Solution for stuck in Android load AML8726-MX Dual Core TV Box Android 4.2.2

[fatfreddiescat]

So:

When I got to look at what was going on using UART/Putty it seems it was a blank box with just the CPU looking for something in the SDcard slot to boot from

Doing a full format and installing uboot.bin with 'SDCardMaker' made the SDcard visible to the CPU to load the other files from it.


'nand' had to be effectively erased for the CPU to look for the SDcard.

It then would start to load the ROM files from the SDcard.

[kerikhaos]

So:

When I got to look at what was going on using UART/Putty it seems it was a blank box with just the CPU looking for something in the SDcard slot to boot from

Doing a full format and installing uboot.bin with 'SDCardMaker' made the SDcard visible to the CPU to load the other files from it.


'nand' had to be effectively erased for the CPU to look for the SDcard.

It then would start to load the ROM files from the SDcard.

a very informative post, thanks for that im sure its going to help advanced users attempting to recover the black screen box.....its slightly unorthadox method which i would use but ive noticed that different attempts and strategies give various results with the recovery of this box....which is strange why its so hit and miss....

i got one question however....its about your sd card.....can you please inform us of you are using a micro SD with an adapter oris it a pure standard sized SDHC memory card????

i think this is also where people have various results.....the type of sd used

[fatfreddiescat]

a very informative post, thanks for that im sure its going to help advanced users attempting to recover the black screen box.....its slightly unorthadox method which i would use but ive noticed that different attempts and strategies give various results with the recovery of this box....which is strange why its so hit and miss....

i got one question however....its about your sd card.....can you please inform us of you are using a micro SD with an adapter oris it a pure standard sized SDHC memory card????

i think this is also where people have various results.....the type of sd used

I just double checked, I thought I had used my sony card but it was actually a Sandisk Ultra HC class 10 micro SD in a Sandisk adapter.

I'm not sure that the SDcard was the difference between success and failure in bringing the box back to life, the ROM went into a loop looking for something on the ethernet port. There was nothing on the HDMI to the TV at this time, so the box still looked dead except I could see it wasn't on the console screen in PUTTY via the UART connector and the blue light.

I'm guessing that shorting the pins worked in getting the NAND to erase or really mangled it when I tried to flash openelec, it was only when the NAND was erased that the CPU looked at the SDcard slot for something to boot from. (there is only one communication MX - PC, at this point).

Once you get something loaded, even if it is still not showing something via HDMI you should then have two way connection via UART and so can then send commands via PUTTY and perform a 'nand erase whole' which will get the CPU to look at the SDcard for something to boot from. You can't just dump files onto the SDcard, it has to be prepared as a boot device with SDcardMaker.

When the CPU is looking for the boot device in the SDcard slot, at that point it is looping the command and there is no need to do anything other than slot the card in, no pins to bridge or buttons to push.

If anybody has a box with the blue light on but no HDMI they want lend me, then I will have another go and try with different SDcards and narrow down as to which pins erase the NAND whilst monitoring it on the UART via PUTTY and hopefully have a working box to return to them.

edit: looking at the log from PUTTY posted earlier:
23/uboot/arch/arm/cpu/aml_meson/m8/firmware/pll.cpll_init0x00000079▒EEEE

WHOOPS

[kerikhaos]

I just double checked, I thought I had used my sony card but it was actually a Sandisk Ultra HC class 10 micro SD in a Sandisk adapter.

I'm not sure that the SDcard was the difference between success and failure in bringing the box back to life, the ROM went into a loop looking for something on the ethernet port. There was nothing on the HDMI to the TV at this time, so the box still looked dead except I could see it wasn't on the console screen in PUTTY via the UART connector and the blue light.

I'm guessing that shorting the pins worked in getting the NAND to erase or really mangled it when I tried to flash openelec, it was only when the NAND was erased that the CPU looked at the SDcard slot for something to boot from. (there is only one communication MX - PC, at this point).

Once you get something loaded, even if it is still not showing something via HDMI you should then have two way connection via UART and so can then send commands via PUTTY and perform a 'nand erase whole' which will get the CPU to look at the SDcard for something to boot from. You can't just dump files onto the SDcard, it has to be prepared as a boot device with SDcardMaker.

When the CPU is looking for the boot device in the SDcard slot, at that point it is looping the command and there is no need to do anything other than slot the card in, no pins to bridge or buttons to push.

