave me some ideas to try in my non-booting Lenovo mini PC, thanks!

[@F16_viper_pilot]

As an IT guy, you did pretty darn well for someone claiming to not be an IT guy….kudos! I wonder if the bios chips suffered from bit rot from sitting somewhere in storage too long without power.🤔

[@XeonKnights]

Nice video there. I very recently bought a M900 Tiny with i5-6500T and was using it for a NAS because the Tiny series are tiny so it will save me some precious desktop space, after I watched your videos about the home NAS. I have an old Lenovo laptop and I was upgrading the Wifi card for it, and Lenovo's part-compatibility check was tight to say at least; they are even worse for locking CPUs now. You have a great voice btw!

[@joefish6091]

Desks have under sides too, a suspended shelf maybe !

[@AntonisAsc]

Really nice video and didn't expect for the 2 off them to have corrupted BIOS. This BIOS Flasher is a nice tool. I'll get one too

[@geezergeek1637]

coffee filter... cool perk... haha... good work. I appreciated the bios flash idea! helpful! I think you came out okay on the deal. and now I see it is an older video. oh well... thanks anyway!

[@smileymattj]

Lenovo ThinkCentre, and most other business grade PCs have a BIOS recovery procedure. Lenovo’s method is: Leave the clear CMOS jumper on the clear setting. Place the binary BIOS ROM file on the root of a CD. (Not a zip or exe, has to be only the ROM). Boot the machine with the CD inserted. Wait for the BIOS flash to complete. Power off and return jumper to normal mode. Blank screen doesn’t mean it’s flashing. You see the normal flash screen just as if doing it from Windows and it reboots into the flash utility. Should take less than 10s to kick off. You may need to reboot if you don’t get the CD in fast enough. Don’t wait 5 mins on the black screen thinking it’s doing something. Something isn’t right, double check your steps and try again. You’ll know when it’s flashing and working right. I’ve done a Lenovo Tiny by attaching a desktop CD drive to it. There might be a new way to do with USB. But I already had a CD made. So it was convenient at the time to use the CD.

[@mervmartin2112]

Lenovo still publishes assembly / disassembly, and parts manuals in PDF. For Free too. Great video!

[@pjg7472]

"I'm an amateur" - Has better quality and camera angles than a lot of "professional" You Tubers 🤣 Nice video man!

[@ahmed-elzagh]

Nice work, I would like to see you using this systems to create some sort of a cluster like a Proxmox cluster

[@ayuchanayuko]

Part of my diagnostics before I go check the CPU is to clean seemingly bad DIMMs and clean seemingly bad RAM sockets. For DIMMs, simply rub on the contacts using a rubber pencil eraser. Some really thin grime can form on top of the contacts that will cause a bad connection. The eraser will fix that. For sockets, you can repeatedly connect and disconnect a DIMM and periodically clean the DIMM contacts. If is still doesnt work, a electronics contact cleaner spray would help. While wet with the cleaner, do the same connect-disconnect trick and try again. If it still doesnt work, plug the DIMM in and attempt to wiggle a bit in different ways, all while trying to boot in between. Worse comes to worse you have a bad CPU pin. I one caught this off an Intel LGA CPU where one if the pada was ever so slightly dirty (fingerprint? Thermal paste?). Checking the LGA pinout it was related to the bad slot. Cleaning that part fixed the RAM problem. I also had a problem also ince of the Intel CPU being too overtightened/depressed causing the ram slot to not work too. Another one that happened to me for intermittent boot failures is replacing the CMOS battery.

[@HardwareHaven]

It was off camera, but I did try cleaning the bad stick or ram (tried IPS, eraser, and deoxit) but could never get a POST with it. And I replaced CMOS batteries in the video as well, just off camera. Appreciate the advice and info!

[@mintymus]

Makes you wonder about what the people were doing to mess up the BIOS/RAM earlier. Strange how they managed to brick 4 computers.

