After Reflash Black Screen Of Death


^ Hotfixes and the complete firmware are available on the main page from Hotfix 3 onwards
http://www.openpandora.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=178&Itemid=32&lang=en

There is a link to Hotfix 2 in the Tweaks Thread ;)

edit:
You removed your original comment, but I'll let my answer stay in place.

daffy said:
Hotfix 2 is a pnd. It's not clear to me how to revert.
Click to expand...
To install HF2 you have to flash the old Zaxxon image first, put the HF2 .pnd on your card and follow the onscreen instructions after starting it.

notaz said:
http://notaz.gp2x.de/releases/pandora/pandora-firmware-2010-05-01-Zaxxon.zip

quoting readme I just made up:
  1. Extract the contents of this zip to root (main) directory (folder) of your
    SD card. Fat32 and ext2 filesystems are supported.
  2. Make sure the pandora is turned off (remove the battery in case it
    crashes or doesn't turn off by using normal means).
  3. Insert that SD card into pandora's first slot
    (it's the one closer to headphone jack).
  4. Press and hold the right trigger ('R'), then turn the power on
    (if you have battery removed, insert it while holding R).
  5. A menu should appear on screen. Select "boot from SD1" using the d-pad by
    pressing B or X.
  6. Wait for flash process to finish. Connect the charger to be sure the battery
    doesn't run out while flashing. Press enter when asked to do so.
  7. The device should turn off, press power (without holding R) to turn it back on.
    It should then start it's first boot process which migh take up to 15 minutes,
    be sure to wait for it to finish, otherwise firmware corruption might happen
    again.
Click to expand...
Edit: I lied, release bootloader doesn't support ext2 properly, it was only fixed in Hotfix3.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I had this problem on my 2nd Pandora this weekend, and the only thing that worked for me was to format my SD card under Windows (grr.. had to reboot) and then try, and try, and try again to re-flash the firmware. It eventually worked, but I had to do it like .. 5 times in a row ..
 
Found the previous version lying around. Reflashing with this restored the thing to function again.

So much for the dodgy SD format theory.
 
daffy said:
Found the previous version lying around. Reflashing with this restored the thing to function again.

So much for the dodgy SD format theory.
Click to expand...
Wow really? Can anyone else confirm this? Where can I download an older firmware version?

Thanks
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes I had this exact problem late last night and didn't report it. The new firmware with hot fix 3 built in flashed but didn't copy over rootfs for some reason I tries a few times. I had to download the original Zaxxon firmware from the support section on www.open-pandora.org then update with hotfix 3
All working again :)
 
mali said:
^ See my post above ;)
Click to expand...
Thanks mali - but I only see one firmware version - 2010-07? Do I need to put the hotfix 2 pnd on the sd card and then reboot? I can't get past the logo at bootup at the moment.

Thanks for your time.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
To install HF2 you have to flash the old Zaxxon image first(see notaz' link and instructions below), put the HF2 .pnd on your card and follow the onscreen instructions after starting it.

notaz said:
http://notaz.gp2x.de/releases/pandora/pandora-firmware-2010-05-01-Zaxxon.zip

quoting readme I just made up:
  1. Extract the contents of this zip to root (main) directory (folder) of your
    SD card. Fat32 and ext2 filesystems are supported.
  2. Make sure the pandora is turned off (remove the battery in case it
    crashes or doesn't turn off by using normal means).
  3. Insert that SD card into pandora's first slot
    (it's the one closer to headphone jack).
  4. Press and hold the right trigger ('R'), then turn the power on
    (if you have battery removed, insert it while holding R).
  5. A menu should appear on screen. Select "boot from SD1" using the d-pad by
    pressing B or X.
  6. Wait for flash process to finish. Connect the charger to be sure the battery
    doesn't run out while flashing. Press enter when asked to do so.
  7. The device should turn off, press power (without holding R) to turn it back on.
    It should then start it's first boot process which migh take up to 15 minutes,
    be sure to wait for it to finish, otherwise firmware corruption might happen
    again.
Click to expand...
Edit: I lied, release bootloader doesn't support ext2 properly, it was only fixed in Hotfix3.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well I can now boot again. Thank you mali & all others who offered help!

