I Thought This Mini PC was Toast… But is it Actually Savable?

Hello there and welcome to my video. In today's video, I'll be trying out some more methods to fix the Beelink EQ12 Mini-PC that I was sent by Carey Holzman back in March. I'll be attempting to reflash the BIOS chip, to load a headless OS image and SSH into the system, and to install a dedicated graphics card with an M.2 to PCIe adapter.

Music, in order:
Beyond - Patrick Patrikios
Island Dream - Chris Haugen
Sunday Rain - Cheel
Welcome - Anno Domini Beats
Papov - Yung Logos

[matthiassauer]

Very exciting video series - I think stubborn people deserve special respect.

Just my 2 cents to try:
1. Because it all started with unplugging the RAM module - please use magnifying glasses with integrated light or a microscope to check the RAM inner RAM socket for a short circuit due to tiny solder residue, copper cable residue or bent contact.

2. Maybe it´s a ball contact error under the CPU - just start the mainboard with the minimum necessary components with heatsink but without fan and put some pressure on the area in the middle of the CPU.
The pressure bridges any possible CPU ball contact problem and the PC can start again.
Repeat the pressure test from the other side of the mainboard.

In my experience, such flexing errors are particularly common in notebook motherboards on larger chips such as CPUs or graphics chips. Not 100% processed during production, but a weak contact remains undetected because everything works.
Then everything runs for days or months, heats up during operation and cools down again and at some point the weak contact breaks and everything suddenly dies.


Good luck 🙂

[probablyanadult]

Pour some alcohol onto the bare board and turn it on. See if evaporates quickly in one specific component

[ericblenner-hassett]

Have you tried using a router to ensure it was getting an IP assigned to it? It might have been different from what you expected or have some ports blocked in spite of having SSH enabled

[Jeffz]

Has you tested whether the ram module that comes with the mini pc is working in other device or tested the mini pc with another known working ram module? Faulty ram module or no ram module installed will also cause no display output.

[pertopc]

Did you check glue under BIOS battery? My beelink failed to boot because of that glue shorted IO pins.

[gametroeb]

There is a thing named lowe power sodimm have you tried that?

[awesomearizona-dino]

ive heard that some of these use a non-standard version of Windows.

[davidrmcmahon]

How about hot air gun to warm up entire biard? Might kick start it

[terryhayward]

You mentioned that the CPU was getting very hot, maybe there is the problem? Its a lot of work to change a soldered CPU and probably just not worth it for the cost of the computer.

[marceldekock]

Bios Indeed if it's dual bios short pin 1 and 6 and turn on to go to backup bios to work, making main to be reflashed

[apollolux]

You were 100% sure that it was the PC and not the SSD that was the failure point? Just last night, my Windows 10 blue screened with UNEXPECTED_STORE_ERROR after I moused over an Edge tab and it halfway generated a preview pane and it seemed to have corrupted my Lenovo ThinkCentre Mini's M.2 SSD's MBR (the conclusion I've reached so far) since it's now stuck in a PXE/"can't find system OS" boot loop. Now I need to go find an external drive enclosure for M.2 drives so I can attempt to fix the SSD on a laptop.

[EinsNameLezz]

Have you attempted turning off and on again?

[inappropriatejohnson]

Fact: I actually have this same Beelink mini. It'll be two years old in May. The computer itself works great, but a recent Windows11 update has bricked it's ability to download, cuz MS sucks donkeys. Good thing I have four other computers including three running various Linux distros. To hell with MS.