Huh, here[0] is a a tutorial on removing the whitelist for the X230, via desoldering and an SPI flasher. Looking at the images, the chip looks like an SOIC-8. I wonder why they didn't just use a test clip like this one[1]...
EDIT: The obvious answer would be that they didn't have one handy and were competent enough that de- and re-soldering the chip was not a big deal.
EDIT (again): Also, they wanted to flash a NEW chip with the contents of the original so that they could fall back to the original in the event of failure.
>I wonder why they didn't just use a test clip like this one
Because they tried and it didn't work (third post). It seems to depend on the mobo as well as the programmer you're using, but sometimes SPI programming without removing the chip doesn't work, which has to do with the mobo consuming the power you're supplying to the chip. Some people work around that by supplying separate power but even then it's a crapshot.
Huh, interesting. I managed to do it successfully on my X201, but only after supplying power through the RasPi I was using to flash it (no power to the board, battery and clock battery disconnected, though I doubt the latter was necessary).
EDIT: The obvious answer would be that they didn't have one handy and were competent enough that de- and re-soldering the chip was not a big deal.
EDIT (again): Also, they wanted to flash a NEW chip with the contents of the original so that they could fall back to the original in the event of failure.
[0] https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-TUTORIAL-Lenovo-X230-...
[1] https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/pomona-electronics...