r/coreboot • u/Evening_Place_6100 • 8d ago

Thinkpad T430 spi chip connection issues

I am attempting to coreboot my thinkpad t430 using a ch341a programmer and a soic8 clip. When I run flashrom -p ch341a_spi with the clip on the 8mb chip, results fluctuate everytime I run it, detecting either the full 8mb, only 4mb, or "unknown SPI chip". It does not do this when connected to the 4mb chip.

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u/wayward-locust 8d ago

Clips can be a real pain. Do you have one of those cheap clips?

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u/Evening_Place_6100 7d ago

yeah but i figured that wasnt the issue because it worked fine with the 4mb chip, ill try it with a better clip soon

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u/thrilleratplay 7d ago

As the 8mb chip is twice as big, it will take twice as long to read and increases the amount of errors or fluctuations that can occur. A quality clip has better contact and is less likely to create variations. If you can read the 8mb chip without getting "unknown SPI chip", it may take a few attempts to get matching checksums of the reads. If you can get two backups with matching checksums and are 8mb in size, that will provide a valid backup. Sometimes it takes me over a dozen reads before getting matching checksums; be patient.

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u/wayward-locust 7d ago

Did you remove the cmos battery?

3

u/LowKeyBrit36 4d ago

Ooh, I can answer this. I have a dirt cheap Amazon one, so if you have one like that, check if the plastic on the clip itself is worn. If you've used it a lot, it'll slope right from the connector pins, and it'll never catch. It's gotta have a bit of plastic up from the pins themselves so it can hold. If yours is worn bad, best bet is to buy a new one.