is unbrick procedure also working for sansa clip zip?

[tent]

Hello,
 does anybody know or tried the recovery procedure described here http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SansaAMSUnbrick for a sansa clip zip?
 
Thanks in advance,
 tent:wq

PS: my zip freezes after showing two times the boot sansa animated logo, since it is not showing up as usb drive in any way, I think my last resort would opening up and try to write the recovery partition.. by the way, pressing power for 30 seconds just power it off but at power on same freeze happens...

[tent]

anyone no idea? just to see if I should risk to open the device and try to find the spot where the two solder joints would let the internal drive appear.. hopefully writable...??

thanks,
 tent:wq

[Crafty]

Did you try to connect with in sansa OF.  Hold [<<] while pluging in the ubs.
 did you try.

I never had to try 4)
1.  hold power button for 30 sec
2.  connect in RB recopy RB
3.  connect sansa OF recopy RB
4.  connect sansa OF restall bootloader

[tent]

Hello Crafty,
 sorry but I was not able to understand what you are suggesting.. I've tried to press power for 30 seconds of course shuting it down but still when powering it up it will not boot nor show in windows as drive.. I also have tried now to plug it in while pressing [<<] button, being it on or off, but still not able to see any drive appear in my pc..
 You mean OF to be original firmware or just the writable flash partition with firmware? What I was trying to do, asl last resort, is to open the device up and try to let that drive show up if I bridge a couple of pins on it's board.. but not sure if anybody tried that before..

tent:wq

[tent]

for instance I was thinking about this two pins in the red cirlce...:

any idea?

tent:wq

[Crafty]

You mean OF to be original firmware

yes, Press power while holding [<<] to enter original firmware.  Then plug in the USB. re-zip rockbox.

[tent]

yeah I tried that but it does not work:

I've also opended the sansa.. desoldered the battery.. tried to connect to usb.. tried to connect to usb while bridging the two pins indicated in the red circle of previous picture..

Anyway I just also tried to resolder the battery now.. press power+[<<] to turn it on.. it still stays in the original sansa logo.. if I put the usb in it won't show any drive as well..

Basically whatever I do and how much seconds I would press the power button when turning it on again I just will se two times the animation of the original sansa logo/flower and then it stays stuck.. until batteri drains out..

That is why I am now supposing my only hope is (maybe?) to tra to find out the two pins to connect internally to make the OF drive to show up in windows as usb writable drive... correcT?

tent:wq

[[Saint]]

The reason why your device is not listed in the SansaAMS Unbrick page is because this method is NOT supported (or the method is unknown - Hell, the method isn't really known for the supported devices - it is no exact science and almost every recovery is slightly different in same way or form) for your device.

I am mortified that you chose to do this, absolutely mortified.

I literally shrieked in terror when I saw what you did in IRC:

[13:06:52] <tent> hi there..
[13:07:02] <tent> I just opened my sansa clip zip
[13:07:22] <tent> I'm trying to find the two pins to short in order to see the OF partition
[13:08:56] <tent> I found two pins.. when I bridge them while connecting the sansa to the usb pen (battery unsoldered) the screen of the sansa stays black but no usb drive shows up in windows..
[13:09:10] <tent> is black screen in that case normal behavior?
[13:10:26] <tent> ok I guess nobody alive in this chan.. anyway I've put picture and discussion also in the forum under this topic: http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,42812.0.html
[13:11:17] <tent> maybe I'm not using the correct pins.. but don't see any others.. maybe I've to get the screws of the board off and check also the other side of the pcb......?
[13:30:03] <-- tent (4d3a4d5f@gateway/web/freenode/ip.77.58.77.95) has quit (Ping timeout: 245 seconds)
...
...
[13:59:46] -*- [Saint] shrieks
[13:59:55] <[Saint]> Why did no one stop that guy!?!

But I am more concerned by whatever it was that gave the the impression that this was a good idea. Was there anything in the documentation that was unclear, or suggested to you in some way that this would work? Or was this a decision you came to on your own? If there is, I need to kill it, because I definitely do not want anyone else coming to the same conclusion that you have.

Either way - now that you've opened the device and started poking around the PCB bridging random pads - I wouldn't hold much hope of recovery for this device.


