LENOVO s340 no picture - How to disable the onboard RAM - LENOVO needs HELP!

[@mainecoonman]

I'm watching this on a Lenovo e520 where nearly every part has been replaced and can be replaced. Lenovo used to make decent laptops with proper keyboards, cpu and memory sockets and batteries that can be changed without opening the case. Alas, no more and I will never buy another laptop from any manufacturer who makes the hardware unfixable. Great Video Sorin.

[@stefanputureanu9296]

On some laptops there are "configuration resistors" who instruct the PCH to use the integrated RAM or not. Information about how to configure the system RAM by placing or removing the resistors can be found on the laptops schematic pdf. You can enable or disable many other functions of the laptop by placing or removing some resistors on the motherboard.. functions like debugging port... LPC port, JTAG port, installed RAM, installed GPU, etc. The EEPROM chip contains Intel proprietary code as well (Intel Management Energie, driver for the NIC chip, etc), not only the BIOS who is proprietary to Lenovo. The BIOS chip... what it use to be in the past is a Pandora box nowadays. That chip contains multiple images... like iso files, with partition and files inside, all well protected with many RSA signatures, one on top of each other (the security ring). So if Intel want to spy on you, Lenovo will have no clue about that in their own laptops 😉 If you have time to read about ME section of the BIOS you will find that there is code (some hardcoded into the PCH) that is executed without any RAM installed at all, all proprietary to Intel who can run with only the CPU L3 cache as RAM, and that code can use the network card too.. while the laptop is powered off (All this information is from the Intel official site). Intel implemented this system to protect you and your data if the laptop have been stolen. There is a 3rd company who collects this data... is a long story... Personal Computer is not personal anymore for a long time ago. For usual consumer there is a version of the code: about 2Mbyte, another version for corporations laptops: 5Mbyte, and no version for military grade laptops 😉. They don't care about the military safety 😁 So.. if you really want a nice laptop.. buy a used one from the military 😉 And hackers are just scratching the surface of the security on that chip. This year some hackers made public some RSA keys stolen from Lenovo and MSI witch make possible some modification of the BIOS (at the same time can make any malware to run as OEM BIOS code, and if someone can sign a EC image as OEM they can transform a laptop into a bomb. Yes, charging voltage and current is programmed by the EC into the charging chip by a secondary I2C line). So writing unknown code into the EEPROM chip can be dangerous... and this lets us with no way for fixing laptops anymore.

[@jaym5938]

That is all very scary. It's just a laptop, but now it's a multi-level spy device/bomb.

[@stefanputureanu9296]

@@jaym5938 ICE_TEA_BIOS is the name of the project stolen from Lenovo and made public by the hackers. It can be found on the internet (an archive about 2.8GB - 6GB extracted) ..if someone has time to study more. And for the bomb part is the laptop manufacturer's fault for using universal charging chips, but it's still a lot of security involved, we are safe for now.

[@syaifulardi6988]

that's avenger threat level 😂

[@drmoose7233]

this is deep. although, I don't think a laptop can be a bomb rather a flaming ball perhaps

[@orange_tweleve]

​@drmoose7233 in a plane thats more than enough when there's like at least 50 of these in luggage and hand luggage

[@orosalsero]

That was unbelievable you should take pictures and send them to LENOVO so they can see their sorry engineering work. Sorin your the number one electronics engineer.

[@Fareke2]

It will not help

[@giornikitop5373]

i'm sure they don't need the pictures, they know about their engineering work, it's not like it happened by accident they choose to do it.

[@harrypromise5254]

I tell you. Most of their onboard ram are faulty. They should find a way to fix it

[@user-ml7bg6ki4y]

It is very rare to see sorin angry, although he is angry for good reason

[@sbmpagi1]

that lenovo board and the entire laptop, the way they easily bend is criminal. Thank you Sorin for this eye opening video

[@aseidinfo]

That was very educational, I really appreciate it. Even if I doubt i'll ever desolder RAM chips, I'll definitely have this in mind for modifying BIOSes

[@duplicitousdemocracy2246]

You are right about many things Sorin, particularly regarding the selective concern for the environment, climate and green issues. Net zero is indeed a sick joke when we consider how manufacturers only prioritise sales over repair. Great repair and your videos just keep getting better and better.

