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Need help with MSI Eclipse Flash!

so.. basically, I would need to lift the chip to write to it? :S

I feel like we have tried just about everything here.. and nothing seams to work :(
(even thought there was a pic of the BCUSB connected to the MSI Eclipse SPI pins on the page I bought it from , claiming it could flash the chip -_- )

Should I just give up and tell him to buy a new motherboard?
 
There obviously seems to be a specific issue with that board , we know the chip does program as the other member has programmed that chip.
I think you may have to actually lift the chip OR you can try solder directly onto the chip and see if that works.
 
im out of the countey till xmas so wont be able to try it till i get back :-( i will post the reault when i get around it :)

But thx a lot for helping me out to the both of you!
 
This is a pretty old thread now, but having run into the same problem myself trying to recover an MS-7621 motherboard (a custom board Microstar made for Medion's all-in-one PC range, specifically the Akoya P4020D), I thought my findings might be of help to other lost souls. This motherboard uses the Winbond W25Q80 flash chip (1 MB), and I was programming it using MSI's JSPI1 connector, pinouts verified as described above.

I covered most of the ground discussed above earlier, arriving at the same point where everything _should_ work but nothing actually did.

The mini breakthrough came when I measured the actual voltage on the Winbond between VCC and Gnd - using power from the Blackcat, it was only measuring about 1.7V. The Winbond is quite flexible, operating on anything from 2.5V to 3.7V, but not quite that low. I expect all the other devices on the board, also linked to the same VCC feed, were pulling enough current to overload the poor Blackcat board.

The fix was easy: I just powered on the PC (I figured nothing to lose). I also removed VCC from the link cable, though left everything else including GND connected. Once done, the Blackcat software identified the Winbond immediately and I was able to reliably read and write the flash contents with no further tweaking needed.

(Worth noting: I didn't need to do anything fancy with HOLD - it was already pulled high, either by the mainboard or the chip itself.)
 
Haha :D I believe I tried with the PC turned on.. no changes :(
The motherboard has been replaced, so sadly I dont have the means to test your setup..
so you got it working? congratz m8! the mobo is back up and running?

It would make perfect sense that the board requires too much power for the cat to handle (hence the low volt's) and I DID hook up an external power source witch should have PLENTY of power to get 3.7V at 3.7V.

Yes, it is an old thread.. but if what you say works, Im sure other will be glad you shared the info!
 
^GaMbi said:
So you got it working? congratz m8! the mobo is back up and running?
Click to expand...

Well, yes and no... mostly no, unfortunately.

The Winbond read fine, so the first thing I did was save a copy of the current contents. I compared it with the flash image I had originally programmed which had killed the motherboard, and ... two bytes different. Aha! Programming error first time around, I thought. I did a couple more reads and they were all 100% consistent, which mostly eliminated any issues with the BCUSB corrupting data, I figured.

So, I reprogrammed the original BIOS image, now with the two bytes corrected, but ... no go. Still a dead board. (Confirmed it reads back correctly now as well.)

So, I think the BIOS image itself is at fault. Unfortunately, I didn't have a backup of the previous one so until I track down another friendly user with the same motherboard/system that can snapshot theirs for me, I'm still DOA. But I'm sure one will turn up, and when it does, I should be good to go :)
 
I tracked down a P4020D user through a YouTube video (!) and he kindly sent me a copy of his BIOS image this evening. I just finished installing it, and everything is back to normal again - so a big thank you to Sebastian Bornemann in Germany!
 
Congrats! Sadly I didnt get this fixed myself, but happy to have someone with a fixed board in my thread ^_^
 
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