Unfortunately this has not resolved my original problems - namely that some pnd files I download simply will not execute. Most frustratingly - this includes hotfix 3. I bring up the context menu for the icon and select execute, but nothing happens.

Chrome and the Neo Geo emulator pnds also fail to run. Others - like Dega - seem to be OK. Tried running from sd card and the hd.

Any guidance on this new issue is greatly appreciated. Gotta say that the new firmware archive really did no favors for me - as others have had the same problem - might be worth taking it down?
 
midget35 said:
Well I can now boot again. Thank you mali & all others who offered help!

Unfortunately this has not resolved my original problems - namely that some pnd files I download simply will not execute. Most frustratingly - this includes hotfix 3. I bring up the context menu for the icon and select execute, but nothing happens.

Chrome and the Neo Geo emulator pnds also fail to run. Others - like Dega - seem to be OK. Tried running from sd card and the hd.

Any guidance on this new issue is greatly appreciated. Gotta say that the new firmware archive really did no favors for me - as others have had the same problem - might be worth taking it down?
Click to expand...

You should put PND files in the /pandora/menue (If they should show up in the menue) /pandora/desktop (If they should show up on the Deskltop or /pandora/apps (Both) folder on your sd and start them from the menue or desktop.
Pnds are not supposed to be started directly from the icon.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
mcobit said:
midget35 said:
Well I can now boot again. Thank you mali & all others who offered help!

Unfortunately this has not resolved my original problems - namely that some pnd files I download simply will not execute. Most frustratingly - this includes hotfix 3. I bring up the context menu for the icon and select execute, but nothing happens.

Chrome and the Neo Geo emulator pnds also fail to run. Others - like Dega - seem to be OK. Tried running from sd card and the hd.

Any guidance on this new issue is greatly appreciated. Gotta say that the new firmware archive really did no favors for me - as others have had the same problem - might be worth taking it down?
Click to expand...

You should put PND files in the /pandora/menue (If they should show up in the menue) /pandora/desktop (If they should show up on the Deskltop or /pandora/apps (Both) folder on your sd and start them from the menue or desktop.
Pnds are not supposed to be started directly from the icon.
Click to expand...


You are quite right! Thank you mate :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Oh, wow, something broken there? :eek:
Was working on my unit, maybe the archive is somewhat corrupt. Will fix that tonight :eek:
 
EvilDragon said:
Oh, wow, something broken there? :eek:
Was working on my unit, maybe the archive is somewhat corrupt. Will fix that tonight :eek:
Click to expand...

Yes it is definitely broken, thanks ED it did make me scratch my head a little :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
EvilDragon said:
Oh, wow, something broken there? :eek:
Was working on my unit, maybe the archive is somewhat corrupt. Will fix that tonight :eek:
Click to expand...

If the files was corrupt it wouldn't calculate the right checksum, maybe something different is broken. Had to reflash today and have the same problem.
Will wait, till the "Hotfix3 Image" is fixed.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
^ You can flash the old image and put the Hotfix 3 pnd on top, that will be the same as the combined firmware(when it's fixed).
 
Ouch, the download really was corrupted. Fixed now, image back in working state.
 
Is it worth publishing the md5 of firmware images on the support page? I'd like to be able to manually check it after copying to my SD card to avoid this sort of thing.
 
PhillipJ said:
Is it worth publishing the md5 of firmware images on the support page? I'd like to be able to manually check it after copying to my SD card to avoid this sort of thing.
Click to expand...

Usually, it's in the ZIP-Archive... but I managed to have it broken after putting it online (the image was too small on my PC), so the md5 was correct for the broken image...
I'll make a redownload and reflash check from now on before putting an image public.

I can put an md5 of the ZIP archive online, if you want though.
 
Last edited:
It would also be good practice to have somewhere to download previous firmwares in case this happens again.
 
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