Yab (yet Another Brick)?

[SanctimoniousApe]

After lusting for a Zaurus forever, but not being able to afford one, I finally got one for a reasonable price on eBay that came with a Linksys CF 802.11b card.  It seems the person had freshly flashed Sharp's v1.39 ROM onto it and the card wasn't set up to work.  I found some instructions on adding a setting to a file somewhere for the card, but that didn't seem to work.  Some of the stuff I found implied I had an "older" ROM because the WLAN settings were a seperate applet.  So I set about looking for an appropriate update (a bit hard since I haven't got an SD card to put /home on and most of the ROMs do that).

Long story short, it now only gets to the Sharp screen with "INIT: version 2.78 booting" (through all these flash attempts that's the only one I've seen - no change even in the loading graphic for OZ) and when attempting to flash I can never seem to get it to shut off the two lights - they stay on seemingly forever (okay I've not waited past 12 hours yet, but I think that's more than enough time).  Once during all these attempts it came up with fs errors and wanted me to do some repairs - sorry, but I ain't very brave nor am I knowledgeable enough in the ways of Linux to perform such feats.  So, I've been flashing away to no avail.  Boy I wish I'd been brave enough to try to recover the fs now!  *sigh*

I read something about the D&P keys and got to the service menu, albeit with no backlight for some reason.  I can't really seem to find thorough documentation of the menu, so I played around.  Testing the CF card gives messages that whiz by so fast I haven't a prayer of reading them - although I definitely see the word "error" in there a couple times, I have no idea if this is an error count of zero (I hope) or what because it's not on screen long enough for me to read any more than that.

I also tried the RAM test - this worries me because it starts drawing a bar graph that stops just past the "e" in the word "check" above it and the whole unit becomes non-responsive - I have to reboot the sucker to get it back.  I also tried the "Aging" menu item - whatever that means - seems to go through several tests in succession, but it again feezes at the RAM Check (Write) screen) with the bar graph at a similar size to what I mentioned above.  Thing that gets me is that this thing seemed to be working fine until I tried to flash it...

I've also read passing mentions of somehow running the battery down, but after a few minutes of sitting on the "INIT" message, this thing shuts itself off when on battery power and won't come back on w/o a reset.  Any ideas on how I can run down the battery (and if that even helps)?

So, am I screwed, or does anyone have any ideas about how I can recover this thing?  I'd really appreciate it!  I've been Googling for situations similar to mine, but just can't find anything so far...

[CoreDump]

Long story short, it now only gets to the Sharp screen with "INIT: version 2.78 booting"

The kernel didn't get flashed. Did you rename it to "zImage"?
Make sure your Win Box doesn't hide "known extensions".
Also make sure that both, initrd.bin and zImage are in the root directory of the CF card (don't put them inside a folder).

(through all these flash attempts that's the only one I've seen - no change even in the loading graphic for OZ) and when attempting to flash I can never seem to get it to shut off the two lights - they stay on seemingly forever

Your CF card might be the problem here. Some cards just won't work. Dunno why. It might be a good idea to buy another one (FWIW, I'm using a 64Mb and 128Mb SanDisk CF to flash).

All OZ ROMs have md5sums available (md5sums.txt). You'd better verify them after you have copied them to your CF card. There even is a windows program to do that, just don't ask what it's called heh.

I read something about the D&P keys and got to the service menu

Do not mess with the service menu. Ever.
If you want to brick your Z, this menu is your best chance.....

So, am I screwed, or does anyone have any ideas about how I can recover this thing?  I'd really appreciate it!  I've been Googling for situations similar to mine, but just can't find anything so far...
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1. Verify the filenames: initrd.bin and zImage
2. Verify the md5sums of both files
3. If that doesn't help, buy another CF card (they are dirt cheap anyways)
4. If that still doesn't work, and only then as a last resort, try to flash a Sharp OSPACK

HTH

[SanctimoniousApe]

I've tried three different brands of CF cards (including a 128MB SanDisk), including reformatting them from my W2K box (turning off that infernal "hide extensions" options is one of the very first things I do on any Winblows box I come into contact with) and ensuring that they were formatted as 16-bit FAT.  I had the files in the root directory.  I tried OZ's 3.5.2 (24/8 Colie) release naming the files initrd.bin and zImage, as well as the original Sharp ROM v1.39 image (as both OSPACK and ROMIMAGE) shipped to me on CD with the Z.  Same result each time - the two lights come on and stay on, period.

