You might try grounding the DO pin to the GND pin, instead of some arbitrary place on the board. The shorter the wire the better. If the DO pin is grounded, then whatever is reading the chip definitely won't get good data because the DO pin carries data.

It is possible that the chip holds both the BIOS code and the user settings, and you just need to clear the area that holds the user settings (not the whole chip).

Erasing these chips is not done by giving a simple signal to a pin or two. You have to program specific bytes into specific registers, so you're not going to erase anything by poking around with a wire yourself. Unless you happen to short something badly and that just happens to scramble it. For example, the WP pin that you are asking about, here's how it works (sorry for the image, copy/past doesn't work with that doc):



Edit --> Oops, you were asking about the RESET pin. This is basically a reboot feature, it doesn't erase the chip. Here's the data:

 

Since an IC works by sending minuscule electrical charges to the pins to toggle circuits between 0 & 1 (off/on) states, I'm wondering if I could do that "manually" using a multimeter?

You can change the voltage at any given pin manually, but you're not changing a persistent state. It won't stay the way you left it.

The instructions you got from Winbond were for first changing the function of that pin. That involves several steps of communication, not just a single electrical toggle.

At the risk of offending you again, I'd like to point out that ICs don't work by just toggling their pins between two states. They have hundreds, thousands, millions of bits internally, and only a tiny fraction of those are expressed as input/output pins.

Very basic ICs like flip flops and such can be understood in relatively simple terms on a pin by pin basis, but anything using serial communication (SPI, I2C, etc.) will have countless internal registers which are only accessed through precisely delivered serial messages. Not happening with a multi meter or piece of scrap wire.

If I've understood your comments and their instructions properly, it sounds like *maybe* once you've done the serial communication to change the pin function, simple mechanical means could be used to ground the pin and initiate the reset. But first you have to change the pin function.

 

Anything addressing my issue doesn't upset me.

I think my best course of action at this point is to find some way of "suppressing" the reading of the settings long enough for me to use the keyboard again to reset the Bios.

I'm not exactly sure how to do that, but I believe it's possible.

 

I'm thinking now that the Winbond chip is not the one I need to clear.

I've been operating under the (possible mistaken) belief that the CMOS that stores the Bios settings is on the same chip, but that may not be the case (I forget after so much time why I came to that assumption. I think it was because if a removed Winbond chip was able to "clear" the settings, it must all be on the same chip. Logical.)

If the Bios settings are stored to a separate chip, I need to figure out what that chip is, where it is, and how to clear it.

Back when I could still get into Windows, I found software that claimed would clear the CMOS, but it didn't work. Another app got as far as resetting the RTC... which (IIRC) is just the first 14 bytes or so of the CMOS. And of course, everything I've read says simply disconnecting battery power should clear the CMOS, but I tried desoldering the battery wires from the MoBo and it didn't help.

The Winbond chip has the ability to clear the CMOS... which may or may not be remotely stored on another chip. I'm trying to confirm that now. If so, there is less chance of "bricking" my tablet if the only thing damaged is the chip that stores changes to the BIOS settings.

 

 

Thanks, but I saw that video already. His (Android) version of the tablet has a reset pinhole button next to the Power button. Mine does not.

Trust me, I've examined every corner of the unit. There is no simple fix.

 

Final update for anyone who was following this thread.

I had to give up. I tried every trick in the book. Nothing worked.

Unable to reset the Bios from Windows, as mentioned earlier, I found several sites claiming it is possible to do it from Linux. So I searched around looking for a way to install Ubuntu from Windows without a flashdrive. Unfortunately, Windows-10 makes installing additional OS's difficult (so does the UEFI Bios), but I eventually found WubiUEFI... a "UEFI compatible" version of "Wubi" (a popular old program that installed other OS and a Boot Menu using Windows that no longer worked on computers with a UEFI Bios).

Long story short, "WubiUEFI" didn't work. On reboot, it reports it "can't find" the linux iso, so there's no OS to install.

But it gets worse. "WubiUEFI" relies on "rEFInd"... a third-party (fourth party?) Boot Loader that doesn't support touch screens (which I did not know at the time). With a missing OS as the first choice and no way to move the cursor right to select/boot Windows, I can't get past that menu. So now I have NO working OS! ](*,)

So, left with no other choice, I opened the tablet up. Based on some photos I found online, you should be able to reset the Bios by shorting a single pin on the Winbond FlashRAM chip, but that too didn't work. I obtained the spec sheet and it mentions a "/Reset" pin, but shorting that didn't work either. I tried shorting the pins before, during and after powering on, but nothing made any difference.

I decided to try again to disconnect the batteries in hopes of clearing the Cmos, this time attempting to turn the tablet On 4-Times in hopes of draining any capacitors or residual charge then letting it sit for an hour before reconnecting the power, but despite all that, the old Bios settings were STILL there.

That made me wonder if it was reading the settings from the built-in SSD, so I disconnected it yet the Bios settings are STILL loading.

So that's it. I can't think of anything else. I will NEVER buy another tablet without a reset button (or w/o a touch-screen bios.) Anyone need an 11.6" lighted serving tray.

 

Wow, what a nightmare. Sorry that didn't work out better in the end. Thanks for the update though.