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Also for me it is not 7&8 counting down from the chip. It is 7&8 counting up from the bottom (as I recall that's 17&18 when counting down from the top??? but I do not remember now).
Bob
Well your right bob it was annoying me. I looked at the data sheet i had and it wasnt the right one anyway i cant find the datasheet for that particular chip which is the same as pollys chip number is 29f64G08CBABA so if your chips a different number check the shorts for that particular chip.
Anyway the pins to short are 17 and 18 the smallest dot on the chip is pin 1 so always go by that. I shorted pin 7&8 as well no damage done. I just tested it on my box is defiantly pins 17&18 ill include a pic you might have to zoom up a little to see the writing properly.
Unfortunately, this thread has quickly become a mess with several methods being quoted and overlapping instructions. I make no claim of being an expert, just that I consider myself proficient at following clear instructions but I am at a loss as to where to begin.
Thank you for trying though.
Just use pins and 17 and 18 assuming you have the same nand chip and use the usb method and probox2 rom. The other user had a different issue he was able to flash. The only clarification was the short location. If something in particular is confusing you let us know
Pin numbering of ICs follows a convention from the days of valves. Looking from the bottom towards the device, which would be from under the chassis where the valve's socket would have its contacts, it was counting clockwise.
Then came ICs with leads sticking through a printed circuit board. Looking from the soldering side: clockwise.
But with Surface Mounted Devices, like the memory IC at hand, we can only look from the top: COUNTER CLOCKWISE goes the numbering because we look from the top. Look for the little round dimple in the ICs encasing, that is no.1 and the PCB printed text helps because there is a little stripe at every fifth pin. With this historical background it is easy to remember.
What the shorting method does: it ruins the processor's ability to get its programme steps from the memory because the addressing gets messed up. This brings the CPU in an exception state that makes it turn to a last resort procedure to repair things. My M8 box, completely dead on first sight as even the blue light did not come up at power up, got revived through a SD card that had been prepared as described in this thread and the shorting trick in the initial stage of booting. I used a needle to make the contact, just lying against the edge of the encasing. Careful with exerting any force! The IC leads are fragile.
What technically is done with the rescue SD card is putting the bootloader.img on the first sectors of the SD card. The image overlaps with where normally the partition table is located and therefore not necessarily describes the actual SD card and space. For those that use Linux there is a nice description how to make one here: http://www.stane1983.com/amlogic/how...rd-from-linux/
By clever use of partitioning tools the full sd card can be formatted while the essential parts of the bootloader.img remain untouched. AMLogic's rescue format programme under Windows essentially does the same. The last resort action of the S802 SoC is to try to boot from the SD card.
The shorting trick is needed when the firmware problem lies late in the booting process, e.g. in loading the linux kernel.
The boot procedures before that think that all is OK, all checksums are OK, and do not allow rescue measures.
So it is like knocking the process off-track early to regain control.
A recommendation:
when touching leads of the memory IC make sure that no electrostatic discharges can occur.
E.g. plug the HDMI cable and hold the shielding of the other side in the hand that holds whatever is touching the circuit.
The USB based rescue mechanism is completely separate from the above. By shorting the pins next to the two USB connectors (on my board no pins have been provided so a soldering iron is needed) the USB controller inside the S802 System-on-a-Chip is brought into a mode where basically the M8 box acts as a programmer of its flash memory. The local CPUs are not used at all. AMLogic's external PC flash programme will issue commands that set the memory addresses and send data to be stored in the flash memory. As there is USB communication overhead this method will be slower but it has of course the advantage of not having to do the shorting trick of the very thin and dense memory pins. The end effect is the same: new firmware in the flash but in the first method it is done under the S802's CPU control via a programme it loaded into RAM from the rescue SD card and started executing. In the USB method the control over the process is external.
For me, following JustMe instructions worked (I skipped step 6). But remote stopped working on probex firmware. Now I can’t turn it on or off and can’t install other firmware as I can’t navigate options in recovery. And is it possible to have soft keys on home screen?
Thanks.
Also having problems with unbricking my m8, I had tried to install finless 1.7, and rebooted. When the box rebooted, I got nothing, no booting, no blue light, nothing.
