MP 1,1-5,1 cMP 5,1 no chime, black screen, no POST

[nkinne]

Ok,
A couple of days ago my early 2009 Mac Pro 4,1>5,1 froze on me while putzing around in Photoshop on a Windows 10 partition. I had to hard reset after the freeze. Upon reset, nothing happened at first. It just hung there on a black screen. Restarted again and successfully booted to select screen and on into Windows again. A short time in, it froze. Reset. Booted into MacOSX Mojave to see what is happening. Frozen again a few minutes in.
Now I get nothing. No POST indication whatsoever. No chimes. Nothing. The machine does power on. Fans run at normal frequency. But that's all.

In the best interest of saving time and to try to make this a speedy recovery, as this cMP is my daily driver, I will be dumping as much of what I know, have observed and what my diagnosis is up to the time of this writing. In other words I really just need confirmation before I begin spending money on this repair. Just about everything I've deduced about what's happening here and a possible solution is pretty new to me. So please bear with me. If theres something glaring I'm not seeing or am making a horrible mistake somewhere, speak up.



Specs:
Early 2009 cMP 4,1>5,1 Dual Socket 3.46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
32 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
1TB Sabrent Rocket Q NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD boot+ 2x 1TB stock Apple Mechanical HDD
AMD Radeon Pro Duo (Polaris) GPU

Whats Happening:
Mac powers on
No Apple chime
Black screen
Fans run at normal frequency
HDDs spin up for a few seconds
No other POST sequences whatsoever

Whats Been Done:
Removed HDDs one at a time in varying patterns and slots and power cycled with each removal pattern.
Removed accessories one at a time (HDD, SSD, GPU, RAM ((one stick at a time)), USB accessories, DVDRW, etc.) and cycled power each time one was removed.
Replaced Radeon Pro Duo with stock NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 then power cycled with no GPU at all.
Removed and replaced CMOS battery with new battery.
Checked CPUs for bent pins, unseating or anything weird alongside any associated components.
CMOS reset button pressed
Diagnostic button pressed following lights lit:
-PSUPWROK
-SV STBY
-SYS PG
Up to this point I've pretty much exahusted all that I know to try and get a result but with no success.

Observations:
-Before total failure, the machine booted fine twice after initial freeze. First time booted to Win10 then froze after a few minutes. Second time booted sucessfully to Mojave then froze after a few minutes. Both sucessful boots I did have boot select screen. Then no POST up to this point.
- ***'EFI DONE' light did NOT light up*** (I'm awair of this signifigance. I'll address below).
- It seems to me that this machine may be a victim of an SPI Flash Failure according to what I've gathered so far. I've never had this problem before but am totally up to the challenge of fixing it myself with, hopefully, some help from you all.
I do not want to purchase a new backplane if I don't have to. I absolutely do not want to use a MATT chip. I would much rather program a new ROM chip and do a little soldering.

What Needs to be Done:
- Flash a mxic mx25l3206e with new ROM
- Desolder U8700 ROM chip
- Solder in new newly flashed ROM chip
- Cross my fingers

General Questions:
- How would I know if I simply have a dead backplane that maybe beyond ROM repair?
- ***How might this have happened? I've spent nearly 100% of my work time in Windows 10 partition. Not fussing around almost at all with settings or mods or anything that I can think of that may intentionally have an affect on the system EXCEPT something that I did to help Windows recognize my old XBOX USB controller. That is the ONLY thing I can think of that was foreign to my daily work regimen.
- If, in fact, I am correct in my diagnosis and resolution of the major problem, what could I do to prevent this from happening again? Since these logicboards dont have dual BIOS chip setups or the like, what could one do to prevent catastrophic failure again in the middle of the work week?
- The MXIC MX25L3206E that is on the board now can't be reprogrammed at this point, right? Either removed or via a clip?

Repair Equiptment Questions:
- Is there a prefered brand, varient or source for the MX25l3206e?
- Is there a correct or prefered varient of the CH341A programmer (I see different color editions and now a CH341A v1.7 with a voltage switch)?
- I'm interested in smd 8pin spi ic socket adapter so8w or whatever they're called. Should I be?
- What is a good Mac compatable ROM programming interface program? I know of some for Windows like NeoProgrammer and the like but not for Mac.

Concerns:
- ***Do I have to worry about any major data loss from the associated SSDs or HDDs after the ROM replacement procedure?

