Looks like I've bricked it.

[Finless]

I just tried that tool and while I have no problem using it, it is a sector copy! My card is 32GB. Thus a HUGE file to upload anywhere!

I am going to secure erase the SDcard to blank all the sectors and see if this tool will make a smaller image.

Bob

[Lokie]

I just tried that tool and while I have no problem using it, it is a sector copy! My card is 32GB. Thus a HUGE file to upload anywhere!

I am going to secure erase the SDcard to blank all the sectors and see if this tool will make a smaller image.

Bob

Yes, then zip/rar it. That should bring it down to the actual size. As a matter of fact, without blanking should compress it all the way down

[Finless]

Rad, you are going to KILL ME!

I totally forgot to tell you something!

Like all AML boxes that get hard bricked, you have to short NAND pins to put it in the right mode!

Stay tuned I will take a picture and show you where an easy place is to short and give you instructions.

I completely forgot about this fact sorry!

Bob

[rad]

Rad, you are going to KILL ME!

I totally forgot to tell you something!

Like all AML boxes that get hard bricked, you have to short NAND pins to put it in the right mode!

Stay tuned I will take a picture and show you where an easy place is to short and give you instructions.

I completely forgot about this fact sorry!

Bob

Funny thing is I was just saying that to my mate, lol

No worries if I can get it working pal.

[Finless]

OK here is a picture of the back of the board showing which pins to short. These are what I used and they are safe. I traced them right back to the proper NAND pins.

So here is what you do:
1) Unplug and plug back in power. No LED should be on.
2) Short the pins and hold them shorted.
3) Press the reset button and hold it.
4) Power on the box using the power button.
5) Continue to hold reset and pins shorted until Windows bongs,

This should work as it did for me. Sorry for forgetting to tell you this!

Picture link.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9BFwCzfMWZ8OHV5ZWZ1bEZtY0E/edit?usp=sharing

Bob

[rad]

OK here is a picture of the back of the board showing which pins to short. These are what I used and they are safe. I traced them right back to the proper NAND pins.

So here is what you do:
1) Unplug and plug back in power. No LED should be on.
2) Short the pins and hold them shorted.
3) Press the reset button and hold it.
4) Power on the box using the power button.
5) Continue to hold reset and pins shorted until Windows bongs,

This should work as it did for me. Sorry for forgetting to tell you this!

Picture link.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9BFwCzfMWZ8OHV5ZWZ1bEZtY0E/edit?usp=sharing

Bob

Cheers for this Bob, i take it I still need the SD card in, also are the screws under the rubber pads underneath or does it clip apart.

[Finless]

Cheers for this Bob, i take it I still need the SD card in, also are the screws under the rubber pads underneath or does it clip apart.

Yes screws are under the rubber feet.
Remove the SDcard before removing the bottom cover or you risk breaking the internal SDcard slot!!!!!

Then yes you need the SDcard.
Use the tool to make the SDcard using the 352 KB u-boot.bin.
Once done copy u-boot.bin and the .wps file to sdcard.

Bob

[Lokie]

Yes screws are under the rubber feet.
Remove the SDcard before removing the bottom cover or you risk breaking the internal SDcard slot!!!!!

Then yes you need the SDcard.
Use the tool to make the SDcard using the 352 KB u-boot.bin.
Once done copy u-boot.bin and the .wps file to sdcard.

Bob

Good work guys! I think this should be summarized in a sticky. Good info! I got a feeling this will happen more often especially when the s802-h hw makes it debut.

[no_spam_for_me]

BTW:
HDDRawCopy1.02Portable is also able to dump to compressed image (but sure it is better to clear/wipe the SD with something like HEX FF) BUT every time the image will restore hole SD so it mean, that if you use a 32 GB SD you also need 32 GB SD to restore the image (but I never try to restore to a smaller one as the source)...
To restore to a bigger one is no problem (after working with it, only have to be reformat with e.g. 'HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool 2.2.3' to get back the original size)...

[rad]

Yes screws are under the rubber feet.
Remove the SDcard before removing the bottom cover or you risk breaking the internal SDcard slot!!!!!

Then yes you need the SDcard.
Use the tool to make the SDcard using the 352 KB u-boot.bin.
Once done copy u-boot.bin and the .wps file to sdcard.

Bob

It shows and gets to 23% then goes red, can I try via the usb stick now ?

[rad]

Ah, just read your thread about when you bricked yours and you just kept trying.

Tell me though do I need to restart the vega and the usb burning tool between every attempt ?

[Finless]

No, once the SDcard has been made you do not have to keep trying that.

What I did was this... Yet I do not know how I got it to progress.

I kept booting from SDcard shorting pins and reset.
As I recall first it failed on UBOOT_COMP or somehting like that. So I tried diferent erase settings in the flash tool. Then at some point it would fail and init disk. Again I kept booting or not booting shorting pins. I do not remember. Bottom line at some point I no longer had to short pins. Still got a red light but reset now would boot so the flash tool would see it. Then I kept messing with different erase options until init disk flashed. Then it would stop at a different area. After another reset I no longer even needed the SDcard and got a blue LED using reset. This was when I was able to flash the full rom with the tool.

I need to try and recreate what I did and get it down and documented but too busy right now. Trust there is some combination of erase and flash they will get you there.

Bob

[rad]

Are you allowed to swear on these boards ?? Bingo, it's flashing. (flashed now)

Thanks guys,

The sequence of what to do if your machine bricks is as follows.

Create the SD card using the bootcardmaker.exe util which is contained in the amlogic_tools.rar which can be downloaded from the tronsmart.eu website.

When creating your bootable sd card using bootcardmaker.exe and the u-boot.bin that is 352Kb in sixe (thanks Bob), once it's formatted copy that file and the usb刷机工具说明.wps file onto the sdcard.

Now you need to open up your vega (only do this if you are not getting any joy with any other method, mine was unresponsive to anything), and short out the 2 pins in the link below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9B...it?usp=sharing

I couldn't get mine out of the base and to be honest you don't really need to, I shorted them with a small screwdriver.

now...

1) Unplug and plug back in power. No LED should be on. (also have your SD card inserted)
2) Short the pins and hold them shorted.
3) Press the reset button and hold it.
4) Power on the box using the power button.
5) Continue to hold reset and pins shorted until Windows bongs,

You can now flash your rom using the USB flashing tool and .img file of your choice, I used the original firmware.

Do a normal attempt at flashing the first time, it will fail at 3% or something like that, next repeat above and do a full erase which should get you to about 5%, You will need to restart the program each time.
The next time you do the flash untick the box that says "Erase bootloader" it will then flash further to about 6%, this is the sweet spot because at this point you no longer need to short out the pins, you can remove the SD card and you can restart and flash as normal and it works.

I hope this helps someone.

Thank you very much guys for all your help with this, especially finless Bob.

A very happy RAD.


PS. Bob, on your next ROM can you make the robot smile, my little girl prefers it when he's happy. lol

[TMx]

Glad its been Sorted
And you have bricked the box by trying to Flash Square M8 Firmware is that right?

[Lokie]

Gosh!
This seems like pure luck! Now to write a script that does all this automatically lol.
Hats off guys.