[@TboneLoyal]

Thats the best repair i have seen. Ive watched you a while. Awesome job. And thanks for showing the bios repair also. I agree. When ya buy something you own it. And when a company does things like that its not a good company. Good repair

[@getl0st]

Net Zero means Net Zero People 🤮

[@mithunhaque]

Hello Sorin, like me anyone who watch your video must admit that you have so much patience to repair anything with your precious time & you really are a green man. Hats off you 💚

[@windycl111]

You're wonderful I've NEVER seen you get upset. Love it. Been watching for years. Thank you.

[@tiefdruck79]

Great job Sorin. I would recommend using virtual machines for running potentially malicious software though. That saves you from sacrificing your OS and you can easily make clones of the clean image before starting to experiment.

[@user-ge1bw5gm2g]

Yup, that's the right way to start! Cheers :)

[@JosepsGSX]

That was brilliant Sorin. I have a friend's broken Carbon X1 with the same problem. Reflowing off course did not work and I was stuck. I will totally try this. Thanks! Lenovo is in my black list. i used to recommend it to friends and family, but no more. Crappy flexible chassis were bad enough, but sabotaging repairs is going too far.

[@nedbeard]

There are no ram slots on the Carbon X1, just the onboard soldered ram.

[@JosepsGSX]

Oh, wow!, thanks for the update. Reballing is out of my league, so it will have to wait longer. Fantastic Lenovo design.

[@harrypromise5254]

Carbon X1 is a NO, NO. their soldered RAMs comes with various issues like MEMORY MANAGEMENT, BODs and BLACK SCREEN.

[@blinkq8821]

Wow, what a nice repair.. Some technician would say it was a graphics issue and then retun to costumer and pay them with there service with no fix😢😅 ...thank you so much for your hard work sir ... HELLO SO WE ARE BACK SO THIS TIME WE HAVE A BAAAAD ENGINEER LAPTOP 😅😅😂

[@galacticpeace8459]

What pleasure to watch you succeed - I gave it to you fully. Master Repair

[@soumyamaharana9916]

It is not the right way Sorin but it works fine (if the customer does a firmware update then the board will search for soldered ram hence no display) 2nd way is to use schematic and disable on board ram by replacing resistors . For the tool I would suggest that just search for JDEC DDR 4 specs and take couple bits, search them in bios file replace with 00 and done (that's what the tool is doing the doggy way. )

[@lgolebio]

Maybe you should write a tutorial how to modify BIOS and post it on forum.

[@soumyamaharana9916]

@@lgolebio good idea I will try that

[@lgolebio]

@@soumyamaharana9916 I will be more than happy !

[@soumyamaharana9916]

@@lgolebio Ok then give me some time I will try to cover jdec thaiphoon burner etc in that post.

[@Rudimaximus]

The tool is the best is not doggy and no virus !

[@ctecrwp]

Thanks master Sorin... You really do create inspiration to get things done.

[@albertasuquoita]

hi professor sorin am Albert mulad from Nigeria. am amazed for that great job u did!

[@Dohcom1]

I seen glue shorting the "Power On LED" on a new high end laptop, it was clear glue so i could see it getting brown from arc, i cleaned it and the laptop worked, i was lucky to notice it before i started testing etc,

[@escheytt9326]

Thank you for the continued sharing of your knowledge and insight. The only option we have as consumers is to not buy Lenovo products in the future. I will never buy or recommend anyone buy Lenovo products in the future. Regards

[@aseidinfo]

They are terrible with customer support for enterprise class servers, and their consumer laptop lineup is decent but it's becoming extremely anti-repair with soldered RAM, removed ports despite having the X1 carbon line much thinner and still having the ports, etc. Basically they're copying all the bad stuff from Apple

[@giornikitop5373]

@@aseidinfo the problem is that now most of the companies do this, at least on their thin laptops, so if you want to buy one you can't avoid these BS.

