Recovering BIOS Firmware on the Star Labs StarBook

As I described in my latest quarterly update, a perfectly routine firmware update managed to turn my Star Labs StarBook Mk VI (AMD) into an expensive paperweight. I had simply copy-pasted the curl ... | bash one-liner from Star Labs' official documentation, the script did its thing for about half a minute, shut the device down, and from that point on the StarBook refused to boot. Black screen, keyboard backlight on, the power LED lit, and the speakers occasionally producing a clacking sound. Sadly no amount of the usual turn-it-off-and-on-again rituals or battery disconnects brought it back. The only way out of this situation is to re-flash the BIOS chip externally using an SPI programmer. Star Labs do document this, however their guide assumes you’re using their programming kit together with a dedicated debug board and an FPC cable. That kit is significantly more expensive than a generic programmer, doesn’t list any make or model information, and, at the time of writing, has been…