PROJECT: Reviving a Hard Bricked Kyros

[megalex]

I unbrick my hard briked mid7024 using part of the metho described in the tread reviving a dead tablet, there is instructions on page 7 to use the shareware program winimage to partition a external microsd with the "u-boot-SD.bin.mid703v3.mm" image, after this i uncompress the coby firmware update in the fat32 partition. Put the the card in the external slot and press home+power buttons and the proses begin. I cant gave more details because my English (i speak Spanish).

My specs:
Windows 7 64 bits
mid7024

[GUIDE] Revive your dead tablet - SlateDroid.com - Page 2

 

[lfom]

@arlic: great news, indeed. Can you provide us a pic showing the NAND and the pins you short-circuited? Thanks.

@megalex: you also had to short-circuit pins on NAND for it to work?

I have tried doing this with a MID1024 but made no modification to the hardware and it didn't work. We know that it's possible to enable SD booting using some connections in the smdkv210 board, but short-circuiting NAND pins was used only with other models of tablets so far. If it works with MID7024 and MID8024 then it's very good news.

 

[megalex]

http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/members/lfom.html@lfom: no, i dont have to short-circuit the NAND.

 

[lfom]

@lfom: no, i dont have to short-circuit the NAND.

Hmm, then maybe it only works for the tablets with resistive screens due to "u-boot-SD.bin.mid703v3.mm" being from a ROM for tablets with the same type of screen? Because it didn't work with a MID1024 I tested. Either this or maybe 1024 has a different electronics...

 

[flxrms]

Hmm, then maybe it only works for the tablets with resistive screens due to "u-boot-SD.bin.mid703v3.mm" being from a ROM for tablets with the same type of screen? Because it didn't work with a MID1024 I tested. Either this or maybe 1024 has a different electronics...

Actually that can also be used for capacitive screen because urbetter roms pretty much generic. The problem is the type of lcd panel used with coby 1024.

Also the link by megaplex at slateroid, i think arlic also tried that but failed from the 2nd hardbrick.

Sent from my Coby Kyros 7024

 

[Arlic]

Ok, here is a picture of my Coby MID8024. The black arrow is pointing to pin 1 of the NAND chip. You can see a small circle in the corner(it is in the picture).
You can go to this page for a Samsung pin layout:
http://www1.futureelectronics.com/doc/SAMSUNG/K9F1G08U0B-PCB0T00.pdf
Ok, pins 7 & 8 are the ones to look at......get a microscope!
I first repeated the steps in this article:
How to unbrick your Coby MID7015 - SlateDroid.com
the #5 post "vinylb" does a entire procedure.
Of coarse, the Coby 8024 does not have a Telechips TCC8902 ARM11 CPU, but I had nothing to lose.
Of coarse, the procedure didn't work. So, I played with the red battery connection, and played with the pins, and played with the power button, and .....found something out.
While the "un-soldered" red wire was laying against the red solder joint on the circuit board I pressed the power button and released it and there was a bright light shining through the top of the tablet near where the soft menu lights are located. I though the light was coming from the menu lights, but the light was coming from the display screen.
Of coarse,(last time) the light when off when the red wire came off the red joint. But, this is the biggie, something continued to happen "after the power button was released"! So, I re-soldered the red battery lead back and started to play with pins 7 & 8, and the power button, and the HOME button. It finally worked. Cool.
Also, doing something with pins 7 & 8 "IS THE KEY"! Why you ask....I will tell you.
My "simple" thoughts of how a Coby starts up:
1)Power button pressed. 2)CPU looks at NAND for bootloader. 3)CPU loads bootloader from NAND. 4)Tablet starts.
Simple.....maybe. If the NAND is off-line(shorted/burned/removed/etc) the CPU looks for the bootloader in "internal micro SD" and then in "external micro SD". Simple. ) I just removed the NAND from the picture...next in line internal or external SD. IF..the NAND is corrupt(bad ML code) the CPU executes a endless series of loops forever. The Coby then appears dead to the outside word, just like a crashed computer.
The "short" I caused with my tiny screwdriver sometimes didn't work, so I had to wiggle it around to get just the right connection. It worked....for me. AND....the NAND chip is small...I might have shorted pins 6 & 7 or pins 8 & 9. I didn't have a microscope.

AGAIN I WILL SAY
WARNING!!! I tried over 20 different recovery methods from over 4 different forums before I tried this. The Coby never gave me any signs through screen, USB, or HDMI. Just soft menu buttons lighting up with the power button pressed. It was DEAD! I didn't have any other options. Nothing else worked. I had nothing to lose. If, you have any questions just ask before attempting this method.
I hope this helps.