[Saint]

[tent]

Hello Saint!
 Thanks for your answer. Well the fact is simple, I was using my sansa as is for some weeks but I somehow felt the graphical interface, in particular during music reproduction, was limited, so I decided to browse around the internet and found this project: rockbox. So I decided to give it a go, downloaded the installer that supposed to automatically install the thing on my sansa.. but apparently something went wrong and after the installation process and even if safely exjecting the device it restarted into this strange state from which till today it seems to eternally stay: you turn it on, it will show two times the sansa logo/flower animation, then the animation stays frozen for eternity unless you hold the power button some 30 seconds or you leave it alone some two days and battery gets exausthed, after that powering it on again keeps on this same behavior ongoing..

Heading back to this forums I tried to read the forums for a solution and the wiki and documentation for some hint. Indeed I tried many additional things, key combinations, etc without success. I've read about this "last resort" possibility to unbrick sansas in the unbrick section and even if clearly stated it was foreseen for clip v1/v2, plus and NOT for the ZIP I wanted at least to check if there was a possibility, even if small, since all the rest seems to just thorw the sansa away (isn't it?). So I opened it yesterday, tried to see what happens by unsoldering the battery and just plugging it in usb, etc.. no success.. Since I have some practice with soldering iron, even with SMA soldering (even if I have to be honest, not with SUCH small SMDs!) I carefully explored the pcb and the ONLY couple of pins that could resemble to be the "companions" of the pins of the other devices were those marked in red circle in my picture I decided to give it a try, but I did not poke around with others.

Anyway when removing the "bridge" on those pins the device goes back to the usual loop/animation showing up two times and then being stuck.
And by the way, doing a bridge on those pins as well did not change anything on my sansa: no usb drive show up when connecting in windows or checking in the device manager, as well as this sansa logo/flower to show up two times when restarting it.. any further ideas or hints? I think it really would be great if there is some procedure to unbrick it, even if it requires to open the device, instead of throwing it in the trash bin, since the other sansas have this possibility, right?

tent:wq

[maxswami]

@tent I am also having the same problem....Had bought the clip zip few days back and for a refresh cycle I took out the SD Card out..After that the Zip doesnot work and only gives two boot loops at the start...
It would be a great help if someone could help?

[tent]

hello maxwami,
 unfortunately my sansa clip zip still lies there waiting for someone to tell if there is some pins that could be used to do the "last resort" unbrick that is available for clip v1 and v2 also for the zip.. but no news so far I understood...
 Also my single guessing trial on two pins was unsuccessfull so far as well and I did not want to continue trying on other random ones, so.. hope someone will sometime show up with good news maybe? I'm convinced that there are two similar pins also in the clip zip.. maybe someone could tell a method to discover them like it was done on v1 and v2 (or was it random trial and error??)

tent:wq

PS: I'm speaking about this procedures listed here: http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SansaAMSUnbrick for all sansa players BUT not for the ZIP so far..

[maxswami]

thanks for the reply
But I am just thinking of leaving the zip alone for a few days.
Maybe it'll help?

[[Saint]]

Well...

Unlike getting in there and poking around with something conductive, it certainly couldn't hurt.

The page linked by tent not mentioning the Clip Zip at all documents what is known about this method of recovery for the device. Absolutely nothing.

Matter of fact, very little is known about the recovery process at all for the targets where this does work. It is certainly not an exact science, nor is recovery guaranteed, in fact improper use of this method has killed more devices that probably weren't actually bricked in the first place than it has ever saved.


[Saint]

[tent]

Actually I was just trying to get the answer about how did you find those recovery pins to be bridged on the otehr devices!

Maybe it could help me to replicate the finding for the clip zip.

At least I have nothing particular to lose: my device is definitely unrecoverable and went into this status because I rock boxed it first time by using automatic procedure but having wrongly selected the destination drive (I gave drive d: that was another disk, while it being e:). Basically I suppose that bootloader got written but not the filesystem, so at the first reboot it stopped working remeining as described in previous posts in this strange eternal boot logo situation.

So back to topic: are you saying that those two solder points to connect to recover the other device were found by random poking around?? is that what you mean by not exact science? well..

tent:wq

[[Saint]]

Please don't say this.

At least not without any form of "evidence" other than "I did X, and then Y happened".

The situation you describe wouldn't do anything to your device, since you selected an incorrect destination drive. Unless you also did other steps you have not listed, nothing on the device was modified...at least, not by Rockbox Utility.

I admit, if the sequence of events happened exactly as described, I can see why you would draw that conclusion - but an understanding of the underlying processes behind the installation suggest that this simply isn't the case. Until the event that you or someone else manages to repeat this, please do refrain from stating that the cause of this was Rockbox Utility.



[Saint]