X2100 won't turn on, makes chirping noise

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lifftchi · #1 Post by **lifftchi** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 5:45 pm

Well, I seem to have destroyed my X2100. It won't turn on, and something in the power circuitry makes a rapid 'chirp' when plugged in. My guess is that there's a short somewhere, and the chirp is the power supply turning on, exceeding current limits, and turning off repeatedly.

(So this is at least partly my fault -- I hooked up a dodgy powered USB device, thinking that the worst it could do was destroy my I/O board. Laptop immediately turned off. I pulled the power and battery. Waited, reconnected, wasn't able to turn it back on.)

I've tried pulling everything off the board that's pullable; no change. Tried powering from barrel plug, battery, and USB-C -- frequency of chirps changes, but the machine doesn't turn on. (With the battery there are no chips, but it still doesn't work.)

Unfortunately I don't think I can realistically repair the board, even if I were able to successfully diagnose the issue (which is itself unlikely.) I guess I'm mostly just venting here, but if anyone knows a really skilled repair shop in the SF bay area, I'd be willing to pay a few hundred dollars to get this fixed.

#2 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Fri Dec 16, 2022 2:06 am

For that kind of money you could send it to Louis Rossmann in New York, who can most likely fix it.
https://rossmanngroup.com/contact/

lifftchi · #3 Post by **lifftchi** » Fri Dec 16, 2022 4:32 pm

Well, it's worth trying. I know Rossmann has a good reputation, but I don't really consume streaming video and view people associated with it with suspicion. Still, not as if I have much choice.

I'm still pretty depressed about the whole thing. I used the laptop for a few months and it was completely fantastic. Finally had it set up just the way I liked it.

lifftchi · #4 Post by **lifftchi** » Sat Dec 17, 2022 7:49 pm

Well, Rossmangroup appears to not be interested. It is "a device we don't work on."

datarama-dk · #5 Post by **datarama-dk** » Wed Dec 28, 2022 6:23 am

lifftchi wrote: ↑
Thu Dec 15, 2022 5:45 pm
(So this is at least partly my fault -- I hooked up a dodgy powered USB device, thinking that the worst it could do was destroy my I/O board. Laptop immediately turned off. I pulled the power and battery. Waited, reconnected, wasn't able to turn it back on.)

Could you tell us which device, and which of the ports you hooked it into? (In the interest of others avoiding accidentally damaging their X2100s too).

brookchef · #6 Post by **brookchef** » Tue Jan 10, 2023 3:24 pm

Hello fellow X2100 owner,

I am in the SF Bay Area, and I had a problem where my X2100 would not boot. Not exactly the same scenario, but hoping this might help.

I left my laptop on, and the battery completely discharged (running Linux Mint). Tried using the both the USB-C and Barrel chargers and while 2 of the green indicator lights were on, the machine would not boot. With nothing left to lose, I flashed the BIOS externally. This did the trick and my computer booted up just fine. I can walk you through this if you'd like to try it.

Hope this helps anyone with the same or similar issue.

Thanks.

lifftchi · #7 Post by **lifftchi** » Wed Jan 18, 2023 3:24 am

That strikes me as a really good idea, and I have had to flash the bios externally before, so I have most of it already set up. I'm not confident it'll help, but it's definitely worth trying, thanks. I'll probably give it a go tomorrow.

(The device I plugged in was a development board powered from a benchtop power supply with a floating ground. Oops. But it's not a mistake that I think anyone else is likely to make.)

lifftchi · #8 Post by **lifftchi** » Wed Jan 18, 2023 7:38 pm

Well, this is an interesting outcome. Supplying voltage to the EEPROM VCC pin makes my Raspberry Pi turn off, probably for self-protection. A meter shows about 7K ohm resistance between VCC on the flash chip and ground. This is. . . lower than I would expect. (A reference BIOS chip in a different board shows several megaohm.)

I'm sort of tempted to try pulling the EEPROM to see if it works out-of-circuit. But I'm not very confident that I can desolder it without damaging the other stuff on the board, even if I cover it in kapton tape.

L29Ah · #9 Post by **L29Ah** » Wed Jan 18, 2023 8:12 pm

lifftchi wrote: ↑
Wed Jan 18, 2023 7:38 pm
Well, this is an interesting outcome. Supplying voltage to the EEPROM VCC pin makes my Raspberry Pi turn off, probably for self-protection. A meter shows about 7K ohm resistance between VCC on the flash chip and ground. This is. . . lower than I would expect. (A reference BIOS chip in a different board shows several megaohm.)

I'm sort of tempted to try pulling the EEPROM to see if it works out-of-circuit. But I'm not very confident that I can desolder it without damaging the other stuff on the board, even if I cover it in kapton tape.

You can try lifting only the power pin of the flash chip off the board to power it separately.

jamesfawcett · #10 Post by **jamesfawcett** » Sat Jan 21, 2023 3:40 pm

Watching this with vested interest! I've an X2100 4th batch that won't turn on, but I don't get any of the power status LED's on mine so might be a different issue. I get no response at all from battery or an external power source. Please do keep us informed if you have any luck!

