softbricked COOLEME MB3 boots from microsd, visible from USB burner tool, all flashes to emmc fail

[glitch2k17]

Short time lurker, first post. Thanks to all for making Armbian work so well on the Amlogic S912. It works really well for my uses.

My problem: I have an apparently soft-bricked COOLEME MB3 box. 2G/32G, probably ddr3. Samsung emmc(?) not the Forsee chip. Otherwise the board looks identical to the pictures I've seen of the Alphawise S92. It runs Armbian fine from the microsd. The Samsung chip on the board is a BGA and the board has no exposed pins nor pads for shorting.

It never finished booting correctly on the very first power on, and I've been tinkering with it ever since. I managed at one point to flash one of superceleron images to it, but I apparently put the wrong bits on there somehow and now no attempt at flashing by any of the well-documented methods works. I'm using a 3A 5v power supply rather than the supplied 2A.

Also, the emmc is not visible from Armbian (the probe fails) and I'd like to eventually get that working. I've soldered up a header to the UART and an FDTI USB to serial adapter, and captured the output of a burn attempt from the USB burning tool (press & hold the button before powering up, etc.).

I was trying to burn this alleged factory image referenced on the product page at banggood.com:

https://mega.nz/#!A9UmAZ6T!j1A_IIEo5l094KE55Pr7WF3zBj43vZCqPiXJHeJSxWc

Here's the UART output while trying the USB burner tool. It always fails exactly this way. Anyone got any ideas? Thanks!

GXM:BL1:dc8b51:76f1a5;FEAT:ADFC318C:0;POC:3;RCY:0;EMMC:800;NAND:81;SD:800;USB:8;LOOP:1;EMMC:800;NAND:81;SD:800;USB:8;LOOP:2;EMMC:800;NAND:81;SD:800;USB:8;LOOP:3;EMMC:800;NAND:81;SD:800;USB:8;0.0;
TE: 22422782

BL2 Built : 19:58:22, Aug 31 2016. 
gxl g54c8aee - xiaobo.gu@droid05

set vdd cpu_a to 1120 mv
set vdd cpu_b to 1050 mv
set vddee to 1000 mv
Board ID = 8
CPU clk: 1200MHz
BL2 USB 
DQS-corr enabled
DDR scramble enabled
DDR3 chl: Rank0+1 @ 912MHz - PASS
Rank0: 1024MB(auto)-2T-13
Rank1: 1024MB(auto)-2T-13
0.0;
TE: 22862226

BL2 Built : 19:58:22, Aug 31 2016. 
gxl g54c8aee - xiaobo.gu@droid05

set vdd cpu_a to 1120 mv
set vdd cpu_b to 1050 mv
set vddee to 1000 mv
Board ID = 8
CPU clk: 1200MHz
BL2 USB 
0.0;
TE: 22949064

BL2 Built : 19:58:22, Aug 31 2016. 
gxl g54c8aee - xiaobo.gu@droid05

set vdd cpu_a to 1120 mv
set vdd cpu_b to 1050 mv
set vddee to 1000 mv
Board ID = 8
CPU clk: 1200MHz
BL2 USB 
Load fip header from USB, src: 0x0000c000, des: 0x01400000, size: 0x00004000
New fip structure!
Load bl30 from USB, src: 0x00010000, des: 0x01100000, size: 0x0000d600
Load bl31 from USB, src: 0x00020000, des: 0x10100000, size: 0x00015400
Load bl33 from USB, src: 0x00038000, des: 0x01000000, size: 0x000a9c00
NOTICE:  BL3-1: v1.0(debug):2e39a99
NOTICE:  BL3-1: Built : 16:36:21, Sep 20 2016
aml log : bl31 normal boot !
[Image: gxl_v1.1.3154-065f772 2016-09-29 14:08:54 yan.wang@droid05]
OPS=0x82
ca f0 8c 5c 7a 4e 9f ae 6f 23 d 98 [23.253097 Inits done]
secure task start!
high task start!
low task start!
INFO:    BL3-1: Initializing runtime services
WARNING: No OPTEE provided by BL2 boot loader
ERROR:   Error initializing runtime service opteed_fast
INFO:    BL3-1: Preparing for EL3 exit to normal world
INFO:    BL3-1: Next image address = 0x1000000
INFO:    BL3-1: Next image spsr = 0x3c9


U-Boot 2015.01-g871cd3d (Jun 17 2017 - 11:31:08)

DRAM:  2 GiB
Relocation Offset is: 76ec9000
InUsbBurn
[MSG]sof
Set Addr 5
Get DT cfg
Get DT cfg
Get DT cfg
set CFG

ID[16]
tplcmd[    echo 12345]
12345
[MSG]ret = 0
[info]success
BULKcmd[    low_power]
[info]success

ID[16]
tplcmd[    download mem dtb normal 88064]
[MSG]Down(mem) part(dtb) sz(0x15800) fmt(normal)
[MSG]totalSlotNum = 0, nextWriteBackSlot 2
[info]success
[MSG]Burn Start...
[MSG]load dt.img to 0x0000000001000000, sz=0x15800
[MSG]Burn complete
BULKcmd[download get_status]
[info]success
BULKcmd[disk_initial 4]
      Amlogic multi-dtb tool
      Multi dtb detected
      Multi dtb tool version: v2 .
      Support 2 dtbs.
        aml_dt soc: gxm platform: q201 variant: 2g
        dtb 0 soc: gxm   plat: q201   vari: 1g
        dtb 1 soc: gxm   plat: q201   vari: 2g
      Find match dtb: 1
start dts,buffer=0000000007700000,dt_addr=000000000770b000
parts: 11
00:      logo    0000000002000000 1
01:  recovery    0000000002000000 1
02:       rsv    0000000000800000 1
03:       tee    0000000000800000 1
04:     crypt    0000000002000000 1
05:      misc    0000000002000000 1
06: instaboot    0000000020000000 1
07:      boot    0000000002000000 1
08:    system    0000000080000000 1
09:     cache    0000000020000000 2
10:      data    ffffffffffffffff 4
[MSG]run cmd [store disprotect key; store disprotect hynix]
[store]disprotect key
disprotect hynix
emmc/sd response timeout, cmd8, status=0x3ff2800
emmc/sd response timeout, cmd55, status=0x3ff2800
emmc/sd response timeout, cmd1, status=0x3ff2800
EMMC init failed
boot_device_flag : 1
set wlan gpio pin 6.
set bluetooth gpio pin 17.
Nand PHY Ver:1.01.001.0006 (c) 2013 Amlogic Inc.
init bus_cycle=6, bus_timing=7, system=5.0ns
reset failed
get_chip_type and ret:fffffffe
get_chip_type and ret:fffffffe
chip detect failed and ret:fffffffe
nandphy_init failed and ret=0xfffffff1
NAND init failed
device_boot_flag=2
[store]ERR:FAILED in get_device_boot_flag
cmd [store] init failed 
[info]failed:

[sergiosmail]

Same error here but using MXQ Pro 8G/1G S905 blue PCB named MXQ-905-D16 VER:1.0 DATE:151021

Seems that eMMC controller is broken.

...

EMMC init failed
boot_device_flag : 1
Nand PHY Ver:1.01.001.0006 (c) 2013 Amlogic Inc.
init bus_cycle=6, bus_timing=8, system=5.0ns
reset failed
get_chip_type and ret:fffffffe
get_chip_type and ret:fffffffe
chip detect failed and ret:fffffffe
nandphy_init failed and ret=0xfffffff1
NAND init failed
device_boot_flag=2
[store]ERR:FAILED in get_device_boot_flag
cmd [store] init failed
[info]failed: