Rockbox Technical Forums

Third Party => Repairing and Upgrading Rockbox Capable Players => Topic started by: f-bupl on October 09, 2017, 10:30:52 AM

Title: Unusable Clip+ after powering down during recording
Post by: f-bupl on October 09, 2017, 10:30:52 AM
Hi all,

My Rockboxed Clip+ powered down during a mic recording, writing to internal memory (the battery is pretty much dead and doesn't last long.) Now it will only boot after hanging on the "commiting database" message on startup everytime, going through 1/9, 2/9, and then prompting "No .rockbox directory", "installation incomplete" then "error loading playlist control file".

The file browser opens after hanging for about 3 seconds and shows only empty directories (ignoring the internal memory and only showing empty folders in the SD card.) The plugins catalogs cannot be opened and user settings changes aren't saved. Trying to build database fails with no files found.

USB connection can be made only if the Clip+ is booted first, then connected. Windows accesses the SD card just fine but the Clip+ isn't recognized, only showing up as an inaccessible, empty drive number - impossible to format. Tried it on a machine running Ubuntu and the device doesn't even show up at all.

The OF hangs on the Sansa logo. Powering up while holding select flashes the message "Loading firmware / Length: 8B178 / Checksum: 36A5B79 / Model name: cli+ / Loading rockbox.sansa" then "Sum: 36A5B79 / Executing" but doesnt' change behaviour.
This is Rockbox v 3.13.

I'm really all out of things to try. Any ideas?
Title: Re: Unusable Clip+ after powering down during recording
Post by: Bilgus on October 09, 2017, 10:59:18 AM
Don't try anything like formatting or deleting files yet.. since your OF isnt loading you likely have corrupted flash or flash that is dying but you will for sure have a brick on your hands if you aren't careful.

First a few questions, are you able to set the file broweser to view ALL (long press on files, Show Files>ALL)
and do you have any files you can see in the root of the sd card?
Title: Re: Unusable Clip+ after powering down during recording
Post by: f-bupl on October 09, 2017, 12:01:14 PM
Hey thanks for the quick reply !
Yeah I wouldn't actually have formatted it, but I at least wanted to see if it was possible. As for the files, it's no to both: the browser only shows empty folders even in root, and pressing "view all" immediately goes back to the previous menu.
Title: Re: Unusable Clip+ after powering down during recording
Post by: Bilgus on October 09, 2017, 02:12:13 PM
Ok thats a little odd maybe some corruption.. Could you try another sd-card mounted in a card reader and put the contents of rockbox-sansaclipplus-3.14.zip on its root
So it would be like this <DRIVE:SDCARD>/.rockbox/rockbox.sansa

Next with the clip+ off put in the new sdcard and boot and see if you can start sdcard/.rockbox/rockbox.sansa

if that doesn't work shut down clip+ go back to PC try putting the contents of the .rockbox folder directly on
 the root of the drive
So it would be like this <DRIVE:SDCARD>/rockbox.sansa
and again try to start the rockbox.sansa file on the sd card from the clip+




http://download.rockbox.org/release/3.14/rockbox-sansaclipplus-3.14.zip
Title: Re: Unusable Clip+ after powering down during recording
Post by: f-bupl on October 09, 2017, 03:27:30 PM
How would I go about starting rockbox.sansa?
Several times after adding new files to the SD card, the player hangs on commiting database 1/9 and never goes past that. I didn't manage to understand the exact procedure but on the few times I was able to make it boot with the new files on the card, nothing had changed at all. Inserting the card while the player is on allows me to display the folders but not the files, just as before. As far as I can tell, the location of the .rockbox folder changes nothing to the player's behaviour, except that it's even harder to get it to boot when they're in the root.
Title: Re: Unusable Clip+ after powering down during recording
Post by: Bilgus on October 09, 2017, 03:40:37 PM
Well you would go through the file browser to start rockbox.sansa If you can get that to work and have linux or even a live cd I have a build I made to expose the restore partition through the usb and maybe we can fix the corruption just long enough to get you a bootloader on there that will use the sd card instead of the internal memory
Title: Re: Unusable Clip+ after powering down during recording
Post by: f-bupl on October 09, 2017, 04:00:22 PM
I see. Right now that's impossible, as the file browser still can't display files, only empty folders. I guess we're pretty stuck.
Title: Re: Unusable Clip+ after powering down during recording
Post by: Bilgus on October 09, 2017, 04:30:53 PM
Ok so if you have to insert the sdcard after boot could you try and go into MainMenu>System>Rockbox Info and click on the entry MSD: x.xxGB / x.xxGB and see if you can then see files on the drive?
Title: Re: Unusable Clip+ after powering down during recording
Post by: f-bupl on October 09, 2017, 04:50:49 PM
Well that's bust. Tried three times, got the same panic with and without card in: flush_fat_sector() - Could not write sector 370 (error -2)
Title: Re: Unusable Clip+ after powering down during recording
Post by: Bilgus on October 09, 2017, 05:26:38 PM
yeah thats not a good sign, you for sure clicked the MSD entry though? maybe if you could make it through a database refresh with the new card in we might have a chance
Title: Re: Unusable Clip+ after powering down during recording
Post by: f-bupl on October 09, 2017, 05:53:26 PM
Yeah, it was the MSD entry for sure, and the memory information it gives in the menu (before clicking it) is spot on. Trying to initialize database via the main menu still results in "0 found" indefinitely.
Title: Re: Unusable Clip+ after powering down during recording
Post by: Bilgus on October 09, 2017, 06:07:23 PM
well thats about it for the easy way your only choice will be to do it the hard way and most likely the memory has gone read only but if you can get it into the recovery mode we can try just forcing it over and over until it writes but IDK how likely that will be see here: https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SansaAMSUnbrick
you will need a small phillips a small flathead and a spudger/credit card/guitar pick you won't need to solder anything though
Title: Re: Unusable Clip+ after powering down during recording
Post by: f-bupl on October 09, 2017, 06:17:07 PM
I guess that's it then. I'm off to bed now, I'll get to the procedure when I have some time in the following days, will keep you posted. Thanks for the help! In the meantime if anyone wants to chime in, feel free to, I guess this is a rather interesting bungle.