X5V - can't remove Rockbox

[Bob_49.95]

Hi,
The other day I bought a 2nd hand Iaudio X5V. It arrived with Rockbox installed on it, also a 'new' battery ( 8 months old ).

but I'm having trouble with the unit shutting down after only 30 minutes playing time. The battery bench app doesn't indicate that the player is out of power though, last entry before shutdown says level is approx 70-76% with Time Left 25:30 ( which isn't great either, admittedly )

Anyway, as part of troubleshooting, and while I wait for a replacement battery to arrive, I thought I'd try and re-flash it back to the original Cowon firmware.

However, that isn't working.

Rather than getting 'Firmware updating' at the end of the process ( ie copy Cowon BIN file to \FIRMWARE dir, detach from USB, power off, insert charger ) the screen just says 'Charging'

Also, this puzzled me - the Rockbox utiluty, I tried to use the 'Remove the bootloader' option but I get a message 'Rockbox utility can not uninstall the bootloader on this target. Try a normal firmware update to remove the bootloader'. Does that error translate to 'update to another Rockbox bootloader to remove the current Rockbox bootloader'??

Any advice on getting back to square one ( ie a default Cowon install ) would be most welcome.

Cheers,
Bob

[pixelma]

Also, this puzzled me - the Rockbox Utility, I tried to use the 'Remove the bootloader' option but I get a message 'Rockbox utility can not uninstall the bootloader on this target. Try a normal firmware update to remove the bootloader'. Does that error translate to 'update to another Rockbox bootloader to remove the current Rockbox bootloader'??

No, this translates into "get a bootloader (firmware update) from the Cowon pages" and put it on your player instead of the Rockbox bin. It's true that the Utility can't do bootloader installation or deinstallation on every target as this depends on how the process of running custom code works which can is largely different.

Rather than getting 'Firmware updating' at the end of the process ( ie copy Cowon BIN file to \FIRMWARE dir, detach from USB, power off, insert charger ) the screen just says 'Charging'

It's not clear to me which bin file you use exactly but my bet is on the ones provided in the Rockbox wiki which is "our" bootloader and won't give you the original firmware. As I'm not sure how well the Rockbox manual describes uninstalling, I think the easiest way would be to follow the guides for a firmware update at the Cowon homepage which is the same as an uninstall. Also pay attention to the exact type of your player (there are two: the X5V without the radio and the X5/X5Ls with radio OOPS: I just saw that you already stated it in the topic and changed the link accordingly). Maybe I'll have a look at our manual later.

All in all it sounds though as if the battery is on its way out and the Iaudio batteries are not of the best quality in my experience. It's not uncommon that a battery in bad condition breaks down under heavy load like e.g. a disk spinup. The battery bench also only writes if the disk is spinning anyway due to other reasons like rebuffering music to not intervene normal use so maybe your player ran a bit longer than what the last entry says)

Edit: some changes because I only saw the "V" in the topic on a second glance...

[Bob_49.95]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

get a bootloader (firmware update) from the Cowon pages" and put it on your player instead of the Rockbox bin.

I have the Cowon BIN file, it's 1,597kb , as opposed to the Rockbox one, which is only 54kb. I'll try putting it in the \FIRMWARE folder and then running the Rockbox util's 'Remove the bootloader' option to see if it manages to remove Rockbox and update to the Cowon one.

On the point of the battery being suspect, does the 'Time Left' in the battery bench file show HH:MM or MM:SS? Example last few entries written before shutdown lmight look like this :

00:51:02,  03062,     080%,     11:41,         3950,     -
00:52:02,  03122,     079%,     11:32,         3948,     -
00:53:02,  03182,     079%,     11:32,         3947,     -

Is that suggesting the battery should have 11 hours and 30 mins left in it?

Thanks again,
Bob

[pixelma]

Are you sure you are using the right bin (the one for the X5 and the X5V have different names - x5_fw.bin vs. x5v_fw.bin)? Maybe there's a misunderstanding and you even got a usual X5 and only think you have a V? It should work, I'm running out of ideas otherwise...

If you are unsure you could try putting both into the FIRMWARE subfolder and the Cowon loader running on charger plug-in will pick up the right one itself and delete it if successfull. Rockbox Utility can't help you here I think, the only thing it could do is putting the files in the correct folder but shutting down, plugging charger and the firmware update are outside its scope.

[Bob_49.95]

Hi,
I've actually tried several BIN files, such is the long running nature of the problem! Tearing my hair out...

The unit says X5V on the back of it.

I got the latest Cowon firmware from this link : http://www.cowonglobal.com/download/file/cowon_program/iAUDIOX5V_firm/x5vfw_eng(210).zip

That ectracts to a file called x5v_fw.bin

I've also tried the plain old 'X5' bin, called x5_fw.bin

Same thing happens on all of them. You copy the Cowon BIN file to the \FIRMWARE folder, detach from USB then insert the charger. But rather than seeing the screen go to saying 'Firmware upgrade' on insertion of the charger it just says 'Charging'

I'll try putting it in the \FIRMWARE folder and then running the Rockbox util's 'Remove the bootloader' option to see if it manages to remove Rockbox and update to the Cowon one.

Tried that, get the same message as before, 'Rockbox utility can not uninstall the bootloader on this target etc'. So 'the Utility can't do bootloader installation or deinstallation on every target as this depends on how the process of running custom code works' would seem to be true.

I guess there aren't many options available if the simple three step process to load the Cowon firmware doesn't do what it's supposed to, eh?

[pixelma]

Just making sure and clutching at straws - this is with a DC charger plugged into the subpack?
If you say though that it goes into charging mode then it probably is, I just saw a small chance that it could be a USB charger.

This is really the last thing I can think of at the moment short of "maybe there is something wrong with your player". 

[gevaerts]

Clutching at straws seems to be fashionable, so I'll have a go as well:

Is the filesystem clean? I could imagine that subtle filesystem corruption could make the FIRMWARE directory on the player "invisible" for the upgrading code in ROM. Maybe try to verify that.

[Bob_49.95]

I've just taken the step of re-formatting the drive..

Once done, I created a folder called FIRMWARE. Copied the Cowon x5v bin file to it. Detached from usb, player said 'Goodbye' and switched off. Plugged in the charger ( connected through the subpack thing )

'Charging' is what it says, still..

Going to install Rockbox on it, then do some battery tests.

( can anyone confirm if 'Time Left' on battery bench is in HH:MM? )

Thanks all,
Bob

[mc2739]

can anyone confirm if 'Time Left' on battery bench is in HH:MM?

According to the code, it looks like the 'Time Left' is HH:MM

[Bob_49.95]

Cheers for confirming the HH:MM

I de-soldered the battery after the most recent shutdown, it measured around 3.9v, so looks like something in the unit is misreading the available battery power. When I run the player on the AC power supply it works fine, but on the battery it's all a bit sensitive, if you pick up the thing it'll just a soon shut itself down. Press the start switch up and Rockbox complains about 'battery too low' and closes again. Try again and it'll work....

So, can't re-flash to Cowon and available battery power general confusion, does that point to a wonky eprom or something?