Author Topic: Z\'s in a coma... yeah it\'s serious  (Read 5778 times)

orac

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Z\'s in a coma... yeah it\'s serious
« on: April 26, 2004, 12:04:41 am »
I was at a company sponsored user\'s conference a week ago and wanted to get an amusing picture of one of the sequestered translators talking with his hands in a more animated fashion than the speaker out on the podium, so I grabbed my digital camera and pressed it firmly into the CF slot. Of course what I didn\'t realize was that the connectors on the card had gone askew from the guiderails causing one of the pins to bend out of shape. While this was happening, the screen went black and faded out, so I thought, \"well now, does this mean I\'ve got to go buy one of the new clamshell models?\" I reset the thing and successfully turned it back on. So far so good. Looking in the CF slot, I could see some of the pins that had bent out of shape.

A few days later, I mustered up the courage to open the Z and bend those pins back into place. I undid the screws on the top, the ones in the battery case, and the one by the IR port. It came apart fairly easily with little force. I bent the pins back into place and checked it out with one of my CF cards. That seemed to work alright. I put it back together; of course it was difficult to keep the guide rails on the Z while I was screwing the sliding cover back on. So I had it all together, and didn\'t expect it to turn on the first go. Of course it didn\'t, probably because the internal battery went dead. So I tried to plug it in, got the orange light like it was charging. I gave it another try, no go. I tried to go into the diagnostic menu, and was able to perform all of the tests that I could think of. Since it said \"OK\" after just about everything, I figured that all is probably well, I just messed up the flash.

I tried flashing it, but then I remembered that I had deleted those files off of my CF when I realized that I was happy with the rom I had. So the other day I bought a CF reader for my PC, deleted all of the files off of the CF medium, and proceeded with the flashing operation. It took a good 3 minutes or so, and seemed to finish. I did the hard reset, and it refuses to turn on. I\'ve repeated this with the OSPACK as well as the initrd.bin and zImage methods for the Sharp Rom. I\'ve just finished a 24 hour charge just in case, and I get the same result. Am I missing anything? I go through the diags and everything seems ok, but I cannot get the thing to boot with a ROM. Thanks in advance for any ideas you might have!

Mitch

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Z\'s in a coma... yeah it\'s serious
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2004, 04:35:22 am »
Sorry for your loss.  :cry:
What that an intentional Smiths reference?

orac

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« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2004, 11:33:13 am »
It is intentional. This situation is odd since I saw Foxdie go through something similar with his clamshell model just a bit ago. I don\'t want to have to go out and buy a serial cable. Looks like the only think I can do is put it in scribble mode from the diags and draw in blue.

Mitch

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« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2004, 11:52:00 am »
Any screws left over after you put it back together?
Also, did you make sure you were \'earthed\' before you took it apart.

orac

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« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2004, 02:59:20 pm »
I had \'touched metal\" before taking it apart, all the checksums look good in the diags, all looks well, but it just doesn\'t boot. I kept all of the screws nicely coralled in a rubber band for the duration of the operation.

Greg2

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« Reply #5 on: April 26, 2004, 04:57:31 pm »
I\'m assuming you have a 5600 because you mention diagnostics menu? Are you referring to the menu you get to by pressing C+M and reset?

Can you still get to the maintenance menu? If so, try to flash from the SD-card. This may work and if it does it would suggest there is damage to the CF-card socket and or CF-card.

Greg

orac

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« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2004, 09:27:33 pm »
It\'s actually a 5500, so it won\'t let me flash from an SD card. I get to the diag menu by pressing d+p and reset. My CF card seems to be in good shape since I was able to back up the card before writing the initrd.bin + zImage or OSPACK.ROM (whatever they\'re called). Is there any messages in the diag menu for CF that I should watch out for and confirm that my socket is thrashed?

orac

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« Reply #7 on: May 03, 2004, 10:17:59 pm »
Does anyone know how the CF diagnostics work? Maybe there\'s something I\'m missing.

Greg2

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« Reply #8 on: May 04, 2004, 12:15:34 pm »
Quote
Does anyone know how the CF diagnostics work? Maybe there\'s something I\'m missing.