I followed the instructions on this thread, I formatted my SD card and placed the default uboot.bin, I shorted the pins on the eeprom (17 & 18 or 7 & 8). Windows recognised it as a "world cup box". I tried to flash probox.img to the box with USB burning tool and eventually got the blue light to switch on, but I cannot get into recovery mode or flash a working ROM. USB burning tool reports errors between 3 and 5% but does not proceed any further than that, regardless of how many times I try to reflash. I've noticed there's a step that I have to short the otg USB port, but I don't see where the jumpers are supposed to go, the pic posted above isn't very clear.
Would it be safe to assume that if I short the otg USB pins that I might be able to flash the box successfully with the probox image file?
Could someone also confirm where the points are that need to be shorted for the USB port? Would it be the points directly behind the otg port or in between the second USB port and the HDMI port? Also, which points need to be shorted?
Also having problems with unbricking my m8, I had tried to install finless 1.7, and rebooted. When the box rebooted, I got nothing, no booting, no blue light, nothing.
I followed the instructions on this thread, I formatted my SD card and placed the default uboot.bin, I shorted the pins on the eeprom (17 & 18 or 7 & 8). Windows recognised it as a "world cup box". I tried to flash probox.img to the box with USB burning tool and eventually got the blue light to switch on, but I cannot get into recovery mode or flash a working ROM. USB burning tool reports errors between 3 and 5% but does not proceed any further than that, regardless of how many times I try to reflash. I've noticed there's a step that I have to short the otg USB port, but I don't see where the jumpers are supposed to go, the pic posted above isn't very clear.
Would it be safe to assume that if I short the otg USB pins that I might be able to flash the box successfully with the probox image file?
Could someone also confirm where the points are that need to be shorted for the USB port? Would it be the points directly behind the otg port or in between the second USB port and the HDMI port? Also, which points need to be shorted?
Thanks in advance.
take the sdcard out the 6% is just to get the bootloader on. Just do Same but without the sdcard this time. The computer should find the computer now without the sdcard in. Depending on what box it is only one usb port will work so try the other one if the the one you using isint working
take the sdcard out the 6% is just to get the bootloader on. Just do Same but without the sdcard this time. The computer should find the computer now without the sdcard in. Depending on what box it is only one usb port will work so try the other one if the the one you using isint working
Hi grant,
This is the first chance I've been able to try your suggestion. I'll tell you where I am so far:
I've now got my square m8 being responding to the TV. The TV will pick it up but only when the pins are shorted (pins 7 & 8) and the SD card inserted and also the reset button (the one inside the av socket) is pressed. I also get the blue light when I do this. When I unshort the pins, I get no response from the box at all, same when I remove the SD card. I don't get a recovery screen either way. Any other suggestions?
Thanks for the help.
You will fix this box through usb not through recovery. Open flash tool short them pins with no sdcard in and you should be able to flash pro box if your box don't get picked up keep recovery in try both usb ports. If neither of them work make a sd boot with the bootloader in the root directory of the smlogic tools and copy the the files with the strange characters to your sdcard after making the boot sdcard. It depends on your box how it reacts on of them will work for you. You won't do a full fash with the sd card in untick erase flash if using the sdcard this is enough to flash the boot loader when it fails the the box should light up e every time once you there the probox2 image will flash without problems
You will fix this box through usb not through recovery. Open flash tool short them pins with no sdcard in and you should be able to flash pro box if your box don't get picked up keep recovery in try both usb ports. If neither of them work make a sd boot with the bootloader in the root directory of the smlogic tools and copy the the files with the strange characters to your sdcard after making the boot sdcard. It depends on your box how it reacts on of them will work for you. You won't do a full fash with the sd card in untick erase flash if using the sdcard this is enough to flash the boot loader when it fails the the box should light up e every time once you there the probox2 image will flash without problems
Thank you grant, I got my em8 working on the TV, do I flash my preferred ROM as normal or are there any special prerequisites, such as USB keyboard or mouse that I would need first?
Hi again, I got No lights on or anything on my M8(square one) Box and Ive been trying to do the SD BootCard method.. but Im not sure exactly all the files i need to have on the SD card when i try holding in the reset and plugging the power cord into it.. anyone that can help by chance?
I havent tried the USB/Nand pin method yet..
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