Everlasting boot-loop and broken bricks?
I just got two free Samsung NP530U3C laptops here.
When I got them they were preinstalled with Windows 7, so my first action was to install Windows 10 on one and Fedora 37 on the other. Reinstalled them side by side, and it went all good…until reboot!
Now both laptops goes into bootloops. They power on, shows the first bios/boot screen with “F2” and “F4” options in lower left corner and then reboots before I can get into bios.
This goes for both laptops!
Now, this is tried and tested (parts of it was found in other threads here and other sites)
- Reinstall again, both laptops. Same result.
- Reinstall windows laptop with Windows 7 PRO, same result.
- Disconnected BOTH battery and CMOS battery. Still bootloops.
- Removed both RAM and HDD, still same bootloop.
- Tried different (and fresh) RAM and HDD’s. Still bootloops.
- Tried installing OS on just the integrated 24GB SSD (With and without the HDD. Still bootloop.
- Tried shorting points on motherboard as described [here][1]
[1]: https://superuser.com/questions/620163/samsung-np530-laptop-cannot-enter-bios-setup
Both laptops boots just fine with any “live” OS from USB-key when spamming F9 at boot. But F2 for BIOS is still unresponsive, and back to bootloop if Im not booting from USB key.
Is my only option from here to get a new BIOS chip or reprogram the existing ones?
Note that noting was changed in BIOS prior to reinstall, and both laptops was working when I got them (pulled backups to previous owner with no probems!)
My first plan was to give one to my oldest son to start learning programming and for school use, and the other for myself as a travvelig companion due to its small size (My everyday laptop is a huge 17″ MSI 😉 )
Any good suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
(Got them for free, so they might just get dismantled for parts instead)