[@aseidinfo]

@@giornikitop5373 nothing helps but due diligence and boycott

[@electronicrepairservice2020]

Great Video! As soon as I saw that glue, you know what they are up to - they don't want it to be repaired & do it so it would not be cost effective to be fixed by a repair shop. As you said - Apple is the same. Best way to deal with it is not to buy those products. Samsung is another - almost as bad with all of their products too. Consumers have the power to put an end to these throw away devices by doing more research before they buy them & become educated about these sometimes 'cheap' devices before they spend their hard earned money. So glad you came up with a workaround & showed how it's done.👍

[@georgypushkarov9510]

This is right to repair! Again great video!Thanks a lot.I wish to see repair of an old laptop

[@kooseduardo1973]

THANKS FOR THE SUBTITLE IN SPANISH YOUR VIDEOS ARE VERY HELP TO BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND MORE THANKS

[@Gadgetech84]

Spd tool is good i have used it so many times but i know how to edit bios also for onboard ram disable. Or there is a another way by removing/adding termination resistors and this is the only permanent method. The way you dont it, it will come back once customer update bios via windows update.

[@juangizirian9810]

Bro can you post link how to edit bios at least what hex address and bits to disable. Would be great.

[@Gadgetech84]

@@juangizirian9810 im at work now i will make video for you explaining how to disable onboard ram via bios editing.

[@RadioPower-Romania]

good lesson even for experienced repair shop i like your stile and i repair electronics for the last 20 years

[@Adam2077.]

Hi Sorin, when downloading unsafe software you can run it in a virtual comuter, for example in Virtualbox, so you don't have to reset your computer after using this kind of tools.

[@Swenser]

Thats not angry. When angry you will smash the screen with your fist. You are a gentle giant. Thanks for sharing.

[@ngwanindi]

Wow sorin you are so funny. I enjoy watching your two hours video because you mix it with fun.

[@allinclusive5762]

looool 😊 He always improves the circuit of notebooks!

[@randyr.parker2698]

Glad to see more people figuring out what manufacturers are doing! They 'claim' to be 'green', then engineer and manufacture POS that have to be tossed in a year or two. I had this figured out years ago along with others, but more need to wake up to this fact and force them to do better.

[@tsaukenneth4209]

Lenovo should hire this guy. He is the best

[@2368rafa]

Hello Sorin, thank you very much for sharing it, and I agree with you, it is one more way that manufacturers do not want equipment to be repaired, only to sell it and that the warranty and battery last just as long. Thank you

[@maz.reparateur]

Nicely done Sorin, but keep in mind, either mine or your solution, they will not survive a BIOS update. Take care

[@ferna2294]

Thank you so much. This is really valuable. In regards to the program, it´s probably a false positive. I´m astonished by the amount of software that I use that triggers my antivirus without ever destroying my system.

[@JamesWSleight]

I have two Acer laptops with onboard ram and an unpopulated NVMe slot each, without the port soldered on. When I was learning how to add the port I also learned how to disable the onboard ram. It turns out these Acer laptops can be configured with resistors. I can move one resistor and essentially tell the motherboard that there's no onboard ram, and that there IS an NVMe port. Iimagined it would be the same procedure for this Lenovo.

[@diyfixtool830]

Thank you for sharing high-quality maintenance knowledge with everyone. Upvote for you!

[@jeroenvtec]

this was very cool and interisting !! thanks ! I ask kind of same question in the coffee chat. It confirms why myne did not boot after remove a few modules. (because of the bsod)

[@dazzkhan2299]

I never SAw angry sorin before. Thanks for showing us the trick.

[@Trustsimo07]

An exceptional repair , thank you.

