Giving it a try today lets see, have disconnected battery pressed power btn 15secs and kept it aside without battery will check tomorrow and update you guys.
Successfully bricked mine via BIOS settings, standard blue light and no video or any reaction on usb. I think that NVRAM in firmware is damaged, or have settings, that cause failure. Interesting thing: if i’ll power it on, and wait 1-5 minutes, chuwi logo is displayed, but none happens after that (and fan also don’t work, so after 15-20 minutes box is getting really hot). In that mode USB is non-functional - checked with usb sniffer - only power applied, no command/data/protocol exchange is going. Main flash (with bios image) is 25LB64 - i’ll try to flash it with external programmer with provided image from this topic (better to have a valid dump from working larkbox, but i’m out of luck and don’t want to brick another one while soldering it).
P.S. If somebody notice button pins near power button - this is reset button, but it simply reset system, not bios settings.
P.P.S. CHUWI really needs BIOS/UEFI Specialist to make a normally working firmware - currently they simply adopts development board firmware with minimal changes and no QA/QC (and a lot of bricked devices as result).
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Solution found, but it will void warranty and require soldering skills, good soldering station & spi flash programmer, that supports 1.8v chips (GD25LB64C is 1.8v chip, ch341 and other cheap versions will burn it, so don’t use it without level convertor). Disassembly larkbox, remove mainboard, find soic-8 chip with 25LB64CVIG on second line, desolder it, erase & programm with BIOS image from BIOS reset - Larkbox , solder it back, assembly larkbox & power it on. First power on will ended in power off & restart, after that larkbox will resume normal operation.
P.S. I don’t take any responsibility for damaged hardware, or anything else.
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Larkbox works fine for a few days then it bricks. Leave it for a few days and its ok again. Saw IT guy at work and he thinks it needs the firmware updating. see logged error.
Are you still on the OEM Windows 10, or 20H2? I have this exact same error after a clean 20H2 install (from USB media) and haven’t been able to fix it, but am not sure if the clean install caused it vs. an in-place update or if this was already an issue out of the box.
Edit: link to my post about the issue. Apparently another member did the exact same without ending up with the error, which makes me wonder if there are differing hardware or firmware revisions out there. LarkBox Pro: Updated but missing drivers (20H2) - MiniPC - CHUWI | Official Forum
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No, I was still on 1909. I don’t think its the version of windows that’s causing this. What we need is an updated firmware and bios from CHUWI. I think it feels like this because after it has been on for while (downloading/checking/installing windows update) and then it restarts. At that point it bricks. 1 blue blip of the light next to the power button then it disappears for a few seconds and then comes back solid again but bricked…
Reached-out to Chuwi France and they told me there’d be no updates for the firmware/bios for the Larkbox Pro. So, I’ve had enough of the abysmal after sales service and I’ve sent it back and got a refund (Amazon never quibble). When this little device works, it’s great - Quake 3 at 1920 X 1080p at a solid 80fps for example, but if I can’t rely on the thing starting-up the next day then what is the point ? BTW I did update to 20H2 wiped it and did a complete re-install. It was great - and did everything I wanted - streaming 4k video, many tabs open, copying files and a game demo - all at the same time. I thought it had been fixed - until I tried to turn it off and on again. Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be buying anything from Chuwi again. Bye.
That is terrible after sales support. Almost seems like Chuwi regards the LarkBox as a failed experiment, and just gave up on it. Such a shame, because the device is so very close to being awesome. For me, at least good to know that I did not cause that error message with mine, and that I won’t have to hold my breath for a potential fix in the future.
Sucks! Wished I came here before messing up with the BIOS. Fail QC by CHUWI. Something as easy as this would brick the device. It should be disabled.
Just look at the support we are getting in here. No real solution for this problem 6 months later. They are so clueless. I now understand why you should not pay for cheap Chinese products. Expensive Mac mini? You are actually paying for the software. I can’t agree more.
