Sansa E200 Bricked by Recovery Mode

[Lue]

libsub-dev is needed... althought the knoppix i used had it installed already

And what I have to do? Synaptic says that Libusb-dev is installed!
Are you shure that the command I wrote is right?

Thanks,
Lue

[Brambo]

make sure hold is on and hold rec as soo as it starts saying exectuion started! untill you get into recovery mode

I tried this, but just nothing happens after ' execution started!' .... whatever I do, nothing happens....

btw, my sansa is already shown in the KInfoCenter as:

VendorID 0x6666
ProductID 0xe200
speed 480 Mbit/s

Does somebody have any clue on what to try next?

[Mr. Vage]

My e200 was also bricked in recovery mode. I've been looking for a solution to unbricking with no luck. All the instructions I have read say that i should hold down the select button while plugging in the cable, but Windows doesn't see the e200 if i do that. If I hold down the record button while plugging the cable in, then Windows sees that a device has been plugged in and brings up the Found New Hardware wizard. It shows up as an "Unknown USB Device."

When I run the e200tool, I get this:

e200tool v0.0.6-alpha (c) by MrH 2006, 2007
Searching for device 0781:0720 ... 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 not found!
Searching for device 0b70:0003 ... 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 not found!

When I go into device manager, I can clearly see that the address of the e200 is 0b70:0003. I have the libUsb filters intalled. I can't figure out what could be wrong and I don't want to make the problem worse by trying random things.

Could someone please help me with this? Thanks.

[Bagder]

When I go into device manager, I can clearly see that the address of the e200 is 0b70:0003.

This indicates you're in the mode we call pre-boot (as those are the PortalPlayer vendor/model IDs) and you can try the i2c boot rom rescue operation.

Do note that very few poeple manage to use e200tool on windows (including skilled Rockbox dudes), so I would really suggest you try e200tool on Linux instead, and then even possibly with the time-out extension previously mentioned by jdgordon.

[Bagder]

and since it is such a grand day, MrH has just released an updated e200tool with integrated i2c restoring abilities...

[Brambo]

and since it is such a grand day, MrH has just released an updated e200tool with integrated i2c restoring abilities...

GREAT GREAT GREAT!!!!
This new e200tool update FIXED my US sansa e270!!!!!
THANKS Bagder and MrH!!!

For the people that still haven't fixed their sansa here how I did it:

1. boot up knoppix live cd
2. download & install libusb 0.1.12
3. download e200tool source + makefile
4. compile e200tool (gcc -o e200tool e200tool.c -lusb)
5. connect sansa with hold ON and pressed middle button
6. hold REC and command: sudo ./e200tool recover BL_SD_boardSupportSD.rom
7. the only thing to my sansa after the recover command is that its now seen as 6666:e200 instead of 0b70:0003 -> thats what we want! it has to be 6666:e200
8. when your sansa is seen by linux as 6666:e200, hold REC and use sudo ./e200tool i2cprogram i2c.bin
9. the program writes a lot to the sansa, when its ready, disconnect sansa and reboot it.
10. if sansa doesn't boot right, then you have to get into recovery mode: turn sansa off, turn ON hold and hold rec, then connect sansa to PC to get 16MB device. Copy .mi4 file to it and discoonect sansa
11. Sansa should be up and running again!

I still have one question left: on the e200tool-site are two i2c.bin files.... one for US 260 and one for US 280... I've got US 270.. does it matter that I used the US 280 i2c.bin file?

Thanks again!

[Mr. Vage]

Thank you for your reply Badger. I tried the tool in linux and am getting much better results. My output is now:

e200tool v0.1.4-alpha (c) by MrH 2006, 2007
Searching for device 0781:0720 ... 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 not found!
Searching for device 0b70:0003 ... found!
Initializing USB stub (4272 bytes) ... done!
Writing 'BL_SD_boardSupportSD.rom' to address 0x10600000
Searching for device 6666:e200 ... 9 8 found!
Write at 0x1065feb8
Write done!
Running from address 0x10600000
Searching for device 6666:e200 ... found!
Execution started!

Where do I go from here? Rebooting the player still gives me the blue ring of death. Is there any thing else that needs to be done or am I completely f***ed? I already lost two iPods and I don't want to have to tell my parents that now I bricked my Sansa!

[Mr. Vage]

I forgot to mention that I have an e270. It seems that no one has dumped the i2c rom for the e270 yet. Badger said that I should reload the i2c rom, so could someone please dump it? I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

Update: I should have read the post right before mine. I'll try using the e280 i2c rom.

Update: Well, thats it. Complete death to my Sansa.   Protocol error (-71) while writing the i2c rom. Oh well, I tried. Does anyone know how much SanDisk would charge for repair?

[Brambo]

Mr Vage, is your sansa not recognised anymore by linux?

I have a US e270 and used the i2c.bin dump of the US e280 and all went well....

[Mr. Vage]

No, the device is no longer recognized. Something went wrong during the programming of the i2c rom. Each time i retried, the progress was less and less. It is completely dead.

[Brambo]

No, the device is no longer recognized. Something went wrong during the programming of the i2c rom. Each time i retried, the progress was less and less. It is completely dead.

That REALLY sucks man... but maybe there still is hope.. maybe Bagder or MrH has another genius way of fixing it...

[Bagder]

There's now a e200tool version 0.2.1 available, that does the "i2c program cycle" on the player itself. This version first uploads the desired i2c contents to the IRAM and then using single usb message orders the player to program it.

MrH said this about 0.2.1:

"I have run about ten flawless programming cycles with this version, so it should be relatively safe to use, but as usual, I cannot give any guarantees. If it breaks, the user gets to keep all the pieces."

[fLo]

HI, i recently bricked my player too by dropping a bin file in recovery mode...THe player is a e270. Sometimes the player doesnt even turn on when i hold power, let alone be recognized when plugged into the computer. When i do get it to turn on, its a black screen and a blue wheel...i cant get into recovery mode. Help please..

ive read previous posts and im very confused..

[Brambo]

HI, i recently bricked my player too by dropping a bin file in recovery mode...THe player is a e270. Sometimes the player doesnt even turn on when i hold power, let alone be recognized when plugged into the computer. When i do get it to turn on, its a black screen and a blue wheel...i cant get into recovery mode. Help please..

ive read previous posts and im very confused..

I would like to help (because I recently fixed my sansa with the help of the rockbox people!) but first tell what did you try already? Does linux recognise the player? How is the player recognised in linux? what does the e200tool say?

The sansa won't be allways recognised by linux, just try connecting&disconnecting it 5 times in a row and it will be recognised at least once I think...

[fLo]

hi! sorry, im really bad with computers,, what is linux??