Flashing Eon EN25Q32(A/B) with CH341A – Findings & Inquiry

[Jonathan Kendall]

Dear Flashrom Team,

I wanted to share my experience and findings while working with flashrom to
flash an Eon EN25Q32(A/B) SPI flash chip using a CH341A programmer with a
SOIC clip. My goal was to flash SeaBIOS onto the chip as part of an
experiment for a Lenovo ThinkPad T430u.

Summary of My Process:
1. Successfully dumped and verified the original firmware using `flashrom
-r`.
2. Encountered inconsistencies in chip detection, where it was sometimes
identified as EN25Q64 (8MB) instead of EN25Q32 (4MB).
3. Managed to successfully erase and flash the chip by forcing the write
process despite WP (Write Protection) warnings.
4. Verified the flashed BIOS integrity through multiple MD5 checksum
comparisons.
5. Confirmed that the flashing was successful but experienced occasional
inconsistencies with readback verification.

Key Observations & Questions:
- The CH341A programme sometimes fails to detect the chip or identifies it
incorrectly. Could this be due to power delivery issues or specific quirks
of the CH341A?
- Write Protection messages were displayed, but forcing the flash
succeeded. Does flashrom support unlocking this chip, or is WP handling
dependent on external hardware?
- Are there any recommended workarounds to improve stability and ensure
more consistent reads/writes on this chip?
- I would be happy to contribute testing logs if that would be useful for
adding better support for this flash chip in future versions of flashrom.

Thank you for your work on flashrom! Please let me know if any additional
details would be helpful.

Best regards,
Jonathan Kendall

[S.]

Hello Jonathan,

which prommer with CH341 did you use? Could you provide us with a photo? 
How did you connect the EN25Q32 with the prommer?

Regards
Stephan Schneider

Am 28.02.25 um 13:24 schrieb Jonathan Kendall:
> Dear Flashrom Team,
>
> I wanted to share my experience and findings while working with flashrom 
> to flash an Eon EN25Q32(A/B) SPI flash chip using a CH341A programmer 
> with a SOIC clip. My goal was to flash SeaBIOS onto the chip as part of 
> an experiment for a Lenovo ThinkPad T430u.
>
> Summary of My Process:
> Successfully dumped and verified the original firmware using
>
> `flashrom -r`.
> 2. Encountered inconsistencies in chip detection, where it was sometimes 
> identified as EN25Q64 (8MB) instead of EN25Q32 (4MB).
> 3. Managed to successfully erase and flash the chip by forcing the write 
> process despite WP (Write Protection) warnings.
> 4. Verified the flashed BIOS integrity through multiple MD5 checksum 
> comparisons.
> 5. Confirmed that the flashing was successful but experienced occasional 
> inconsistencies with readback verification.
>
> Key Observations & Questions:
> The CH341A programme sometimes fails to detect the chip or identifies
>
> it incorrectly. Could this be due to power delivery issues or specific 
> quirks of the CH341A?
> Write Protection messages were displayed, but forcing the flash
>
> succeeded. Does flashrom support unlocking this chip, or is WP handling 
> dependent on external hardware?
> Are there any recommended workarounds to improve stability and ensure
>
> more consistent reads/writes on this chip?
> I would be happy to contribute testing logs if that would be useful
>
> for adding better support for this flash chip in future versions of 
> flashrom.
>
> Thank you for your work on flashrom! Please let me know if any 
> additional details would be helpful.
>
> Best regards,
> Jonathan Kendall
>
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