Be careful with laptops!

H

Haswellbeast

Gawd
2FA
Joined
Feb 5, 2025
Messages
593
I got an old dell Inspiron n5110 for free, and, since it doesn't do anything critical for me, I was trying to run a modded bios. I was going in to short the chip to prevent region lock, but then one, stupid mistake fried it. I plugged in the internal keyboard, and the little piece of metal shorted something, and now it's cooked. 7 beeps, no CPU/CPU power error. I tried another CPU, no dice.

Thankfully, it was a fun toy, but basically worthless to sell, so I am sad, but grateful that I only mess with cheap stuff
 
pendragon1 said:
"be careful trying to "hack" a laptop"
this isnt a "laptop" problem, its a you problem. good thing youre only killing ewaste...
Click to expand...
yeah, I totally own that it was a PEBKAC... and that I should not be surprised based on what I was trying to do anyway.

I might give away some of the salvaged parts though, (Wifi card, cpu, ram, etc.)
 
Last edited:
It might still be fixable. Unless you put the chip's power supply where it shouldn't be, it might be simply corrupted or in some weird state. Let it sit a while without the CMOS battery so it resets.
You could also yank the chip (if it's socketed) and have someone with a programmer re-flash it, or get a new chip and have it programmed.
That's of course if you want the hassle.
 
michalrz said:
It might still be fixable. Unless you put the chip's power supply where it shouldn't be, it might be simply corrupted or in some weird state. Let it sit a while without the CMOS battery so it resets.
You could also yank the chip (if it's socketed) and have someone with a programmer re-flash it, or get a new chip and have it programmed.
That's of course if you want the hassle.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'll go back to it in a day, but the short happened I am pretty sure on the display cable contacts. It's always worth a try
 
Haswellbeast said:
Yeah, I'll go back to it in a day, but the short happened I am pretty sure on the display cable contacts. It's always worth a try
Click to expand...
Ohh. That might be way worse. Any visual signs of the burn? Did it release the magic blue smoke? 'Cause if so, it's probably gone. Anyway, take a pic if you want, or let us know what happens.
 
michalrz said:
Ohh. That might be way worse. Any visual signs of the burn? Did it release the magic blue smoke? 'Cause if so, it's probably gone. Anyway, take a pic if you want, or let us know what happens.
Click to expand...
None of that, just a little *click* when it happened. After that, she only does the beeps.
 
What's this region nonsense that requires physically manupulating a chip?
 
uOpt said:
What's this region nonsense that requires physically manupulating a chip?
Click to expand...
When flashing a custom bios, you cannot get access with the chip without hardware flashing, that "region lock" is more of just an OEM write lock for software flashing... Which was put there with good intentions.
 
  • Like
Reactions: uOpt
like this
michalrz said:
Ohh. That might be way worse. Any visual signs of the burn? Did it release the magic blue smoke? 'Cause if so, it's probably gone. Anyway, take a pic if you want, or let us know what happens.
Click to expand...
Welp, tried today, I plug the power in and the chipset gets burning hot.. no other signs of life... she's toast
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top