Thanks very much for anyone that has read to this point and to anyone that could help out even a little. If I've left out any relevent information, please ask. I'll do my best to provide.

 

[krakman]

have you reset the nvram?

Hold cmd+alt+P+R on start up, keep holding until you hear the chime

some users advise holding the key combo until the machine restarts 3 times.

 

[Matty_TypeR]

chime 5 times will clear it, just keep keys down until you hear 5 chimes. the big question is have you saved your ROM file before it crashed? as that will enable some one to rebuild it with all the correct ID's for your logic board.

 

[tsialex]

Ok,
A couple of days ago my early 2009 Mac Pro 4,1>5,1 froze on me while putzing around in Photoshop on a Windows 10 partition. I had to hard reset after the freeze. Upon reset, nothing happened at first. It just hung there on a black screen. Restarted again and successfully booted to select screen and on into Windows again. A short time in, it froze. Reset. Booted into MacOSX Mojave to see what is happening. Frozen again a few minutes in.
Now I get nothing. No POST indication whatsoever. No chimes. Nothing. The machine does power on. Fans run at normal frequency. But that's all.

In the best interest of saving time and to try to make this a speedy recovery, as this cMP is my daily driver, I will be dumping as much of what I know, have observed and what my diagnosis is up to the time of this writing. In other words I really just need confirmation before I begin spending money on this repair. Just about everything I've deduced about what's happening here and a possible solution is pretty new to me. So please bear with me. If theres something glaring I'm not seeing or am making a horrible mistake somewhere, speak up.



Specs:
Early 2009 cMP 4,1>5,1 Dual Socket 3.46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
32 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
1TB Sabrent Rocket Q NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD boot+ 2x 1TB stock Apple Mechanical HDD
AMD Radeon Pro Duo (Polaris) GPU

Whats Happening:
Mac powers on
No Apple chime
Black screen
Fans run at normal frequency
HDDs spin up for a few seconds
No other POST sequences whatsoever

Whats Been Done:
Removed HDDs one at a time in varying patterns and slots and power cycled with each removal pattern.
Removed accessories one at a time (HDD, SSD, GPU, RAM ((one stick at a time)), USB accessories, DVDRW, etc.) and cycled power each time one was removed.
Replaced Radeon Pro Duo with stock NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 then power cycled with no GPU at all.
Removed and replaced CMOS battery with new battery.
Checked CPUs for bent pins, unseating or anything weird alongside any associated components.
CMOS reset button pressed
Diagnostic button pressed following lights lit:
-PSUPWROK
-SV STBY
-SYS PG
Up to this point I've pretty much exahusted all that I know to try and get a result but with no success.

No EFI_DONE lit, is usually a sure sign of BootROM failure, but could be even worse.

Observations:
-Before total failure, the machine booted fine twice after initial freeze. First time booted to Win10 then froze after a few minutes. Second time booted sucessfully to Mojave then froze after a few minutes. Both sucessful boots I did have boot select screen. Then no POST up to this point.
- ***'EFI DONE' light did NOT light up*** (I'm awair of this signifigance. I'll address below).
- It seems to me that this machine may be a victim of an SPI Flash Failure according to what I've gathered so far. I've never had this problem before but am totally up to the challenge of fixing it myself with, hopefully, some help from you all.
I do not want to purchase a new backplane if I don't have to. I absolutely do not want to use a MATT chip. I would much rather program a new ROM chip and do a little soldering.

What Needs to be Done:
- Flash a mxic mx25l3206e with new ROM
- Desolder U8700 ROM chip
- Solder in new newly flashed ROM chip
- Cross my fingers

General Questions:
- How would I know if I simply have a dead backplane that maybe beyond ROM repair?

You wouldn't know without replacing the SPI flash with a brand new one flashed to MP51.fd (or installing a MATT card, that's why a MATT card is so useful).

- ***How might this have happened? I've spent nearly 100% of my work time in Windows 10 partition. Not fussing around almost at all with settings or mods or anything that I can think of that may intentionally have an affect on the system

Expected failure, the SPI flash memory have a expected lifetime. It's manufactured rated for 100K cycles of non-contiguous erase/re-write cycles - unfortunately the Mac Pro NVRAM is contiguous and fails early.

Your NVRAM could also be corrupt and the BootROM un-bootable without the SPI flash memory being dead.

