Another Clip+ Unbricking (USB error -110)

[Jorpho]

Greetings,

My Clip+ is showing no signs of life for no particularly discernible reason.  I might have squeezed it too hard trying to get it into a new sleeve.

Having made a suitable consultation on IRC, I have been attempting to follow the unbricking guides posted at http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SansaAMSUnbrick and http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SansaClipV2UnbrickingTutorial .  When connected, the device (usually) presents itself as a 30 MB unformatted drive, as best exemplified by this dmesg output produced in Knoppix:

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[ 3077.433089] usb 1-7.4.4: new high-speed USB device number 50 using ehci-pci
[ 3077.534586] usb 1-7.4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=0781, idProduct=6200
[ 3077.534591] usb 1-7.4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 3077.534595] usb 1-7.4.4: Product: M200Plus
[ 3077.534597] usb 1-7.4.4: Manufacturer: SanDisk
[ 3077.534600] usb 1-7.4.4: SerialNumber:         i 0744703011
[ 3077.538744] usb-storage 1-7.4.4:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 3077.538805] scsi14 : usb-storage 1-7.4.4:1.0
[ 3078.541737] scsi 14:0:0:0: Direct-Access     UNDEF    storage          1.0  PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 3078.542038] sd 14:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg7 type 0
[ 3078.545238] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdg] 62688 512-byte logical blocks: (32.0 MB/30.6 MiB)
[ 3078.546966] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdg] Write Protect is off
[ 3078.546970] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdg] Mode Sense: 04 00 00 00
[ 3078.547963] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdg] No Caching mode page found
[ 3078.547967] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdg] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 3078.559726]  sdg: unknown partition table
[ 3078.566969] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdg] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 3084.147845] usb 1-7.4.4: USB disconnect, device number 50

Connecting the Clip+ while bridging the recovery pins illustrated in the above guide is considerably less enlightening:

Code: [Select]

[ 3110.713098] usb 1-7.4.4: new high-speed USB device number 51 using ehci-pci
[ 3125.793112] usb 1-7.4.4: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[ 3140.976491] usb 1-7.4.4: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[ 3141.159738] usb 1-7.4.4: new high-speed USB device number 52 using ehci-pci
[ 3156.239747] usb 1-7.4.4: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[ 3171.423125] usb 1-7.4.4: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[ 3171.606500] usb 1-7.4.4: new high-speed USB device number 53 using ehci-pci
[ 3177.016362] usb 1-7.4.4: device not accepting address 53, error -71
[ 3177.096500] usb 1-7.4.4: new high-speed USB device number 54 using ehci-pci
[ 3182.506363] usb 1-7.4.4: device not accepting address 54, error -71
[ 3182.506513] usb 1-7.4-port4: unable to enumerate USB device

Apparently error -110 is "power exceeded"; error -71 might be something similar.  To be clear, I have been able to go back and forth between these two states.  Is this supposed to happen?

My other concern is that having finally cracked the unit open and gotten the battery removed, there's an alarming blob of red goo next to the cylinder by the SD-card slot.  It is hard and unyielding.  Is this just adhesive?  Or is it electrolytic fluid from a burst capacitor, signifying that this unit has bled to death?

Here's some detailed pics:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35903326/IMG_1786.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35903326/IMG_1787.JPG

ETA: Error codes are available in http://www.virtsync.com/c-error-codes-include-errno .

[wodz]

This cylinder is crystal so I'd expect the red blob to be some adhesive holding crystal in place.

[Jorpho]

Thanks for replying.  I was concerned as I couldn't see any red stuff in the various disassembly videos I looked at.

Googling around suggests that error -110 might be bypassed by switching to another version of Linux (see for instance https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=532394 ).  I guess I'll try Ubuntu next. 

The above log was created while plugging the device into a USB hub.  Attempting to use my front USB ports does not yield particularly different results, except it starts showing error -84 after a few tries and also tries to access it as a "full-speed" USB device.  Some other Google results also suggest trying another cable.

It's weird that error -110 only shows up when trying recovery mode, isn't it?  I suppose recovery mode is strange voodoo in general.  (I should add that I have not disconnected the battery, but the device has been unplugged for long enough that it is unlikely to have any substantial charge.)

[Jorpho]

Yarg, has it been six weeks already?

After some heroic procrastination I finally got around to trying Mint 17.1.  The messages were pretty much exactly the same. 

I guess I'll just have to try Fedora.  Can anyone who has attempted this successfully tell me which specific distro and version was used?

EDIT: No go with Fedora 22.  I Googled around and tried a couple of things:
echo -1  > /sys/module/usbcore/parameters/autosuspend
echo Y > /sys/module/usbcore/parameters/old_scheme_first
echo 10000 > /sys/module/usbcore/parameters/initial_descriptor_timeout

But no difference so far.  I keep getting variously error -71, error -110, and error -84.

[Jorpho]

Dag gum.  I fired up my old Pentium D running Ubuntu 8.04.1 (kernel 2.6.24-19).  And for good measure Knoppix 5.3.1 (kernel 2.6.24-4).

Ubuntu didn't do anything different, but Knoppix is just strange - I seem to get the 32 MB unformatted partition when I bridge the recovery pins, and get error -110 when I don't bridge the pins.  This of course makes no sense.

Does anyone have any insight into what is going on here?

[Jorpho]

So I was about to say, "F-it, time to see what the blue pins in http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/pub/Main/SansaAMSUnbrick/sandisksansaclipplusdis.jpg are supposed to do".  That's when I realized my Clip+ has no blue pins - it's not the same revision.  The board is marked "REV16" in the corner and not "REV13".



So... this implies that maybe the red pins aren't the recovery pins anymore after all.  But then, where might they be?  This board has many of the same other solder points.  Particularly curious is that there's a new package of some sort in the upper-right whereas before there was an empty space.  Any ideas at all?

[saratoga]

So I was about to say, "F-it, time to see what the blue pins in http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/pub/Main/SansaAMSUnbrick/sandisksansaclipplusdis.jpg are supposed to do".  That's when I realized my Clip+ has no blue pins - it's not the same revision. 

The pins are still there, it just looks like theres a resistor across them. 

So... this implies that maybe the red pins aren't the recovery pins anymore after all.

I don't think this is a reasonable implication.  The layout of your board looks otherwise the same.  I doubt the rerouted the NAND pins during the product's life cycle while still keeping almost everything exactly the same. 

[Jorpho]

The pins are still there, it just looks like theres a resistor across them.

FWIW, there's no measureable resistance through that component according to my cheap multimeter.

Taking some inspiration from http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SansaAMSJTAG , I tried bridging the red pins with a few hundred ohms.  It made no difference.