I don\'t think you are going to find anyone who has diagnosed their cf-card slot with those menus on a 5500. I doubt if many 5500 owners were aware they had those menus. The problem is that sharp has not released any documentation on the service menus on 5500 or 5600 and very little on the C-series.

I can tell you from reading many threads on the ZUG, the Zaurus message board and the old dev/net that you must be very careful in the service menus. I backed up everything on my 5500 and went into the service menus and could not find any way to checkout your problem.

I just wrote this so you know you are not being ignored. Maybe someone here will read this and knows more about it.

Greg

zbones

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« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2004, 03:36:46 pm »
Have you ever flashed a rom using your cf card?

Not all cf cards that work in the zaurus are able to flash a new rom.

Can you borrow a cf card from somebody local?

The problem you have may be unique or it maybe an old problem that is being masked by the starnge cirumstances of it\'s demise.

Hang the DJ.

Peter, another Smiths fan :oops:
Zaurus cl760, cacko QT rom. Zaurus sl5500 with TKCrom 1.0.
512mb Kingston cf card, 256mb Sandisk sd card, Lexar 256mb sd card.
Bluemonkey bluetooth card <-> Sony Ericsson k700i for gprs.
Buffalo WLI-CF-S11G wifi card. Haicom 303 mmf gps cf/seral card.

zbones

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Z\'s in a coma... yeah it\'s serious
« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2004, 03:51:09 pm »
Another suggestion is to check for \"dry joints\" which bending the pins may have created.

The worriying point is that you say you tried \"all\" the tests from the diag menu.

Some are potentially destructive, like the aging test, which is used to simulate years of use(abuse?)  and could possibly overwrite important areas of your flash memory which may be needed in order to flash a new rom.

The 5500 does not have a nand restore function to totally restore your unit (foxdies saving grace) it also doesn\'t contain the code to use the emergency recovery pack that can resurect the clamshells.

Fortunatley I\'ve never been in this situation myself, but it does sound serious.

I do wish you all the best, but it is worth noting that if it has a good screen/battery/cradle etc then it is still worth something on ebay if all else fails.

Peter
Zaurus cl760, cacko QT rom. Zaurus sl5500 with TKCrom 1.0.
512mb Kingston cf card, 256mb Sandisk sd card, Lexar 256mb sd card.
Bluemonkey bluetooth card <-> Sony Ericsson k700i for gprs.
Buffalo WLI-CF-S11G wifi card. Haicom 303 mmf gps cf/seral card.

orac

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« Reply #11 on: May 06, 2004, 02:17:12 am »
Thanks zbones and Greg2 for your responses. So basically, I probably gave my Z the second shaft when I tried the aging test.  Alright then, time to give those Sharp folks a ring and find out how much they charge for a full-on rom restore.

orac

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« Reply #12 on: May 10, 2004, 10:31:32 am »
Another odd bit is that I can get the C+D +reset buttons to force another flash. Perhaps I had better find someone with a CF card I could borrow. Mine just might not work for some reason.

...This joke isn\'t funny anymore...

zbones

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« Reply #13 on: May 10, 2004, 05:14:38 pm »
It may be worth a shot!  if it is \"going through the motions\" of flashing and entering the diag menus then it may be retrievable.

It still maybe the cf controller/socket.  I recall a post on the old devnet (rip!) forum from a guy who could use the cf slot, but couldn\'t flash from it.  He bought it on ebay, and when he raised a ticket for the problem with Sharp he was told there was already a ticket open for the same serial number and the same problem!

I urged him to get a refund from the sellar but never found out what the outcome was.

Are you anywhere near Leeds,uk ? I could help out if you are.

Peter
Zaurus cl760, cacko QT rom. Zaurus sl5500 with TKCrom 1.0.
512mb Kingston cf card, 256mb Sandisk sd card, Lexar 256mb sd card.
Bluemonkey bluetooth card <-> Sony Ericsson k700i for gprs.
Buffalo WLI-CF-S11G wifi card. Haicom 303 mmf gps cf/seral card.

orac

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Z\'s in a coma... yeah it\'s serious
« Reply #14 on: May 11, 2004, 05:08:27 pm »
Near Leeds? Sorry no, I\'d be having more fun if I was, of that I am almost certain. Thanks for the offer of assistance though, it is appreciated.