ASUS Chromebook C201 installation guide
Contents
This board is known to have non-functioning video init. See notabug issue 136.
Introduction
This page contains information about assembly and disassembly, for flashing the ASUS Chromebook C201 externally. It will also link to internal flashing instructions, and information about U-Boot.
Flashrom
Google’s fork of flashrom is required. See the generic chromebook flashing instructions.
U-boot payload
U-Boot was ported to coreboot CrOS devices, courtesy of Alper Nebi Yasak
(alpernebbi
on Libreboot IRC).
U-Boot payload documentation for Libreboot
Internal flashing
The generic chromebook flashing instructions work.
You must turn the write-protect screw though.
There are 8 screws to remove from the bottom of the device. Two are hidden under the top pads. After removing the screws, the keyboard plastic part can be carefully detached from the rest. Beware: there are cables attached to it! It is advised to flip the keyboard plastic part over. The write protect screw is located next to the SPI flash chip, circled in red in the picture below. It has to be removed. photos:
The write protect screw can be put back in place later, when the device is known to be in a working state.
External flashing
If the machine is no longer booting, due to bad firmware, you can unbrick it externally. Refer to external flash instructions.
You do not need to correct the WP#
pin because it is held high via pull-up
resistor to 3.3v, when the write-protect screw is loosened (when tightened,
the screw grounds this pin; the pull-up resistor is to prevent a dead short).
You must remove the battery, prior to flashing. The connector is shown in the 2nd photo, above (the big black connector, with the black, green, yellow, white and red wires going into it). Simply unplug that.