BIOS Write-Protect Screw HP Chromebook 14

Here is the location of the write protect screw for HP Chromebook 14 (nvidia nyan blaze).

During the process of removing this write protection, the battery will be disconnected. As a consequence the boot loader will lost any configuration change made with crossystem (dev_boot_usb, dev_boot_legacy or dev_boot_signed_only).

If chromeos (as shipped by Google) is still installed on your chromebook this is not an issue. On the other hand, if you have erased the content of the eMMC, you won't be able to boot from USB or the legacy partition.

Make sure you have:

  1. Backup everything first
  2. Generate a usb recovery key

Once the screw removed, you can verify if it succeeded with:

    localhost ~ # flashrom -p internal:bus=spi --wp-status
    WP: status: 0x00b8
    WP: status.srp0: 1
    WP: status.srp1: 0
    WP: write protect is enabled.
    WP: write protect range: start=0x00000000, len=0x00200000
    localhost ~ # flashrom -p internal:bus=spi --wp-disable
    SUCCESS
    localhost ~ # flashrom -p internal:bus=spi --wp-status
    WP: status: 0x0038
    WP: status.srp0: 0
    WP: status.srp1: 0
    WP: write protect is disabled.
    WP: write protect range: start=0x00000000, len=0x00200000

On the FALCO Chromebook 14,

  • there is a LARGE WHITE ARROW > icon next to the BIOS write protect screw on the green circuit board. ALSO,

  • from a glance the screw doesn't look to be a supporting screw.

  • it can be recognized by the fact that the copper circle it sits on is split in half "( )" vs "O". The screw connects the two halves, making the bios unwriteable.

    Those are indicators I would use when looking at your Chromebook. However, from the picture, I do not see a screw that matches that description.

Tags:

Chromebook