[@mahammadali5520]

Your repairing works all amazing sir 👍

[@Trustsimo07]

That silicone glue can be removed by some solvent like white spirit, or cellulosic diluent , it not melted but easily detached from the surface…

[@charanebot6423]

Thank you. I will try this.

[@hotforSlavco]

Dont forget about the the best Lenovo power socket (yellow square one), this is another dishonor they still put to the new laptops, when half of the laptop repairs channels on Yt point finger at it. Every manufacturer has its sins with cutting costs etc. but what Lenovo is doing is just out of mind. Sorin, much appreciate for your work, you make this industry better with every video. Great respect and greetings from Edinburgh.

[@ScottyG117]

Thank You Sorin!!!! I have a Lenovo Yoga c-740 with soldered RAM. The screen had lines and shit just like in this video. I took mine apart and sure enough I see that fu k'n black glue on the solder. I took a chance and used a hair dryer on the ram chips and heated them up and applied pressure to reseat them and it worked! Thank you I was about to scrap my $600 computer. I'm wondering how long it will last?

[@obvious7777]

The only model of Lenovo laptop that I recommend are the Thinkpad models, it seems that all of their other models are made with cheap materials and are designed to fail easily.

[@user.fedorman]

Sorin, you are a genius 😊

[@pepeluis670]

Excellent, not knowing how to solve this same problem, I ended up buying another motherboard

[@weerobot]

Sorin Rants are The Best...Lenovo This Laptop will Self-Destruct..

[@brucewalker1908]

You get lots of repairs from other shops. That’s amazing I would say

[@notRelevanti]

this is F***ed up on so many levels... i bet the glue expanding due to heat is what must have caused these RAM issues in the first place !!! As usual, great job by Sorin. And cudos for your patience. At least we know what manufacturers to avoid buying from thanks to your sufferings :)

[@NPOSK]

This is why I do not buy Lenovo laptops for our company use. Thanks Sorin for sharing knowledge.

[@ch2o2]

with all the right in the world you got angry ..but you succeed and very nice done

[@qhew]

you work so quickly…forgive me, i do at times get left behind in what you are doing & why. but you inevitably come up with a working laptop - quite amazing. and good learning about inside of laptops. re the black adhesive on all chips, i’m trying to think laterally & think what other possible reason the manufacturer might be considering to justify that action in a positive (not conspiracy theory) way? perhaps he thought under impulse g forces, chip-board stress reduced, so solder joints, especially any inferior ones, are less likely to fracture, resulting in a longer laptop life. any repair implementations were perhaps never considered or seen as secondary, given the life benefit. of course this is all hypothetical & subject to proof by testing. my feeling from my years in electronics industry is flexing/resonating boards, leading to broken tracks and solder joints - pose the greatest risk (based on a gut feeling….admit i’ve never done any theoretical analysis or statistical tests) & using a thicker board material is good start. it’s an electromechanical issue.

[@gavjackson6230]

Low melt solder on pads. Wick off the solder and scrape under fill at 230 degrees hot air. Reball chips with stencil

[@ghostbiker7391]

that's why I avoid lenovo at any cost and I was one of the few ppl that kept inisiting to not get any lenovo laptop when I was an IT, it took them more than a year to get a new contratct with HP

[@Timpano_Francesco_Repairs]

Very great video Sorin, Is bad that manufacturs go on with the unique law they know... the $ One, but web web must go on fighting the

[@marksutherland774]

Fantastic fix. However I've heard windows can now download and update the bios and you can bet lenovo will push a bios update into bios. Might wanna make windows ask for manual updates.

[@maklogetrich2378]

you're right, I have this Lenovo laptop, even with low battery and no charger plugged in, the laptop still forcing it to update bios and it's from windows update insane

[@wartlme]

hyper visor is for virtualizaion. You will have to turn on virutalization on in the bios inorder to use hyper-v.

[@davidlguerr]

The BSOD was caused by memory errors.

