I bought this laptop for cheap hoping to repair it. It came with solid lights on esc, caps lock and num lock. After doing some testing (display, power, other components) it seems that it got bricked during a BIOS update, as many others did (a quick search shows this was common). Other than replacing the entire motherboard, which is too expensive to be worth it, my choices seem to be (hardest to easiest):
- Remove the bios chip using hot air, and either replace it with a new one, or flash it with CH341a.
- Use a clip and the CH341a to flash it while still attached to the board.
- Use a USB to flash it in crisis mode.
Right now, I want to try #3 first, and can get the laptop to crisis mode using Fn+R, which turns off the keyboard lights, and makes the orange light flash on the side. I have downloaded the BIOS (GLCN52WW), and extracted the other files from the EXE, but the actual bios file does not have an extension. I have attempted to rename it and give it various extensions (rom, wph, fd, bin), and then copy those to a USB, including using WINCRISIS, and other things that people have tried in similar cases, but the dead laptop doesn’t seem to be able to recognize the file to be able to flash it.
Does anyone know how I would find the correct filename/extension to give the bios so that it can be flashed in crisis mode? I have searched extensively and asked Lenovo, but can’t find an answer.
Helpful reading:
Lenovo B490 BIOS Recovery
