SOIC8 test clip BIOS recover - need your advice

[soic8_clipperr]

I would like to help my friend recover his HP laptop, BRICKED after a failed BIOS update!
But my budget was too limited for a soldering equipment and I didn't have such an experience...
So I got $2.5 USB SPI programmer and $4 SOIC8 test clip (from china, aliexpress if you curious)

After 5 long weeks of waiting I finally received this stuff, teardown a friend's laptop,
removed AC power , laptop's power battery , and even small CMOS battery,
and now I am trying to write a working BIOS image to SPI flash chip using a SOIC8 test clip
( this method is known as ISP: In-System-Programming or In-Situ-Programming )

But here is a problem: I could read a dump from this BIOS chip without problems, however
it fails when I am trying to write - so the contents of BIOS flash chip are remaining unchanged!
Tested on different OS and different versions of SPI programmer software, but no success...

Luckily I found out this helpful wiki page - http://flashrom.org/ISP , which describes common problems
with this ISP method of flashing, as well as gives 3 hints for solution! Sadly this page is currently down,
so here is a screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/SJEYHR2.png


1. - tried to make shorter wires, less than 10cm as they recommend - it did not help
2. - soldering is out of possibility, cant do it, and also: wires are already short and they are good quality (pure copper)
3. - This hint looks more promising, but I need help in understanding this piece of information
"disconnect Vcc from the programmer and power it with its normal PSU"

If I understand correctly, by Vcc they mean Vcc pin of the BIOS flash chip.
But if I disconnect Vcc from the programmer, what is "normal PSU" which should power this Vcc pin?

Should I connect to motherboard a laptop's power battery, or small CMOS battery, or AC adapter of laptop,
so that this Vcc pin would be powered by them, or it is forbidden to do it while using SPI programmer in the same time?
Or its better to try to power Vcc of flash chip from "USB to TTL" adapter - which has this 3V3 (3.3V) voltage pin?

?

[gabiz_ro]

That could be something like:
In some cases,Vcc pin of SPI flash chip is connected to others chips.By using power from programmer voltage drops too much.(Let's say that programmer could supply 3.3V and few mA or few hundred mA,that's OK for SPI chip alone but in case that power rail is 3V Always on then maybe other chips are powered from programmer.In case that power consumption is too big you'll get voltage drop to some value,3.1 or 2.9V or even lower)
So they recommend that Vcc pin is disconnected from programmer to chip and power up motherboard by battery or charger on notebooks or ATX in desktop case.
But in my oppinion once 3.3V is present from other powerfull source you can let Vcc connected.

Now back to programming problem.
Is SPI chip identified?
How looks content readed from chip?
Can you measure voltage on chip pins?
CS,WP,Vcc by example.

Try this.
Connect charger to motherboard,test presence of 3.3V on chip pin,if present go next if not press power button,test again.
Now in first steps of initialization EC or southbridge or PCH will try to read BIOS from chip,that could interfere with your operations so wait a little or more time and try again.Maybe after few unsuccesfull initialization system will hang in undefined state but is also possible that is not the case and continuous attempts to read bios are made from that resulting problem for ISP programmer.

Check if software identify correct SPI chip.
Read and save content few times.Then using hex software compare files,are them identical?
Try to erase chip first or if that option isn't available make one file,with required size,blank or FF (using hex software,not notepad or word) after that read chip again and compare with one previous saved.They are still identical or some parts are now empty or FF,depending on what file you made for test.