Re:Disabling the Intel Management Engine
by etiam on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @07:01PM
(#33350779)
Thanks! It's great to have some approaches and terms to structure around and as a bonus you've offer a few glimpses of a world I don't know enough about.
I was hoping there would be an affordable option for programming in place, but the examples I've come across so far seem uncomfortably fragile ( https://flashrom.org/File:DIP_socket_as_SOIC_clip.jpg ), so I guess I am most likely in for reviewing some heat implements and trying to refine my soldering skills on a more expensive board than I'm used to.
Will have to give more consideration to option three in the future, though in principle I appreciate having the access to keep modifying if needed, so maybe more importantly be more careful with the hardware selection.
One is to buy an expensive, specialized test socket with pogo pins and a clamshell, from eg https://www.loranger.com/loranger_edc2/html/index.php or similar manufacturers. This is what you'd do if you wanted to do a burn-in test of some exotic amplifier or sensor, or to set up a small-scale assembly line and custom-program hundreds (not 1, not thousands) of these chips, and could write off a $100 standard socket or $10,000 custom socket as a cost of doing business.
The other way is to just use a hot-air gun to desolder the WSON from the motherboard, use some Chip Quik to temporarily solder it (or an identical chip you bought for $0.50 from Digikey) to a breakout board, program that, desolder it, then reattach it to the motherboard.
Of course, the third way is to have the manufacturer or the distributor do this for you.