Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

[bunuvirus]

Hi all, I have an asus tuf fx504gm. One day it suddenly shutdown and refused to power on since then. Power and other status LEDs blink for a second when I press the power button. I disassembled the laptop to check for blown up fuses and voltages. Fuses near charger and AC jack were not blown. Battery was charging fine and I confirmed 19v throughout the board. But I am not able to find any 3v or 5v lines. Can someone point me into the right direction? I have tried to go through the schematics but can't land on the problem. Any help is appreciated.

[SMDFlea]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...hlight=fx504gm

[bunuvirus]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

thanks!!!

[HellasTechn1]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

Hi all, I have an asus tuf fx504gm. One day it suddenly shutdown and refused to power on since then. Power and other status LEDs blink for a second when I press the power button. I disassembled the laptop to check for blown up fuses and voltages. Fuses near charger and AC jack were not blown. Battery was charging fine and I confirmed 19v throughout the board. But I am not able to find any 3v or 5v lines. Can someone point me into the right direction? I have tried to go through the schematics but can't land on the problem. Any help is appreciated.

Hello, i have the exact same problem with this model. I have sent it to a repair shop and they told me i have a bad chipset. After inspecting the laptop i found that they unsoldered the bios chip and flashed it. Now when i press the power button the power led and keyboard backlight come on and stay on. nothing else happens also no fans working. It will only power off if o press the power button for like 10 seconds. I unsoldered the chip, downloaded the bios binary file and re flashed it myself with a xeltek programmer but still the same (light comes on and stays on, also no fans working). Now with the bin file for the bios chip there was also a bin file named EC. what is that EC ? is it the chipset they told me about at the repair shop ? If yes then how can i program that ?

Last, have you found a solution to your problem ?

THANKYOU!

[HellasTechn1]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

Does anyone know anything about it at all ?

[mcplslg123]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

EC stands for "Embedded Controller". Its populrly also called SIO/KBC. Look for a chip with ENE/ITE/MEC as prefix. It could be 128 pins chip or could be in BGA form

[HellasTechn1]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

I read that its also called super io chip. After checking ly laptop's block diagram i can clearly see that it is related to the bios chip. Im not sure if it has it's own rom memmory or uses the bios's rom to read from. In my particular case according to the datasheet i have the ITE IT8987E/BXΑ but im going to open up my laptop and check it to make sure.
Do we know how to program such chip ? There is some kind of special programmer connected to the keyboard socket. Im not sure how it it done though or if there is some other way.

[HellasTechn1]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

Yes confirmed that it it a IT8987E/BXA.

[HellasTechn1]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

EC stands for "Embedded Controller". Its populrly also called SIO/KBC. Look for a chip with ENE/ITE/MEC as prefix. It could be 128 pins chip or could be in BGA form

Thanks, i really need any info i can get on this.

[HellasTechn1]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

So now my hot question is, how to i program this chip ?

[mon2]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqJ80910IPs

[HellasTechn1]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

Thank you so much friend !!! So now im after a really cheap programmer for it I need to do my "homework"

[HellasTechn1]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

Im reading that in some asus laptops the IT8987E will self program (at least the very first time used) from the main bios but i doubt thats the case with me because first the chips is used and second because they give the .bin file online. why give it if not needed ?

Still im searching for cheap programmer (as cheap as possible) since i have already payed 450 euro for that laptop that died on my hands the very first day i got it used from an unknown online...

[Stevedb]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

Yes it is true asus laptop program the ite chip itself by most model. You can also buy preprogramd SIO chip.

[HellasTechn1]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

Well it looks suspicious to me that my laptop changed behaviour after flashing the bios chip (post #4). Now keyboard and power led turn on. The battery hont charge but that might be a different issue. The original fault symptom does indicate a problem with the super io chip. Too bad that i dont have a copy of the bios data before they flashed it. I have come to understand that this bios and ec chip need both to be flashed if you mess with either one. if i buy a pre-programmed will it match my bios firmware ? I dont really know. Only if there was a way to test the ec chip's good operation...


Still im searching for cheap programmer (as cheap as possible)
Any ideas fot that ?

[mcplslg123]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

Cheap KBC programmer are good for nothing-they will invariably fail to program the KBC chip specially ITE. Yes on asus,kbc chip is programmed from main bios on first boot as long as the kbc chip is blank. So i think you can buy a blank ITE8987 and solder it on your motherboard. Do flash clean me main bios before powering on.

[HellasTechn1]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

Cheap KBC programmer are good for nothing-they will invariably fail to program the KBC chip specially ITE. Yes on asus,kbc chip is programmed from main bios on first boot as long as the kbc chip is blank. So i think you can buy a blank ITE8987 and solder it on your motherboard. Do flash clean me main bios before powering on.

It sure is worth trying that. I will order a blank SIO chip. Unsoldering and soldering is not a problem for me since i have hot air station, proper soldering iron and microscope.
Could you please explain to me further the concept of flash clean ?
I have a xeltek superpro 6100 programmer at work. Using that i can use the erase function and then the write function with the FX504GM.301.bin file i have found online. Is that considered flash clean ?

Also i do have a few more (probably silly) questions :

1. Do all Asus models have that auto-program SIO chip or my model happens to be one of them ?
1. Does anyone have a verified working .bin file for that bios ? The one i downloaded is from unknown source.
2. Will that binary file (FX504GM.301.bin) be sufficient for programing the SIO chip during first power up ?
3. Do i connect both the bios battery and main battery during the first power up ?
4. do i plug the ac adapter on to the laptop before the first power up ?

Thank you so much , you are all awesome ! I love the people of this forum.

P.S.
Im sorry for annoying you with all these questions!

[mcplslg123]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

Clean me bios stands for a bios with clean me region. Any bios downloaded from net is usually a backup from working machine. Me region is married to that particular board-So it'll be considered dirty for another same board and thats the reason it needs to be cleaned. the cleaning is done through FITC tools. You can read your bios and put the dump in" bios section " and ask for clean me bios. The guys there are very helpful.

01.Cant say with 100% certainity about all asus models. But definitely most of the asus has auto program kbc feature on 1st boot.To be sure you need to check the main bios and if it has kbc bios inside it,99% chance it will self program SIO.
02.No need to connect battery during 1st boot.Only adapter is good enough but do connect screen to understand any activity going on at 1st boot.
03.Yes, you need to plug the ac adapter before 1st boot(make sure you dont connect/disconnect any device after connecting adapter-else there can be serious damages)

[HellasTechn1]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

clean me bios sounds a little complicated. I am going to need help on that.
Does this procedure require hardware other than the xeltek programmer that i already have ?

[HellasTechn1]

Re: Asus tuf FX504gm troubleshooting

i found this thread :
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...hlight=FX504gm
post #4 gives a clean bios dump.
if i just erase my bios and write that file will it equal a clean me main bios ?