[@HardwareHaven]

Possibly some automated BIOS/windows stuff if I had to guess.

[@poorlybuffalo555]

@@HardwareHaven Turning off windows defender/security is a good idea before allowing a working windows PC to update its BIOS or third party hardware firmware. Or use Linux to update firmware. Nice to see Ventoy working for you!

[@patricktrakzel9657]

When testing CPU's you can just press a towercooler to them to see if they post. That saves a lot of time.

[@charleshowse3942]

What a great video! I have a Lenovo tiny p320 that I'm going to have to swap the ram and ssd into from an older one. Excellent "how-to"

[@billytk1225]

I have 8-10 Lenovo m93p tiny PC's, and I've noticed that depending on the BIOS version that is installed some won't work with a Display Port 1.4 cable, but will with a Display Port 1.2 cable. Something you could try (in future) to see if it's just you need a Display Port 1.2 cable. The Bios upgrade you did likely has a high enough version to support the Display Port 1.4 cable which is more than likely what you have.

[@thewaterheaterfactory]

Hey great video I just got a Lenovo from PC's for People for $50, refurbished , haven't worked on computers for years , found your video ! Way to go with the bios cloning ! I need a dedicated video editing Station so giving the Lenovo a shot once I order parts to Upgrade it!

[@samal3196]

If you do a lot of messing around with plugging mice+keyboards into things, Logitech have a dirt cheap combo mouse+keyboard with a single usb receiver that I LOVE for just plugging in and getting straight to business.

[@HardwareHaven]

Yeah, I've seen a few people using those. I just hate the thought of my wireless bugging out and leading me on a wild goose chase haha. Maybe it's worth it with how much messing around I'm doing. Thanks!

[@samal3196]

@@HardwareHaven Oh THAT'S fair man! Mine has been rock solid on my Windows 10 machine and Ubuntu, and never had difficulty with it messing around in the bios either- but I see your point :)

[@HardwareHaven]

@@samal3196 I still might look into it. I know a lot of people that are way smarter than me that do the same haha

[@zombiebiker5581]

About 2 years ago I got the 715q came with 6th gen I3 ,16gb ram ,1tb Hd ,128gb Nmv windows 10 ,no WiFi Bluetooth (I will get) With power brick etcI have added 128gb external SS0 Linux mint,I use it to watch online stuff. Think I paid a Less than £90 Been looking at the cd/dvd tray burner all in one,£25 online,except you have to upgrade the power brick,I think to 90 or 120 watts. I love it even can go up to I7 ,6th gen, 64gb ram Awsome,quite,cheap done 2 bios upgrades,fan can be set to come on when hits certain temp,connected to my plasma. In living room.

[@TechyGuy17]

Just got a start with saying that this was a great video, I love seing people taking care of "broken" hardware and fix it. But I have a tip for you, when just testing CPUs dont even bother with thermal paste. Aslong as you dont run any heavy stuff and just try to boot the pressure of the cooler is more then enough to keep the temps under control. At work the first thing we do at the test stations is to wipe off any preapplied thermal paste on coolers since it just takes a lot of time to clean and makes a mess when swaping stuff often

[@HardwareHaven]

Thanks for the advice! I get nervous on camera and often doubt myself on stuff like this, but I've had a couple people now say its fine. Appreciate it

[@TechyGuy17]

Yeah thats understandable. I reacted the same way the first time I did it but after seeing temps of around 35-40c without thermal paste I started to see the advantage

[@therumbler]

🤓 "Technically these aren't SFF. they're Lenovo "tiny" machines. great video!! excited to watch!

[@HardwareHaven]

Good point, thanks!

