Lenovo Legion 5 EC question

[DeXXter]

Hello guys, do you know if this EC IT8227E-256 need programming? I checked another post where some guys said that the IT8227E-256 can program itself from the bios using a blank ec, but i'm not sure, does anybody know for sure? I don't have an ec programmer so I want to know if I need to buy it programmed or I can buy it blank, it takes a month to arrive to my country from China, so don't want to wait that much twice.
EC had a little explosion and got the 3v LDO shorted btw.
Thanks

[FriedFred]

Often times a pre-programmed component is marked with a colored dot on the surface. But the missing colored dot on this particular EC here does not necessarely mean that the EC chip can re-program itself. To be able for a re-program, a bootloader is necessary.
The point is now, if you buy this EC, does it contain the bootloader on default? And does the boot loading procedure fit to the content of the FLASH/EEPROM where the BIOS firmware resides? Maybe it needs a test.
Is there any FLASH nearby this EC? Then it's likely, that the EC can re-program itself. It's also possible that the main FLASH holds all firmwares of all programmable chips. There are plenty of possible solutions.
You can measure whether there are connections between the EC and any residing FLASH memory on the board? Nowadays the FLASH is connected over SPI or Quad-SPI (QSPI). If there are connections between them, it's likely that this particular EC chip can program itself. If the bootloader is inside.

[DeXXter]

Often times a pre-programmed component is marked with a colored dot on the surface. But the missing colored dot on this particular EC here does not necessarely mean that the EC chip can re-program itself. To be able for a re-program, a bootloader is necessary.
The point is now, if you buy this EC, does it contain the bootloader on default? And does the boot loading procedure fit to the content of the FLASH/EEPROM where the BIOS firmware resides? Maybe it needs a test.
Is there any FLASH nearby this EC? Then it's likely, that the EC can re-program itself. It's also possible that the main FLASH holds all firmwares of all programmable chips. There are plenty of possible solutions.
You can measure whether there are connections between the EC and any residing FLASH memory on the board? Nowadays the FLASH is connected over SPI or Quad-SPI (QSPI). If there are connections between them, it's likely that this particular EC chip can program itself. If the bootloader is inside.

Yeah there are connection between the ec and the main bios through spi rails, now i just checked a random bios from a legion uploaded here on badcaps and a ec dump (posted here too) using HxD and the main bios contains the ec programming, what I don't know about is that you said it needs a bootloader, I was planning on buying just a "new" ec. I guess it should be blank I usually buy from that store on China and they send me good ics.

[FriedFred]

The EC needs the bootloader to fetch the firmware from a FLASH memory. If the EC's internal memory is transparent to the SPI/QSPI interface pins, then any other third-party programmer can flash this memory and you can buy a bare/blank EC chip. You can get access to the SPI/QSPI interface through the keyboard connector, or TPM module connector, or LPC connector. I understand you need to wait for 4 weeks to get something from China, so I tried to give you some sophisticated informations about the EC chip. The final solution depends on the EC chip vendor and mainboard design.

[DeXXter]

The EC needs the bootloader to fetch the firmware from a FLASH memory. If the EC's internal memory is transparent to the SPI/QSPI interface pins, then any other third-party programmer can flash this memory and you can buy a bare/blank EC chip. You can get access to the SPI/QSPI interface through the keyboard connector, or TPM module connector, or LPC connector. I understand you need to wait for 4 weeks to get something from China, so I tried to give you some sophisticated informations about the EC chip. The final solution depends on the EC chip vendor and mainboard design.

Thanks for the information. I'll see what I can do.