What next for my bricked MXQ Pro 4K?

[8amkpj9g7j6z]

Hi,

I dug out my MXQ Pro recently having not used it for years.
I was rooted already, and I was able to run LibreELEC from an SD card after installing Terminal and running "reboot update".
I then wanted to updrade to CoreELEC as I need a later version of Kodi. After building a new SD image and inserting it, CoreELEC would not boot - it always booted back into on-board Android.
Someone on a forum mentioned that I needed to fix the boot loader, so I downloaded what I though was a restore image for my hardware, build the SD card, inserted it and rebooted again from the SD card.

It was a few weeks ago so I can't recall the output of the screen - suffice to say when I rebooted again, I got the blue led indicating power, but nothing on screen. Not boot animation, nothing.

So now I need to know/decide what to do next. Any help would be invaluable, thanks.

I've tried:

• pressing the reset button behind the AV port - this does nothing, and has always done nothing. The only way I've been able to get into recovery mode has been through Terminal. Let's assume it's no connected.
• using usb burning tool. I've installed the software and driver. However when I connect the MXQ via a M-M USB cable, Windows sees the device and makes a noice, however Device Manager only shows "Unknown USB-Device" and nothing shows up in the USB tool window
• booting while shorting the 5th and 6th pins from the bottom on the right hand of the NAND

I know the following:
It's a S905 chip (p201 device tree) with a RealTek RTL8189ETV wifi chip and a SKhynix H27UCG8T2ETR NAND.

I would attach some supporting pics but ImageMagick seems broken on this web server (I get "content does not match extension" and "ImageMagick exec error found: convert: unable to open image `/var/www/forum.freaktab.com/web/tmp/vb_64e6ecdaeae4b3215624ad0538479ecd': permission denied @ error/blob.c/openblob/2701" errors)

Thoughts?, and thanks.

[gefattern]

Hi ,

my Hint , trash it , buy a better new one , there are so many AML cheap S905x3 , or similar Boxes that run

Libre or Core ,

greetings / gefattern

[8amkpj9g7j6z]

Certainly an option. It's a shame to bin it as it's a perfect device for what I want it for. If it worked.

Can you recommend a cheapo Aliexpress/Bangood AML that runs Core with Kodi 18? It needs to be Leia as I use a shared SQL database and I've got Leia everywhere else.

I'm happy to re-flash it with Core, or preferably run it from SD. All my media is on a NAS so I don't need any storage on the thing.

And I love to have one with a working reset button

If you had a link on Ali/Bang so I can just buy the thing that'd be great.

Cheers