I am trying to free a HP 14-db0411nd from chromeOS. I could not find the device in the supported devices list but the HWID is CAREENA, same as the HP Chromebook 14A G5 for which the WP method is CR50.
First I tried the battery method, unplugged the battery and hooked up a charger that is rated to supply 45W. However when I try powering the device, all I get is a short white flashing of the screen, as if it is trying to start but then shuts down again. The flashing continues every 4-5 sconds, looks like the device is in some sort of boot loop. The led next to the usb-c port where the charger is plugged in blinks 3 times in succession, supposedly indicating a battery issue. Which makes sense as it is not connected to the motherboard.
So I soldered a SuzyQ cable. One thing I noticed is in an instruction video and also on this forum the green wire is said to be D- and the white wire D+. But if I look USB A pinout up on the internet I always see green = D+ and white = D-. So this is how I soldered to the breakout board, green to A8 and white to B8. But my cable is not recognized by the chromebook, so should I exchange green and white? Should the cable work with this specific device anyway?
Was able to get the job done after some trial and error. I could not get the SuzyQable to get recognized so went back to the battery method.
I was able to get the device to boot in recovery mode with the battery disconnected. So it was able to run off the 45W adapter after all. It did at that point however not respond to control-d to get it into developer mode, somehow seemed stuck in recovery mode. But this changed when I plugged in the battery (on the live system!). It instantly switched to developer mode and I could now boot chromeos and start the VT2 terminal. I could download firmware-util.sh and disconnect the battery again. crossystem wpsw_cur confirmed that hardware WP was off.
Now started the firmware script and it reported that while hardware WP was indeed disabled there still was the software WP it had to turn off. It did this and rebooted the device which put it back in the original situation with the flashing screen. For a split-second I was completely dejected but I quickly came to my senses and plugged the battery back in which instantly fixed the situation. Booted chromeos, started VT2 terminal and ran the firmware script again and was now able to flash the firmware.