[@GaetanoEsse]

One issue could be that recently lenovo started bounding Cpus to motherboard, expecially with ryzen pros. Maybe they swapped them before selling and so hard refreshing the bios maybe restored them

[@HardwareHaven]

Hmm yeah not sure. I thought that whole debacle was for later gen stuff but maybe I’m wrong

[@blakecasimir]

Ryzen has a security feature to lock a CPU to a particular motherboard. Lenovo are guilty of using this feature. So that is possibly why CPU swapping didn't work. But it's worth trying those CPUs in a standard mobo to be sure.

[@WellBeSerious12]

- Wrong method of memory diagnosis. You were only trying to insert DIMM 1 into Slot 1 and DIMM 2 into Slot 2, instead of trying each in Slot 1 (lower/first/underneath slot). - Always force POST/boot screen by booting without battery and no RAM, turning off at beep. Then adding one DIMM at a time into RAM Slot 1, checking for video. Then other DIMM into RAM Slot 1. Then insert new CMOS/BIOS/CR2032 Battery into its slot, and booting up. Then entering BIOS and Factory Resetting (without Network Boot!). Then optionally configure BIOS, saving and exiting, and safely turning off. Then connecting SSD (HDD extremely not recommended in general, and in such Form Factors). Then connecting USB OS drive, turning on, and booting from USB OS Drive. - If no video (after attempting said Battery/RAM diagnosis), try different video port, changing video mode on Display, or different video cable. Also try cleaning/air-blowing connector/port.

[@AndysAlias]

I love Lenovos, Ive got 2x M720S and 3x M720Q. IMO they are the best looking SFFs, well designed and well built.

[@guruoo]

Great job, good video. From now on, when confronted with a machine that won't post I'll check the BIOS first before moving to a teardown.

[@robinhellier7436]

I'd suggest using a version of Puppy linux to initially run the system. It runs straight from a USB (no install required) and you can check the hard drive to se if there's an OS on it.

[@Deraco1]

Thats pretty sweet! Am curious about that bios flash equipment you have. Looks quite cool!

[@Tocsin-Bang]

If you want to learn how to repair a Lenovo computer, just go to your local dealer and buy a new one. Almost guarantee it won't work. I've bought a couple, problems with PSUs, USB ports, SATA cables, SSD... I finally got one working properly, it took best part of a couple of months! Technical support was bloody awful.

[@zeendaniels5809]

Ah yes... The BIOS, the most likely chip to do funny things in a motherboard, good job there. I'm gonna be honest though, when you put the freshly cleaned heatsink on the uncleaned APU I was like "Noo... Oh, god no please! Don't! Just use the heatsink of the other system!" 🤣

[@HardwareHaven]

Hahaha sorry to traumatize you

[@Slyder42]

Don't underestimate the power of swapping out the CMOS battery. CR2032 is easy to swap out. Fixes so many no POST situations.

[@MrJunkman1982]

That's super awesome you flashed the bios, & it worked! When these little pc's break though...You have to wonder how the bios was corrupted in the 1st place right? Because you wouldn't want it to happen again in the future

[@HardwareHaven]

I've heard some people mention that these often have this issue because of the environment they're deployed in, in which they're often prone to "hard" power cycling. Not sure if that's the case, but I think a couple of technicians in the comments said similar things.

[@LeoLijo]

These lenovo mini pcs look so cute! Congrats for 70k subs too

[@Wyld1one]

yup easiest way to brick a pc is to fail the bios update. some pc has a way to load bios from usb flash, but might need working bios. glad to see you saved from the trash bin.

[@HardwareHaven]

That’s the goal lol

[@milescarter7803]

When you copy the BIOS straight across like that you lose the Ethernet MAC and machine serial number. I hope you followed the rule of taking 2 backups of a chip before writing over it. If not you might be able to find the Lenovo provisioning thumb drive image and the MAC sticker on the system somewhere. If you wire them all into your router with the same MAC address be prepared for it to get weird. I am finding a lot of these Lenovo have BIOS issues. For Intel you can go through an "ME clean" process to fix once you pull the BIOS file off the chip.