If anybody has a box with the blue light on but no HDMI they want lend me, then I will have another go and try with different SDcards and narrow down as to which pins erase the NAND whilst monitoring it on the UART via PUTTY and hopefully have a working box to return to them.

edit: looking at the log from PUTTY posted earlier:
23/uboot/arch/arm/cpu/aml_meson/m8/firmware/pll.cpll_init0x00000079▒EEEE

WHOOPS

when i have some time the weekend i will try to simulate your experience. I have ordered another sd card - class 10 kingston micro with adapter. I will try do some various tests on a dead box i cant revive and see if your method wakes it up....otherwise this one is for the scraps......

particular this dead box i have seems to be rotating the service on the ethernet as if i put in a network cable in it starts to blink on and off as if its starts up then powers down. I remember someone mentioning if the box does this its enterered some kind of mode but i cant snap it out of this mode. It wont read anything sd etc....could be a cooked board but i will investigate as neither uart worked for this box

did you use any particular drivers to detect your mx box on your pc? Also what OS are you using 32bit or 64?

i will post the weekend my findings too using your method and fingers crossed it brings back this one box out of the hundreds ive fixed so far

thanks again for the input

[node]

Kerihaos I tried 1.14b/1.15/ Fw none is loading I have a 1.15 from another post that one is loading but when I load Kodi on the box I get "Waiting on External storage" again this is my board fre18

[fatfreddiescat]

when i have some time the weekend i will try to simulate your experience. I have ordered another sd card - class 10 kingston micro with adapter. I will try do some various tests on a dead box i cant revive and see if your method wakes it up....otherwise this one is for the scraps......

particular this dead box i have seems to be rotating the service on the ethernet as if i put in a network cable in it starts to blink on and off as if its starts up then powers down. I remember someone mentioning if the box does this its enterered some kind of mode but i cant snap it out of this mode. It wont read anything sd etc....could be a cooked board but i will investigate as neither uart worked for this box

did you use any particular drivers to detect your mx box on your pc? Also what OS are you using 32bit or 64?

i will post the weekend my findings too using your method and fingers crossed it brings back this one box out of the hundreds ive fixed so far

thanks again for the input

It would be great if you could replicate what I did and was able to document it more clearly for others to try.

I used my Windows 8.1 x64 laptops SDcard slot (realtek chipset) to make the SDcard with 'SDcardMaker_eng' (run as administrator).

Here are the links to the USB to Serial adapter and driver I used it with:

http://www.****.co.uk/itm/261697350956?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageNa me=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.prolific.com.tw/UserFiles/files/PL2303_Prolific_DriverInstaller_v1_10_0_20140925.zip

The laptop I used to connect to the MX2 via the UART using the above adapter was a IBM T30 running WINXP and PUTTY:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Baud Rate set to 115200, NOT the default 9600,or you will just get a load of garbage on the screen.

There are no drivers specifically needed to connect to the MX2, the USB serial adapter sorts that out and putty is used to display the output.

To connect to the MX2 UART, the square pad is ground, the one next to it is power (do not connect anything to it) and the other 2 are the Tx and Rx pads, try swapping these two around if no joy.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Edit: PS when my box was showing the ethernet looping looking for a response in putty the box would not respond to the reset button during boot or show output on HDMI but I could communicate via console if I rebooted the box and pressed enter on tyhe laptop when the box said to, so as to stop it booting any further and allow me to send commands to the box. This is when I sent the command to 'nand erase whole'

The image file I used to finally get it up and running was the one posted earlier in this thread by the OP BenniBenassi, so a big thanks to him and all others that posted useful info on here and slatedroid forum as well as androidgadget forum.

[fatfreddiescat]

This seems to show possibly the same method to recover the MX2 (but using the MX2 ROM in my post, not sure if the pins he is shorting are equivalent to the reset button on our boxes or if it is a way to erase nand, for mine the reset button wouldn't do anything, the nand had to be erased for the cpu to look for the SDcard.

http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?23845-Unbrick-recovery-g18ref-box-when-upgrade-doesnt-work-anymore

[kerikhaos]

It would be great if you could replicate what I did and was able to document it more clearly for others to try.

I used my Windows 8.1 x64 laptops SDcard slot (realtek chipset) to make the SDcard with 'SDcardMaker_eng' (run as administrator).

Here are the links to the USB to Serial adapter and driver I used it with:

http://www.****.co.uk/itm/261697350956?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageNa me=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.prolific.com.tw/UserFiles/files/PL2303_Prolific_DriverInstaller_v1_10_0_20140925.zip

The laptop I used to connect to the MX2 via the UART using the above adapter was a IBM T30 running WINXP and PUTTY:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Baud Rate set to 115200, NOT the default 9600,or you will just get a load of garbage on the screen.

