ip.i9 bricked. can access recovery and start flashing, then device turns off every time.

[nexxusty]

Hey guys, I have just bricked my ip.i9 RK3288 device using the same method found here:

http://cngadget.info/2014/09/16/new-firmware-for-ippli-ip-i9-added-google-play-support/

Every single ip.i9 upgrade procedure is the same. The problem is the ip.i9 turns itself off seconds after entering recovery mode preventing any flashing from being done. The box is now bricked because of this.

I had a USB A Male to USB A Male cable that came with my motherboard so I used this and it was able to pick up the device and install the driver but shuts off for no apparent reason....

The device will stay on for 5 seconds & I can get to 11% flashed before it shuts off. Why would the device shut itself off in the first place, let alone while being flashed. I guess it doesn't know it's being flashed......

If I hold the power button it will stay on longer. Seems like 5 seconds longer, that gets me to 22% flashed. Furthest I have been so far.

Searched everywhere for a way to flash this thing. JTAG, nope, even searched for a programmer to reprogram the eMMC. Nothing.

Any ideas or answer for me? At a total loss here. It would be such a shame to give up and let it sit here while it is CLEARLY accessible, LOL! Why the heck does it turn off in a mode that was meant for flashing the device?

Makes no sense, I have to be missing something. Could it be the cable? Considering it detects and sends data I don't see it being the cable. Ugh. No idea, hours sitting here and no progress... thanks for ANY responses guys. I would be elated if someone could help me out here.



*edit*

Here is my PCB. Any idea what to short to get into MASK ROM mode? There are 2 sets of point that are both side by side that look curious. I do not want to just go randomly shorting things here... lol



I think MASK ROM Mode is my only chance at this point. I am hopeful something else will work though.

[nexxusty]

Got it into MASK ROM MODE by bridging the "EMMC_CLK0" points to the bottom right of the EMMC.

Device still shuts off after 5 seconds. WTF?

Seriously no idea. Anyone? Demo mode or something? Stumped here..... I've been a tech for 20 years too, making me feel like an idiot. LOL.

Hopefully someone has an answer for me.

I can get it to boot to recovery but it just runs a format script it seems. I was thinking maybe boot from SD card. The bootloader and recovery are there for sure, just no OS and no way to enter recovery.

Definitely a rock in hard place....

[no_spam_for_me]

hmm, shorting the pins at a chip like this is really bad
Do you also thought about the idea that the PSU is maybe bad????

[nexxusty]

Shorting pins is usually bad yes. Unless you find what you were looking for.

In this case I knew it would be 2 points around the eMMc that needed to be bridged to force it into MASK ROM Mode. I found the two points and got it into MASK ROM Mode but the device still shuts off in a few seconds no matter what.

Who would design a device this way? I'm missing something still.

I tried 2 different PSU'S as well. They are only 2a but I've used them with the device with no issues other than this.... will try another one tonight.

[nexxusty]

Really helpful forum..... lol.

Contacted the manufacturer and was put in touch with a very knowledgeable gentleman. He has shown me where the serial ttl points are and advised me to wire up a cable and look at the boot output to see why this device turns off after 5 seconds.

Will report findings....

[Tarwin]

Really helpful forum..... lol.

Contacted the manufacturer and was put in touch with a very knowledgeable gentleman. He has shown me where the serial ttl points are and advised me to wire up a cable and look at the boot output to see why this device turns off after 5 seconds.

Will report findings....

So how'd it go?

As for the helpfulness... I think it's more that people haven't bothered to reply because they don't have any useful advice to give in this situation. The community for chinese tv boxes is relatively small and in your case you chose a really hard to find one which doesn't share a PCB with any of the other ones currently being used on this forum. It's not a criticism, but if they don't have the device it generally doesn't feel right to make suggestions which could worsen the situation.

I had actually thought of getting the i9 but I decided against it in part because I couldn't find anywhere where I could find community support in case something went wrong, and most importantly because in the cngadget video you can see that it only has 1GB for apps which is way too little (8GB in general I can live with, but for apps, 2GB is the absolute minimum nowadays).

Aside from your aforementioned problems how are you liking the device? The cute design and adjustable camera always attracted me.