unlock eeproms

Thread Starter

bigcatman

Joined Nov 17, 2011
8
I hope that this is the right section.

I'm having problems with a couple of eeproms I need to back up.
The problem is that I need to unlock them and burn a Back-up for future use just in case they die on me.
Is there any way of unlocking eeproms so that I can unlock them or am I just going to have to be careful with the originals?

Any help would be welcome.
 

kubeek

Joined Sep 20, 2005
5,794
Also, why would you want to unlock an eeprom that you need to read? Locks are for write, as locking it for read is totally useless.
 

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
An EEPROM you can not read from will not be very useful at all. Perhaps the OP is referring to a EEPROM inside some micro-controller. They may have some protection. So units outside the chip will not be able to download the code inside.
 

Thread Starter

bigcatman

Joined Nov 17, 2011
8
Thanks for the answers.
I may have these confused with a rom (here's the chip number: 89c51RD2-CM)
I'm trying to read the chip but I'm getting 00's when I look at the hex/dec on the programmer.
I've been told that when this is shown, it indicates that the chip has been locked.
I know there's data on the chip as it's working fine, hence the reason for me asking how I can unlock it so I can read the data and back it up on a PC

Any answers will be appreciated.
 

kubeek

Joined Sep 20, 2005
5,794
You can´t. Chips like that which are once locked are locked until you completely erase them. It is specifically meant to protect the code inside the chip so that you can´t copy someone´s work unless they want you to.
 
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