Messages

61

General Discussion / unbricking?

« on: October 05, 2004, 12:14:24 pm »

I haven't had much opportunity to further the JTAG cable research. Hope to get around to digging a little deeper sometime this week. If anyone else can contribute to this part of the discussion, that would be great!


I did call Sharp to explore all of my options. I was told that there would be a $50 evaluation fee plus a $10 [return] shipping charge. Of course, I would have to ship it there on my own dime(s).

The support tech. thought that the $50 would be applicable towards the repair costs. She didn't have any info about what it might cost (repair center doesn't share that data with tech support), but she did feel that it would be repairable, although she also had no stats to back that up (based on the fact that I can get a Diag Menu and that it's not physically broken, to which I would be inclined to agree with).

She also mentioned that they may offer a trade-in option [for other Sharp products/Zaurii?] if it's determined that it either can't be fixed or if I felt that the repair costs would outweigh the value of the repair.

I haven't decided what to do yet. Re-attempting a re-flash after leaving the battery out for many days (last ditch effort to resurrect it by normal means) as she suggested. Neither of us thought there would be any change, but it was worth a shot.

Can anybody else who has sent their units back to Sharp comment on what condition it was in when you sent it and what the cost was, etc?

thanks

62

General Discussion / unbricking?

« on: October 01, 2004, 03:15:21 pm »

here's the response I got from someone at the openwince-list
at least I'm facing the right direction.
----
You need three things:
1. bootloader's binary
2. JTAG cable
3. JTAG connector (or pads) on the target hardware (zaurus)

Then it could work.

But, you are writing that you could see the Diagnostic Panel. I've no
experience with the Zaurus, but it sounds like software name. In that
case you probably already have working bootloader in the device. Only
target system (operating system image) is broken.

Using JTAG you could reflash whole flash memory in the device, but it
is slow (depends on JTAG cable, ...) and you need binary image of the
memory.
----

does anyone know how I might acquire a "bootloader's library" ?
or a JTAG connector for the Zaurus?
I think I can figure out where to get the cables... else there are a few sites with instructions on building your own... (not so sure about doing that, tho)

63

General Discussion / Cringley's latest article includes impressive use

« on: October 01, 2004, 03:08:03 pm »

Well, he pretty much has to use a CF card for VGA-out. That leaves him with the built in 802.11b for connectivty, which might be a little light for a thin client. His other option would be the sleeve and second CF slot, I suppose. I really wish there was a more detailed review of the set up.

oh yeah, I forgot the 6000 has built-in wifi
that should be fast enough.. my extended home network (to the xdmcp clients) is only 10baseT and it's fine.
still need to work out networked sound, but that's not for this thread

I don't see an obvious way on the page to get in touch with the author.

maybe someone should make a plea to the subject of the article.

this looks like the co. he works for  http://starnix.com/

64

General Discussion / Cringley's latest article includes impressive use

« on: October 01, 2004, 01:09:47 pm »

Interesting. I already do the thin-client (well xdmcp logins, actually) stuff at home with cheapo p133 laptops connecting to my desktop machine/server.
Works great.

I didn't know you could go this far with a Zaurus.

I have seen that there is an XGA CF card on the zaurus.com site
http://www.myzaurus.com/acc_Comm8.asp

but that would use up your CF slot...  I wonder how he's getting connected to his monitor?

65

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / more info on gpe?

« on: October 01, 2004, 09:49:56 am »

Without the CF working, I have no way of getting ipks to my zaurus right now.

do you not have a cradle and usb networking setup?
it's not that hard (plenty of howtos in a google search) and worked for me to a debian desktop. I would guess that it's not much harder to windows.

66

General Discussion / unbricking?

« on: September 30, 2004, 07:29:02 pm »

I took the battery out for a couple of hours (and removed AC power) and got a fresh romimage from the zip that tapjpa linked to.
Same result. hung up with both leds on.
thanks for the recommendation.

I'm going to leave it in this hung flash mode until I tire of looking at it. Who knows, maybe it will finally get the point that it's supposed to heal itself.

Would sure be nice if Sharp would make the tools available that allow us to unbrick our devices ourselves.

I'm going to call them tomorrow (got too busy today) about repair options/possibilities and I am also going to try to talk to some tech guys and see if there are any other home remedies, etc.

good luck to all other brickees

67

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / OpenZaurus 3.5.1 released !!!