[@HardwareHaven]

I was able to just use Lenovo's flashing tool to update the BIOS and give it the correct serial no. As of now they are showing unique MAC addresses, so maybe that process fixed it?

[@makedaevilmage]

28:20 The CPU doesn't have to be dead, sometimes this also happens if a motherboard doesn't support the cpu right for example the BIOS needs an update on order to properly function with the CPU.

[@johnking7517]

Well done. Very enjoyable video. I have one of those that I bought used on ebay. I used it as a backup while I rebuilt my main system. Not a bad little computer. The graphics were not amazing, but that's not what they're built for.

[@armandobardo6861]

I love those mini PCs, I hope they bring those to me for repair or maintenance.

[@reinmarandi6174]

Dell D6000 is a great troubleshooting tool - It works over USB3 and has its own little graphics card embeded. (So if you're unsure if the DP port might be broken you can use the D6000 to rule that out)

[@patrickleitz76]

I got a free M715Q from work. Exact same problem in that the CPU fan would spin but no video output at all. Reset CMOS and changed the battery. No change. Both RAM sticks work fine in my girlfriend's laptop so that's not the issue. Erased the bios and successfully loaded the latest one via the same CH341A programmer that you used in the video but that didn't work either. I don't have another AM4 system to test the CPU with but I doubt that's the problem. Nothing looks amiss with the motherboard. I may try to find an older bios to try but I really don't have a use for this PC. I just wanted to see if I could get it working and then pass it along to someone who could actually use it.

[@martingorbush2944]

Nice job. Good idea to buy three almost identical system. Flashing working BIOS could be tedious task. Taking one from another similar board is very good idea especially if you do not need windows key which is often embedded into BIOS.

[@CrystalFogelsanger]

I am very familiar with these lenovo mini pcs in fact im typing from a M70q right now. I wish i seen this video sooner i would have told you from the get go it was not a bad motherboard. When motherboards in these systems die you get no power at all and the tell tale sign is when you plug the power cord in the power light will flash blue 3 times and quit.

[@terryhayward7905]

The first thing should have been to take the cover off and see if there is any memory in there, it will not post without memory. Amazon sells a short adapter cable to use a standard PSU

[@d2d2505]

This series can be powered by USB-c, the adapter is really easy to find.

[@vaidkun]

nice fix, probably just bit rot on the bios chip so re-flashing fixed it. Also, as you flashed all pcs with bios rom from that single pc check if they all have same serial/mac/id etc. from that first one as that may cause some problems.

[@HardwareHaven]

Yeah I'm checking out flashing a new BIOS from lenovo and adding the correct serial, although I'm not entirely sure if I'm doing it correctly haha. Any video/tutorial recommendations?

[@vaidkun]

@@HardwareHaven Adamant IT channel on YT has quite few videos about using programmers to flash bios, also of transplanting certain regions in bios etc.

[@HardwareHaven]

@@vaidkun Yeah his stuff is so freaking good. I need to check out the transplanting regions stuff

[@MISIOPIERDOLNIK]

In summary - nothing was broken, and you managed to fix it?

[@bobapthorpe]

Time for the Perfect Amount of Thermal Paste(tm)! Well done with the BIOS reflash too; it's a bit dicey reflashing in place, but if it works, it works.

[@MCgranat999]

So with the magic of having three of them, you fixed them all!

[@chrisliddiard725]

The bios may need updating if it ha a custom bios that has 'whitelisted' the CPU, This is done to prevent the user from simply upgrading the CPU where the manufacturers have a range of systems all based on the same motherboard. The only problem is where manufacturers like Lenovo match the bios upgrade package to the OS. Then you need Windows Vista, 7 & 8, and then finally Windows 10 to get the latest bios. I found this out the hard way on a G580 motherboard when the bios was suddenly and mysteriously DOS. This happened years after i'd upgraded the CPU from Intel Celeron B830 to a i7 3612qm. Also watch out for mismatch dram, eg 1.5v vs 1.31v sticks.

