OK folks. So may of the TV sticks have a reset button that puts it into Rock Loader USB mode for flashing ROMs. The Neo X5 is no exception. However, a BAD flash can brick you hard to where even the power button / reset button wont work. This is called a hard brick or corrupted nand. That is the boot loader got corrupted in NAND and cannot even boot into flash mode.
There is another flash mode that is used by the facotry to flash NAND when the NAND chip was new and did not have anything on it. This is called MASK Rom mode. This basically shorts the first NAND chips RB and R/E pins and makes the processor think there is no NAND attached. This puts the unit in MASK Rom Mode. Most TV stick have a set of shorting pads on the board to perform this shorting of the pins to put the unit in MASK Rom mode. The Neo X5 is no exception.
I will now tell you how to perform this proceedure.
WARNING! You will be taking your unit a part! Thus you are probably violating your warrenty!!!!!!
First we must pop off the cover of the Neo X5. Use a thin flat tipped screw driver and insert in into the seam of the top and bottom case above the Android Man's head. Insert it about 1/4 on an inch. Tilt or pry the screw driver handle away from the Android man's head. The blade of the screw driver would be tilting towards the Android Man's head. You will see the edge of the bottom case spread away and the top case should start to pop up and away from the bottom case. Now by hand you should be able to go around the rest of the lid and pop off the "snaps". They are pretty robust and should not break but be careful and try not to break one.
OK now that we have the cover off, we need to remove the 5 screws shown in this picture. Remove them and lift the board out of the case from the opposite side of the head phone and MIC jacks. These jacks go through the bottom case so you cannot lift it out from any other side or you risk damaging the jacks possibly. So again lift the board up out of the case from the side opposite the jacks.
BECAREFUL of the Wifi Antenna wire!!! The patch antenna is taped to the side of the bottom case. The wire is pretty long but do not pull on it or you risk breaking it off from the board! Again it is pleanty long to keep the board with the bottom case and do this procedure. Just be careful.
Now that we have the board out of the case I will show you where the shorting pads are on the board. These are called T23 and T24. They are just below the NAND chip in the corner of the board. See below:
OK now I will explain how to put the unit in MASK Rom mode.
One requirement is needed. That is you must have installed the drivers to support using the RKBatch Tool 1.5. This is the tool used and supplied by Minix to flash ROMs. If you do not already have the drivers installed, then once you put the unit into MASK Rom mode, you will then need to follow the instructions for installing the drivers. I will not explain driver install here as these instructions are readily available all over the Web.
1) On your PC run the RKBatch Tool 1.5. At the top right of the tool, click the little box with 3 dots in it and using the file browser locate the factory update.img file.
2) Plug the micro USB cable into the X5 OTG port and into your PC. On your PC please use a port on the mother board (back of PC) and do not go through a USB hub. Some PC's the front USB ports might actually be a USB HUB. The back ports on your PC's mother board are usually not a HUB.
3) Plug the power adapter supplied with the X5 into the power jack.
4) Now the harder part. You almost need 3 hands to do this
But I was able to do it myself.
Short the T23 and T24 pads with a paper clip or something you are sure is conductive metal.
Now while shorting those pads, press and hold the reset button (not the power button).
While shorting the pads AND holding the reset button, press and hold the power button for about 2 seconds.
Windows should bong that it detected a device.
5) If you had the flash tool drivers install before you should now see the #1 box in the RKBtach tool show a blue box. If you did not have the drivers installed, then you need to do that now.
If you do not have a blue box but instead have a green box, then your are in normal flash mode. If you get this try to flash the ROM anyway as you were not really bricked. But the goal here is to have a blue box which means you are in MASK Rom flash mode.
If the #1 box is still grey and you did not hear windows BONG that a device was found, then you missed the proceedure and need to try again. The hardest part is making sure you have those shorting pads shorted!!! If you keep missing this, you might consider soldering on some thin wires to those pads so you can make sure you are shorting it.
6) Once you do have the blue box, then just press the RESTORE button in the flash tool. Do not use the upgrade button! If all goes well it should flash the ROM and give you no errors. You should now be unbricked and back to normal.
