bricked my m8 square - need help

[leonidm]

I tried probox files on SD card if that is what you mean.

[partypunk]

just wondering if you have the same situation I had last night.
I had flashed it and then lost the blue power light and lost any output to tv, the lan lights were still flashing which did give me hope.
I was just about to try the nand pin short method when i came across the probox method so I had nothing to lose.
with no jumpers shorted, end usb slot connected to pc
then installed the usb burning tool also installed moborobo to ensure connection, then success I had a connection , pc driver was installed. and continues to flash as instructed.
which brought my box back to life.
does this sound the same as your situation...

[leonidm]

my blue light is always on and my laptop never detects the box on USB port

[partypunk]

have you installed moborobo first before connecting to pc

[leonidm]

I think USB device should be detected on the bus regardless of presence of the driver.

[partypunk]

I would agree with you on that,
sorry I couldnt help you out bud, it looks like a different situation with your box.

[leonidm]

Thank you all for your help, i really appreciate it and hope this thread will help someone else.
What is the best box to buy today to replace this one?

[partypunk]

Not sure which is the best, I do like my M8 especially compared to the previous RK3188 generic box.
But I fancy one of these

http://www.droidsticks.co.uk/shop/t8-aml-v2-amlogic-s802-quad-core-2-0-ghz-android-4-4-mini-4k-tv-box/

I did get a price for one from China for about $72

but new ones are popping up all the time, its like buying a PC, there's something new out within a month.

[grant2258]

On most NAND chips by shorting pins RB and R/E together or in some cases RE and CE, it makes the processor boot up and think there is no NAND memory and puts it into MASK ROM MODE. It also "may" erase NAND. As for the uart look for rx tx and ground on the mobo somewhere. Not sure what's going on with the box to be honest strange the ota isint working at all. This was common on satalite box clones firmware would corrupt the nand so you couldnt upload another rom shorting the nand right should over ride that though

[grant2258]

I did ordered a tronsmart r28 boot Linux up or a image from sdcard it's a rt3288 should arrive after Xmas from Hong Kong. I was going to get a tronsmart Draco but I'm the price difference between the two boxes doesn't justify the price but both boxes support linux and are the latest. I got my tronsmart for us 125.14 delivered

[grant2258]

one more thing the is usb cabe should be straight connections no longer than 1 metere if its not shielded.


usb pin 1 vcc <---------------------> usb pin1 vcc
usb pin 2 data- <---------------------> usb pin 2 data-
usb pin 3 data+<--------------------->usb pin 2 data+
usb pin 4 gnd <--------------------->usb pin 4 gnd

some people think that data lines get crossed like in a serial connection is just a plain straight through. Some usb cable dont stick to colour codes so check it with a multimeter

[leonidm]

yes, thank you, my cable is straight.
Are there any advantages of Amlogic vs Rockchip? From this box I learned that I need an external antenna for wifi - reception on it is terrible. and I need OTG port for recovery in case things go wrong like now.

[grant2258]

yes, thank you, my cable is straight.
Are there any advantages of Amlogic vs Rockchip? From this box I learned that I need an external antenna for wifi - reception on it is terrible. and I need OTG port for recovery in case things go wrong like now.

Well the m8 does have ota and it works for me we just need to short your nand properly and you might get it back. Well the new rockchip is faster cpu and gpu wise. I use my box for games too so thats a big reason. The new rockchip and draco support biooting images and linux from the sd card so even if your nand dies you can still use the box. It just take one person to release a bad rom to mangle your nand in a bad way and it could happen to any box. nand shorting over riding should sort it though. try RB and R/E in the nand 7 and 8 on your nand. I think whoever said pin 17 and 18 was reading the nand upside down cause that reads 7/8 you count up the wrong way

[leonidm]

ok, I made some progress!
1) when I short pins 7 & 8 on NAND chip I can get in to recovery (Thank you, Grant2258!)
but it shows bunch of unable to mount cache partition errors and not flashing anything,
remote buttons do not work, attached usb keyboard and mouse do not work
windows does not see the box via USB

When I boot the device without SD or shorting pins PC now detects it and I see M8-chip in the device manager but now driver.
I have installed "Moborobo(Moborobo_En_official).exe" , but I don't think it installed the driver properly
Update: installed lib-usb32 drivers manually and usb-burning tool seems to see the device.

[grant2258]

ok, I made some progress!
1) when I short pins 7 & 8 on NAND chip I can get in to recovery (Thank you, Grant2258!)
but it shows bunch of unable to mount cache partition errors and not flashing anything,
remote buttons do not work, attached usb keyboard and mouse do not work
windows does not see the box via USB

When I boot the device without SD or shorting pins PC now detects it and I see M8-chip in the device manager but now driver.
I have installed "Moborobo(Moborobo_En_official).exe" , but I don't think it installed the driver properly

this is a windows 7 ,8/ vista problem reboot windowd press f8 while the bios screen shows and pick Disable Driver Signature Enforcement this is before windows boots your box will pickup then.