M8S m8 V9_0 20150307 AP6330 out of ideas

[t0rx309]

Hi everyone!
For the last few days I am trying to get that box back to live. What I've tried so far:
* Usb burning tool, different version of it, various roms, successful burns most of the time but the box freezes on logo/ boot animation afterwards (about 30 attempts so far)
* Boot card method/ ota updates- some successful installations, but again similar results/ freezes on s812 logo or later at boot animations
* Twrp- I can flash zips, but only openelec 5.95/ 6.0 will sometimes boot properly, but it will freeze soon anyways.
* Roms I've tried so far: Matricom, Megatron, Stock images and zips from Chinagadgets, anything for M8S s812 I that I found on Freaktab/ Mega/ Xda/ Google drive.....
In Twrp I can often see "Unable to mount data/ cache" etc, I can temporally "fix" that by reformatting those partitions in Twrp, but it always comes back.

Yesterday, after three days battle, for the first time I used "force erase all" option in USB burning tool. The flash of cyx_m8s_v8.6_ap6330_8g2g_kodi_addons_ota_150908_US B was successful as it always is, but this time to my surprise box fully booted and it was fully functional, no problems at all. (then I also checked the Emmc memory with an app from Playstore, it came out OK) UNTIL the first reboot- then it stopped booting again. From now I am trying all the above methods, bootcard, twrp, USB burning tool with "force erase all", all kinds of firmwares but no luck.

*The Cpu is for sure s812, I checked under the heatsink; nand/emmc (?) is Foresee ncefes78-08g
*I think the heatsink is placed properly, and the cpu doesn't seem to go too hot
*Power supply "seems" to work ok, but maybe I could try another one, as I know that unstable Psu can cause similar problems/ freezes sometimes. I am also trying to boot the box with usb power connected from my power bank which can output 5v 2a (same as stock power supply) but the results are not any better.
* The only firmware I can always flash and run is Openelec- it will freeze very soon, often at first Openelec logo. I think that Openelec boots sometimes because it is very lightweight and most of this system can be stored in ram. Something in filesytem must be causing freezes.

I know there must be a method of running system from extSD card, but so far I couldn't get that to work.
Any thoughts,suggestions?- pleeease help, I am out of ideas. Thanks in advance, have a nice day everybody.

[bluesmanuk]

Hi t0rx309 and welcome to the forums.

It is good to see that you have clearly carried out some research and have tried many options to get your box to work correctly, which is to your great credit.

Having seemed to find at least one firmware that was compatible and did work does tend to suggest that there may be a hardware based issue, although by no means conclusive.

Is there anything on the board itself that may not look right such as a blown capacitor?

[t0rx309]

Thanks for your kind words @ bluesmanuk. The board look almost like new, I can't see any problems with it. The stock wi-fi antenna was completely unusable in my case, so I slightly modded this design by adding a rp-sma connector that allows me to connect external antennas to the box. That mod worked very well for me, and those problems I have now with the box started after my first firmware modification attempt. I'll post some pictures later. I also found some power adapter which outputs 5v/2.1a, I just need to cut its original connector and replace it with one that fits the m8s. Also, I don't think that Foresee makes the most wanted Nand chips, maybe there is a problem with it although it passed the the test I did with an app.

[t0rx309]

I've dd'ed Alexelec image to a sd card, it starts but it also detects the file system as read only, so it won't run. I guess with some better linux skills I could get it to run. Sorry for my English guys.

[t0rx309]

1. I found this post, where similar issue is described- the system works only until the first reboot and it turns out that the firmware from one of MXIII boxes works better than any of' M8S's firmwares.
2. My box is the same as MXlll PLUS.
3. Not a single firmware that was made for M8S will work properly on my device. I've tried 'almost everything' that is available, including openelec,libreelec etc.
4. I can run almost anything that was prepared for MXIII. I can even dualboot android with libreelec, ubuntu mate (armbian) etc.
5. I am using 108L1 for MXIII Plus_20160604 from tronsmart site. It is quite good lollipop rom, much better that stock kit kat I bought the box with.
6. I am using Kernel Auditor to boost the performance, together with some other tweaks.
7. This old crappy box is now performing really well, no problems with 1080p videos in Youtube or Kodi. I am running Chrome in desktop mode without major lags, even youtube in chrome works quite well. I am playing with some Mame/Psx emulation and this s812 is still doing pretty good job, antutu score is about 40000.

[bluesmanuk]

Excellent news that I am sure will help others too.

[t0rx309]

thanks bluesmanuk

[petarl]

1. I found this post, where similar issue is described- the system works only until the first reboot and it turns out that the firmware from one of MXIII boxes works better than any of' M8S's firmwares.
2. My box is the same as MXlll PLUS.
3. Not a single firmware that was made for M8S will work properly on my device. I've tried 'almost everything' that is available, including openelec,libreelec etc.
4. I can run almost anything that was prepared for MXIII. I can even dualboot android with libreelec, ubuntu mate (armbian) etc.
5. I am using 108L1 for MXIII Plus_20160604 from tronsmart site. It is quite good lollipop rom, much better that stock kit kat I bought the box with.
6. I am using Kernel Auditor to boost the performance, together with some other tweaks.
7. This old crappy box is now performing really well, no problems with 1080p videos in Youtube or Kodi. I am running Chrome in desktop mode without major lags, even youtube in chrome works quite well. I am playing with some Mame/Psx emulation and this s812 is still doing pretty good job, antutu score is about 40000.

Thank you t0rx309. I have the same box as you and I've installed MXIII software (well, recovered is the exact word ). It now works much better than with KK rom.

Did you (or anyone else using this ROM) manage to get ethernet port to work? On my box ethernet LED's work, but Android doesn't get any IP from DHCP server. I'm suspecting that I need correct module(s) for ethernet device, but I have no idea which one is it, since I didn't make backup of original ROM.