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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):

  1. Remove the bios chip using hot air, and either replace it with a new one, or flash it with CH341a.
  2. Use a clip and the CH341a to flash it while still attached to the board.
  3. 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:

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  • One more link: forums.lenovo.com/t5/… Commented Aug 10, 2023 at 21:34
  • Letting the self-extracting file run under Sanboxie, WinFlash64.exe, BIOS.cap, GLCN52WW.exe, install.bat and SctWinFlash64.exe were created in C:\Drivers\Flash. Is BIOS.cap the needed file, or is it further hidden in one of the two executables, which I could not extract? Commented Aug 10, 2023 at 21:38
  • @DrMoishePippik Perhaps; I see that the .cap file might be a .bin with a header, which I would need to cut off (not great with that stuff), but I'll try it just with the cap Commented Aug 10, 2023 at 21:55
  • @DrMoishePippik couldn't get it to work with that Commented Aug 10, 2023 at 22:20
  • "bios.wph" (?) (have you a Phoenix BIOS Crisis ? (found here (harrymc's answer): superuser.com/questions/809412/… )
    – vssher
    Commented Aug 11, 2023 at 2:09

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Ultimately, I ended up doing option #2 in my post (reflashing the BIOS using an EEPROM programmer) and I copied the BIOS file (.bin) straight from another laptop of the exact same model. If anyone who has the same issue wants the file, and finds this post, just leave a comment.

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  • Did this help solve the Lights problem you had in the beginning? It is now a usuable laptop?
    – vssher
    Commented Sep 14, 2023 at 19:05
  • @vssher yup! Fully usable, running windows 11 smoothly. Commented Sep 15, 2023 at 20:29

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