pfSense on Watchguard M370
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But if you have the console open you see nothing at all? No POST output from the BIOS? No errors?
It sounds like a hardware failure. That's what happens if you try to power up without any RAM present for example.
I would try reseating the RAM and CPU.
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@stephenw10
How to reset RAM and CPU?
I think there is something with the bios that is causing it not to boot. -
No I said 'reseat' the components. So physically remove and re-fit them. Sometimes you can see bad connections if the unit was moved at all.
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It was Google Translate that translated it to reset.
Reseat the RAM and CPU, tried another PSU also made no difference. -
So, to confirm, you see no output at all at the serial console?
I'm not sure there is any way to recover that. Even it is a bad BIOS. But I would only expect a bad BIOS if you were trying to flash it and it failed.
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@v16v Do you have an SPI Flash reader that you can read the BIOS from your M370 with? The BIOS has checksums for each module so if there's corruption it should be possible to figure out where.
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@ost0
I have a CH341A Flash reader. How do I know what checksums should be for each module? -
When you open the BIOS file it should show you.
I still doubt this is a bad BIOS though if you were not trying to modify it when it failed.
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@stephenw10
I said it was after a power outage that it didn't start. The bios reading gave nothing, it was completely blank. -
Hmm, are you sure it actually read it? It seems very unlikely it would erase it entirely.
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Remove the RAM, Power on the machine does it beep? if so the machine has some signs of life,
I've re-programmed quite a few BIOS chips, one word of advice, make sure you get the datasheet of the BIOS chip to be sure on the voltage of the EPROM, if its 3v make sure to change the voltage jumper on the CH341A Flash reader. You can damage the EPROM if you put 5v through a 3v EPROM.
If it has two BIOS chips i.e Dual BIOS in some cases it will fall back on the second EPROM chip.
When reading, read twice and verify twice and save the Flash.
Download the BIOS from the manufacturers website be sure to note on the revision as there will be some differences, with some motherboards you will require to copy MAC Address, Serial Number etc from the old BIOS Regions.
Regards
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Completely blank reads could also mean an entirely dead SPI Flash (usually returning nothing but FF's if I recall correctly), if you've got access to a Linux machine and download flashrom, you can check for signs of life by connecting the clip to the SPI and the ch341a and running
sudo flashrom --programmer ch341a_spi --flash-nameWith the expected output for a working flash being something like:
Found Winbond flash chip "W25Q128.W" (16384 kB, SPI) on ch341a_spi -
@v16v Blank read can either be, the clamp isn't making good enough connection or dead EPROM.
Are you using clamp or have you removed the EPROM from the board and soldiered it to the bracket / board ?
Regards
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I would expect it's using some adapter via the SPI header. Usually the easiest way by far. But the board may need to be powered.
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Yeah had that problem with a MSI board.
Without having schematic or board in front of me it's hard to say. Does the M370 have all the same model/ make of board and 1 revision or are there different ones?
Regards
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I've only ever seen one but... that's a pretty small sample!
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I have connected as shown in the picture.
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@v16v Attach a close up of the BIOS chip that the writing is readable. Make sure that white cable is on Pun 1 of the chip, Pin 1 on EPROM chips are marked with a little circle.
The clamp and EPROM Programmer is very different to the one I have.
Regards.
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The header is not on the chip directly. I think the pinout is given here in the thread somewhere though.
However if it's anything like previous boards it requires power from the board to work. Otherwise you'll not see anything from the chip at all.