[@stevewhitt9109]

Thanks. I now know how to changed everthing on Lenova mini pc.

[@jonathanmarshall3974]

These video blogs are a good contribution to your channel. I have one of these with a 2200GE. So far using it for BOINC but I'd like to find more projects for it.

[@HardwareHaven]

Oh that’s super cool. And thanks!

[@jonathanmarshall3974]

​@@HardwareHaven Just finished the video. A few thoughts about my experience. I received two of these from eBay and neither posted upon arrival. 1) These systems (specifically M715Q AMD) are super sensitive about their boot configuration (secure boot, original CPU and RAM etc.). Both of my M715Q's behaved strangely around CPU swaps. I can use the 2200GE in other systems but it will not boot with a 2400GE from a separate system. I've sort of given up on a CPU upgrade and chocked it up to OEM shenanigans. 2) It's possible the previous owner swapped RAM or CPU config. It looked like your systems had different RAM configs upon arrival. From the previous owner's perspective, after the change in question they never booted again and they didn't have the energy or time to troubleshoot. 3) One of my two systems also had a single dead DIMM upon arrival but worked fine with a new set of 2666 SODIMMs. Not sure if there's a connection with your dead SODIMM but we had that experience in common. 4) CMOS reset with the jumper never worked for me. I manually removed the batteries and let the systems sit for 1-2 hours (longer than necessary but just to be safe). 5)I suspected corrupted BIOS too. Maybe a botched enterprise BIOS update? Glad you were able to go down that rabbit hole and come out the other side!

[@HardwareHaven]

@@jonathanmarshall3974 Thanks for sharing your experience and advice!

[@IEnjoyCreatingVideos]

Good video i'm glad you where able to get all three of the mini pcs up and working :) Thanks for sharing with us!💖👍😎JP

[@theophilusjttawiah8496]

@Hardware Haven, Please we will be glade if you doo everything on cam so we can learn from your mistakes as well. Thank you.

[@KarenNakamura1]

Brilliant to use coffee filters as cleaning wipes. Cheap and affordable and absorbable!

[@NiHaoMike64]

I have always used toilet paper, but then again, there was that time when it got short on supply...

[@KarenNakamura1]

Toilet paper leaves a lot of lint unless you get the really really cheap stuff. Hahahaha

[@ferrarisrex2233]

How are there comments that are 4 days old on a 1 minute old video

[@HardwareHaven]

Patreon early access 👍🏻

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

@@HardwareHaven You mean magic

[@HardwareHaven]

@@MarcoGPUtuber Ah yes. Thanks haha

[@ntgm20]

Technical answer: A video can be set to Unlisted so only those with the link can see/comment on it. Once it is made Public than regular subs with notifications will get it and public hours are what you see. I'm a creater too and have figured that out accidentally.

[@montecorbit8280]

@@HardwareHaven Do not go swapping your wife's CPU into Lenovo systems!! At least on amd's systems Lenovo will burn the CPU so that it only works in Lenovo systems.... It has to do with field programmable stuff and blowing fuses on purpose....

[@PE4Doers]

I hate to let you know, but recently NewEgg was selling those refurbished (with 15-month Warranty) that include 128gb SSDs, Power Supplies, keyboards, Mice, and they work. I just did a couple of videos on one that I bought and it is a nice low-powered PC that I will be using as a Backup Domain Controller.

[@HardwareHaven]

Hey, thanks for the comment. Those are different systems. The m93p in your video has 4th gen Intel. Those are 3-4 years older than the 2400ge

[@HardwareHaven]

Still looks like it was a great deal though!

[@zebcode]

@08:42 make sure you unplug the power before messing with the RAM. It can short otherwise I think.

[@caspersmith7112]

the lower slot should be your fist populated memory channel on a laptop motherboard. Didnt know if if were aware..