All OZ ROMs have md5sums available (md5sums.txt). You'd better verify them after you have copied them to your CF card. There even is a windows program to do that, just don't ask what it's called heh.

I have DigestIT 2004 on my Windoze boxen.  While I suppose technically I should check them after copying to the CF card, I tend to doubt anything went wrong with the transfer from my HD to CF cards...

Do not mess with the service menu. Ever.
If you want to brick your Z, this menu is your best chance.....

I wasn't even aware of the service menu's (SM) existence until I went searching for solutions to this problem, at which point it was already bricked.  Most of the non-obvious solutions I found involved the SM in some capacity or other.  I understand and appreciate your warning, but in this case the problem caused the SM usage - not the other way around.

1. Verify the filenames: initrd.bin and zImage
2. Verify the md5sums of both files
3. If that doesn't help, buy another CF card (they are dirt cheap anyways)
4. If that still doesn't work, and only then as a last resort, try to flash a Sharp OSPACK

Unfortunately, this is the common response and advice I found in many places - have tried all that to no avail.  Don't get me wrong - I really do appreciate you taking the time to write all this out and try to help me here, but I've spent the past two nights doing all the obvious stuff to no avail (along with the past two days at work sleepwalking through the day...).  I was hoping maybe someone had some insight into the RAM test - does anyone else experience such freezing and yet still have normal operation of their Z?  Or does anyone know what I can do about it?  Does Sharp even still service the SL5000d (and if so, at what kind of prices)?

As an aside, in my frustration I also wrote to the person who sold it to me and it seems he feels badly about it and has very kindly offered a refund.  I don't want him to feel screwed/taken either as he has no idea if I screwed it up or not (I know my skill level and my limits, and so I'm pretty darned certain I did not), so I'm still going to try working this problem out up until the point I ship it back to him.  If anyone has any further suggestions, then I'd really appreciate hearing them.

Thanks again, all!

[CoreDump]

I've uploaded a dd image of a 64Mb CF card w/ initrd.bin and a kernel to
http://www.hentges.net/tmp/cf-image_64Mb.dd.gz

If you have access to a linux / unix box, dd'ing it to a CF card is worth a try IMO.
It would rule out formating problems.

Actually it's a cardfs ROM, but no SD card is needed for this test to work.

[SanctimoniousApe]

I've uploaded a dd image of a 64Mb CF card w/ initrd.bin and a kernel to...

What?  No MD5?

But, seriously...  Extremely kind of you to go through that hassle - thank you.  Unfortunately, I get the same result with that as well.  I guess there truly is a RAM fault and so this thing is well and truly bricked.  I'm taking the seller up on his offer for a refund.  Thank you for your time and very kind assistance!

[SanctimoniousApe]

It occurred to me that maybe I should check the MD5s with you - just for the sake of completeness.  Here's what I get:

Code: [Select]

b8aa8158386b0babe1b090ce281f6764    .opiestorage.cf
807cb911ee81d4ffb5ee34c3ea2a653f    cardfs-opie-full-openzaurus_oz3.5.2-opie1.1.8-r18.bin
f5bf68bf5d980f85a16ab4700cc7011d    initrd.bin
de00ff331f2b7c57e3184b754c71c754    zImage

[CoreDump]

Actually I did upload a md5 checksum for the dd image but I forgot to add its URL  
Here it is: http://www.hentges.net/tmp/cf-image_64Mb.dd.gz.md5

Thank you for your time and very kind assistance!

Your welcome  
To bad your Z is dead for good