Byte
By Sean Rhodes
By Sean Rhodes
Support guides for Byte mini PCs.
Byte Mk II - Complete Disassembly Guide
Follow this guide to safely disassemble your Byte Mk II. You will need a Phillips PH0 screwdriver before starting. 1. Place the Byte on a soft, protected surface to avoid scratching the finish. 2. Turn the Byte over so the bottom faces upward. 3. Remove the four long Phillips screws, one from each corner of the backplate. 4. Carefully release the backplate by gently pressing around the DisplayPort / HDMI area to free the PCBA from the chassis. 5. Press the silver clamp attached to the DisplayPort and lift the PCBA just enough to access the components underneath. Do not remove the PCBA completely from the chassis. The antennas are still attached, and pulling it away fully may cause damage. 6. Remove the SSD by unscrewing the SSD retaining screw and sliding the drive out. 7. Carefully lift the wireless antenna connectors from the wireless card. 8. Remove the wireless card screw and slide the wireless card out. byte_11.jpg 9. Remove the memory by pushing the silver clips on either side down and outward, then sliding the module out. 10. Disassembly is now complete.
Byte Mk II - installing/recovering firmware with external programmer
Byte Firmware Recovery Guide Requirements - Additional laptop or PC to run commands - FPC cable - CH341A USB programmer - Debug board - PH0 screwdriver Byte_15.jpg Step 1: Open the Byte Follow the opening steps in the Byte Mk II - Complete Disassembly Guide until the PCBA is accessible inside the chassis. Step 2: Locate the Debug Port Lift the PCBA just enough to access the debug port as shown below. Byte_16.jpg Step 3: Assemble the Programmer Setup Connect the CH341A USB programmer, Debug board, and FPC cable as shown below. I5_29.jpg Step 4: Connect to the Byte Attach the free end of the FPC cable to the debug connector on the PCBA. Plug the CH341A USB programmer into your additional laptop or PC, then open a terminal. Your final setup should resemble this: Byte_17.jpg Step 5: Install Flashrom On your additional laptop or PC, install flashrom by running: sudo apt install flashrom Step 6: Download the Firmware All firmware files are available on our GitHub repository. For example, to download the Byte Mk II firmware: 1. Navigate to the .bios file here. 2. Click the Download button to save it to your system. Step 7: Flash the Firmware Finally, write the firmware to the device by running the following command. Replace ~/Downloads/Y2.bios with the path to the firmware file you downloaded: sudo flashrom -p ch341a_spi -w ~/Downloads/Y2.bios