Trying To Restore A Bricked Gp2x

[UrbanSlayer]

After a failed 1.2.1 upgrade attempt, I am trying to restore my GP2X with the debricking guide from DJWillis.

I dont have a serial cable (or the time to make one), so I havent been able to monitor that part of it, but after reading his guide, and what generally occurs, it seems to me this should be working..

Anyhoo - I get the black GP2X splash screen appear, but nothing else. So, following the guide it says i need the gp2xfile.img. Don that, and I have tried several different SD cards with it on, they all boot into the Firmware Upgrading screen (and if the SD card wasnt supported/recognised) im assuming this wouldnt happen. However, I have had the GP2X sitting there for 3+hours on the Firmware Upgrading screen and nothing has happened. At all. It just sits there. I am not running it on batteries, but the PSU.

This shouldnt be happening right?

I'm trying it again, but I think I'm gonna end up shelling out the 10 Euro's to get EvilDragon to reflash it for me, since I dont get why this part isnt working.

Does anyone have any ideas? I dont really have time to try the JTAG solution either.

Thanks!

 

[Reesy]

I had problems upgrading before but luckily I had a serial cable which allowed me to see what was going on. While the upgrade is progressing sometimes error messages will be displayed informing you that a nand write failed. This usually does not matter as the upgrade software will just retry the write and continue with the upgrade. However it appears to only retry 3 times. If it fails to write the nand 3 times before it has finished it will start again from the begining.

This is how the upgrade can take so bloody long. Keep at it and be patient, it usually gets there in the end.

 

[UrbanSlayer]

Ok, thanks! If I leave it alone, and it reboots, will it start all over again?

I have left it going overnight, and came to it in the morning, with it still flashing..

 

[UrbanSlayer]

Well, I managed to unbrick. Again, I had left it flashing the gp2xfile.img, with no joy, decided to try the Kernel file on the unbricking guide, and it worked first time.

I have now just flashed it up to 1.4.0 with no issues!

Thanks

 

[EvilDragon]

Just a quick note on that:

If you brick your gp2x during a firmware update (gp2xkernel.img), you won't ever need gp2xfile.img

Just reflashing with the gp2xkernel.img works fine.

The gp2x knows of three files:

gp2xboot.img (flashes the Bootloader)
gp2xkernel.img (flashes the kernel)
gp2xfile.img (flashes the whole Linux filesystem)

If your gp2x shows the black screen, but not the green one, you don't have a kernel and therefore need to flash with gp2xkernel.img

If your gp2x shows the black screen, then the green one but hangs there, your filesystem is faulty and you need gp2xfile.img

If your gp2x shows a white screens with rainbow lines coming down, the Bootloader is gone and you need a JTAG setup to revive it.