There are no drivers specifically needed to connect to the MX2, the USB serial adapter sorts that out and putty is used to display the output.

To connect to the MX2 UART, the square pad is ground, the one next to it is power (do not connect anything to it) and the other 2 are the Tx and Rx pads, try swapping these two around if no joy.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Edit: PS when my box was showing the ethernet looping looking for a response in putty the box would not respond to the reset button during boot or show output on HDMI but I could communicate via console if I rebooted the box and pressed enter on tyhe laptop when the box said to, so as to stop it booting any further and allow me to send commands to the box. This is when I sent the command to 'nand erase whole'

The image file I used to finally get it up and running was the one posted earlier in this thread by the OP BenniBenassi, so a big thanks to him and all others that posted useful info on here and slatedroid forum as well as androidgadget forum.

thanks again for info, its the same files and program i use but your UART adapter is different. You are using the 4 pin connector (its the very first technological connections for basic systems). I have no tried my luck with the more modern 6 pin UART connector which i have had better results but for this example with the one box giving me grief i am willing to try new things as now its eating at my OCD condition....lol

Because the fault with this specific box is as soon as you power it on it has no effect whether you hold down reset or if you have an sd inserted etc its just stuck on black screen of death plus the powering on and off of the ethernet connection.....

my other colleagues have insisted its a bad board but i cant sleep at night till im sure....so this weekend i will be able to confirm if your technique is something which i have overlooked. I have just bought another sd card class 10 kingston which i have found is very compatible with devices all round so i will happy to give that a go too with the sd making process.

will keep everyone posted

[kerikhaos]

Kerihaos I tried 1.14b/1.15/ Fw none is loading I have a 1.15 from another post that one is loading but when I load Kodi on the box I get "Waiting on External storage" again this is my board fre18

nope yours is a g18ref board version 2.21 which is the one before the most recent ones. So for firmware you should be more than fine with compatibilty

please go to settings -> storage -> and confirm that you have a 5gb usable partition on your system before trying anything else.....

if these partitions show 0 you installation has gone wrong and will need re-flashing with one of the mbox firmwares since matricom is not letting you get the access to your disk space. Its only a possibility that your partition is corrupt or damage and not letting you use it period.

make sure you have no other sd card or usb stick in the box when you do your checks

[fatfreddiescat]

Not sure I understand what you mean about 4 v 6 pin, except to say that 6 pin can be used exactly the same as the 4 pin adapter- just don't use the DTR and CTS pins.

[kerikhaos]

Not sure I understand what you mean about 4 v 6 pin, except to say that 6 pin can be used exactly the same as the 4 pin adapter- just don't use the DTR and CTS pins.

exactly this, these were the primary version of the UART before they started using the 5 pin and 6 pin ones.....my original post was just to confirm that the 5-6 pin versions are indeed backward compatible and that it should not be a problem for people using the many versions because they should all do the same thing.....but as you said the 6 pin versions are also used for different type of board connections

[fatfreddiescat]

exactly this, these were the primary version of the UART before they started using the 5 pin and 6 pin ones.....my original post was just to confirm that the 5-6 pin versions are indeed backward compatible and that it should not be a problem for people using the many versions because they should all do the same thing.....but as you said the 6 pin versions are also used for different type of board connections

Singing from the same hymn sheet

[kerikhaos]

Singing from the same hymn sheet

:-)

[node]

nope yours is a g18ref board version 2.21 which is the one before the most recent ones. So for firmware you should be more than fine with compatibilty

please go to settings -> storage -> and confirm that you have a 5gb usable partition on your system before trying anything else.....

if these partitions show 0 you installation has gone wrong and will need re-flashing with one of the mbox firmwares since matricom is not letting you get the access to your disk space. Its only a possibility that your partition is corrupt or damage and not letting you use it period.

make sure you have no other sd card or usb stick in the box when you do your checks

Kerikhaos, Under storage I see Total Space "1.00GB" Apps "139mb" available "780mb" Internal SD card "Mount SD Card"

[kerikhaos]

Kerikhaos, Under storage I see Total Space "1.00GB" Apps "139mb" available "780mb" Internal SD card "Mount SD Card"

ok, we have at least found out why your getting problems. Your system is giving you incorrect partition sizes. a standard g18ref board gives 8gb space. Broken down into system partitions and recovery partition the usable space for you to use as you please for apps etc should be in he 5.x gb region and not what you have stated.

do you any mbox firmwares you could try force flashing? Do not use the recovery once you have accessed recovery. you need to prep the sd card so when its in before you use toothpick and power on method the installation begins automatically