[ROM] Mecool M8S PRO+ TVStock Nexus ROM (Android TV 7.1)

[WetWilly]

Tweakers connecting USB A-A and doing naughty things !

Not as naughty as using Samsung's eMMC discards from the first run of those 5.1 chips ...

So, I couldn't resist and ... bricked my SEC 652. I think we can officially add SEC 652 to the BIG RED WARNING list with 20170829 firmware. My date code theory makes sense here, the 652 eMMC 5.1 chips would have been made the week before the 701 5.1 chips. I tried several different flashes of several different ROMs using Burn Card Maker 2.0.2 since I don't have a USB A-to-A cable handy. Most of the time the flash would fail almost immediately, but a few times it'd make it to almost the end - what IIRC was the verification stage - before the Android with the red X showed up. Will take the box apart and try the NAND pin short trick later this week.

That all said, this is my first Chinese TV box and the Samsung eMMC issue defeats the whole point of my buying it, which was to flash different (and better) firmware to it. TBH I'd rather kill the box trying to make it better than accept it as-is because, while nice, the stock firmware was not giving me any good reason to retire the Roku. Besides, if the box is totally gone, I'll wait for Black Friday when I'm guessing the new 4K Fire TV dongle will probably be around $39.

I've added the SEC 652 to the BIG RED WARNING. Sorry you had to be the one to make it official. :-(

It's been my experience that the Mask ROM mode reset is pretty reliable, so you should be able to restore your 20170829.121614.V0321 OEM firmware.

[wrxtasy]

HI, I have the M8S_PRO+-V0321_TVStock-20170825 installed. I wanted to update so I tried reboot recovery in the terminal which failed in that the box rebooted but the TV received no signal, just a blank screen. So I tried to boot into recovery by pressing the reset button and plugging in the power. Same result. I am wondering if the rom I have has wiped stock recovery and TWRP. Am I stuck?

Try downloading the regular OTA UPDATE from:
http://freaktab.com/forum/tv-player-...ms-android-7-1

Unzip the package and extract the recovery.img
Then save both of those files, recovery.img and the .zip to a USB stick and try out the reset button. If you can flash that OTA UPDATE.zip do a Factory Reset straight afterwards.

If however you have a box with the bad batch of Samsung 5.1 eMMC Flash storage, you are going to have to get a refund - your box is stuffed like many others.
There is no use whatsoever keeping these faulty boxes as they will fail, further down the line again sometime into the future.

Now with new Kingston eMMC - M8S Pro+ boxes not even having a Reset button, myself as a Moderator on various forums is seriously considering putting out multiple warning to Avoid ALL MECOOL products unless they get their shit together real quick and stop selling dodgy, untested products.

[silicon]

Now with new Kingston eMMC - M8S Pro+ boxes not even having a Reset button, myself as a Moderator on various forums is seriously considering putting out multiple warning to Avoid ALL MECOOL products unless they get their shit together real quick and stop selling dodgy, untested products.

I'm confused. The reset button on M8S Pro+ was in front behind venting. Definitely a weird placement but it was there. Are you saying they removed it altogether?

[wrxtasy]

Yes ! - look at the previous page #53 - there are even photos there showing the reset button is now not even included on the new (supposedly fixed) Kingston eMMC equipped M8S Pro+ boxes.

If you brick such a device and can no longer get into Android to issue a Terminal "reboot recovery" - the average Joe is now completely up shit creek unless they want to go about shorting circuit board pins, which I cannot see many normal people wanting to do.

Dual booting LibreELEC would also be similarly affected.

[WetWilly]

Since I'm sitting here all lonesome with a bricked box, I decided to do some detective work and think I've found the exact problem with these boxes (at least at this moment):

The boxes don't support eMMC 5.1.

Here's why I'm deducing this:
1) Mecool designs/produces boxes with eMMC 5.0 chips, starts production with Samsung eMMC 5.0 chips, all is super great and Magendanz works his magic.
1) Mecool, for whatever reason - cost, availability - starts using Sammy eMMC 5.1 chips. The process of flashing is shot to hell. Initially point finger at Samsung.
2) Mecool suddenly starts using Kingston eMMC chips, problem goes away. Keep blaming Samsung.
3) Me, with nothing else to do, zooms in on and reads the markings on the Kingston eMMC chips from P.X's photo here: http://freaktab.com/filedata/fetch?i...4&d=1507033510
4) The relevant marking on the Kingston chip (3rd line below "Kingston") is "EMMC16G-S100". I find this really interesting datasheet here: https://www.arrow.com/en/products/em...ton-technology
5) According to the datasheet, the Kingston chips are eMMC 5.0.