Remember that is a 12+ years old Mac…

EXCEPT something that I did to help Windows recognize my old XBOX USB controller. That is the ONLY thing I can think of that was foreign to my daily work regimen.
- If, in fact, I am correct in my diagnosis and resolution of the major problem, what could I do to prevent this from happening again? Since these logicboards dont have dual BIOS chip setups or the like, what could one do to prevent catastrophic failure again in the middle of the work week?

If your Windows is UEFI installed, you need OpenCore to disable Windows SecureBoot BootROM signing. If it's BootCamp/CSM/BIOS, no need of OpenCore.

Your SPI flash memory will fail again some years down the road. No surprise here.

- The MXIC MX25L3206E that is on the board now can't be reprogrammed at this point, right? Either removed or via a clip?

An early-2009 have a different SPI flash memory from the factory, probably a SST25VF032B.

If you remove, you probably can re-programm it, but it's a mistake to do it, since it will fail again in a week or so even if you correctly programmed and verified successfully. SPI flash programmers work very slowly compared to the LPC interface of the backplane.

Repair Equiptment Questions:
- Is there a prefered brand, varient or source for the MX25l3206e?

Why would have other brand? I'm not getting this question since it's MXIC MX25L3206E and you won't get it made by anyone else. You just need to buy it from a reputable distributor, like Digikey/Mouser.

The alternatives that worked in the past, were used by Apple and are supported by the Mac Pro firmware, are long obsolete and not available anymore brand new, just used/removed from boards.

- Is there a correct or prefered varient of the CH341A programmer (I see different color editions and now a CH341A v1.7 with a voltage switch)?

No need, it's a 3,3V SPI that is highly tolerant of the 5V ch341a PSU.

- I'm interested in smd 8pin spi ic socket adapter so8w or whatever they're called. Should I be?

Nope. Too cumbersome, too prone to bad contacts. It's a real headache over time. I've installed the black socket and I'm gonna remove it.

Syncretic also did it recently with the best socket, the white clamshell one, and also did not work for him since it's very difficult to replace the SPI.

- What is a good Mac compatable ROM programming interface program? I know of some for Windows like NeoProgrammer and the like but not for Mac.

Install and use flashrom with brew, if you are going to program it from macOS.

Concerns:
- ***Do I have to worry about any major data loss from the associated SSDs or HDDs after the ROM replacement procedure?

Not really, but everything is possible.

Thanks very much for anyone that has read to this point and to anyone that could help out even a little. If I've left out any relevent information, please ask. I'll do my best to provide.

You will need a BootROM reconstruction service, after you confirm that the backplane works with the replacement SPI flash memory flashed with the MP51.fd generic BootROM image.

MP51.fd is not serialised and won't work with Messages/FaceTime/iCloud - it's just enough to boot again.

 

[rpmurray]

Honestly this sounds more like a thermal failure rather than any problem with the ROM. While you were digging around in the cMP did you check the Northbridge?

 

[tsialex]

Honestly this sounds more like a thermal failure rather than any problem with the ROM. While you were digging around in the cMP did you check the Northbridge?

No EFI_DONE lit while pressing the DIAG BUTTON is a confirmation of a BootROM failure - but could be also a more serious failure, like southbridge failure.

 

[nkinne]

have you reset the nvram?

Hold cmd+alt+P+R on start up, keep holding until you hear the chime

some users advise holding the key combo until the machine restarts 3 times.

Yes, That was one of the first things I tried. Used both a wired and wireless keyboard with no response whatsoever.

chime 5 times will clear it, just keep keys down until you hear 5 chimes. the big question is have you saved your ROM file before it crashed? as that will enable some one to rebuild it with all the correct ID's for your logic board.

Since it seems the ROM is corrupted, nothing is responsive at all. I don't remember if I saved my ROM file or not. If I did, I'm afraid it's on one of the HDDs connected to the downed machine. So I don't have access to it at the moment.

You will need a BootROM reconstruction service, after you confirm that the backplane works with the replacement SPI flash memory flashed with the MP51.fd generic BootROM image.

MP51.fd is not serialised and won't work with Messages/FaceTime/iCloud - it's just enough to boot again.

Could you expound a bit about this? How would the reconstruction service differ from what I'm doing now or even using a MATT card? I have no need that I can think of at the moment for iMessage/Facetime/iCloud on this machine but I can't speak right now for future me.

You wouldn't know without replacing the SPI flash with a brand new one flashed to MP51.fd (or installing a MATT card, that's why a MATT card is so useful).

