Information handling system and method for restoring firmware in one or more regions of a flash memory device

A method performed by an embedded controller (EC) of an information handling system (IHS) during a boot process to restore firmware contained within one or more regions of a Flash memory device of the IHS, the method comprising:

• accessing the Flash memory device via a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus, which directly connects the EC to the Flash memory device, to retrieve a copy of EC application firmware stored within an EC firmware region of the Flash memory device;
• storing the copy of the EC application firmware in random access memory (RAM);
• and
• executing the copy of the EC application firmware stored in RAM to restore firmware contained within one or more regions of the Flash memory device if the firmware contained therein is determined to be damaged or corrupt.

An information handling system (IHS), comprising:

• a platform controller hub (PCH);
• an embedded controller (EC) including a processing device, read only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM), wherein the processing device is configured to execute a boot block stored in ROM to initiate a boot process for the IHS;
• a Flash memory device storing EC application firmware within an EC firmware region of the Flash memory device;
• and
• a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus that directly connects the EC to the Flash memory device during a portion of the boot process when the PCH is in reset;
• and
• wherein the EC is configured to bypass the PCH and directly access the Flash memory device via the SPI bus while the PCH is in reset to retrieve the EC application firmware from the Flash memory device, store a local copy of the EC application firmware in RAM and execute the local copy of the EC application firmware;
• and
• wherein the local copy of the EC application firmware stored in RAM is executable by the processing device to restore firmware contained within one or more regions of the Flash memory device if the firmware contained therein is determined to be damaged or corrupt.