Thinkpad C14 (PRIMUS) unresponsive after flashing firmware successfully

Bug Reports Firmware Bugs
1

I recently purchased a Primus that came with windows already installed, but it seemed there were some bugs in the firmware, such as the 64GB eMMC appearing in windows (and Linux) as an NVME drive. Tried installing Fedora 39, and it kept failing, usually having a disk error of some kind.

After the MrChromebox site came back up, I ran the script and saw the installed firmware was almost a year old, so I decided to upgrade the full UEFI rom, and it said it flashed successfully! But after reboot, it never seemed to post, just kept running and the fan blowing, with the screen backlight not even turning on. After about 30 minutes I shut it down and placed an order for a SuzyQ adapter.

Today I used the SuzyQ adapter and followed the unbricking tutorial. Side note: I could only get it to work with the battery disconnected. After following all the steps, it once again flashed successfully and verified successfully as well. After reconnecting the battery and plugging it in…… nothing.

The first time plugging in the power cable the keyboard backlight would briefly flash, and the charging indicator near the port would turn on. If you disconnect and reconnect the cable, the light near the power button would flash three times with the charging light staying on. Then, after 60 seconds the charging light would turn off and back on, then the power button light would flash three times again, every 60 seconds.

Is there some chance it’s the EC that needs reflashed? Or something else? I’m really not sure where to go from here.

2

Update: I think I’ve figured out what might be causing the issues. This is a Primus with an ES version CPU, which apparently requires some kind of flag when compiling coreboot? I guess I’ll need to figure out how to go about doing that.

Here are also the logs from ttyUSB0 and ttyUSB2. Maybe posting on github would be more appropriate? If so, please let me know.

Logs from ttyUSB2:
[Image: RO, primus_v2.0.10562-b521e788b8 primus_14251.0.0 2021-09-29 02:36:59 @chromeos-ci-legacy-us-central1-b-x32-28-ffj8]
[Reset cause: power-on]
[0.005965 VB Main]
[0.006167 VB Ping Cr50]
[0.007474 hash start 0x00040000 0x000300b0]
[0.305788 hash done a124bed42d1505e57b6d71cbed79618d92f44754dcf9c2a356256282a016dbf1]
[0.305907 VB Veri[0.323182 VB Received 0xec09]
[0.861822 PB task 8 = init-on]
[0.862408 PB task 8 = init-on, wait 99415]
[0.962519 PB task 8 = init-on]
[0.963872 PB task 8 = init-on, wait 98648]
[1.063102 PB task 8 = init-on]
[1.063485 PB task 8 = init-on, wait 99618]
[1.070143 C0: PE_SNK_Hard_Reset]
[1.072546 C0 Hard Reset sent]
[1.074466 C0: PE_SNK_Transition_to_default]
[1.076066 mux config:0, port:0, rv:8]
[1.164933 PB task 8 = init-on]
[1.165386 PB task 8 = init-on, wait 99547]
[1.265498 PB task 8 = init-on]
[1.265881 PB task 8 = init-on, wait 99618]
[1.296590 pi3usb9201[p0]: sts = 0x40, lim = 500 mA, supplier = 5]
[1.360038 MKBP not cleared within threshold, toggling.]
[1.366156 PB task 8 = init-on]
[1.366608 PB task 0 = idle, wait -1]
[1.739114 C0: PE_SNK_Startup]
[1.741537 C0: PE_SNK_Discovery]
[1.743098 C0: PE_SNK_Wait_for_Capabilities]
[2.318582 C0: PE_SNK_Hard_Reset]
[2.320955 C0 Hard Reset sent]
[2.322897 C0: PE_SNK_Transition_to_default]
[2.324500 mux config:0, port:0, rv:8]
[2.360877 MKBP not cleared within threshold, toggling.]
[2.497710 Ramp p0 st2 500mA 0mA]
[2.987645 C0: PE_SNK_Startup]
[2.990063 C0: PE_SNK_Discovery]
[2.991652 C0: PE_SNK_Wait_for_Capabilities]
[3.569270 C0: PE_SNK_Hard_Reset]
[3.571714 C0 Hard Reset sent]
[3.573702 C0: PE_SNK_Transition_to_default]
[3.575388 mux config:0, port:0, rv:8]
[4.238415 C0: PE_SNK_Startup]
[4.240838 C0: PE_SNK_Discovery]
[4.242429 C0: PE_SNK_Wait_for_Capabilities]
[4.819778 C0: PE_SNK_Hard_Reset]
[4.820168 C0: PE_SRC_Disabled]
[7.498664 Ramp p0 st2 500mA 0mA]

Logs from ttyUSB0:
— UART initialized after reboot —
[Reset cause: power-on]
[Image: RW, 0.6.51/cr50_v1.9308_B.1054-0e610b99f9 tpm2:v1.9308_26_0.66-388df8e cryptoc:v1.9308_26_0.7-681a357 2021-08-27 22:21:47 @chromeos-ci-factory-us-central]
[0.003837 Inits done]
strap pin readings: a1:0 a9:0 a6:2 a12:3
[0.006008 Valid strap: 0xe0 properties: 0xe00042]
[0.007720 init_jittery_clock_locking_optional: run level high, request to enable]
[0.033527 init took 17936]
[0.047157 update_rollback_mask: bailing out at bit 1]
[0.049343 update_rollback_mask: bailing out at bit 3]
read_tpm_nvmem: object at 0x1008 not found
[0.052787 load_ec_hash error: 0x1203]
[0.053657 tpm_rst_asserted]
[0.054325 EC-COMM: Initialization]
Console is enabled; type HELP for help.

[0.074230 Rdd connect]
[0.075088 EC RX only]
[0.075832 CCD EXT enable]
[0.076427 USB PHY B]
[0.077342 CCD state: UARTEC USBEC+TX]
[0.106105 CCD state: UARTEC+TX USBEC+TX]
[0.108676 CCD state: UARTEC USBEC+TX]
[0.216754 usb_reset, status 4801020]
[0.334194 usb_reset, status 1020]
[0.408180 CCD state: UARTEC+TX USBEC+TX]
[0.425025 CCD state: UARTEC USBEC+TX]
[0.448997 SETAD 0x01 (1)]
[1.007793 AP UART off]
[1.054443 AP off]
[1.074691 Servo disconnect]
[1.075893 EC on]
[1.076652 CCD state: UARTEC+TX I2C SPI USBEC+TX]
[1.077774 I2C connect]
[1.078289 Initialized I2C port 0, freq = 100 kHz]

3

Did you eventually solve this problem? I’m experiencing a similar issue. How did you resolve it in the end? Could you provide the fixed ROM file or BIOS.bin?