I will blog about this Larkbox and make sure nobody buys this fail product anymore.
opened up the unit and removed the CMOS battery. Press & hold power for 15s, let it sit over dinner then after putting it back together, BIOS was reset and it booted up for me!
This doesn’t work!
Hell no, I’ve literally tried everything.
anything new?
Same trouble here. I understand that the way to go is to connect an usb keyboard with the usb with the bios files connected. Then press the correct keys to make it boot from usb and let it reflash the bios… so I have read but I have not been able to succeed and still have a bricked larkbox.
What chip model did you use in ch341a? I can’t find the later gd25lb64c in the models so I can’t write the entire bios.
I can confirm GetinakS findings. I bought a CH341A programmer with the 1.8v adapater.
Here’s how I did it.
- Buy a CH341A back with SOP8 adapter (that black box with green bottom) and a v1.8 adapter (blue standoff)
- De-solder the chip labeled 25LB64CVIG (it’s on the opposite side of the two ribbon cables)
- Put that chip into the SOP8 adapter (push down to open the adapter, place the chip in and let go)
- With the chip in the adapter, orient the adapter so that the corner with the little circle indent on the top left hand corner is in the slot with the ‘1’ pointing at it.
- Place the double stacked adapters so that the white outline of the chip that has the little notch on it is facing the holding lever on the black chip programmer (the CH341A) and so that it is in the ‘25XX’ section (the section farthest from the lever)
- Download CH341A drivers (google it, there’s a million) and install
- I used NeoProgrammer V2.2.0.10 (google and download/install again)
- I plugged by black adapter into the USB, ran NeoProgrammer and clicked the ‘Detect’ button. If the chip is properly seated into the adapters (and the adapters are all in the correct slots), it should detect the chip and tell you what it is using.
- Click the ‘Read IC’ button (the icon at the top with the picture of a chip with a green arrow coming out of it) and let it finish. Then click the disk icon to save a copy of the borked bios (just in case)
- Download and unzip this file GB01_ZW_1_03_202007091733 現在入っている正式のBIOS
- Click the folder icon and choose the ‘bios.bin’ file from the folder you just downloaded and unzipped in step 10
- Click the ‘Erase IC’ icon (chip with a red X on it)
- Once the erase is complete, click the ‘Programm [sic] IC’ icon (chip icon with a blue arrow pointing to it)
- Once the write is complete, unplug from the USB and remove the chip from the adapter
- Resolder the chip to the board making sure that the little dot on the chip is on the side that says ‘4’ next to it (4 represents where pin number 4 should and the little dot represents pin1)
- Reconnect everything, plug it in, turn it on and wait.
As GetinakS mentioned, it will not show anything on the screen for a little bit. It will stay on for a few minutes, YMMV, and then turn off on its own (do not shut it off). Once it turns on, it will boot up normally and you should have the bios reset to factory settings.
Notes: DO NOT DESOLDER WHILE THE BOARD IS STILL IN THE CASE. The heat from desoldering will melt all plastic parts, disconnect everything. You MUST MUST MUST have the blue 1.8v adapter or you will destroy your chip by overvolting it. And above all else, promise yourself you will never trust Chuwi ever again, this is BS. Luckily, all the parts mentioned (minus the soldering iron/hot air machine) is cheap. Around $10 USD, so it’s within range of those curious enough to try.
I had a similar issue with a different machine and fixed it without de-soldering the chip by soldering pre-tinned small wires to each of the legs of the IC. I could not get the chip clip to work, and after nearly 2h or trying gave up. After confirming no bridges with a magnifier and attaching the other ends of the wires which had dupont connectors on them to the programmer, I was able to detect read and write to the chip. Used the software NeoProgrammer as well with CH341a and 1.8v adapter (chip GB24LQ64 as LB is not listed, but they are the same). Once it was written, confirmed it was good using HxD to analyze what was on the chip against the bin file supplied by the manufacturer. Was a bit risky doing it this way, but I didn’t have a hot air station handy so decided to try it.
