Rockbox Technical Forums

Third Party => Repairing and Upgrading Rockbox Capable Players => Topic started by: ljones on July 13, 2009, 05:51:33 PM

Title: Any hope for this bricked Sansa E280?
Post by: ljones on July 13, 2009, 05:51:33 PM
Hello all  :)

I'm hoping to unbrick my sansa E280 (Version 1) player here. Trouble is I'm not sure precisely why it got bricked in the first place. Last thing I recall before it became bricked was viewing a picture in rockbox; after a few moments parts of the picture went a strange colour, and apon reset (hold the power down for 30 seconds and switch on again) nothing. The blue wheel light remains on but with nothing on the screen (also I Cannot enter recovery mode by holding down record and having lock on, I can only enter manufacturer mode).

I tried following the instructions here;
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SansaE200Unbrick

and here;
http://daniel.haxx.se/sansa/e200tool.html

But to no avail x.x . I cannot get my sansa into recovery mode at all! I've tried reprogramming mine with both i2c-e280.bin (mine is a US sansa E280 with FM radio in) and also the bootloader BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORTSD.rom but these seem to make no difference.

For example:
Code: [Select]
root@darkstar:/mnt/downloads/sansa# ./e200tool recover BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORTSD.rom
e200tool v0.2.3-alpha (c) by MrH 2006, 2007
Searching for device 0781:0720 ... found!
Initializing USB stub (4780 bytes) ... done!
Writing 'BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORTSD.rom' to address 0x10600000
Searching for device 6666:e200 ... 9 8 found!
Write at 0x10660198
Write done!
Running from address 0x10600000
Searching for device 6666:e200 ... found!
Execution started!

But instead of entering recovery mode, the sansa still has the same blue wheel and nothing on the screen. Disconnecting and restarting (holding power down, wait for 30 seconds) gives the same result.

I don't get the 16MB recovery partition on mine at all, just the blue wheel and blank screen. The sansa isn't recognised at all if I try to get into recovery mode. Only manufacturer mode seems to be working, but the sansa is detected incorrectly;

Code: [Select]
$ lsusb
..
..
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 0781:0720 SanDisk Corp. Sansa C200 series in recovery mode
..
..

Snag is I have a Sansa E280, not a C200!

I've also tried taking the E280 apart and pushing down carefully on the top of the sansa as mentioned in other threads, though it dosen't seem to do anything.

BTW I also read this;
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SansaC200Erase

I am wondering if that would work for the E280? (Not tried it yet, as it appears to be only for the Cxxx sansas).

Can anyone think what I might be doing wrong, or is my sansa well and truly .... ultra-bricked?

ljones
Title: Re: Any hope for this bricked Sansa E280?
Post by: galiualfre on July 13, 2009, 06:28:37 PM
Something similar happens to me a few days ago. I was listening to some music and bowsing some photos, then the screen just went to white. It was very strange of course, so waht I did was holding the power button for more than 30 seconds, it turned off, then I pressed the power button again and it hopely started...it's very strange that you've done so many things and it just don't work
Title: Re: Any hope for this bricked Sansa E280?
Post by: ljones on July 13, 2009, 06:40:20 PM
Yeah x.x it just will not go back into recovery mode, no matter what I try. I'm wondering if its memory chip is dead?  :( either that or maybe somehow corrupt in some way -- if only the whole thing could be wiped clean!

ljones
Title: Re: Any hope for this bricked Sansa E280?
Post by: saratoga on July 13, 2009, 06:41:10 PM
The memory daughter board could have come lose.  That will kick you into manufactoring mode suddenly if it happens.  You could try opening it up and putting them back in.
Title: Re: Any hope for this bricked Sansa E280?
Post by: herefornow on July 13, 2009, 07:18:19 PM
Read this thread all the way through. It helped me and others with similar problem.

