Bricked Tronsmart T428!
Hey guys, I'm writing here because I was flashing to the latest finless ROM and as it was rebooting I thought it was done so I removed the USB cord. Apparently it wasn't done rebooting so it bricked on me! This must happen to a lot of people and I haven't found a single page anywhere on the net about how to unbrick a T428. I've seen pages for everything else except this one. Can anyone please tell me exactly how to unbrick a Tronsmart T428?
Update: I managed to unbrick my T428 by opening it up and lifting the heatsink tape to reveal a chip. That chip will have a small black dot on it and that's where pin 1 is. I held a knife between pins 8 and 9 while plugging in a cord into the mini usb port. It worked! Then it was recognized by the rockchip batch tool in firmware upgrade mode (blue instead of green). So I simply loaded the only firmware upgrade I had to fix bluetooth problems. Afterwards I used the ROM flash tool to install finless ROM 4.4.2 and it worked. Then I reinstalled the firmware upgrades, which worked. So now it's working amazingly but the bluetooth keyboard I have sticks really bad with it. It's impossible to type using the T428 even though I can pair the keyboard with my Nexus 7 just fine without problems. I have a full wifi signal now too but yet I still can't load some videos. It's really annoying and I've come to the conclusion that the wifi and bluetooth really need work on the T428 but I'll keep experimenting. At least I got it back from the dead. Since there are no tutorials anywhere on the entire net on unbricking a T428 I figured this might be able to help someone else.
The process of opening the T428 is tedious. You have to be careful not to rip it open. All you simply need to do is pry the metal sides off and then pry open the two halfs one side at a time little by little. The antenna is stuck to one side so you can't just pull it open. Once it's open the recovery button will come loose; put it aside for now. With the HDMI connector facing left and the heatsink underneath, lift up the heatsink tape on the right side to reveal a chip with a small black dot on it. The dot signifies pin 1. Now count down to pin 8 and 9 then hold something small like a knife between them while you plug in the mini usb cord, with the regular usb end already plugged into the computer. I held the knife down until I heard a sound signifying that the computer recognized it again. And thus it was saved! Put the heatsink tape back down and snap the halves together with the button back in the slot before you close them. Then the metal sides go on easily enough. You can smash them gently a little to make sure they stay on. So now that I have it working again I wish I could just improve the wifi and bluetooth reception greatly. Any ideas?
Update: I'm learning of a way to extend wifi and bluetooth reception. You can find external antennas on Amazon ranging from cheap to expensive and they'll get the job done, as long as they have a usb connector. But since the T428 doesn't have enough usb ports with my wireless mouse receiver plugged into it I would also have to find a cheap hub with a few usb ports on it. This is for the diehards of course. The T428 was simply the predecessor to better ones coming out now like the Zero Devices Quattro. I'd rather have that one but I can't afford it so I'll probably just get a cheap external antenna and hub, but you have to make sure the antenna isn't hidden behind the t.v. screen. This is for android geeks really since it takes patience to deal with finding an external antenna to work with a bluetooth keyboard or mouse, and your wifi.
Update: I managed to unbrick my T428 by opening it up and lifting the heatsink tape to reveal a chip. That chip will have a small black dot on it and that's where pin 1 is. I held a knife between pins 8 and 9 while plugging in a cord into the mini usb port. It worked! Then it was recognized by the rockchip batch tool in firmware upgrade mode (blue instead of green). So I simply loaded the only firmware upgrade I had to fix bluetooth problems. Afterwards I used the ROM flash tool to install finless ROM 4.4.2 and it worked. Then I reinstalled the firmware upgrades, which worked. So now it's working amazingly but the bluetooth keyboard I have sticks really bad with it. It's impossible to type using the T428 even though I can pair the keyboard with my Nexus 7 just fine without problems. I have a full wifi signal now too but yet I still can't load some videos. It's really annoying and I've come to the conclusion that the wifi and bluetooth really need work on the T428 but I'll keep experimenting. At least I got it back from the dead. Since there are no tutorials anywhere on the entire net on unbricking a T428 I figured this might be able to help someone else.
The process of opening the T428 is tedious. You have to be careful not to rip it open. All you simply need to do is pry the metal sides off and then pry open the two halfs one side at a time little by little. The antenna is stuck to one side so you can't just pull it open. Once it's open the recovery button will come loose; put it aside for now. With the HDMI connector facing left and the heatsink underneath, lift up the heatsink tape on the right side to reveal a chip with a small black dot on it. The dot signifies pin 1. Now count down to pin 8 and 9 then hold something small like a knife between them while you plug in the mini usb cord, with the regular usb end already plugged into the computer. I held the knife down until I heard a sound signifying that the computer recognized it again. And thus it was saved! Put the heatsink tape back down and snap the halves together with the button back in the slot before you close them. Then the metal sides go on easily enough. You can smash them gently a little to make sure they stay on. So now that I have it working again I wish I could just improve the wifi and bluetooth reception greatly. Any ideas?
Update: I'm learning of a way to extend wifi and bluetooth reception. You can find external antennas on Amazon ranging from cheap to expensive and they'll get the job done, as long as they have a usb connector. But since the T428 doesn't have enough usb ports with my wireless mouse receiver plugged into it I would also have to find a cheap hub with a few usb ports on it. This is for the diehards of course. The T428 was simply the predecessor to better ones coming out now like the Zero Devices Quattro. I'd rather have that one but I can't afford it so I'll probably just get a cheap external antenna and hub, but you have to make sure the antenna isn't hidden behind the t.v. screen. This is for android geeks really since it takes patience to deal with finding an external antenna to work with a bluetooth keyboard or mouse, and your wifi.
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