I've replaced my X2100 now with a 5th batch motherboard instead, because I use this machine daily. I would still like to get my X2100 4th batch repaired though.

exander · #11 Post by **exander** » Mon Jan 23, 2023 7:24 pm

Maybe Rossman would me interested if there is more machines. I have one with similar issue, only a week in use, and xy.tech is no contact.

lifftchi · #12 Post by **lifftchi** » Wed Feb 01, 2023 11:59 pm

So I pulled the EEPROM, and I think the results are mixed.

* EEPROM doesn't work, is unreadable. (I can't rule out the possibility of damage from my poor desoldering technique, though.)
* On the board footprint, pin 8 still shows about 7K resistance to ground. This might give us a decent avenue for troubleshooting? Follow this trace upstream, check resistances at each point. If someone with a working board can check resistance there, that would be helpful.

Now that I've got the chip off, I'd like to get a socket put on -- I've attached a clip to this board way more than I feel is reasonable.

flyingfishfinger · #13 Post by **flyingfishfinger** » Thu Feb 02, 2023 12:25 pm

When I modified the X210 BIOS, that's the first thing I did. Removed the stock BIOS chip for safekeeping, installed one of these (https://www.adafruit.com/product/4726) and bought several extra blank chips. Good luck!

exander · #14 Post by **exander** » Sat Feb 11, 2023 6:28 pm

lifftchi wrote: ↑
Wed Feb 01, 2023 11:59 pm
So I pulled the EEPROM, and I think the results are mixed.

* EEPROM doesn't work, is unreadable. (I can't rule out the possibility of damage from my poor desoldering technique, though.)
* On the board footprint, pin 8 still shows about 7K resistance to ground. This might give us a decent avenue for troubleshooting? Follow this trace upstream, check resistances at each point. If someone with a working board can check resistance there, that would be helpful.

Now that I've got the chip off, I'd like to get a socket put on -- I've attached a clip to this board way more than I feel is reasonable.

Why did you desoldered it? You can read/write BIOS with SOIC-8 clip no issue: https://www.google.com/search?q=soic+8+clip

lifftchi · #15 Post by **lifftchi** » Fri Mar 10, 2023 7:37 pm

Well, it's still broken, but I've made some progress.

The underlying problem seems to be that the resistance between 5V and ground (as measured from at least one of the USB ports) is very low, about 100 Ohm. Some of the inductors show the same sort of symptom -- slight resistance to ground, but much less than expected. My guess is that there's a bad mosfet on the 5V output, and that's leaking to ground, causing the rest of the power circuitry to shut down for self-protection. Unfortunately the mosfets there are tiny QFN packages, and I really don't think I can desolder them safely.

I've pulled a few things off the board without doing permanent damage (I think) but I think I've pushed my luck about as far as I can. I'm probably going to try to buy another X2100 board to compare with, and also to use as, like, an actual laptop. I'm not going to give up, but I am going to step back and practice this sort of debugging on something less irreplaceable. (Of course, if someone else knows a good repair shop, I'd still be overjoyed to get the board repaired professionally.)

flyingfishfinger · #16 Post by **flyingfishfinger** » Fri Mar 10, 2023 8:25 pm

jamesfawcett wrote: ↑
Sat Jan 21, 2023 3:40 pm
Watching this with vested interest! I've an X2100 4th batch that won't turn on, but I don't get any of the power status LED's on mine so might be a different issue. I get no response at all from battery or an external power source. Please do keep us informed if you have any luck!

I've replaced my X2100 now with a 5th batch motherboard instead, because I use this machine daily. I would still like to get my X2100 4th batch repaired though.

What's the difference between a 4th and 5th batch?

R

jamesfawcett · #17 Post by **jamesfawcett** » Sat Mar 11, 2023 2:35 am

Well so far, the difference has been it hasn’t broken

My 4th batch was i5-10510 and the 5th batch has the i7-10710, for my web development work I have noticed a speed difference.

The i7 bios feels a bit more buggy than my i5 did. I quite often have to remove the battery and put it back in to get it to boot. I can’t for the life of me boot Windows 7 anymore either, using the same nVME and SATA drive that my i5 had.

I have the upgraded cpu cooler with my i7 and it runs at a lot lower temperatures, worth getting if you don’t already.

I’m tempted to post my 4th batch to Jacky he said he might be able to fix it.

gevor · #18 Post by **gevor** » Sat Mar 11, 2023 4:57 am

And how's the battery life, i5 vs i7?

jamesfawcett · #19 Post by **jamesfawcett** » Thu Mar 30, 2023 3:10 am

It seems better, but it might be an illusion, it's running cooler with the upgraded fan that I didn't previously have with the i5.

X2100 won't turn on, makes chirping noise

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