[@kblectronix]

Hi Sorin. One of your most informative videos. Thank you! That tool looks really useful. Do the RAM chips have to come off for the BIOS hacjk to work? I'm guessing yes as there is a fault but maybe not? A lot of laptops don't have a DIMM slot any more so this wouldn't be a fix. Lenovo are sliding into making real cr*p stuff now but so do all the others. Bendy laptops that are just not going to last and so cheap are hardly worth repairing. I still have a Lenovo Thinkpad T410 in the boot of my car for on-site work. It's from back when IBM designed them. It's been dropped many times, covered in building dust, rained on and when used, covered in condensation from the winter it still works! I'm sure it'll give up at some point but one of the most reliable tools I have. I've been through 3 drills in the same time I had that Lenovo.

[@JamesWSleight]

Disabling the onboard ram on the BIOS esentially tells the board to ignore the possibility of finding onboard ram, without the need to desolder them. In the cases where there's no dimm slot, you have no option but to reball or replace chips. I have two Acer laptops with onboard ram and no slot installed, and I learned from these boards that I can move resistors to tell the BIOS whether there is onboard ram or not, and I can even choose the brand of chips from a small list with compatible models. I also have the option of installing the dimm slot.

[@kblectronix]

@@JamesWSleight Yeah. I think on this it's toasty without the cost of tools and labour vs cost of the device.

[@dorfschmidt4833]

@@JamesWSleight I would like to disable the onboard RAM on an old Acer Aspire One A110. It has a place for a SPD chip, but it is not polulated, BIOS doesn't have an option to switch off the soldered RAM.

[@proweb7271]

Nice vidéo, THANK YOU very much ... Good to see you next time ( I really appreciate it )

[@zarko71]

Hi Sorin you can use toluene or epoxy dulient to remove the resin it will take about 5 to 10min to get soft ...

[@mashson2802]

You should use it in a virtualbox so you can avoid reinstall windows in the future. Anyways, love your videos Sorin. Good luck.

[@radio-ged4626]

Maybe the black glue will dissolve with acetate? It would be interesting to try on a scrapped board. Otherwise you're going to have to keep a virus riddled laptop with no wireless connectivity just to do the BIOS memory trick. I think you're right about laptop manufacturers trying to stop us repairing their laptops. Originally it was all about preventing laptops being stolen and hacked but now they are going way beyond just trying to improve hardware security.

[@ocayaro]

I enjoyed the well-deserved rant 😂😂😂😂

[@sinchrotron]

It is interesting how you said that you didn't see any laptops with memory issues for years. Actually all the issues I had with laptops, pcs and even one wheel balancer machine for past ~10 years were only ram related

[@leetucker9938]

i'm so happy you explained this . I will never buy Lenovo Crapbook , it is garbage

[@celdepescaun39]

Bravo , "nenea" Sorin !

[@qsenc]

the black glue is factory! not added by previous repair atempt. is used in laptops and phones, colour might be read or another colour sometime!

[@digihorse6730]

One obvious question. Can you be sure the bios generated does not contain malware? You wouldn’t want that in your pc.

[@mohammedsf635]

lol wait till you see their updated sickness on the newer boards.. they removed the slot completely and used onboard ram on both channels ! glued of course 😂

[@dmisi1]

You are Right !!! At Always,....

[@berberger4814]

I feel this one, maybe the attention to right to repair will change something? I mean its already starting, we see framework f.e. but I think we need regulation by law and framework is a prime example that it is possible even without the amount of financials and workpower big compainies can use

[@Max_Mustermann]

Interestingly, Razer also uses what looks like red glue on their laptops and it's under almost every chip on the motherboard. Was wondering whether this is in order to prevent solder joint cracking due to thermal cycling, or if there's another reason why they use it.

[@manuelpentinga9312]

Master repair!

[@GT_GAMRx22]

It was crazy, excellent job

[@mr.q3216]

Great job. Thanks for sharing.

