I have [NOT] bricked my snsa e200! help!

[madandbad8]

okay, i have got a sansa e200 that had rockbox on alongside sansa's own firmware, I then tried deleting rockbox, and messed up. Now when i turn on my sansa it loads the rockbox bootloader and says it can't find the two firmwares. I am a total noob and am using windows xp.

I have loaded it into manufactorers mode and used e200 tool and tried to fix it using that but don't really want to do anything too bad. i have installed the drivers for the manufactorors mode and went on e200 tool and typed in

Code: [Select]

C:\Documents and Settings\Dad\My Documents\e200tool>e200tool init
e200tool v0.2.3-alpha (c) by MrH 2006, 2007
Searching for device 0781:0720 ... found!
Initializing USB stub (4780 bytes) ...
Length write error (-5, Input/Output error)

I don't know what that means so any help would really help!

[MarcGuay]

What is the error message exactly?  It's possible that all you have to do is uninstall the Rockbox bootloader.  

By the way, the term "bricked" refers to a device that won't even turn on.  Don't be a diva.

Also, (edit #500), you might want to put e200tool back in the shed if you don't know what you're doing, it's a pretty powerful little guy from what I've heard.

[madandbad8]

okay, maybe it isn't bricked, i am pretty sure all i do need to do is uninstall the boot loader, how do i do that?

[MarcGuay]

okay, maybe it isn't bricked, i am pretty sure all i do need to do is uninstall the boot loader, how do i do that?

1) Turn it off.
2) Connect the USB cable.
3) It should show up as a 2 drives in Windows explorer (one for the main flash memory and one for the microSD memory card slot).
4) Download RockboxUtility (linked to from the "current build" page, top-left).
5) Uninstall the bootloader.

[madandbad8]

I cant, I cant seee the player as a drive, it just comes up with the error message, I cant view it at all.

[MarcGuay]

I cant, I cant seee the player as a drive, it just comes up with the error message, I cant view it at all.

What is the error message word-for-word?  It might also help to explain what you've done so far, exactly.

[madandbad8]

Code: [Select]

rockbox boot loader
version: r112896-070323
sandisk sansa e200

partition 0: 0x0b 3814 mb
partition 1: 0x84 20 mb
loading rockbox...
can't load rockbox.mi4:
file not found
can't load rockbox.e200:
file not found

Can I somehow put these files back on my player using the e200 tool?

[MarcGuay]

Can you get into recovery mode as described on the Sansa unbrick page in the wiki?

[madandbad8]

no, all i can get is the  Manufacturing Mode
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SansaE200Unbrick

[MarcGuay]

Wow.  Unfortunately (?) I've never bunged up my Sansa that badly so I don't have any experience in that realm.  If you search the threads you can find a ton of people who've been in the same situation as you and managed to save their players, or you could wait for some kind soul to come guide you through it.  

[Bagder]

First, this doesn't make sense. For Rockbox to boot thus far, there must be an existing Sansa bootloader working and that is the same bootloader that provides the recovery mode. Your failure to enter that mode is probably more related to user fiddling or problems with your USB port or similar.

Likewise, the problem with the manufacture mode is also most likely addressable by you trying several times or trying another USB port on your computer. Of course as I mention above, you shouldn't need to use the manufacture mode.

[dwonk]

okay, i have got a sansa e200 that had rockbox on alongside sansa's own firmware, I then tried deleting rockbox, and messed up. Now when i turn on my sansa it loads the rockbox bootloader and says it can't find the two firmwares. I am a total noob and am using windows xp.

Pretty sure you can't delete the original firmware.

Do know how to get to the original firmware with your new bootloader?

Press and hold the left arrow key while powering up.

I bet you have your Sansa in the wrong USB mode that is exactly the reason yuou cannot see it on your computer.....you need to change that in Settings in the original firmware.  I think it should be MSC (Mass Storage mode).  

[madandbad8]

okay, fixed it
I followed these instructions from here: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SansaE200Unbrick

Manufacturing Mode

At times people mess up the bootloader and then the recovery mode doesn't work (In the sense that you cannot enter recovery mode anymore). In this unlikely case, you can enter manufacturing mode and use the e200tool to restore the bootloader.

You can download the sourcecode for e200tool as well as a compiled Linux binary from http://daniel.haxx.se/sansa/e200tool.html Note: Do not follow the instructions on that page, you might further brick your player.

The e200tool works fine under Linux, *BSD and Mac OS X or similar systems, as long as you have libusb installed. If you are a Windows user, you should consider booting from a Linux Live-CD, as getting e200tool to work under Windows is extremely difficult and not recommended.

To recover from manufacturing mode, you also need to have a working bootloader file (which has .rom as filename extension). You can download bootloader files from http://daniel.haxx.se/sansa/mi4.html

You can boot into the manufacturing mode as follows:

    * Power off
    * Turn ON lock/hold
    * Hold down center select button
    * Insert USB cable

The screen should stay black with the blue ring lit. A new USB device should get detected.

Once inside manufacturing mode, use the following command to copy and load the original bootloader to the device:

 e200tool recover  BL_SD_boardSupportSD.rom

While e200tool writes the file to the device, you need to hold down the record button on your player! Hold it until the device enters recovery mode.

You should now be in recovery mode. Continue with the bootloader reinstallation as described in the previous section.

NOTE that if you have an e200R model, you want to recover to the BL file mentioned above, but then when it goes into recovery mode you really really want to install the binary-patched e200R model bootloader.

[madandbad8]

Then I did This.

Restoring the original firmware

When "Welcome to Recovery Mode" appears you copy an original firmware .mi4 file (if you don't have one try here) to the device and disconnect it. It will cause the device to reinstall the original firmware. A corresponding message should appear on screen.

In most cases, this should be enough to get your device working again. Only continue with the next step if this step did not help.

Formatting the device

NOTE This step does format your device, you will lose all data stored on it. WARNING

If the previous step did not work, you might have to reformat your device. Enter recovery mode again and after copying the.mi4 file, create a file named sansa.fmt on the device. ('touch sansa.fmt').

After you disconnect the device, it should say 'Formatting' on the screen. Be patient, this can take a few minutes.

Restoring the bootloader

NOTE This step can brick your device further and may require you to enter manufacturing mode. This step also formats your device so you lose all data stored on it. WARNING

If the previous step did not work, or you had to enter the recovery mode through manufacturing mode, you need to reinstall the bootloader.

Enter recovery mode again and do the following:

    * Copy the .mi4 file
    * Copy a bootloader .rom file which is compatible with your firmware file
    * Create a file named sansa.fmt on the device

Next disconnect and wait till after it has formatted your device.