Enjoy!
Bob
There is another flash mode that is used by the facotry to flash NAND when the NAND chip was new and did not have anything on it. This is called MASK Rom mode. This basically shorts the first NAND chips RB and R/E pins and makes the processor think there is no NAND attached. This puts the unit in MASK Rom Mode. Most TV stick have a set of shorting pads on the board to perform this shorting of the pins to put the unit in MASK Rom mode. The Neo X5 is no exception.
I will now tell you how to perform this proceedure.
WARNING! You will be taking your unit a part! Thus you are probably violating your warrenty!!!!!!
First we must pop off the cover of the Neo X5. Use a thin flat tipped screw driver and insert in into the seam of the top and bottom case above the Android Man's head. Insert it about 1/4 on an inch. Tilt or pry the screw driver handle away from the Android man's head. The blade of the screw driver would be tilting towards the Android Man's head. You will see the edge of the bottom case spread away and the top case should start to pop up and away from the bottom case. Now by hand you should be able to go around the rest of the lid and pop off the "snaps". They are pretty robust and should not break but be careful and try not to break one.
OK now that we have the cover off, we need to remove the 5 screws shown in this picture. Remove them and lift the board out of the case from the opposite side of the head phone and MIC jacks. These jacks go through the bottom case so you cannot lift it out from any other side or you risk damaging the jacks possibly. So again lift the board up out of the case from the side opposite the jacks.
BECAREFUL of the Wifi Antenna wire!!! The patch antenna is taped to the side of the bottom case. The wire is pretty long but do not pull on it or you risk breaking it off from the board! Again it is pleanty long to keep the board with the bottom case and do this procedure. Just be careful.
Now that we have the board out of the case I will show you where the shorting pads are on the board. These are called T23 and T24. They are just below the NAND chip in the corner of the board. See below:
OK now I will explain how to put the unit in MASK Rom mode.
One requirement is needed. That is you must have installed the drivers to support using the RKBatch Tool 1.5. This is the tool used and supplied by Minix to flash ROMs. If you do not already have the drivers installed, then once you put the unit into MASK Rom mode, you will then need to follow the instructions for installing the drivers. I will not explain driver install here as these instructions are readily available all over the Web.
1) On your PC run the RKBatch Tool 1.5. At the top right of the tool, click the little box with 3 dots in it and using the file browser locate the factory update.img file.
2) Plug the micro USB cable into the X5 OTG port and into your PC. On your PC please use a port on the mother board (back of PC) and do not go through a USB hub. Some PC's the front USB ports might actually be a USB HUB. The back ports on your PC's mother board are usually not a HUB.
3) Plug the power adapter supplied with the X5 into the power jack.
4) Now the harder part. You almost need 3 hands to do this
But I was able to do it myself.Short the T23 and T24 pads with a paper clip or something you are sure is conductive metal.
Now while shorting those pads, press and hold the reset button (not the power button).
While shorting the pads AND holding the reset button, press and hold the power button for about 2 seconds.
Windows should bong that it detected a device.
5) If you had the flash tool drivers install before you should now see the #1 box in the RKBtach tool show a blue box. If you did not have the drivers installed, then you need to do that now.
If you do not have a blue box but instead have a green box, then your are in normal flash mode. If you get this try to flash the ROM anyway as you were not really bricked. But the goal here is to have a blue box which means you are in MASK Rom flash mode.
If the #1 box is still grey and you did not hear windows BONG that a device was found, then you missed the proceedure and need to try again. The hardest part is making sure you have those shorting pads shorted!!! If you keep missing this, you might consider soldering on some thin wires to those pads so you can make sure you are shorting it.
6) Once you do have the blue box, then just press the RESTORE button in the flash tool. Do not use the upgrade button! If all goes well it should flash the ROM and give you no errors. You should now be unbricked and back to normal.
Enjoy!
Bob
Attached Files
.gif "HELL YEA!!")
Many thanks from me, in the name of all guys with bricked Neo X5 
Isn't the WiFi antenna at the bottom of the device?
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