Bye...
Arlic

 

[nefirim]

Arlic, you're the man! here I was going to go with some type of soldering method. So heres the deal though, I'm trying this with my tablet and pins 6&7 and 8 & 9 and it doesn't produce any different results, still doesn't stay on. my external SD card has the official firmware on it. also it seems like the pins on mine are covered in... glue as far as I can tell. Also when you shorted it, did you have anything plugged in like in the other post? (Usb, power adapter, etc?)

 

[lfom]

Arlic, you're the man! here I was going to go with some type of soldering method. So heres the deal though, I'm trying this with my tablet and pins 6&7 and 8 & 9 and it doesn't produce any different results, still doesn't stay on. my external SD card has the official firmware on it. also it seems like the pins on mine are covered in... glue as far as I can tell. Also when you shorted it, did you have anything plugged in like in the other post? (Usb, power adapter, etc?)

The key are pins 7 & 8, they tell the board that there is no NAND. Also, you need to first write "u-boot-SD.bin.mid703v3.mm" to the SD card, it has a working u-boot for a SD, and also partitions the disk with a FAT32 part where you should put the firmware you plan to use.

 

[lfom]

Actually that can also be used for capacitive screen because urbetter roms pretty much generic. The problem is the type of lcd panel used with coby 1024.

Also the link by megaplex at slateroid, i think arlic also tried that but failed from the 2nd hardbrick.

I meant the SD booting, not the actual ROM. I did the exact same thing megaplex did with a MID1024 and it didn't work, so either the tablet was really bricked (faulty hardware) or 1024 has something different that may need some hardware change in order to boot from SD.

 

[nefirim]

The key are pins 7 & 8, they tell the board that there is no NAND. Also, you need to first write "u-boot-SD.bin.mid703v3.mm" to the SD card, it has a working u-boot for a SD, and also partitions the disk with a FAT32 part where you should put the firmware you plan to use.

Ah okay, that makes a little more sense, probably why I wasn't getting any results. I did try pin 7&8 as well, but I have a feeling since my card wasn't set up, thats why it was just still shutting off. I take the u-boot-SD.bin.mid703v3.mm is a part of a different firmware? and that I have to write the image to the SD card I want to use to boot it?

 

[lfom]

Ah okay, that makes a little more sense, probably why I wasn't getting any results. I did try pin 7&8 as well, but I have a feeling since my card wasn't set up, thats why it was just still shutting off. I take the u-boot-SD.bin.mid703v3.mm is a part of a different firmware? and that I have to write the image to the SD card I want to use to boot it?

Yes, it's for a Herotab tablet. There are many ways to write it, they are explained in those other tutorials linked in this thread. If you are on Linux/Mac, you can use command line "dd", if you are on Win there are some freeware utilities like HxD that can be used for this.

 

[terry98]

these are great news! i will try to unbrick my 7024 right away!! but im still confused with the sd setup... format fat32 and write with winimage the "u-boot-sd.bin.mid703v3.mm" thats it?? and do i have to keep pins 7&8 shorted through the whole process or only at startup????

 

[lfom]

these are great news! i will try to unbrick my 7024 right away!! but im still confused with the sd setup... format fat32 and write with winimage the "u-boot-sd.bin.mid703v3.mm" thats it?? and do i have to keep pins 7&8 shorted through the whole process or only at startup????

Nope. When you write "u-boot-SD.bin.mid703v3.mm" to the SD card it wil also write the partition table, so if you eject and re-insert the card to your computer you should see a large FAT32 partition mounted, copy the firmware files like you'd normally do in an upgrade/restore to it.

Arlic reported that he hold both pins shorted until the end (tablet will shutdown when the update is finished). Maybe it's not needed, but releasing the shortcircuit may freeze the tablet or something else, so I'd recommend that you try to hold it until the end.

 

[nefirim]

Worked like a charm! I shorted the 7 & 8 pins once I had the card set up and it found the sd card and booted and installed the firmware. from there I was able to flash the official firmware and everything works like normal. Arlic, you are awesome for discovering that! now hopefully this means the tablet is pretty much unbrickable with this little work around

 

[lfom]

Worked like a charm! I shorted the 7 & 8 pins once I had the card set up and it found the sd card and booted and installed the firmware. from there I was able to flash the official firmware and everything works like normal. Arlic, you are awesome for discovering that! now hopefully this means the tablet is pretty much unbrickable with this little work around

Yours is a MID8024, right? So we have two reports so far that this procedure works with 8024, and one (from megaplex) that 7024 doesn't need to shortcircuit NAND pins 7&8 for it work.