Help! OTT M8 Bad Flash Recovery using shorted Nand pins.

[Crows]

Yep Ive tried different SD Cards with different ROMS, exactly the same. Tried to restore using TWRP from 3 X SD cards and 2 USB's, it locks up at random positions.
Thanks

try a different sd card or even try a usb stick

[Klinux]

I've reinstalled the jumper on the PCB, the solder points were there just not the pins between the HDMI and USB ports. The only thing now is getting the usb host cable sorted.

[Zahir]

Resourceful as ever, you're an inspiration. Just make sure you've got the voltage right - 5V/2a. Applying too much juice may be part of the problem.

[Klinux]

Ok so I got the host cable "male to Male usb cable sorted today and as I said in my previous post I located the JP1 pins between the HDMI and USB soldered some pins, what I've found is if I connect the host cable in the first usb input the one right next to the jumper moborobo installs the ADB drivers and registers it in windows 8 device manager as a "windows mobile ADB" device something like that. Windows recognised the device as "em8" and installed the ADB driver.
I installed the burning tool but got an error when it tried to install the "world cup" driver. I still went ahead and tried to run the burning tool and it doesn't detect the device. I've tried booting with the jumper on and off on the usb JP1 using my shorting nand way and using the same TWRP sd card I've been using all along sometimes it boots into twrp with the jumper on sometimes it doesnt though that may be down to the shorting pins on the nand not quite making contact. Either way the burn tool doesnt detect the device.

I've tried the second usb port farthest away from the HDMI "the one nearest the corner of the body and that doesn't seem to react to anything. Likewise I tried with the jumper on and off and again like before it would boot sometimes and other times just a blank screen.

Am I right in thinking that I'm not getting into OTG mode, ADB is detected just not OTG, do I need to make any mod to the cable, it's just a host to host cable. I know that standard micro usb cables have 5 pins and you short pins 4 and 5, 4 being the sense pin 5 being ground do I need to do this on a host to host cable, I was assuming maybe wrongly that but shorting the JP1 I was effectively causing the unit to switch to OTG using a standard host to host cable. This assumption may be wrong.
I was alittle tired today having been at work and will spend a little time later but maybe it's my cable thats wrong or that im using Windows 8.1 64bit that might be the issue. Any advice or guide would be much appreciated, I feel like im just missing something. The PC is detecting the uint just not getting to OTG perhaps.

[Zahir]

I don't know the exact state you've put your M8 in with your OTG fix, but if Windows now recognizes it as an adb device, you may be almost there.

The problem now seems to be that the world cup drivers are not installing automatically so the burning tool does not see the box.

Try installing the drivers on your PC manually. Get them here, and unzip them to their own folder on your PC.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/s8iv48u87jak1er/Windows+7+-+World+Cup+Drivers.zip

Then, with the box connected via your rigged usb cable and powered on, go to Windows/Control Panel/System/Device Manager and look for your "EM8" device there. Right click on that entry, select "Update Driver Software" and then "Browse My Computer for Driver Software" and then navigate to the PC folder with the unzipped world cup drivers. Windows should now install them.

After the drivers install, reboot windows, reconnect the M8 via your OTG method and run the burning tool. If it sees the box on a usb hub, you're ready to try flashing the Probox img.

NB: If the world cup drivers still won't install on Windows 8.1, you may have to find a Win 7 laptop as your temporary burning platform.

[Klinux]

I've found that if I boot the box in to recovery without the jumper on the USB pins windows detects the box as an ADB mobile device and installs the driver TWRP also boots. If I put the jumper on and boot the device windows detects an unknown device and the screen remains blank ie TWRP doesn't boot, so I've manually tried to install the world cup drivers and windows comes up with an error

"windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while trying to install it"

and....

"the third party INF does not contain digital signature information"



I feel like im almost there.

[Klinux]

Right I managed to overcome the issue with driver signature errors in windows 8.1, basically I had to disable signature checking in windows. I managed to get the world cup drivers installed, ran the usb burn program it detected the box on HUB 2 imported the image, Flashing starts but halts at 3%. I decided to reinstall the usb burn program and let it install the drivers it came with a bit of fiddling about to get it back into OTG finally got it back ran the usb burn program and still the same Probox2 ROM halts at 3% I think at this point its installing the u-boot. Hmmmm, I'm downloading the older Probox2 ROM and give that ago.
I feel very close to almost cracking this.

