Has anyone gotten asprogrammer or neo programmer to successfully flash mrchromebox’s latest firmware on the WSON-8 chip on this device? I’ve tried twice with Neoprogrammer (to where it says ‘success’) which only resulted in a blank screen upon bootup. I’ve been using a Wson-8 pogo pin adapter, which is very difficult to try and hold still on the motherboard for 3 minutes. Any help is appreciated.
why do people refuse to use the correct tools and then come asking for help?
The correct tools? I have tried flashrom as well, but I could never get it to detect the bios chip
I’ve used flashrom with a pogo-pin probe to flash CAVE before, if there’s a chip detection issue then it’s either due to a poor connection or incorrect voltage.
holding the probe still that long is almost impossible. use a rubber band or something else to hold it in place. and/or use a faster programmer (ch347, ft2232)
Do you think I’d be better off using a ch347 (this is the first I’m hearing of this programmer, and I see that it can program in 16 seconds (!))? Could it have been incorrect voltage which would be giving me a blank screen upon boot? I feel that the prior bios had at least been erased (the one that boots to Chrome OS is missing – I had the tpm error code). I don’t know of a way to know the exact voltage of my current programmer. I selected the 3.3v IC on Neoprogrammer.
you need to look at the chip and then search for the datasheet to find the correct voltage, I don’t know offhand if it’s 3.3v or 1.8v.
but it definitely sounds like your connection to the chip was unreliable as well
It is 3.3v. I did check that. I ended up purchasing the new programmer so hopefully it is more reliable and I am able to flash. This Chromebook has been bricked since 2020, and I just recently found your fix and am eager to make it work.
So…I ended up using flashrom in MX Linux and it worked after 3 failed flashes using the original ch341 programmer. I installed Fedora, but the problem I’m having now is the led blinking orange and charging the battery. upower output is attached. The battery hasn’t been charged in 4 years.
looks like a bad battery to me, but maybe just needs to charge for a while with the device off. Flashing battery LED usually means a battery error or no battery detected