[@totalgaara]

Sadly disabling the ram in the bios will be just a temporary solution, because Lenovo get bios update trough Lenovo Ventage or Windows Update. As soon as a new bios will be avalaible and ready to flash, the laptop will die again. But yeah, i got similar laptop, 10th gen from lenovo, it's the buissness model and .. it's all cheap plastic and even screws , this is unbelievable for a "pro" laptop

[@davidlguerr]

If you disable capsule firmware update in BIOS, it won't update. But not all Lenovo BIOS have that option.

[@dickvancampen3318]

Nice job extreem High Tech this time... replace the was not a option but very interesting video thank you....the repair Master.

[@blackdotkiller1]

Why not make a virtual machine on your computer to download the dodgy software

[@stevedebeukelaer1424]

Hi Sorin great video . Never seen that program you use.

[@Voughnfox]

wow! wow! wow! That's great sir!

[@cephasbanda1531]

Great video.

[@davidlguerr]

You do not have to sacrifice anything in order to use the software. You can just use a virtual machine with a previous known good state saved, and after using the software, you just restore to the old state, and virus are gone. You can also use's Windows 11 Pro own sandbox or Sandboxie.

[@notJW13383]

Great video!

[@peternkwenti6121]

You are really the master bravoo😊

[@laboratorioassembler]

Maybe just take a look to schematics to find where to disable onboard ram using one or 2 resistors :)

[@Roottech25]

make a video explaining how to remove the ME region of the BIOS that prevent a computer to boot if you replace the bios

[@gizmorepairs]

Sorin I love the aggression, it’s well Deserved. Your right, they are pricks !!

[@pc-legen9755]

Would this tool to disable the onboard ram have worked even without desoldering the memory chips??

[@seraph741]

I was wondering the same thing. My guess is yes because the BIOS basically won't even know the onboard RAM exists. Would've saved a lot of time, effort, and heartache.😂

[@Jack_Mototech_Vlog]

The glue is like life support just a engineer strategy 😅

[@mira5751]

Was there a way of identifying which memory chip was not working? because otherwise I would have thought to removing them off one by one and maybe being lucky it removing the faulty one saving some memory. Just saying

[@siedliko]

You could just get a 16gb ram stick for $30 or 32gb for $50. Not worth saving.

[@davidlguerr]

With a memory test tool like Memtest86 you might find it, if you can run the test without freezing. It will show you the faulty memory addresses.

[@Dohcom1]

Hi folks, that laptop with the glue at the "POWER ON_LED" was a "Razer",

[@Maximshevelev]

First time seeing Lenovo glue? :)

[@chivacetana]

“That’s crazy, that’s sick!” That should be on your merch I would buy a shirt. Your face blowing vape smoke with the that saying right below.

[@Griddens]

good idea but when the customer updates bios or windows does it auotmaticly it will fail to post again.

[@extrasleepy1796]

What happens if there's a bios update in the future?

[@Tecladoeaviacao]

After "water damage" now have a "glue damage" or "Assembly Damage" coming soon! ehehehhehe incredible!

[@fu1r4]

27:45 You should have used a virtual machine or a program called Sandboxie. Sandboxie make you run the program in a sandbox. Maybe you should compare the two bioses to see how much have been changed? It should only change a few lines or else the program can have added other things to he BIOS. If Windows Update flash a new BIOS you will have to do this again, but if it is an old laptop there will not be any new BIOS. It is not a very good solution. Maybe someone can find a better one? Maybe a small patch cable is needed to disable onboard RAM?

[@GODSHANDseve]

Is it necessary to remove the onboard ram memory?

[@Krezna]

thanks man,,,

[@finhas8865]

I wonder if we can use modified bios to disable proprietary gpu and use built in intel gpu. This probably could solve the problem of dead gpu.

[@reggiekamau9865]

Kindly speak about folio 13 - 4000 screen and if it's possible to put normal screen

[@Roottech25]

hypervisor is virtualization turn on on the bios