First off, i would like to apologize for asking this often asked question, but i assure you , my problem is a little different than others.
Briefly, I am able to get into recovery mode, access the 16MB-FORMAT drive in both Windows XP and Ubuntu 8.04, and paste sansa.fmt, rom and mi4 files; but in both places, i am neither able to get it to format nor commit the bootloader or firmware to the NAND disk.
How it happened: Simply put, the 16MB recovery drive was formatted. On restart, it gave a "Load main image failed. Switch to recovery mode"
What the player is able to do now:
In
normal mode, the player starts up with boot splash screen, followed by the message,
Load main image failed.
Switch to recovery mode
The player does not automatically switch to recovery mode, i have to do it manually, using the HOLD-REC-PowerOn combo.
In
recovery mode, when the usb cable is connected, I get the following message
**********************
Welcome to Recovery Mode
**********************
Usb cable connected
Enter USB2.0 MSD mode
Now, both windows and linux, load the recovery drive automatically, and allow me to paste files here.
One thing to note , is that, the recovery drive , always seems to have a corrupted VERSION.TXT file( which i have attached to this post).
Whenever i paste any files (like sansa.fmt) and unmount the drive. I get the following message:
Safe to Disconnect USB
Exit USB2.0 MSD mode
After that i unplug the usb cable and the player is just stuck in this mode forever, until i hold the power button down for 15 secs to shut it down. On restart, i am back to the same old problem. NO CHANGE.( have attached a jpeg of this stuck state)
In
manufacturing mode, I am successfully able to use the e200tool for all the functions including the
i2cprogram command (with which i flashed the i2c-rom to i2c-e260.bin file, without any hassle). I am also able to inject the Bootloaders into the RAM using the
recover command.
Methods i have tried to solve this problem :
- In recovery mode, i tried installing the firmware(mi4) only, sansa.fmt only, firmware and BL(rom file) and finally all three files together (I always used firmware and BL of same version). Anything i try, the result is the same, the player is stuck at the recovery mode screen(see attached pic) forever. I have waited for a couple of hours, before shutting down and restarting, but still no change.
- In manufacture mode, I connect the player to linux via USB, the player is detected correctly. I then use the e200tool to recover the corrupted Bootloader. As soon as the execution starts, i hold REC button, which boots the player into recovery mode, there i paste the sansa.fmt file to the 16 MB drive. Unplug the USB cable and just wait and wait and wait... NO messages on screen.
(I have tried all 10 firmware versions, from 1.00.12 to 1.03.07, found at http://files.zefie.com/PMP/sansa/e200/v1/firmware/)
I have trawled through both this and abi forums, in search of a solution and have tried all of those. Please do tell me if i am doing anything wrong.
If there is no easy solution to this, i am even ready to do some low-level hacking, if need be, to access the NAND drive in some way using the e200tool and,possibly, directly write the whole 20MB hidden partition to the NAND disk. If anybody can guide me with this. It would be most helpful.
Please feel free to ask me to clarify or elaborate on anything i have mentioned above.
Rockbox Technical Forums
Topic: bricked sansa e260 : won't format ( or do anything else, for that matter ) !!! (Read 10982 times)