Hello everyone.
A few days ago I was trying to remove a boot menu entry on Linux using efibootmgr on an Ubuntu 17.10.1 Live USB. After I rebooted, my BIOS started to act strange.
I must keep it clear that I haven't had ANY issues while using efibootmgr, until now. I have used this same tool on another computer and even this exact same laptop WITH LUCK, but somehow, in this case all it did was corrupt the BIOS firmware.
When I turn on the laptop, the screen is completely blank for 8 seconds (not even the LCD backlit is turned on), which is weird because when the BIOS worked, those 7 seconds would be 2 seconds.
After those 7 seconds have passed, the LCD backlit turns on, but it is still showing nothing on the screen.
After 3 seconds, a blinking MSDOS-like cursor appears for a few moments, and then quickly dissapears. After this, the laptop refuses to show any signs of life.
I must clarify that I don't see any kind of splash vendor picture, not any progress bar (like it used to do), not any "Press F2 for Setup" kind of thing. Everything's just black and empty.
So, I began to think that the BIOS got bricked, so I took apart the laptop and tried to find the BIOS chip, and I think it is this one (see attached picture).
I googled the model of that chip and found out that it is a "Serial Flash Memory". I have no idea of what that means.
I've heard that I can unbrick the BIOS by using a USB BIOS flasher and a 8-pin chip clip. But I don't have any of those yet because I live in a third world country (Venezuela), and I don't think I will ever be able to unbrick the BIOS.
Any kind of advice will be appreciated. Thanks.
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