Once the SPI is replaced, what should I be looking out for aside from proper POST?

Honestly this sounds more like a thermal failure rather than any problem with the ROM. While you were digging around in the cMP did you check the Northbridge?

That's a great question and something I forgot to mention. When inspectiing the CPU tray, I noticed the Northbridge heat sink has lifted on side due to one of its pins breaking. I replaced both pins at the time of discovery and repasted as well. I'm not sure when it happened or if it has an major signifigance to the larger issue. Maybe someone could shed some light on this.

 

[nkinne]

You will need a BootROM reconstruction service, after you confirm that the backplane works with the replacement SPI flash memory flashed with the MP51.fd generic BootROM image.

MP51.fd is not serialised and won't work with Messages/FaceTime/iCloud - it's just enough to boot again.

Oh, actually, I think Matty_TypeR explained what the service is. So nevermind. Maybe I can have that done at a later time.

 

[Matty_TypeR]

You will need a boot rom reconstruction for sure.

 

[tsialex]

A Mac Pro flashed with just the MP51.fd is very different from a blank board/un-serialized one, where you can't just login to Messages/FaceTime/iCloud.

The MP51.fd is the generic firmware upgrade image, where Apple intentionally omitted the NVRAM volume, the hardware descriptor, the MLB sector and all the hardware_IDs (SSN, HWC, SON, MLB, BD). It's barely enough to boot.

With a MP51.fd flashed Mac Pro, you won't be able to install softwares that need authentication or have seat validation, you won't be able to open most bank apps and etc.

Also, you will have phantom ports and sensors and all the several amperage and voltage sensors will have the wrong amplitude references, since these are stored/configured inside the hardware descriptor blob.

 

[tsialex]

Forgot to add, being blunt, MATT cards are excelent hardware while ****** software.

You have to re-flash your own BootROM image to it, since from factory was flashed a BootROM image of a mid-2010 Mac Pro, effectively it's a clone of GJ0340TXH2N Mac Pro, that already failed garbage collection.

 

[nkinne]

Forgot to add, being blunt, MATT cards are excelent hardware while ****** software.

You have to re-flash your own BootROM image to it, since from factory was flashed a BootROM image of a mid-2010 Mac Pro, effectively it's a clone of GJ0340TXH2N Mac Pro, that already failed garbage collection.

I see. Well, I should ask with all this being said, what would you recommend to be the easiest/fastest way to get me up and running to as close to something resembling normalcy? Just shutting down the hobbyist tinkerer side of myself for a minute and buy a good replacement 2009 backplane? If I went that route, does much have to be done after everything is buttoned up to get back to normal other than a cross flash to 5.1 like was done with my current board?

 

[tsialex]

I see. Well, I should ask with all this being said, what would you recommend to be the easiest/fastest way to get me up and running to as close to something resembling normalcy? Just shutting down the hobbyist tinkerer side of myself for a minute and buy a good replacement 2009 backplane? If I went that route, does much have to be done after everything is buttoned up to get back to normal other than a cross flash to 5.1 like was done with my current board?

Buying a replacement early-2009 backplane will also need the SPI flash replacement and BootROM reconstruction to repair the cross-flashing mess and past 12+ years of usage. Even if you don't do it right now, you will have to do it sometime down the road.

Also you could be on an unlucky streak and get an early-2009 backplane that is not yet cross-flashed and it's a monumental headache to do it today with ElCapitan/Apple current firmware packages and requires a Nehalem Xeon CPU tray to do it, since it's not possible to boot Westmere Xeons like your X5690 with MP4,1 firmwares.

You first should check if it's just the SPI flash memory replacement/corrupt BootROM that needs to repaired. Even if your original backplane is really dead, replacing the SPI is a worthy experience as a tinkerer and it's easy/cheap enough for you to confirm.

You will have to buy the ch341a programmer, supplies and SPI flash memories either way.

 

[nkinne]

UPDATE: I've received a ch341a programmer and new MX25L3206E. Successfully removed and dumped old ROM from backplane. Now I'm attempting to flash the generic MP51.fd to the new flash memory but get ERASE FAILED and ongoing LOOKING FOR ANOTHER ERASE FUNCTION message. Reading works fine but when it comes to the erase/write process it tries 'Looking for another erase function.' followed by erase failed over and over until it decides to stop and tell me there was a problem.

