SOIC8 SOP8 Flash Chip IC Test Clips Socket Adpter Programmer BIOS + CH341A 24 25 Series for EEPROM Flash BIOS USB Programmer Module (Double Clip+ USB)

This kit is great for those who want to learn how to flash chips. I would definitely buy it again.

I made a mistake a few weeks ago and flashed an incorrect BIOS for a motherboard I was using on my test bench. I ended up with a blackscreen, DEAD.Reading up on re-flashing the chip, I went with this instead of ordering a pre-written bios chip from Taiwan (which would have taken 3 weeks).It all went incredibly easy. I plugged in the chip (which looks backward with pin 1 opposite from pin 1 of the zip socket), ran the windows software.Detected, Read, Erased, Wrote, Verified.All worked perfectly. When I plugged the chip back into the ASUS motherboard it booted up with no errors. Very pleased!

ive never used one of these while it wont fully work with one of my devices without having solder equipment i was able to use the clip to read a couple other chips on board for testing purposes i havent had the issues others was reporting

Lots of caveats here. This review is of the programmer and the SOIC8 clip.Caveat 1: I am maybe in the lower middle of what I would call End User Technical Ability... not a professional in any way... A Prosumer I suppose. I needed to erase a forgotten EFI password on a 2012 Mac Mini. I am much more experienced in modifying physically large and forgiving embedded chipsets... like arcade machines. This project was out of my league. As an example of my technical level: I did not test supply voltage which many users are reporting is locked on 5V even when set to 3.3. Oops. Hopefully that was fixed at some point.Caveat 2: I don't care about my Windows installs, one of which ran this programmer... this is important because my hunt for drivers and software was aided by untrusted websites. I believe the ASPrgrammer package from Github had the 341a drivers included, but I had already downloaded them from another less trusted source. I agree... this one's totally on me and there are safe locations to find the software.Caveat 3: The SOIC8 clip never really worked. Earlier in the week I had purchased one without the programmer for my GQ-4X and that probably didn't work (I never did get my fancy GQ-4X to interface with the MX25L6406em2 chip on the mac mini board). I does stick to the SOIC8, but the pins don't connect. after four or five times attempting to connect the plastic on the clip started deforming and it wouldn't stick to the chip at all. This happened on both my clips. The first clip I attempted to modify the plastic but ended up destroying the whole thing. The second clip... don't laugh... I swapped the spring with a thinner one to settle down the insane gripping tension this clip has, then used a series of rubber bands wrapped around the mac mini logic board and the clip to provide downward pressure and stabilize the clip. This worked great. The area around the MX25L6406 chip on the 2012 Mac Mini is populated... very close to the actual chip. To be fair this likely played a role in the SOIC8 clip not working... but if it weren't populated so closely I would have just removed the chip and programmed it directly... so apply that formula to your skill level and the project in hand I guess. Im fairly certain that the grip force of the clip is maybe 5 times more powerful than it has to be and I could have saved the plastic had I swapped the spring out earlier. Also the plastic housing of the clip is HUGE compared to how tightly stuffed modern motherboards are... this clip size is likely commensurate with the insane gripping force it has.With those caveats out of the way... I'm amazed with this programmer. Once I interfaced the EEPROM I was working on with the terrible SOIC8 clip and a complex web of stabilizing rubber bands... and got over my wife laughing at my ridiculous project, This kit - in total half the price of a SOIC8 adapter board for the fancy GQ-4X burner I own - did what my GQ-4X couldn't... it read a supported chip. I have used the GQ-4X on many many projects over the years with great success, however without buying their SOIC8 adapter that programmer refuses to tell you where to orient the pins. That programmer does have a listing for MX25L6406em2, so I'm assuming it would have worked had I figured out the pinout... a lot of work for something over ten times the price of this CH341a with the adapters included.Long review long. I was able, with some effort, to reprogram my 2012 Mac Mini Bios in situ with some persistence, research and probably luck. In doing so, if you're in my boat, I had to zero out the chip for the code to hold after booting... so the writing process after reading the firmware and rewriting it to my liking, was unlock>erase>write>verify, for which there was a scripted option in the(not included) software to do just that. Again I didn't test for 3.3V so the mod to disable 5V other reviews are citing might be necessary to avoid damage to the chip... but my chip does appear to be undamaged.This $10 kit saved my computer when my existing professional equipment could not. It did so without the risk of removing the chip from the motherboard. It gets four stars for that reason, but please have a good idea of what you're getting into.

This is very useful for reading data without having to remove the eeprom from the board just to clone data from it

The product works just as intended. However, if you struggle to put the clip on to update/flash the bios then after trying to clip it on for the 5th time, the clip will no longer stay on and slip off, so you better be done with this in your 1st - 4th try getting the clip on. After I flashed bios and updated, it didn't work, so i tried getting the clip back on, but couldn't get the clip back on again due to clip being damaged after trying to clip the 5th time.

I recently got this ThinkPad T480 for $50 on Ebay as it was listed it was booted into bios on the listings photos but upon receiving it, it had a previous password on the bios from its company supervisor which has not been removed. I asked the seller but didn't have much luck on it since it was listed as is. I then researched online ways for me to unlock it and this device came through online. It was fairly simple to use I just want to let you know before your first time use make sure you get drivers for it! Cause if you don't the chip your working with won't pop up as your laptop is trying to read the chip make sure you get them! Overall though for the price I paid for it, it is definitely worth it as it gets the job done 👍🏽 besides the drivers issues this piece is worth it. I will be looking to see if I can do this with other devices that have faulty bios or corrupted.

The clip stayed on the chip only 1 maybe 2 times, after that the plastic started to degrade and it wouldn’t stay on. Second there is no manual so you’re on your own as far as downloading the software and figuring out how to use it. Last, I couldn’t get this thing to read, every time I got it on the chip the right way it would disconnect from the pc and when I took it off it reconnect, this seemed to be a problem with it drawing to much power. I tried this on a desktop and laptop and the problem still occurred. I would highly recommend staying away from this and get something more higher quality than this.