[flashrom] PM25LD512-SCE

[Stefan Tauner]

On Wed, 8 Jul 2015 08:17:02 -0300
Oscar Enrique Goñi <ogoni at redimec.com.ar> wrote:

> Hi Stefan, thanks for your help!
> I have updated with those packages and now I can recognize the chip.
> However, I have an issue while trying to write the flash, here is the basic
> output:
> 
> Calibrating delay loop... OK.
> Found PMC flash chip "Pm25LD512(C)" (64 kB, SPI) on ft2232_spi.
> Block protection could not be disabled!
> Reading old flash chip contents... done.
> Erasing and writing flash chip...
> 
> and never progress. Moreover, no signals are present on the PINs
> 
> and this is  a part of the verbose output:
> 
> Found PMC flash chip "Pm25LD512(C)" (64 kB, SPI).
> Some block protection in effect, disabling... Block protection could not be
> disabled!
> Chip status register is 0x20.
> Chip status register: Status Register Write Disable (SRWD, SRP, ...) is not
> set
> Chip status register: Bit 6 is not set
> Chip status register: Bit 5 is set
> Chip status register: Block Protect 2 (BP2) is not set
> Chip status register: Block Protect 1 (BP1) is not set
> Chip status register: Block Protect 0 (BP0) is not set
> Chip status register: Write Enable Latch (WEL) is not set
> Chip status register: Write In Progress (WIP/BUSY) is not set
> Reading old flash chip contents... done.
> Erasing and writing flash chip... Trying erase function 0...
> 0x000000-0x000fff:E
> 
> Do you have any idea of the issue?

Hi,

according to the datasheet of your flashchip (it is a non-C version
BTW), that bit #5 should always read as 0. However, flashrom should not
care about it (and the message about failing to disable the block
protection is a bug I need to investigate later), so that should not be
the cause of the problem. The real problem is a loop in flashrom that
queries the flash chip's status register after initiating an erase. We
currently wait indefinitely for the flash chip to signal that it is
done. Some chips never do that if they are broken and then flashrom
keeps running till killed.

There are a few hacks you could try, but you would need to modify the
source of flashrom and recompile it (it is not very hard but you should
be familiar with the command line). However, I fear that it won't help
you because the chip is broken. This could also explain why the update
process failed. You could replace the flash chip with a similar
model if you are able to solder it in place.

-- 
Kind regards/Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Stefan Tauner