Any thoughts on what may be happening?

nathankinne@MacBook-Pro ~ % sudo flashrom --programmer ch341a_spi --chip MX25L3206E/MX25L3208E --write /Users/nathankinne/Desktop/MP51.fd
flashrom v1.2 on Darwin 19.6.0 (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org

Calibrating delay loop... OK.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L3206E/MX25L3208E" (4096 kB, SPI) on ch341a_spi.
Reading old flash chip contents... done.
Erasing and writing flash chip... FAILED at 0x00007000! Expected=0xff, Found=0x00, failed byte count from 0x00007000-0x00007fff: 0x1000
ERASE FAILED!
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
FAILED at 0x00000000! Expected=0xff, Found=0x00, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x0000ffff: 0x10000
ERASE FAILED!
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
FAILED at 0x00000000! Expected=0xff, Found=0x00, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x0000ffff: 0x10000
ERASE FAILED!
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
FAILED at 0x00000000! Expected=0xff, Found=0x00, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x003fffff: 0x400000
ERASE FAILED!
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
FAILED at 0x00000000! Expected=0xff, Found=0x00, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x003fffff: 0x400000
ERASE FAILED!
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
Looking for another erase function.
Looking for another erase function.
No usable erase functions left.
FAILED!
Uh oh. Erase/write failed. Checking if anything has changed.
Reading current flash chip contents... done.
Apparently at least some data has changed.
Your flash chip is in an unknown state.
Please report this on IRC at chat.freenode.net (channel #flashrom) or
mail flashrom@flashrom.org, thanks!
nathankinne@MacBook-Pro ~ %

 

[rpmurray]

Have you reported this on IRC at chat.freenode.net (channel #flashrom) or sent an email to flashrom@flashrom.org?

 

[nkinne]

Have you reported this on IRC at chat.freenode.net (channel #flashrom) or sent an email to flashrom@flashrom.org?

I have not.

 

[tsialex]

MXIC MX25L3206E is 10+ years old flash memory, I doubt that this is a flashrom related bug and it's much more probable that the problem is with the flash memory or the programmer itself.

If this happened to me, I would first test another brand new MXIC MX25L3206E, or even a SST 25VF032B, from a reliable distributor to eliminate any chance of the flash memory being defective. Second, I'd test the supposedly defective SPI flash memory with a known working flash memory programmer to eliminate any possibility that the ch341a itself is defective.

Be aware that frequently with the 10-pack AliExpress pulls, or eBay old stock, usually only 7 or 8 flash memories work correctly after testing - you have to test and re-test to be sure that the SPI flash works. I always try to buy SPI flash memories from reputable distributors, like Mouser/DigiKey, but sometimes you have to resort with buying from eBay/AliExpress, so, test and retest before soldering the SPI flash memory to the backplane.

Also, ch341a is known to not work with the USB controllers of Macs before 2011 and to not work correctly at all when you install it to a MacPro5,1 USB2.0 port (XHCI/UHCI issue). Do not use Macs with NVIDIA chipsets and older Intel. I usually connect it to my 2012 Mac mini or my workbench Windows PC.

 

[nkinne]

MXIC MX25L3206E is 10+ years old flash memory, I doubt that this is a flashrom related bug and it's much more probable that the problem is with the flash memory or the programmer itself.

If this happened to me, I would first test another brand new MXIC MX25L3206E, or even a SST 25VF032B, from a reliable distributor to eliminate any chance of the flash memory being defective. Second, I'd test the supposedly defective SPI flash memory with a known working flash memory programmer to eliminate any possibility that the ch341a itself is defective.

Be aware that frequently with the 10-pack AliExpress pulls, or eBay old stock, usually only 7 or 8 flash memories work correctly after testing - you have to test and re-test to be sure that the SPI flash works. I always try to buy SPI flash memories from reputable distributors, like Mouser/DigiKey, but sometimes you have to resort with buying from eBay/AliExpress, so, test and retest before soldering the SPI flash memory to the backplane.

Also, ch341a is known to not work with the USB controllers of Macs before 2011 and to not work correctly at all when you install it to a MacPro5,1 USB2.0 port (XHCI/UHCI issue). Do not use Macs with NVIDIA chipsets and older Intel. I usually connect it to my 2012 Mac mini or my workbench Windows PC.