[Klinux]

I've been reading Finless Bob's drama getting his Tronsmart unbricked, his issues sound the same. I'm gonna keep at it, if I can get past U-Boot and init disk I may get back to a state that I dont need the pin shorting method. Bob seems to have got there in the end by changing the various flash settings.
Persistence is the only way ahead!

[Crows]

Klinux I'm trying this process aswell, looks like you are having more progress than me...can I run this by you to make sure I'm on right track?

Bought a male to male USB cable
Bridged the jumper beside the HDMI connector
Downloaded the PROBOX2 file (However after extraction there was only 1 image file called recovery 7mb, gotta feeling this is not right?)
Install flash tool and world-cup driver installed successfully
Installed moborobo drivers
However when I connect the box to my PC it doesn't seem to recognise it, have I left anything out?

Thanks

[Klinux]

Well I've cracked it! Probox2 running on my M8 box....it's alive

Like Bob found in his post here http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.p...OM-on-your-S89

@Crows I'll address your questions first, I believe I have found out some significant aspects about unbricking these, I need to get the steps straight and I will post my guide. What is apparent from many posts here is that there are a number of versions of these so they may vary in how the box behaves when it goes bad. I discovered while trying to unbrick the box a few things but to get the steps straight in my head.

Looking back over your post's many of your issue's seem to surround .zip issue's, this is the file you need to download from here http://probox2.com/?wpdmact=process&...IuaG90bGluaw==
Just to be clear the above download is for using in the USB Burn tool. Once you unzip the download you should have 1 file called "PROBOX2-EX-20141015.img" unzip it ideally to a folder titled PROBOX2-EX-20141015 so you know where it is.

When you say you have installed the burn tool and the world cup drivers successfully I assume you manged to establish a connection between your box and PC, if you've got it in OTG windows will detect an unknown device then load the drivers if it detects the "unknown device" but doesnt automatically install the World cup drivers then you aren't in OTG.
If the latter is the case try powering off the box, make sure the male to male usb cables attached and the jumper between the HDMI and USB is bridged, and power on the box wait and see if windows detects it. if not power off the box and push the recovery button in power on the unit and wait for windows to detct the unknown device and either installs the drivers automatically or do it manually.

Once you've covered that and know that the device is detected and has the right drivers launch the USB burn tool. Import the .img file you downloaded and press start.

My issue was a little different to yours I think I had to short 2 pins on the nand and make a bottable sd card and fiddle to get mine working.

Perhaps you could describe your problem and how you got there if the above answer isnt working

[Crows]

Thanks for your response, unfortunately my PC isnt detecting the box, my next step is to try and install them manually.Just wondering the USB cable its nothing special is it?

Well I've cracked it! Probox2 running on my M8 box....it's alive

Like Bob found in his post here http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.p...OM-on-your-S89

@Crows I'll address your questions first, I believe I have found out some significant aspects about unbricking these, I need to get the steps straight and I will post my guide. What is apparent from many posts here is that there are a number of versions of these so they may vary in how the box behaves when it goes bad. I discovered while trying to unbrick the box a few things but to get the steps straight in my head.

Looking back over your post's many of your issue's seem to surround .zip issue's, this is the file you need to download from here http://probox2.com/?wpdmact=process&...IuaG90bGluaw==
Just to be clear the above download is for using in the USB Burn tool. Once you unzip the download you should have 1 file called "PROBOX2-EX-20141015.img" unzip it ideally to a folder titled PROBOX2-EX-20141015 so you know where it is.

When you say you have installed the burn tool and the world cup drivers successfully I assume you manged to establish a connection between your box and PC, if you've got it in OTG windows will detect an unknown device then load the drivers if it detects the "unknown device" but doesnt automatically install the World cup drivers then you aren't in OTG.
If the latter is the case try powering off the box, make sure the male to male usb cables attached and the jumper between the HDMI and USB is bridged, and power on the box wait and see if windows detects it. if not power off the box and push the recovery button in power on the unit and wait for windows to detct the unknown device and either installs the drivers automatically or do it manually.

