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

[SMMRepair]

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?

 

[captainmac]

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.

 

[KC Micro Tronix]

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

 

[KC Micro Tronix]

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.

 

[KC Micro Tronix]

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.