Question about Medusa2 and "no chip found", etc.

SMMRepair

Member
Just picked up a Medusa 2, and I must say I'm a bit disappointed with the limited testing I've done. The first ~10 boards (parts boards, albeit, but all with SPI present and no damage or missing components or anything to that area of the board) or so that I tried to simply read the serial/BIOS info from, didn't work. The tool kept saying "no chip found", etc. So, I hooked it up to a known-working board and same thing--no chip found. Tried 5 other known-good boards, same thing. Bummer. So, I connected power to the known-working board, and the tool began working. This of course won't work with many parts boards that have many components missing that are needed to power (or at least reach 3v3_sus). Am I going to have to provide 3.3v to every chip that I want to read?! I was not expecting to need to connect power to every single board that I pull BIOS info from. If I'm going to go that far, the tool doesn't save as much time as I was hoping it would.

Anyone have this issue? In the videos shown to show off the tool, he did not connect power to the test-board, and in fact showed it working on a POS 4924 parts board from China with everything pulled, basically. He did mention having a wire connected to 3v3_sus "just in case it needs power", but he didn't ever use it. I simply cannot believe that I'll need to power the 3v3_sus line for every single board I want to pull a serial from...seems like a huge hassle, and if I'm going to go that far, I might as well just pull the BIOS chip. Was really sold on this thing being able to quickly connect and pull BIOS info without any additional effort.

Anyone have any ideas or experience with this?
 
In practice, I find, most boards that you need the Medusa for, are already past all the no-power troubleshooting/repairing. The boards you're connecting this to, usually need either a battery and charger connected or one of the two. Look at page 10 of the Medusa manual to see which model requires what state. you'll get the hang of which board needs to be in what state after you've done a couple.
If that all fails, you can also just pull the bios chip and read it that way (or use a ponoma clip) I mean, that takes just a couple of minutes more.
 
I have both a conventional USB programmer with adapters and a Medusa. The Medusa is a little picky. I can read, program, flash, with a standard programmer much easier than with the Medusa. I like the Medusa when it works. But it does not work often. I was thinking my machine was broken. I just sent a email to support today.

Many boards I have to leave the MagSafe attached to get the Medusa to work where I do not with my standard USB programmer. I don't want to have to solder wires every time I need to flash a chip.

My Medusa I just purchased. I have had it maybe three weeks so far.
v 3.2
 

SMMRepair

Member
Yep, same issue. I can get it to work ~50% of the time...on working boards and/or boards that power on. If a board doesn't power on, it works 0% of the time. Pretty unfortunate, as one of the videos for the unit clearly shows it connecting to and working with a totally-shit parts board from China with no CPU/PCH, no RAM, a hole drilled through it, etc. He connected it and it worked instantly. I've tried dozens of boards in the same (or better) condition, and NONE work unless I manually apply 3.3v to the sus pin, and even then it's very hit-or-miss. A shame, since I dropped $450 on it between the unit and several accessories. At least the chip mounting board works well. I'll probably just use that; at least I don't have to solder wires, but was hoping to save much more time than that. Specifically, I wanted to pull all serials from our dead/parts boards to use on future repairs that require it. If you're buying the Medusa for this purpose, forget it. If you're buying the Medusa to...I guess view BIOS info from already-working boards (not sure why that's helpful, as you could just boot the board and/or pull up AHT to get the serial), then it's for you. People rave about it on these forums...not sure why. Seems like it was made almost solely to be used as a tool to unlock boards (because they already work/power), and not to pull BIOS information from dead/damaged boards as he shows in the videos. Bummer.

I emailed him to ask, and he was pretty adamant that we were doing something wrong. We're not. It's just not as good of a unit as advertised. I'd never trust this thing to handle all the functions it advertises. This thing could have easily been designed to supply 3.3v to the necessary pins, which would increase functionality a TON. This is just a glorified passive JTAG board that you can order from AliExpress for $40.00, except it has a screen.
 
Last edited:
Medua update.

I have finally got it working well. I manually put it in easy flash mode and it does pretty good. There are still some board it won't detect that my conventional programmer will but I have just got used to injecting power when needed.
 
I wanted to post a update to this thread. I am still having some Medusa problems. CMizapper is sending out a new one for some bios 3 missing error. Says I need a replacement unit. The manual reading of the bios with a programmer is more reliable and offers more flexibility. But the medusa is self contained. I say you need both! At this point the conventional programmer and LBE is my go to until the new medusa arrives.
 
Top