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=21908.0
Title: Re: Any hope for this bricked Sansa E280?
Post by: GodEater on July 14, 2009, 02:43:10 AM
@ljones : Which distribution are you running ?

I'm wondering if this may not be yet another side effect of the Ubuntu LibGphoto2 bug that we've turned up. Your lsusb result indicates the device has been found running in recovery mode, but if the bug is present on your system, then your linux machine will not mount the device correctly.

Take a look here : http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/LibGphoto2Bug

And try the steps mentioned, see if it helps.
Title: Re: Any hope for this bricked Sansa E280?
Post by: ljones on July 14, 2009, 05:20:45 PM
Hmm.....first of all, I forgot to show the output of dmesg; here it is if it helps.

Code: [Select]
usb 5-1: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 2
usb 5-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
usb 5-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0781, idProduct=0720
usb 5-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
usb 5-1: Product: Tango Digital Media Platform
usb 5-1: Manufacturer: SanDisk

Not sure what a "Tango Digital Media Platform" is - !

I tried pushing down on the little board at the top of the sansa (That's the 8GB memory?) but the sansa still refuses to work!

BTW My apologies as I'm not using ubuntu. I'm currently using 64-bit linux, slamd64. I'm not sure if I have the libgphoto2 bug or not!

Ok, I tried going back 'into' recovery mode by holding down the centre (round middle button) and having the sansa switched to hold....

I looked in /usr/share/hal/fdi/preprobe/10osvendor but I couldn't find any mention of a file called "20-libgphoto2.fdi" . x.x . The only two files I have are 10-ide-drives.fdi and 20-broken-usb-sticks.fdi in that directory. I tried searching for the string "sansa" in both files, but that string dosen't exist.

On the page http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/LibGphoto2Bug where should I put the code, in the 10-ide or 20-broken-usb file?

One last thought -- if the 16mb partition is ok (but my linux cannot mount it) is it possible to mount it manually with the mount command? I tried but could not do this, as I couldn't find the name of the 16mb partition. Normally (from memory) when the sansa used to work normally it appeared on /dev/sdc (8GB, the memory chip) but dmesg isn't telling me that there is anything even like /dev/sdc !

btw, nothing appears on the screen in this mode, it is a blank, black screen with the blue wheel light lit.

ljones
Title: Re: Any hope for this bricked Sansa E280?
Post by: funman on July 15, 2009, 09:27:49 AM
Can you paste the dmesg output when you plug your Sansa ?

You can delete the previous output with dmesg -c, plug your sansa, and paste the full dmesg output
Title: Re: Any hope for this bricked Sansa E280?
Post by: ljones on July 15, 2009, 05:04:39 PM
Okies, here goes .... output of dmesg (with hold on and middle button pressed), after doing dmesg -c ;

Code: [Select]
root@darkstar:/home/aaaaa# dmesg
usb 5-1: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 2
usb 5-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
usb 5-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0781, idProduct=0720
usb 5-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
usb 5-1: Product: Tango Digital Media Platform
usb 5-1: Manufacturer: SanDisk
root@darkstar:/home/aaaaa#

If I plug in the sansa "normally", no buttons pressed and hold off nothing shows up.

BTW Here's something I was thinking. Maybe whatever chip holds the firmware it is completely corrupt? If that's the case is there some way of completely wiping it clean?

ljones
Title: Re: Any hope for this bricked Sansa E280?
Post by: Fullmetal99012 on July 23, 2009, 09:33:13 PM
I had a similar problem before. does it appear as an Unknown device when you plug it in to the computer, or something similar. My bricking wasnt related to rockbox, but it was the same error. I managed to get mine into recovery mode using the e200 tool. then replaced all files on the 16 MB-FORMAT partition with an empty "sansa.fmt" file. fixed it fine. Go here http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=e200&message.id=5791 and read misha1's post. it explains how to use the e200 tool etc. also, i had to use XP for the e200 tool, for some odd reason, vista didnt work.