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

[polys]

yes you are correct - these files have been encrypted by matricom developers so no one steals their "not so great code".

So if you are running windows 7 or above this message will pop up when you insert the sd card into pc.

Make sure that all files are present and nothing else upsets those files. then you are ready to start recovery. Remember its possible you wont even get a picture when recovering but make sure when you power on you have your sd card in (not usb) the toothpic firmly inserted and pressed down. Then power on keeping tootchpic pressed for a full minute. Release and wait about 30 mins. Power off by taking plug out and remove sd card. Then power back on. remember to have hdmi cable installed and network cable disconnected

post back your results

Did exactly as instructed. Created the magic SD card on an 8gb card, safely removed from my PC, inserted it in the box while turned off with only hdmi in (no ethernet cable), powered on using the toothpick method holding it for about a minute, then left it for about half an hour (black screen throughout the process). I then plugged the power out, removed the SD card and put the power back in. Blue light on but black screen What's next?

[kerikhaos]

Did exactly as instructed. Created the magic SD card on an 8gb card, safely removed from my PC, inserted it in the box while turned off with only hdmi in (no ethernet cable), powered on using the toothpick method holding it for about a minute, then left it for about half an hour (black screen throughout the process). I then plugged the power out, removed the SD card and put the power back in. Blue light on but black screen What's next?

If your still getting a blue light and no picture you need to take the nand scrub route using daxstars files. Place the 2x files in the same magic sad card you prepared earlier ( the original files put them in a folder temporarily ). Remove power off device and plug in sd card. Toothpic pressed in while holiding down place power in and keep holding toothpick. Keep holding toothpic upto 2 mins to be sure it picks up the process. Wait 10-20 mins for NAND clearing.

return the original magic ad files to root and remove the daxstar files. Start toothpic recovery process again with sd card inserted. Take note if the screen flashes briefly a solid colour. Again you may not see any images on screen so wait 30-35 mins

if still nothing. Unscrew the 4x screws under the rubber legs and slowly pry the bottom shelf open. Carefully remove the board (careful as there is a wifi connector cable connecting to the base) - look for any naked damage marks on the board. Try process again with the motherboard outside the case

post results back here

[polys]

If your still getting a blue light and no picture you need to take the nand scrub route using daxstars files. Place the 2x files in the same magic sad card you prepared earlier ( the original files put them in a folder temporarily ). Remove power off device and plug in sd card. Toothpic pressed in while holiding down place power in and keep holding toothpick. Keep holding toothpic upto 2 mins to be sure it picks up the process. Wait 10-20 mins for NAND clearing.

return the original magic ad files to root and remove the daxstar files. Start toothpic recovery process again with sd card inserted. Take note if the screen flashes briefly a solid colour. Again you may not see any images on screen so wait 30-35 mins

if still nothing. Unscrew the 4x screws under the rubber legs and slowly pry the bottom shelf open. Carefully remove the board (careful as there is a wifi connector cable connecting to the base) - look for any naked damage marks on the board. Try process again with the motherboard outside the case

post results back here

Success!!! After using dexstars nand scrubber and putting the magic SD card files back on the SD and booting using the toothpick method, the screen went immediately green and started installing. Installation finished giving the 2 expected errors according to Benny Bennasi. Now how do i safely get from 1.1.5 to Openelec? Really appreciate your help kerikhaos

[mannyp]

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

Success!!! After using dexstars nand scrubber and putting the magic SD card files back on the SD and booting using the toothpick method, the screen went immediately green and started installing. Installation finished giving the 2 expected errors according to Benny Bennasi. Now how do i safely get from 1.1.5 to Openelec? Really appreciate your help kerikhaos

Update to 1.1.6 before installing OE

Edit: typo

[polys]

Update to 1.1.5 before installing OE

You mean to 1.1.6?

[mannyp]

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

You mean to 1.1.6?

Yes. Stupid phone. I'm sorry.
1.1.6

[mannyp]

You mean to 1.1.6?

follow these steps

http://wiki.matricom.net/i/MX2_Firmware#1.1.6

[polys]

Ok, I've managed to install 1.1.6 which booted up fine. However, when I powered it off and went to boot into recovery via the toothpick method (with no SD card inserted), the screen remained black. I think there is something wrong with 1.1.6 messing up with the recovery. The reason I wanted to get into recovery is to install codesnake's OpenELEC-G18REF_MX2-4.2.1.zip.

