my laptop died and diagnostic code says "unrecoverable SPI flash error"
the replacement motherboard for it, inexplicably, says the same thing. okay, i open the schematic and start searching for SPI flashes

so far i found:
- "SPI ROM FOR ME"
- GPU VBIOS ROM
- DP to HDMI converter ROM (256 KB!)
- TBT ROM
- USB PD ROM

i _think_ the UEFI lives in "SPI ROM FOR ME"?

💭 IT HATH SPI ROM FOR ME, NOT SPI ROM FOR THEE

the boardview software is only showing me rats instead of letting me search for components, so i'm staring at the board itself instead

adult version of "Where's Waldo": "Where's The One Fucking SPI Flash Out Of Five That You Need"

i am losing.

the flash lives in the IC with the refdes UH8, which i keep reading as a US military helicopter designation for some reason

this laptop has an INTRUDER# net. it's pulled up to RTCVCC

I have the boardview but the free Cadence/Allegro board viewer is some of the most upsetting CAD software i've ever encountered

it does not appear to feature a "find component by refdes" function

i'm not sure if it has a "find net by name" function either

I gave up using this software and just stared at the board until I located the IC by silk

at least, mercifully, it is possible to probe the SPI flash from an assembled laptop without having to remove the motherboard and then solder to it

I am still incredibly not looking forward to any part of this

if i right-click on a pad, i get a menu with three items

- Done
- Oops
- Cancel

what the fuck is "Oops" and why is it bound to an Fn-key

it tells me to "Follow Beaver Creek" which sounds like an innuendo

(it's almost certainly a motherboard reference design, but i wouldn't know without an Intel CNDA)

why does this laptop have a hard strap for "TLS CONFIDENTIALITY"

ME_SUS_PWR_ACK_R

the relative placement of this strap and the SUSCLK/SUSACK# is comedy gold