Is my Pipo M9Pro dead?

[ajm9pro]

Was running RR 2.1 for a long time, it kept stopping every now and then. Eventually got tired of that so set about flashing RR3.0.1. Erasing the IDB worked OK but when I try to flash the ROM I get "Error: Test device failed" as it starts flashing the loader and this in the log:

...
00:39:10 015 INFO:check start
00:39:10 015 INFO:Writing sector 00000192 ~ 00000207 ...
00:39:15 625 ERROR:WriteXIDBlock-->WriteSector failed,ErrCode(-2)
00:39:20 968 ERROR: WriteXIDBlock failed,Errcode(13)
00:39:20 968 Error:Download IDB failed
00:39:20 968 INFO:LoaderThread failed
00:39:20 968 ERROR:Run failed

I tried the other tools in the rom zip. The "RK Rom Dumper" tool gets as far as the kernel before failing. If I try burning different sections one at a time, all of any great size will fail at some point in the burn.

I have tried erasing and re-flashing and it always fails at this same sector. Has my tablet died with a proper hardware failure or is there some way around this? The memory is Toshiba, if that makes a difference.

thanks
Andy

[gefattern]

Hi ajm9pro ,

did you try to flash it without Loader ??? same Results in MaskRomMode , if you short the Pins .

Do you use AT or Batchtool to flash ??? greetings gefattern

[bluesmanuk]

What happens if you try to flash the original working RR 2.1 again?

[ajm9pro]

did you try to flash it without Loader ???

Yep, tried flashing each section individually, kernel and system also fail the same way.

same Results in MaskRomMode , if you short the Pins .

Not quite sure what you mean by that, where do I find instructions for MaskRomMode?

I saw posts elsewhere regarding shorting the pins and was wondering if that would be the next step. Is it worth a try?

Do you use AT or Batchtool to flash

I tried RKBatchTool, ROM_Flash_tool_137 and "RK ROM Dumper and Flasher for Windows" - all failed when writing to flash.

What happens if you try to flash the original working RR 2.1 again?

Good thinking but unfortunately same thing, I still had the the files floating around on disk and they too fail in the same way.

I notice that the erase log reports that the flash is size 8464MB not the expected 8192MB. Is this indicative of a physical problem?

20:31:26 697    Flash Chip Information:
20:31:26 697    NO        SIZE(MB)    Manufacturer
20:31:26 697    ----------------------------------------------
20:31:26 697    0        8464MB    UnDefined
20:31:26 697    1        8464MB    UnDefined
20:31:26 697    2        8464MB    UnDefined
20:31:26 697    3        8464MB    UnDefined
20:31:26 697    ----------------------------------------------

Although sometimes it has reported this although I don't think I have seen this since I managed to erase the IDB.

00:42:14 093    Flash Chip Information:
00:42:14 093    NO        SIZE(MB)    Manufacturer
00:42:14 093    ----------------------------------------------
00:42:14 109    0        8192MB    TOSHIBA
00:42:14 109    1        8192MB    TOSHIBA
00:42:14 109    2        8192MB    TOSHIBA
00:42:14 109    3        8192MB    TOSHIBA
00:42:14 109    ----------------------------------------------

thanks for the suggestions.
Andy

[bluesmanuk]

Try flashing with different USB ports.

I have found on one of my machines that no Rockchip device can be flashed on a USB 3.0 port but fine on USB 2.0 and after a failed erase/flash it can take 2 or 3 attempts for it to finally work.

Also worth trying a different cable if you have one as that can also sometimes generate errors.

[gefattern]

Hi again ,

no it is not really a Problem to "shortenPins" on a Pipo Tablet , there must be several Post about that .

Here Infos about the different LoaderModes :

http://wiki.t-firefly.com/index.php/Firefly-RK3288/Boot_mode/en

hope it helps / gefattern

[ajm9pro]

Well, whaddya know... Last night I tried numerous ports (hub and no hub) and cables, and settled on the ones I was using as they were connecting reliably each time, and also it was the only long "snout" USB cable I had (since the M9Pro has a deep USB socket). Other cables/ports were noticably unreliable at even connecting.

Tonight, stole a (short snout) cable from my daughters phone charger and used that in a different port, and bingo, worked straight off.

Thanks for suggestng this, made me stop and find the last permutation which turned out to be the one which worked.

[bluesmanuk]

Great stuff

[ajm9pro]

What is more confusing is that it is the port, not the cable, and that the working and non working ports both go to the same root device (Intel chipset XHCI). No logic in there whatsoever.

[bluesmanuk]

Perhaps the flash tool is only capable of seeing the one port.

[ajm9pro]

No, it sees the tablet connected to any port and will happily try flashing it. But it will fail to flash unless connected to a single specific port, all others will fail.

[gefattern]

Hi amj9pro ,

please use USBDeview , use big G for it , it is a win Tool ,

important run as Admin .

greetings / gefattern