GPD Win Z7-8700 Boot Failure - Semi-Fixed

[bluedeer]

I've got one of the earlier generations of the GPD Win Z7-8700 model, and I'm at my wits' end.

When I turn the device on, sometimes it turns on with no screen display and just a solid blue LED. Sometimes it won't turn on at all. Sometimes I can get it to turn on and access the BIOS (And I have reset the BIOS to defaults many times) but no matter what I do, it will not boot beyond this. If it actually turns on (Momentary Blue Flash) it will just stay stuck at the GPD Logo and will not proceed any further.

This device has been working fine for months until today. I noticed yesterday that there was an item in the Device Manager labelled 'Multimedia Controller' that seems to be one of the Intel hardware ID's but could not get a driver for it. Windows couldn't identify what it was. I had been considering reinstalling Windows, but since I can't even get it to start the boot process now I don't even know what is wrong.

Is this a failed unit? I can't afford to buy one of the GPD Win 2's right now as much as I really would like one and I would rather save the money to buy another GPD Win 1 to purchase my Win 2.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this? UEFI magic or something that I'm missing here? I'd really appreciate it!

 

[CommanderB]

Have you tried booting from an external device?

Gesendet von meinem SM-N9005 mit Tapatalk

 

[bluedeer]

Have you tried booting from an external device?

Gesendet von meinem SM-N9005 mit Tapatalk

Yes, I've even tried the WINPE Boot stick used to reflash it. I can get it to select the UEFI menu but it just won't boot no matter what I use.
[doublepost=1534341223,1534340261][/doublepost]New Development:

If I go into Bios and on the Save & Exit screen I select the 'Reset System with ME Disable ModeMEUD000' I can get it to boot up and everything looks fine. But if I shut Windows down and try to reboot it again, it goes back to being unresponsive.

Since I was able to get into Windows this way, I was able to reflash the BIOS with the image that is available on Dragonbox. Going to see if this fixes anything.

 

[vcoleiro1]

Yes, I've even tried the WINPE Boot stick used to reflash it. I can get it to select the UEFI menu but it just won't boot no matter what I use.
[doublepost=1534341223,1534340261][/doublepost]New Development:

If I go into Bios and on the Save & Exit screen I select the 'Reset System with ME Disable ModeMEUD000' I can get it to boot up and everything looks fine. But if I shut Windows down and try to reboot it again, it goes back to being unresponsive.

Since I was able to get into Windows this way, I was able to reflash the BIOS with the image that is available on Dragonbox. Going to see if this fixes anything.

Have you tried asking on the GPD communities. Namely the gpd_win reddit -> https://www.reddit.com/r/gpdwin/
Or the gpd-devices discord channel -> https://discord.gg/XvBgSa

 

[bluedeer]

Well, some good news and maybe this will help others.

After using the 'Reset System with ME Disable ModeMEUD000' option in the Bios which allowed me to get into Windows and reflash the Bios with the image available on Dragonbox, I now am booting back into Windows on its own and it SEEMS to be behaving. I'm not 100% sure what went wrong, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

If someone knows more about why this actually seemed to work, I would love to know more.

Here's the steps I took to reproduce my success:

Assuming your GPD actually powers on and displays the GPD Screen at some point:

1: Power system on while holding FN+SHIFT+F3 and when the GPD Screen appears, let go and press delete until you get into Bios
2: Go to Save & Exit, and reset Bios to defaults.
3: Then it Save & Exit. Repeat Step 1 until you get into BIOS again
4: Go all the way to the bottom and select the 'Reset System with ME Disable ModeMEUD000' System will restart
5: If it works, you should boot to Windows and all hardware should be working properly. IMMEDIATELY flash the bios image again.
6: After Flashing, reboot but touch nothing. It SHOULD go back into Windows.
7: If it does, reboot again and go into BIOS normally. Reset Defaults, then Save & Exit, Reboot and verify if it still goes into Windows.
8: If it does, then you can go back into BIOS and re-tweak your settings again as necessary.

The ModeMEUD000 seems to have something to do with the Intel Management Engine. I don't know enough about it to even theorize what went wrong in the first place. If anyone else has any more information about this and wants to chime in, that would be appreciated.

 

[bluedeer]

So a followup on this issue.

It seems like whatever went wrong may still be lurking in the background but I have no real way of being able to fix it. However, my device is booting consistently on its own.
Bootup is a little strange now. Instead of pressing the power button for a few seconds, getting the blue flash and then the device booting, it now will *sometimes* do that. Sometimes I have to hold the power button for several seconds and will either blue flash or red light will come on and then it boots. It's not consistent as to which it will do.

So one of the three things it does:
1: Hold power for about 3 seconds, blue flash of LED, device boots (This was the previous expected behavior until boot issue originally happened)
2: Hold power for several seconds (about 5 to 10 seconds), blue flash of LED, device boots
3: Hold power for several seconds (about 5 to 10 seconds), red power light comes on, device boots, red power light goes out.

But since the Bios Flash, bios reset and ModeMEUD000 Reset several times seems to have at least made my device consistently boot, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.