Hi again, List !
This week end, got spare time to investigate further with the Dell. Visual inspection (subsequently confirmed by software probing) has shewn the DELL/Intel Mobo's FWH is indeed the Intel part 82802AB as initially supposed - rather than being an SST substitute or otherwise (a possibility suggested by Stefan Tauner).
In summary, relevant chips found on this board were : - Intel 82801BA (ICH2) - Intel 82802AB (FWH) - SMSC LPC47M102S-MC (superIO)
The question then arises: why does Flashrom NOT detect/report the 82802 ?
It's been noted and verified that our BIOS sets the locking bit in the 82801 that would cause a BIOS trap (SMI) on attempted /write/ accesses to the firmware, and suggested that one or more confidential GPO should have to be flipped in order to authorise such access.... __________________________________________________________________
Proceeding anyway because user forced us to. Found chipset "Intel ICH2" with PCI ID 8086:2440. Enabling flash write... BIOS_CNTL = 0x02: BIOS Lock Enable: enabled, BIOS Write Enable: disabled WARNING: Setting Bios Control at 0x4e from 0x02 to 0x03 on ICH2 failed. New value is 0x02. FAILED! __________________________________________________________________
BUT that mechanism doesn't seem to be able to HIDE the 82802 from Flashrom ! Or am I mistaken ? Here are the relevant probes listed :
__________________________________________________________________ The following protocols are supported: FWH. Probing ..... Probing for Intel 82802AB, 512 kB: probe_82802ab: id1 0xff, id2 0xff, id1 parity violation, id1 is normal flash content, id2 is normal flash content Probing for Intel 82802AC, 1024 kB: probe_82802ab: id1 0xff, id2 0xff, id1 parity violation, id1 is normal flash content, id2 is normal flash content .... .... No EEPROM/flash device found. Note: flashrom can never write if the flash chip isn't found automatically. Restoring PCI config space for 00:1f:0 reg 0x4e _________________________________________________________________
Please explain what circumstances can cause the above result yet an I82802AB is positively present.
BTW, I flipped GPO bits (from the 82801) without resulting any change whatsoever in flashrom's reports. I could try the same with GPOs from the SuperIO instead, but first I think I'll be waiting for more advice, ideas and... encouragement from Stefan and the List.
Regards