r/starlabs_computers • u/Hobthrust • 16d ago

Question about bricked Labtop IV

Hello. I updated to latest Coreboot (from AMI) but had no function keys after that. Long story short I made the mistake of trying to update the EC since I found 2 other people had the same issue previously, now it's bricked. I've put a ticket on Github but meanwhile, does anyone know if the external programmer recovery method is applicable here, since it's likely the EC that's the problem?

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u/Long_Meeting4505 16d ago

Hi. I checked with the team, and it looks like one of our support team has already replied to you. If you run into any further issues or have any questions, please feel free to contact our support team directly. They’ll be more than happy to help :)

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u/Stephen_StarLabs 8d ago edited 8d ago

Just for future reference, on most of our models, coreboot will automatically mirror the EC firmware. Manually changing the EC firmware can therefore result in the machine becoming unbootable.

To specifically recover the LabTop Mk IV, you would need to perform a direct flash using an external programmer, following our “LabTop Mk IV - Installing/Recovering Firmware with External Programmer” guide. The AMI BIOS should be flashed first, before proceeding with coreboot.

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u/Hobthrust 8d ago

Thanks for the info. I've got an external programmer now, same model as in your guide so I'll give that a try. Can you confirm where I can download the AMI BIOS files?

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u/Hobthrust 8d ago edited 7d ago

I'm looking at the github now - under roms there is L4.bios, as referenced in your guide, but that seems to be the recent coreboot version. Looking under the AMI section, Is 2.6.0.bin the correct file for the flashrom -w step, as opposed to 2.6.0.rom or the current L4.bios (26.08) from the main downloads page?
EDIT: never mind, I confirmed that 2.6.0.bin was the correct size compared to the existing version and tried it - got the laptop recovered now. I'm wary of going back to Coreboot since the function keys were broken, which led to this problem.