« on: September 30, 2004, 04:36:41 pm »

does anyone know if the kernel with OZ 3.5.1 addresses the PXA250 cache bug?

if anyone else wanted to know...
reply from Mickey Lauer from the OZ mailing list

> > > >Does the new OZ 3.5.1's kernel address the pxa250 cache bug issue?
> >
> > Yes. The cache errata is turned on on the poodle and corgi kernels.
> >
>The cache errata is turned on means it delivers a slower but reliably
>working kernel. If you have a pxa255 kernel you rather want to have a
>kernel without the cache errata being turned on.

68

General Discussion / unbricking?

« on: September 30, 2004, 04:21:42 pm »

I went out and got a card reader, reformatted the card and tried both OSPACK and romimage re-flashes to no avail.

At least I like the card reader
http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Pr...oductTabDetails
$7.99 from J & R (I took the subway so no shipping charge)
Works great with my Debian desktop for those who are interested/looking for a multi-format card reader... but I digress.

I am also noticing now that in the Diag Menu, the RAM write check stops about 25% of the way thru and hangs.

Still waiting for the coroner's official report, but I think that rigormortis is starting to set in.

I put a post into the JTAG mailing list (http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum=openwince-list) but haven't received a reply yet. I'll pass on any useful info, if any.

rgzu, Did Sharp detail what they had to fix when they sent it back? $95 might seem like a lot, but just today a 5000d sold on ebay for $127.
Also, how did you get in touch with Sharp for repair? I'm going to try calling the number on the website for the customer assistance center.

69

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / oz 3.5.1 mis-flash

« on: September 30, 2004, 01:31:10 pm »

I think you need to clear the boot flag and then reset...

you may also need to pull the AC plug for it to take place...

don't do it until someone else confirms these steps as my Z is now on it's deathbed after screwing around in the Diag Menu. (you've been warned)

I've looked and looked and not been able to find any documentation on exactly how to use this menu (or to properly get out of it)

good luck

70

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / OpenZaurus 3.5.1 released !!!

« on: September 30, 2004, 12:47:34 pm »

does anyone know if the kernel with OZ 3.5.1 addresses the PXA250 cache bug?

71

General Discussion / unbricking?

« on: September 30, 2004, 11:42:13 am »

still no luck. I have yet to receive a CF card reader so I can hook up directly to my linux box to reformat and transfer from something other than my PPC device.
thanks for the advice

72

General Discussion / unbricking?

« on: September 29, 2004, 04:49:50 pm »

thanks for the advice.. I already have the 1.39 ROM. I'm supposed to rename it from ROMIMAGE to Ospack, right?
Will let you know, hopefully will have good news.

I think it's JTAG that I was refering to.
http://openwince.sourceforge.net/jtag/

Does anyone know how to use this or if it will help? It looks promising, or at least that it's intended for this sort of usage. I will continue to research it.

Hey, if I can manage to do it somehow, maybe I'll go into biz fixing bricks.

73

General Discussion / unbricking?

« on: September 29, 2004, 03:01:08 pm »

I've read the threads here  (and at other boards) and I can't get any of the proposed solutions to work for me.

I have a sl5000d which I managed to render unbootable/unflashable.

When I try to flash (from either C+D or Diag Menu CF Update) both LEDs get stuck on. I've left it that way for hours.

The only thing I haven't tried is to reformat my CF card (I have to put files onto it from a WindowsPPC device) but I've previously flashed from the same card. OZ worked in the past, and I tried it before attempting OSPACK.

Right now, it's stuck with both LEDs on with OSPACK for ROM 1.02, the oldest I could find.

I can still get the Diag Menu, so I'm not looking at a 100% brick, but it's pretty close.
Also, my Diag Menu used to have 4 pages, now it only has 3.
clicking on "Version" in the bottom right does show the ROM as USA 3.10.

I'm going to pick up a CF card reader/adapter so I can plug the CF directly into a Linux desktop/laptop and reformat, etc, but I can only hope that makes a difference.

During my quest I've read that in the most extreme cases that a Z can be sent back to Sharp and they can use something (starts with a J...??) to revive the unit.
Is there any way for a normal (read: non-Sharp) person to do this? Sure would be nice, wouldn't it?

Thanks for any help and good luck to others who find themselves in a similar predicament.