$20 mini PC (Dolby controller) with unknown firmware password
- Thread starter ru me
- Start date
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I tried the above combinations. No response.
Did try that. Same response.
Yup, these are the steps! Unfortunately I may have accidentally bricked one of mine, perhaps b/c I was removing the power plug too fast/much. Tried refreshing to default BIOS image and can't get it to boot.
Consumes about 11 Watts at idle (with a screen) with ubuntu live image. Both ethernet ports negotiate at 1gb. The fan is a bit annoying but it might just need to be lubed.
I don't suggest getting this power adapter that was linked above as even a slight bump disconnects it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C773Z3HY?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
It could be possible to make it run fanless, maybe by configuring TDP. I have a fanless DS77u with a 7100u, it does have a metal case, so may the heat dissipation is better. I did not measure myself but marketing suggests it uses 8W idle.
I have used a power adapter I had floating around without problems. I did not buy it from here but this is the adapter https://www.amazon.com/Genuine-DELTA-ADAPTOR-ADP-65HB-3-42A/dp/B00BLY3MQ8
I think it comes down to the quality of the plug but I would expect most brand name adapter to work just fine.
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@autoturk YMMV but this was my basic steps using @ru me’s bios file but ofc best is configuring your own, I’ve yet to try that out
1. Tested unit with a PSU then unplugged
2. Disassembled unit to access chip, on underside had two winbond chips, one painted orange next to sandisk chip, other was yellow on the far side, I ONLY messed with the orange
3. Using CH143a clipped with AsProgrammer ‘Read ID’, had to ignore suggestions and input the orange chip#, then ‘Read IC’ and saved the output
5. Took provided BIOS and used ‘Program IC’ (specifically the Erase-Write-Verify option)
6. Booted up system with ventoy USB and loaded up Win10 IOT LTSC, did take like 60+ seconds spamming F keys
Also shoutout to @piranha32 (and everyone else) that clarified how chip programming worked, when I initially tried to just write over the chip with a new BIOS and it seemed bricked, I then realized exactly what I did wrong (ofc plenty of other things to go wrong here, but following reason rather than rules was a big takeaway here!!)
1. Tested unit with a PSU then unplugged
2. Disassembled unit to access chip, on underside had two winbond chips, one painted orange next to sandisk chip, other was yellow on the far side, I ONLY messed with the orange
3. Using CH143a clipped with AsProgrammer ‘Read ID’, had to ignore suggestions and input the orange chip#, then ‘Read IC’ and saved the output
5. Took provided BIOS and used ‘Program IC’ (specifically the Erase-Write-Verify option)
6. Booted up system with ventoy USB and loaded up Win10 IOT LTSC, did take like 60+ seconds spamming F keys
Also shoutout to @piranha32 (and everyone else) that clarified how chip programming worked, when I initially tried to just write over the chip with a new BIOS and it seemed bricked, I then realized exactly what I did wrong (ofc plenty of other things to go wrong here, but following reason rather than rules was a big takeaway here!!)
Fanless would make it even better! My provided fan is pretty raspy, as of now working fine as a streaming box in living room but on my desk the fan was juuust annoying enough lol
Doesn’t seem like we can take out the fan blade and drop anything in right? What’s the tiniest noctua they got
also agreed on the PSU note. I’m new to that area but I’ve started to get pretty comfortable matching/making power adapters as long as I know the original spec
Someone please correct- I think as long as it matches polarity, it’s just the Voltage that needs to be more exact- the amperage can be higher on the PSU than what is needed
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Polarity obviously has to be correct, but within reason, yes. The stated Voltage on the label, is usually with the supply fully loaded, the offload voltage may well be higher, depending on the design of the supply. Switching supplies are usually tighter controlled. Providing that there is enough load on the supply to allow it to sense and regulate the output, you'll be fine
Pretty much all PSU’s I have come across were center positive. Of course there are exceptions which can make for nasty surprises.Fanless would make it even better! My provided fan is pretty raspy, as of now working fine as a streaming box in living room but on my desk the fan was juuust annoying enough lol
Doesn’t seem like we can take out the fan blade and drop anything in right? What’s the tiniest noctua they got
also agreed on the PSU note. I’m new to that area but I’ve started to get pretty comfortable matching/making power adapters as long as I know the original spec
Someone please correct- I think as long as it matches polarity, it’s just the Voltage that needs to be more exact- the amperage can be higher on the PSU than what is needed
At this price might as well just get the original power adapter with the lock so you don’t accidentally yank out the cord when moving it around . I offered $13 for two lots and they accepted: LOT OF 2 Triad Magnetics 1416PSI-RF DYS650-190265W-K Switching Mode Power Supply | eBay
I think there was some talk about how modifying the original bios it came with might be better because MAC addresses were being overwritten with the one from the posted BIOS.
I was able to zero out the password value and change the bios settings using instructions in the thread. Now have it running Ubuntu Server. Maybe this was obvious to others but the eMMC is writable (7.5 GB) so you can install your OS on there. Will try to write up the steps I took ASAP.
I just copy pasted the ME region of my second unit into the unlocked and edited BIOS. It starts fine and now shows the correct ME version in the BIOS. The last thing to do is replacing the ethernet MAC addresses. Anybody has experience with this? I think this should be pretty straightforward to reproduce for anybody since it only uses HxD and the flasher.
as usual: repasting seems to have helped quite a bit. Now the fan doesn't turn on unless I'm running sysbench.Fanless would make it even better! My provided fan is pretty raspy, as of now working fine as a streaming box in living room but on my desk the fan was juuust annoying enough lol
Doesn’t seem like we can take out the fan blade and drop anything in right? What’s the tiniest noctua they got
also agreed on the PSU note. I’m new to that area but I’ve started to get pretty comfortable matching/making power adapters as long as I know the original spec
Someone please correct- I think as long as it matches polarity, it’s just the Voltage that needs to be more exact- the amperage can be higher on the PSU than what is needed
EDIT: Nevermind. After a sys bench session the fan turned on and now won't turn off despite the temperatures dropping. It seems to respond to temperature events to a certain point, after which it just keeps running.
If anybody is curious about the sysbench results:
Bash:
sysbench cpu --threads=4 run
sysbench 1.0.20 (using system LuaJIT 2.1.0-beta3)
Running the test with following options:
Number of threads: 4
Initializing random number generator from current time
Prime numbers limit: 10000
Initializing worker threads...
Threads started!
CPU speed:
events per second: 2425.87
General statistics:
total time: 10.0011s
total number of events: 24267
Latency (ms):
min: 1.37
avg: 1.65
max: 8.47
95th percentile: 1.67
sum: 39997.70
Threads fairness:
events (avg/stddev): 6066.7500/3.42
execution time (avg/stddev): 9.9994/0.00
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I was thinking how to make patching as easy as possible. I would like to try to make a universal binary patch which can be applied to each individual extracted BIOS. That should just be the difference between my original BIOS and the first patched BIOS. Anybody has experience with doing this? There are plenty of potential options out there but it is hard to figure out where to start.
There's a bios recovery option, I wonder if this will work instead of using the programmers.
Still doesn't fix the password problem, I don't imagine.