Gikfun USB Programmer CH341A Series Burner Chip 24 EEPROM BIOS Writer 25 SPI Flash AE1185

Broke my old Dell R210 II doing a BIOS update. Managed to fix it by flashing the chip directly. In the case of the R210 II, I used: CH341A USB Programmer (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I1EU9LG) SOIC8 Chip Clip (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00V9QNAC4) CH341A Programmer software (free) The toughest part was finding the 8MB flash binary within the Dell downloads. The flash image start header is: FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF5AA5F00F .. searching for that [using a hex editor] and then selecting 0x800000 (8MB) length (which is the end of file here). I dumped it to a new file, then flashed that new .bin to the BIOS. First I tried to use the OEM EXE, but it was a weird length. I ended up extracting the installer and using the file that was in the payload directory. Result! Back in business.

Easy to use is sort of a relative thing with this sort of product, isn't it? Hopefully you are a bit past double clicking on drives and hoping for an auto-installer, if you are purchasing this kind of product. But it worked as expected.If you are like me, you are probably picking this up to take a run at fixing your bricked Chromebook. I'm happy to report this worked perfectly for that purpose, and I un-bricked a failed flash of an Acer Chromebook. Just follow the instructions to the letter and you'll be fine.

Built in drivers on the Mac make this super easy to use. Open source tool chain works with no issues. The only gotcha is the location of pin one. I wasted a bunch of time troubleshooting when I simply had my pins mixed up. Reference the diagram and don't assume you know where pin one is located.

Tried to download the software in the described link in the answers section for weeks, nothing!!! It's a joke, it just keeps taking you in circles without ever downloading a thing!!! I'm not sure there is even software/drivers that work with this device, I believe you'll need to write your own programming. Sending it back and getting a programmer that actually works...

No direction on how to use or download driver n software to run. You will need to do some soldering on this USB programmer. The CH341Ais working great if you got everything correctly install.

Was able to re-write a BIOS chip that went bad.I also bought the black clip, thinking that I will avoid de-soldering the chip from the board - it didn't work. I end up using the small attachment board that work perfect. Great product.

Does not work.

Was able to read and write to a 93CXX (93C56) and avoid a $300 quote from a locksmith to flash it for my Toyota Camry 99. Connecting the clip to the programmer wasn't straightforward though.