[mannyp]

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

Ok, I've managed to install 1.1.6 which booted up fine. However, when I powered it off and went to boot into recovery via the toothpick method (with no SD card inserted), the screen remained black. I think there is something wrong with 1.1.6 messing up with the recovery. The reason I wanted to get into recovery is to install codesnake's OpenELEC-G18REF_MX2-4.2.1.zip.

Hopefully you can get it to work because those are the files I used and my boxes work fine. Did you reformat the sd card before loading 1.1.6?

[polys]

Hopefully you can get it to work because those are the files I used and my boxes work fine. Did you reformat the sd card before loading 1.1.6?

No, I didn't. I just moved all the original files/folders of the magic SD card (containing 1.1.5) on a temp folder on my PC and copied the 3 files found in MX2-full-1.1.6-firmware-RC.zip (.aml script, recovery.img and mx2update.zip) on the same SD card and installed 1.1.6

[mannyp]

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

No, I didn't. I just moved all the original files/folders of the magic SD card (containing 1.1.5) on a temp folder on my PC and copied the 3 files found in MX2-full-1.1.6-firmware-RC.zip (.aml script, recovery.img and mx2update.zip) on the same SD card and installed 1.1.6

I don't know if that cloud have cause it.

Now on one of my boxes (which was swapped by matricom) if I would leave it alone overnight and I tried to get to recover the the morning it would work. It was odd. Try that

[polys]

I don't know if that cloud have cause it.

Now on one of my boxes (which was swapped by matricom) if I would leave it alone overnight and I tried to get to recover the the morning it would work. It was odd. Try that

I'm going to bed now anyway so I have no other choice than to try again tomorrow The box boots fine in 1.1.6 though, so the problem is that it won't go into recovery.

[kerikhaos]

you will need to go back to my instructions on page 20 which i detail very specifically the process to format your box in such a way which will allow you to update successfully to 1.1.6 matricom fw.

I had been searching for a method for ages and was about to give up when somehow i found a combination of steps which allowed to make the jump to flash OE on my MX boxes.

The problem is the newer firmware they ship with - they somehow force the nand to not allow changes as easily as before - thats why the bennibenassi method of flashing will most likely fail when trying to go from 1.1.5 to 1.1.6.

The trick is to go back to an earlier mbox firmware (original chinese fw) and then flash by conventional methods the true matricom update (1.1.5) and not the magic sd version. The magic sd version has been created to wake up the box if for some reason gets semi bricked or jammed from a corrupted firmware.

Once you go back to an earlier mbox fw you can upgrade to 1.1.5 perfectly and then with a specific recovery process make the jump to 1.1.6 - thats the hardest part of all once you on 1.1.6 the rest is super easy.

go back and read my fool proof set of instructions and you should be able to go to open elec if you follow correctly

[kerikhaos]

you will need to go back to my instructions on page 20 which i detail very specifically the process to format your box in such a way which will allow you to update successfully to 1.1.6 matricom fw.

I had been searching for a method for ages and was about to give up when somehow i found a combination of steps which allowed to make the jump to flash OE on my MX boxes.

The problem is the newer firmware they ship with - they somehow force the nand to not allow changes as easily as before - thats why the bennibenassi method of flashing will most likely fail when trying to go from 1.1.5 to 1.1.6.

The trick is to go back to an earlier mbox firmware (original chinese fw) and then flash by conventional methods the true matricom update (1.1.5) and not the magic sd version. The magic sd version has been created to wake up the box if for some reason gets semi bricked or jammed from a corrupted firmware.