Once you've covered that and know that the device is detected and has the right drivers launch the USB burn tool. Import the .img file you downloaded and press start.

My issue was a little different to yours I think I had to short 2 pins on the nand and make a bottable sd card and fiddle to get mine working.

Perhaps you could describe your problem and how you got there if the above answer isnt working

[Klinux]

no its just a host to host usb cable, if your pc isnt detecting your box you won't be able to install the drivers manually. You need to get your PC to detect the box. So try my method, make sure the box is powered off connect the usb cable to the box and pc, push the recovery button "the one in the AV socket" keep pressed in and power the box on. See if your PC detects the box, look in device manager. It might be helpful to have device manager running so you can see if the pc has picked up the box.

[Klinux]

Probox2 is running great, I've also installed an antenna while I had the box open. Box back together happy days, All I need to get is the remote config file, not a biggy as I'm using a touch mouse/keyboard.

[Crows]

I bought a male to male USB cable, I read somewhere that a OTG cable is required pins 4-5 bridged together.I tried your method nothing....I still persist.

no its just a host to host usb cable, if your pc isnt detecting your box you won't be able to install the drivers manually. You need to get your PC to detect the box. So try my method, make sure the box is powered off connect the usb cable to the box and pc, push the recovery button "the one in the AV socket" keep pressed in and power the box on. See if your PC detects the box, look in device manager. It might be helpful to have device manager running so you can see if the pc has picked up the box.

[Klinux]

I bought a male to male USB cable, I read somewhere that a OTG cable is required pins 4-5 bridged together.I tried your method nothing....I still persist.

The USB port on the M8 box is a multi functional port, I found with the jumper off with my bricked box booted into TWRP on a bootable SD Card that the USB port nearest the HDMI port was detected as an ADB device without the Jumper on and when the Jumper was on it was detected as an OTG.

My situation was my box was dead red standby light and wouldn't boot into recovery, what I had to do was make a bootable SD scard using the Amlogic tools and I put TWRP with the recovery.img on an SD card.
I had to short pins 17+18 on the nand to get the device to boot from SD card, now in order to get get OTG I had the unti powered off, USB cable connected to Box and PC and the jumper next to the HDMI on, booted up tthe box with pins 17+18 shorted and the recovery button held in for 12 seconds or so, 7 seconds is to let the nand hack allow the boot from Sd card and then the 5 seconds for switching to OTG, I had a two folded issue no recovery and needing to get to OTG, normally if recovery works the box should take a few seconds to switch to OTG.....still with me on this?
Box booted with blue led but TWRP shouldn't start just a blank screen, PC detected an unknown device and I installed the USB Burn tool. It installed and loaded the world cup drivers. as part of the install.
I ran the USB Burn tool and it detected the Box on Hub1-2. I imported the Probox2 .img file and selected Force erase, below this box on the burn tool are various options for erasing the flash, what I found is in order to get my box past a 2% or 3% flash before it failed I had to deselect Erase Bootloader. The USB burn tool will fail at about 6%. This is the interesting thing once I managed to write 6% I rebooted the box left it with the red led showing but the box was detected by the PC and an OTG port, this is I think is the twist where I was going wrong.
Once you've flashed and got beyond 5% the box will be detected by the PC as an OTG port when its in standby, no need for trying to get to recovery or short the nand pins anymore. I just ran the USB Burn tool again with the unit in standby and the burn tool detected the unit as an OTG and completed a 100% flash. The trick seems to be to allow the burn tool to fail at 6% using the recovery method making sure you deselect erase bootloader in the USB burn tool or it fails at 2% which isnt enough of an erase to get u-boot sorted and repaired. Restart the box as if it's in standby run the Burn tool again and it should complete a full flash.

Crows you really need to establish whether your getting a connection, try booting to recovery, if you cant get to recovery you'll need to prepare a bootable SD card and short the nand pins 17+18 get into recovery with the USB Jumper off and see if your PC recognises the box as an ADB device, Moborobo should load drivers for a mobile ADB device. If you can establish ADB all your problem is is getting the USB port into OTG. Let me know if you can get ADB drivers installed first. No you don't need to mod the cable.