[Edit]

Not only that, check the site with the datasheet above:
1) Kingston's 16GB eMMC 5.0 chips were discontinued
2) Kingston's current production is, like Samsung's, eMMC 5.1 according to http://www.kingston.com/emmc

I suppose it's possible this is all a coincidence and Mecool just happened to get surplus Kingston eMMC really cheap or something, but it's awfully curious they went back to eMMC 5.0 after this flashing fiasco.

[silicon]

Thanks wrxtasy. I missed the previous post. Ugh. Are these people insane? Who is going to want a box without a reset button? Hard to believe the button was omitted by accident.

[Ozman]

Try downloading the regular OTA UPDATE from:
http://freaktab.com/forum/tv-player-...ms-android-7-1

Unzip the package and extract the recovery.img
Then save both of those files, recovery.img and the .zip to a USB stick and try out the reset button. If you can flash that OTA UPDATE.zip do a Factory Reset straight afterwards.

If however you have a box with the bad batch of Samsung 5.1 eMMC Flash storage, you are going to have to get a refund - your box is stuffed like many others.
There is no use whatsoever keeping these faulty boxes as they will fail, further down the line again sometime into the future.

Now with new Kingston eMMC - M8S Pro+ boxes not even having a Reset button, myself as a Moderator on various forums is seriously considering putting out multiple warning to Avoid ALL MECOOL products unless they get their shit together real quick and stop selling dodgy, untested products.

Many thanks for the quick reply. At present I can boot into the Magendanz rom mentioned above. The ethernet port has stopped working. Dual boot into LE no longer works. If I understand correctly, the first option you suggest is not available to me because I cannot boot into recovery, and the box isn't bricked, it's just severely disabled. Also, I'm guessing the only way to confirm if I have Samsung 5.1 emmc is to remove the top of the box which will be difficult for me to do without damaging the box, but hey, I've got little to lose.

[Edit] 1 I can confirm I have SEC713, B041, KLMAG1JENB, S5G2KXICS.

[Edit 2] I'm really having a good day. I just sent an email to Geekbuying informing them of my defective box and got an automated reply:

We would like to inform you that all Geekbuying staff are having a 7-days off for China National Day here from 1st Oct-7th Oct,2017(GMT+8). Within this period, Order Verification, Email reply, Refund and Shipment will not be in service and all will get back to normal on 8th Oct,2017(GMT+8)

[Sossy]

Many thanks for the quick reply. At present I can boot into the Magendanz rom mentioned above. The ethernet port has stopped working. Dual boot into LE no longer works. If I understand correctly, the first option you suggest is not available to me because I cannot boot into recovery, and the box isn't bricked, it's just severely disabled.

You could also try burning the .img using the burning tool (link on page 1). instructions on how to use it can be found at the program download site

[sirzur]

Yes ! - look at the previous page #53 - there are even photos there showing the reset button is now not even included on the new (supposedly fixed) Kingston eMMC equipped M8S Pro+ boxes.

If you brick such a device and can no longer get into Android to issue a Terminal "reboot recovery" - the average Joe is now completely up shit creek unless they want to go about shorting circuit board pins, which I cannot see many normal people wanting to do.

Dual booting LibreELEC would also be similarly affected.

Could this be part of the same effort to lock down the device (like Mi Box) for widevine? After all you can say the same for Mi Box - no reset button

Most likely. (And they also get to save a 2-cent part.)

[silicon]

Correct me if I'm wrong but couldn't someone just solder in their own reset button?

[trebor]

yes they could...or just short the pins...not a huge problem

[P.X]

Correct me if I'm wrong but couldn't someone just solder in their own reset button?

Hmmm ! I happen to have a spare reset button on an old Mecool M8S Pro+ box that I can no longer use as it has eMMC 5.1 "Bad batch" memory and is bricked !

[silicon]

This one may be bigge than desired but you get the idea. All that should be needed is an off-momentary push button switch. Solder on 2 leads, drill hole in back of case and attach.

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/MSPS103C0/450-1664-ND/529502?WT.mc_id=IQ_7595_G_pla529502&wt.srch=1&wt.medium=cpc&&gclid=CjwKCAjw6szOBRAFEiwAwzixBVDvRusVJaFZNmyXd9GKg3-ya_aeIFgOIrAbNq_blyJllfURLWp7IRoCzTEQAvD_BwE

[trebor]

Yep easy as if needed and they have not isolated the line to the chip or use a different chip
Always expect the unexpected

Or, you could use a surface-mounted button like what's on the M8S Pro, which is actually located under the reset pin hole.

[DKAngel]

yeah im going to solder a switch to my new kingston one then i dont have to worry, but both my boxes in thier current state are working soooo sweetly now

[trebor]

Well as long as the current Revision PCB is in use...piece of cake...
But if they change...then a new story may need to be written

[silicon]

Here is the one I've used in the past: https://www.digikey.com/product-deta...G2015-ND/44577