Once you go back to an earlier mbox fw you can upgrade to 1.1.5 perfectly and then with a specific recovery process make the jump to 1.1.6 - thats the hardest part of all once you on 1.1.6 the rest is super easy.

go back and read my fool proof set of instructions and you should be able to go to open elec if you follow correctly

here i have copied and pasted the post to save you searching

ok success everyone - i have managed to go to matricom fw 1.1.6 successfully with the correct mtd

dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 00800000 00200000 "bootloader"
mtd1: 00800000 00200000 "logo"
mtd2: 00800000 00200000 "aml_logo"
mtd3: 00800000 00200000 "recovery"
mtd4: 00800000 00200000 "boot"
mtd5: 40000000 00200000 "system"
mtd6: 20000000 00200000 "cache"
mtd7: 10000000 00200000 "backup"
mtd8: 18c000000 00200000 "data"

and now i am running the newest openelec fw with all functions and settings being saved upon reboot

its taken me almost 2 months of playing around but i finally found a way to do it ( but the process as detailed as i have recorded in my notes has not been repeated to prove its 100% proof of success)

I am sure some of the steps i took were maybe unnecessary but i will list them as i did when performing the upgrade as this for me worked when everything else did.

So on with the background of my HD18 v2.22 MX2 boxes -

1. My boxes were pre installed with the superior chinese MBOX rom dated 03-sept-2014 (these as is failed the 1.1.6 process once taken to 1.1.5 via magic sd)

2. I downloaded an older mbox fw from acemax website which the rom was dated 28-Mar-2014 (it was labelled as July-2014 on the acemax website though so not sure whats going on with that)

3. Flashed using toothpic method with existing pre prepared magic SD card but only used the 3x original files from the acemax mbox firmware

4. Upgrade booted and began immediately with success - rebooted removed sd card and access the interface only to check version in settings

5. with no sd instered i booted toothpic recovery. performed a data wipe + cache wipe (already had the 3x files from 1.1.5 original matricom fw files in root of same magic sd) and rebooted with the magic sd card containing original 1.1.5 files (not bennis version) and hard flashed to 1.1.5 fw successfully.

6. I did not boot into the fw i went back to recovery toothpic method (not from sd card). Performed a data wipe and cache wipe. (Had prepared on same magic sd card original 1.1.6 matricom files). Rebooted with toothpic method with SD card inserted. Upgrade began and successfully upgraded to 1.1.6 and automatically restarted booting into the new installed 1.1.6 matricom fw.

7. I entered the new os and went straight to settings and storage to check if the system detected the hard disk and it did 100% all partitions were recognised so it was a good sign.

8. I installed an offline terminal emulator apk i had on my usb stick and ran cat /proc/mtd and behold i was presented with the new mtd layout.

9. With this success i decided to go further and prove success with the newer matricom roms (as of this post 1.2.2 fw) and

10. same process i could jump to version 1.2.0 right from 1.1.6 (no need to use any fw versions in between). Prepared sd stick but first went into recovery without sd card inserted and did a wipe again of everything. Rebooted and did a toothpic recovery and auto started the upgrade to 1.2.0. Success (the entire boot images changed with matricom from this firmware as did the newer recovery they had built into their fw.

11. booted into new 1.2.0 os and checked again the mtd layout and if the settings storage section detected all partitions correctly hard disk wise etc. It did.

12. Same as before i got ready the 1.2.2 files (there is an extra gapps installer also you will need to run after the success installation of the mx2update file). toothpic recovery first with no sd inserted to do a data wipe and cache wipe. The reboot with SD card inserted again toothpic recovery starts the upgrade to 1.2.2 then when completed i installed the gapps package and rebooted. All passed the test, all storage partitions detected and all mtd partitions showing up as 100% active.

13. for reference openelec does not install over 1.2.2 as the aborted message says something about version being wrong i guess this is because the script is checking for an older fw but finds a newer one and then fails. I flash back to 1.1.6 directly from 1.2.2 and installs great then again after i flash openelec and goes on perfectly. Tested with my setuip - rebooted all settings and tweaks remained in memory.

So with this success story i am a happy bunny

all thats left for me to do now is to grab another box and simulate the same thing to prove this method of installation. Make note also that i did not use any brute force uart nand cleaning methods nor from dexstars files nor from a hardware uart connection. This was done with existing fw and the magic sd card i had prepared from ages ago.

Hope this helps some of you

[polys]

Thanks. I will give this a try when I get home today.
In any case, I'm pretty sure that my problem is a bit different since it does go from 1.1.5 to 1.1.6 and keeps all settings on each reboot. I even set up Kodi RC (came out yesterday) and everything was ok. The problem is going into recovery from 1.1.6.