Rockbox Technical Forums

Third Party => Repairing and Upgrading Rockbox Capable Players => Topic started by: lvd on April 19, 2022, 12:48:08 PM

Title: sansa clip+ unbricking
Post by: lvd on April 19, 2022, 12:48:08 PM

I have one with rockbox installed and with probably failing flash memory.

It looks like that:
1. I turn it on and rockbox boot screen is there for ~minute.
2. Then it reports in text about failing checksum, bootloader checksum is always the same, main firmware has different checksums every time
3. Then it invites me to insert USB plug and then -- "usb bootloader mode"

In this mode, the player shows itself  in `lsusb`, but sometimes `sudo lsusb -v` fails to read all the descriptors (with some error messages in dmesg). Sometimes the player shows a 4Gbytes disk device that contains just a repetition of the same garbage data and eventually reading it with `xxd /dev/sdb` fails with error messages in dmesg.

I suspect failing flash chip, and here are my questions:

1. Is there any way to repair flash contents without desoldering the chip?
2. If desoldering, which chips would work?
3. Is there any firmware image that could be flashed directly in flash chip?

Title: Re: sansa clip+ unbricking
Post by: vitt13 on April 20, 2022, 05:10:41 AM

Quote from: lvd on April 19, 2022, 12:48:08 PM

1. Is there any way to repair flash contents without desoldering the chip?
2. If desoldering, which chips would work?
3. Is there any firmware image that could be flashed directly in flash chip?

1, 3 https://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,52014.0.html
2. There is related thread https://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,51901.0.html with no working solution.
Also there is an discussion on IRC log,
https://www.rockbox.org/irc/log-20161230 and  https://www.rockbox.org/irc/log-20170822
and other with Google search https://www.google.com/search?q=sansa+clip++nand+site:https://www.rockbox.org/irc/
I think only SanDisk NAND with supported 'NAND Flash Manufacturer ID' would work.

Title: Re: sansa clip+ unbricking
Post by: cela on April 20, 2022, 08:51:07 AM

Quote from: lvd on April 19, 2022, 12:48:08 PM

3. Is there any firmware image that could be flashed directly in flash chip?

If you have the latest bootloader installed you should able to run Rockbox directly from the SD card instead,
https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/MultibootBootloader (https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/MultibootBootloader)

Title: Re: sansa clip+ unbricking
Post by: lvd on April 25, 2022, 01:22:11 PM

Quote from: vitt13 on April 20, 2022, 05:10:41 AM

1, 3 https://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,52014.0.html
2. There is related thread https://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,51901.0.html with no working solution.
Also there is an discussion on IRC log,
https://www.rockbox.org/irc/log-20161230 and  https://www.rockbox.org/irc/log-20170822
and other with Google search https://www.google.com/search?q=sansa+clip++nand+site:https://www.rockbox.org/irc/
I think only SanDisk NAND with supported 'NAND Flash Manufacturer ID' would work.

Thanks for the links, it looks like a lost cause.

Title: Re: sansa clip+ unbricking
Post by: lvd on April 25, 2022, 01:23:35 PM

Quote from: cela on April 20, 2022, 08:51:07 AM

If you have the latest bootloader installed you should able to run Rockbox directly from the SD card instead,
https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/MultibootBootloader (https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/MultibootBootloader)

Unfortunately my bootloader is rather old, at start it shows like "4.0" version.

Is there any way to boot AM3525 chip *not* using NAND flash? That could be the way to give another life for the player.