Two from the ten-pack bought have been tested using the ch341a plugged into a 2013 MBP. Both gave me the erase failure. I'll jump on a Windows PC to give the programmer a shot on there. If nothing works, I'll go down the line of the other chips in the packet. If I'm able to successfully write to one, I'll be sure to test and retest as recommended.

Again, I'm not very experienced with this programmer (or this entire process, altogether) but it seems to me that if it's able to read just fine, shouldn't it be able to erase and write just as well?

 

[tsialex]

Long story short, open the flash memory datasheet, see the reading, erase and write algorithms, you gonna see that reading is a lot simpler than erasing and writing.

Btw, how you are sure that it's even reading correctly?

 

[nkinne]

Long story short, open the flash memory datasheet, see the reading, erase and write algorithms, you gonna see that reading is a lot simpler than erasing and writing.

Btw, how you are sure that it's even reading correctly?

I see.

I know it's able to read because when I connected the original SST 25VF032B (I think that's what it was) that was pulled from the bricked backplane, I was able to dump and save what was on that chip just fine.

I'm not sure it's reading correctly now, but at least it was. And now it is able to recognize the chips I connect and attempt to read/erase/write. So, I guess, something is happening.

 

[Syncretic]

(I am posting this from my phone on a beach; take everything I say with a grain of sand salt.)
I know from personal experience that the CH341A can be finicky about erasing if you don’t have good contacts on all 8 pins, and pin 3 (WP#) in particular. The burning process can seem like it’s going smoothly, then it will abruptly report an erasure error. In my experience, this can almost always be fixed by re-seating the chip and/or verifying all the contacts. (Of course, it’s also possible that you have a problematic CH341A, or a problematic batch of chips, but I’d investigate the contacts before anything else.) If you’re using a socket, try another one, or try using a clip if you have one of those.

 

[nkinne]

(I am posting this from my phone on a beach; take everything I say with a grain of sand salt.)
I know from personal experience that the CH341A can be finicky about erasing if you don’t have good contacts on all 8 pins, and pin 3 (WP#) in particular. The burning process can seem like it’s going smoothly, then it will abruptly report an erasure error. In my experience, this can almost always be fixed by re-seating the chip and/or verifying all the contacts. (Of course, it’s also possible that you have a problematic CH341A, or a problematic batch of chips, but I’d investigate the contacts before anything else.) If you’re using a socket, try another one, or try using a clip if you have one of those.

Thank you for the advice. I do double-check the contacts are solid each time- going as far as to even make sure I have continuity on each leg with a multimeter. All sockets available have been tried. And I've read that the clip is very unreliable so I opted to not include it in my purchase.

I'm currently trying other chips from the pack. Hopefully one will work because everything, I mean everything, takes a week or more to ship to me.

Thanks again.

 

[tsialex]

The first thing is to confirm that your ch341a is working reliably. A friend like to talk that this is not really possible with a so ****** hardware, but it "works" good enough for flashing the MP51.fd once.

If you are sure that the ch341a is working, you can try to inspect if all the pins are flush/in the same plane, then try cleaning your SPI flash memories with an ultrasonic bath - this removes any oxidation from incorrect storage/incorrect manipulation/bare hand mishandling/etc. Even doing all that, not all SPI flash memories from the 10-packs will work, but it's a lot easier to program/test the flash memories with pins that are correctly aligned and clean. It's the first thing that I do when I buy a flash memory pack. If you don't have an ultrasonic cleaner, you can try a de-oxidant spray/contact cleaner.

Don't forget that most of these memories are 10+ years old by now, even if NOS/still in the SMT reels.

 

[nkinne]

The first thing is to confirm that your ch341a is working reliably. A friend like to talk that this is not really possible with a so ****** hardware, but it "works" good enough for flashing the MP51.fd once.

Good enough is all I need right now.

then try cleaning your SPI flash memories with an ultrasonic bath -

I do have a small jewlery ultrasonic cleaner and contact cleaner available. What should the bath consist of?– contact cleaner, IPA?

 

[tsialex]

What should the bath consist of?– contact cleaner, IPA?

Distilled water (or de-ionized water) + cleaning solution.

MG Chemicals have a complete line of ultrasonic cleaners/solution, you should search locally to see what you can find. I've used 1/2 distilled water + 1/2 a common household cleaning solution (Veja Multiuso) back in the COVID-19 quarantine, I don't recommend doing it, but it was an emergency and worked good enough.

IPA is highly flammable and shouldn't be used with ultrasonic cleaners, where sparks are a possibility.