Sansa E200 Bricked by Recovery Mode

[A_BIRDY]

When using recovery mode to roll back the crappy new firmware with the pp5022.mi4 file, I accidentally dragged a random .bin file into the 16mbFORMAT folder (or whatever it's called) and disconnected the player.
Now the Sansa will not return to Recovery mode at all. I suspect this was the obvious result of flashing the ROM with a random .bin, but maybe there is a way to get past the ridiculous amount of problems this has caused the player. There might be a way to connect with the player's flash ROM without going into any sort of mode at all, but I'm not sure if there is.

Any news from the Sansa dev about rewriting the ROM on a totally bricked unit?

Thanks for any help, and godspeed.

...I want my saaaaansa baaaack...

Actually, I think this is the wrong section for my post... I'ma go find out where to put my question... Sorry!

[Bagder]

The only known way to fix this, apart from sending it to Sandisk, is to build the e200tool (builds and runs on Linux only so far) and use the "manufacturing mode".

Although I don't think we have seen a single soul actually having pulled this through for real.

You can be the first!

[A_BIRDY]

I feel so privileged, thanks for the quick reply. I think I have a copy of Ubuntu around here somewhere.
Again, sorry if this was the wrong forum, but I'm a total nub here.

Your message makes it seem a little difficult; what exactly does this process entail?
Would I have to know anything special about the device in order for the machine to recognize it or does Manufacturing Mode automatically assume the Sansa has no firmware of any sort and thus cannot "consciously" connect to the computer?

Basically, can I do it without t3h h4xx skeelz or not?

Thanks again! I appreciate your guys' work!

EDIT: Looked over the process for Manufacturer Mode, and I think that's what the player is stuck in at all times. If anybody has ever gotten into Manufacturer Mode, could you describe it to me? My player's screen does not ever light up and the wheel is lit constantly and immediately when on.  The player is actually recognized as "USB Device" on a Windows machine.

[dan_a]

That sounds like manufacturing mode to me.

[A_BIRDY]

Hooray! It's Manufacturing Mode! Whooo!

Wait, I just remembered that I bricked my sansa.
Oh, well.

Onward to the Ubuntu!

Thanks again!

Finally figured out I was in the right forum anyway. Whoo!

[Bagder]

Also note that Zefie in the c200 thread did recover his Sansa using the manufacturing mode and e200tool...

[A_BIRDY]

Hey Badger, you said e200tool only builds on linux... If it's source code, then can't I use Cygwin or something to compile it?
Just checking... Mebbey I are stoopid.

I'm probably going to email zefie at some point since he was wondering about the differences between the c200 and the e200 (and maybe kinda because he knows how to unbrick a c200).

Cheers!

[Bagder]

you said e200tool only builds on linux... If it's source code, then can't I use Cygwin or something to compile it?

Why ask me, when you can just try it?

I only know of people failing to get e200tool working on cygwin though, not due to compiling but probably due to libusb and stuff not working in the same way or possibly due to other bugs or so. But feel free to prove me wrong.

[zivan56]

It does compile perfectly under cygwin.  You just need to install the libusb package.  I have tested it, and it does appear to work (don't want to try anything to brick my sansa though).

[Ab]

for A_BIRDY
could you fix the sansa in the recovery mode?

how do I get e200tool to work with the sansa in the recovery mode?

[dan_a]

how do I get e200tool to work with the sansa in the recovery mode?

If you can get to recovery mode, you don't need e200tool!

[A_BIRDY]

Alright, here's how things stand:

VMware is running Debian (with X 'cuz I like KDE).

I've got E200Tool compiled and running.

When I connect the Sansa, it's recognized by VMware as "PortalPlayer USB Device."

When I try to run ./e200tool recover pribootloader.rom or BL_SD_boardSupportSD.rom,
E200Tool cannot find the device 0781:0720.

I'm probably screwed at this point because that might mean the sansa isn't in manufacturing mode at all.
Again, the player will not boot, will not enter recovery mode, never turns on the back light, and just keeps the scroll wheel lit. Turning it off takes ~15 seconds.

If I try to connect the player without holding any buttons, it won't be recognized. If I hold any button when it's off and then connect the cable, regardless of hold switch position,  the player is recognized as "Portal blah blah..."

I should send it to SanDisk at this point... What do you think?

[Bagder]

Congratulations, you have advanced to the final level of this game. The prebootloader USB mode, that exists before the Manufacturing mode. This probably happens due to a corrupted i2c rom.

Let me stress that nobody has been there before and that the following advice may work or may harm your device or whatever, we just don't know enough and of course you proceed on your own without any warranties.

I've uploaded e200tool 0.0.6 fresh from MrH, with an added ability to recognize the player while in this mode. Just redownload the source zip.

if e200tool does work and nothing else helps, you could try to fix the i2c rom by uploading the dump of MrH's i2c bootrom:

http://daniel.haxx.se/sansa/e200tool/i2c.bin

Good luck!

[hallgreng]

Hi there,
long-time lurker, first time poster.

Anyway, I seem to have busted my sansa (e270) in the same way. I did the stupid thing and fsck.vfat'd both partitions and then unplugged it.

It wont go into recovery mode, isnt discovered by e200tool, fits the same symptoms as Birdy's sansa, and achieves the same results (sans the PortalPlayer message) when following what he has done in this thread.

I'm also happy to see if this will work, but the problem is that I am unable (compile-time errors) to build e200tool from source in linux (debian unstable and stable both tried) w/respective usblib-devs) and had to use the insufficient win32 port (0.0.4a).

If someone could provide a static binary of 0.0.6 or some assistance (through PMs or another thread to keep this one uncluttered) to get e200tool to build for me, I would be glad to be another guinea pig.

Thanks for the hard work!

[Bagder]

1. On my debian systems I can build the tool fine with "libusb-0.1-4" and "libusb-dev" installed. You may want the Makefile I wrote for it, provided here: http://daniel.haxx.se/sansa/e200tool/Makefile

2. I have a e200tool binary built for Debian unstable available here:
 http://daniel.haxx.se/sansa/e200tool/e200tool