[@Harfinou]

When buying non functional PCs, the first thing to do is : open the case and check the inside !!! Don't power on an unknown system...

[@BR0KK85]

U dont even need to connect the heatsink for short testing. If it posts cut power or with newer cpus they'll protect themselves

[@bassbuddha99]

I had no idea it was possible to swap a bios, but Im old. Nice job

[@JimmyMcThiccus]

It’s funny since I just picked up a pair of optiplex 3040 Micros for 100 bucks and I just had to put ssd and ram and they both work. I have one I plan on giving my Grandma since she’s using a gateway AIO

[@HardwareHaven]

Oh nice!!

[@GG-kc6ie]

1 tip, is try removing all ram first then unplug from power and then hold the power button in for 20 seconds to discharge the capacitors. Then add the ram and power back and try turning it on

[@parranoic]

I have a tiny one from HP that works great. I had a broken ram stick from a laptop that wouldn't work no matter what. When I got the hp I was like what the hell, lets try it in. It worked and been working for almost 2 years now. Don't throw the bad stick it might work in another system

[@kaboommusicmixer8149]

AMI BIOS is what Lenovo uses, I love modding nvme boot on the m93p SFF. Enter key is for the menu with all the options.. at least it should be (it is on all the SFFs I’ve had)

[@johnken0]

Wow that system 3 was really the MVP, gave the other two systems new life with the bios flasher. Awesome video!

[@HardwareHaven]

Yeah I was pretty luck lol

[@Froggie92]

dude that feel when you've all but given up and then give it one more shot and it fixes all the things 🥹🥹 perserverence!! ✨✨

[@HardwareHaven]

It's a good one, that's for sure haha

[@bigrob029]

I feel like Tech Repair Larping is what a lot of us do.

[@PiotrK2022]

@Hardware Haven Cmos battery sometimes can create no post issue, it depends from motherboard design... beafore bios flash, you should open dump in HxD and transfer DMI data from corrupted one. Now both system has the sane UUID and possibly the same activation key, so afrter Windows installation that product key will get blocked, because you can;t use the same OEM license on both pcs.

[@MCgranat999]

My dell alienware has this bios, it's a relatively popular one, honestly I prefer it over some "gaming" motherboard bios

[@christopherdecorte1599]

I would recommend pulling the battery before the cpu the bios may have settings that is wrong and could cause hanging.

[@trunksviper6583]

work well done, it came with great results, and the flashing tool save the day.😀

[@artomontonen3722]

Levono PC computers have bios problems. Bios gets corrupted. Windows 10 tries to update and the bios memory gets corrupted. Reprogramming the bios chip is the only option for repair. This is not the first time when I see the same. The Electronics Repair School channel has also noticed this. The client's windows update corrupted the bios memory.

[@Nothing_is_endless]

You can try to connect an external GPU with a pci-e extender that connects to the pci slot for internet inside of the mini pc.

[@stevencase3289]

fan spin and no post, rossman rage intensifies

[@mikegord]

How many Windows 10 users knew 'Secure Boot' existed on their motherboard UNTIL Microsoft INSISTED it had to be enabled to install Windows 11?

[@Meatpipeify]

Great video. I just bought one of these off of eBay for $100 with a Ryzen 5 2400GE. Listing said it's working, but I can't get it to POST. No video output, and two short beeps that repeat ad infinitum. I tried swapping ram sticks around, using good ram sticks, making a bootable USB with the bios files from Lenovo (which a few posts on Lenovo forums indicate can sometimes work). I'm assuming it's a bios issue, so I just bought the kit in your video. Fingers crossed it'll work; otherwise it's back to the eBay seller. I'd also love to know if there's a way to get later gen Ryzens on work in these, like a 4600GE.

[@VSteam81]

Just saying, the ISO for debian that you had was the Network Installer.

[@MrNissanpickup88]

When ever you get nothing on screen always check ram first by removing one at a time until PC screen works.