Hey all,
So I bought a cheap 9" tablet off eBay for use as an electronic billboard outside my dorm room door (cool, huh?)
I've been trying to root it for a long time so I could disable the touch screen/buttons on the device. I don't want people powering it off or something weird. I tried a bunch of different rooting methods to no prevail and eventually decided to try installing a custom recovery image using fast boot. Well, I definitely screwed something up as now the tablet just keeps rebooting as shown in the gif below.
[Gif video] i.imgur.com/ZtU4RtG.gifv
The screen will turn on and off and it seems to do it too quickly to be recognized by fast boot.
Should I paint a target on the back and practice my aim or is there any hope here?
Thank you for reading.
I figured it out! For anyone who has a problem in the future, I'll tell you how I did it.
Get PhoenixCard, it allows you to reinstall firmware through a micro sd card.
blogtechtips.com/2015/11/24/phoenixcard/
Then, get the iRulu firmware from the iRulu website. I checked the sticker on the back of my tablet and my model is like an x1924 (first part of whatever that code is.) I downloaded the "X1921 X1922 X1931 X1932 Firmware_YHK" firmware as it was the closest one. There should be instructions on how to use the PhoenixCard software to reinstall your firmware, but I found that I had to remove the card and try burning again if it failed to burn. It'll say "error" at the end if it failed.
Then I tried plugging in the card and booting the tablet a couple of times until a loading bar appeared on the screen. Wait patiently, and eventually it will turn off again. Remove the card and boot up and you're good!
my tablet
hey my model number says x9 and i am kinda confused because i cant find the firmware for it. itsvthe same 9" 4.4 will that firmware work on mine
Jason1077 said:
hey my model number says x9 and i am kinda confused because i cant find the firmware for it. itsvthe same 9" 4.4 will that firmware work on mine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have an IRULU x9 (boot screen says expro x1) I have a serial # jx944wf1507061e. I found the firmware on the Irulu site as firmware for JX944 & JX945 HERE
xx.irulu.com/download/lists.html
replace xx with www
I rooted my tablet but it is stuck in factory reset boot loop. If there is a power cycle i lose all programs installed and the tablet goes back to factory settings out of the box state. However, I still have root and superuser (Kingoroot) installed.
I will try flashing it with phoenixcard and with the factory firmware and post if it fixed it.
***update** Flashed the firmware with Phoenixcard, used JX944 firmware and it is back to factory specs working as it did when it was stock.
Thanks to you both. I'm going to try this over New Year's. Wish me luck!
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
This will help you unbrick a bricked FireTV 2. You must download the following:
FireTV 2 Recovery Installer
FireTV 2 Recovery
Unbrick Images (md5sum: 5e774497b3bad5c47d1c744410f6db12)
Extract all 3 zip files to the same directory.
You must decide if you want to use unbrick.img or unbrick+ramdisk.img. Using unbrick.img, it should take about 30 minutes. Using unbrick+ramdisk.img it could take up to 2 hours. You can only use unbrick.img if you have an sdcard. If you have an sdcard, place ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma in the root directory of it.
Run unbrick_firetv2.bat for Windows or unbrick_firetv2.sh for Linux or OSX.
First, it will ask you which file you want to use, unbrick.img or unbrick+ramdisk.img. You must type the name of the image you want to use.
Make sure the USB cable is connected and turn on the FireTV 2.
Then it will start reading from the FireTV. Then it will prompt you with a warning:
Code:
No target file specified. Is this a partition image?
If this is not, DO NOT CONTINUE, otherwise press 'y' to continue.
Write partition image? <y|n>
Type a 'y' and hit enter.
It should start writing. Eventually it will finish. If you put the ramdisk on the sdcard, make sure it is plugged in and power cycle the Fire TV. It should skip the bootmenu and take you straight to recovery. If for some reason the USB keyboard doesn't work, unplug and replug it. It should start working.
rbox said:
This will help you unbrick a bricked FireTV 2. You must download the following:
FireTV 2 Recovery Installer
FireTV 2 Recovery
Unbrick Images
Extract all 3 zip files to the same directory.
You must decide if you want to use unbrick.img or unbrick+recovery.img. Using unbrick.img, it should take about 30 minutes. Using unbrick+recovery.img it could take up to 2 hours. You can only use unbrick.img if you have an sdcard. If you have an sdcard, place ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma in the root directory of it.
Run unbrick_firetv2.bat for Windows or unbrick_firetv2.sh for Linux or OSX.
First, it will ask you which file you want to use, unbrick.img or unbrick+recovery.img. You must type the name of the image you want to use.
Make sure the USB cable is connected and turn on the FireTV 2.
Then it will start reading from the FireTV. Then it will prompt you with a warning:
Code:
No target file specified. Is this a partition image?
If this is not, DO NOT CONTINUE, otherwise press 'y' to continue.
Write partition image? <y|n>
Type a 'y' and hit enter.
It should start writing. Eventually it will finish. If you put the ramdisk on the sdcard, make sure it is plugged in and power cycle the Fire TV. It should skip the bootmenu and take you straight to recovery. If for some reason the USB keyboard doesn't work, unplug and replug it. It should start working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome rbox! I see you've been busy...Really appreciate everything you do for us Fire TV folks.
Awesome work as always!
Thank you mate... Your great work made my day and got out of bricked state !!!!!
Got to recovery and flashed your rooted 5.0.31 and rebooted to perfectly working aftv2 + rooted .. Good job as always mate , thanks
One question, could I just flash the rooted 5.0.4 from recovery or should I do something else??
samykoka said:
Thank you mate... Your great work made my day and got out of bricked state !!!!!
Got to recovery and flashed your rooted 5.0.31 and rebooted to perfectly working aftv2 + rooted .. Good job as always mate , thanks
One question, could I just flash the rooted 5.0.4 from recovery or should I do something else??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can flash whatever version you want...
rbox, looks like amazon sent me a bricked fire tv, while im at possession, i figured a i play around with it.
when i got it it was stuck to amazon white amazon logo,
so i waited for it for like 30 minutes to boot, but nothing changes... then with recent root method (aftv gen 2)
i figured i install this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/development/firetv-2-recovery-t3309780/page17#post65265240
i was able get to recovery!
and applied pre rooted firmware, but after completion,
i think its beyond bricked..
no screen, my led flash drive does not even flash or blink anymore when i put it on boot...
i can still handshake still apply the unbrick method
my question is after applying this brick.img
would i suppose to get a screen? and boot up
but still the same no screen nothing... not even white amazon logo...
or this is done..
thanks
daffung said:
rbox, looks like amazon sent me a bricked fire tv, while im at possession, i figured a i play around with it.
when i got it it was stuck to amazon white amazon logo,
so i waited for it for like 30 minutes to boot, but nothing changes... then with recent root method (aftv gen 2)
i figured i install this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/development/firetv-2-recovery-t3309780/page17#post65265240
i was able get to recovery!
and applied pre rooted firmware, but after completion,
i think its beyond bricked..
no screen, my led flash drive does not even flash or blink anymore when i put it on boot...
i can still handshake still apply the unbrick method
my question is after applying this brick.img
would i suppose to get a screen? and boot up
but still the same no screen nothing... not even white amazon logo...
or this is done..
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After using unbrick.img, if you put the ramdisk on the sdcard, you should get recovery. If not, then there is something bad the hardware.
Many thanks, rbox -- unbrick_firetv2.bat worked for me in bootcamp. Selected unbrick+ramdisk.img, then rebooted into TWRP. Initially when I installed prerooted 5.0.5_r2, setup gave me a screen (after remote pairing and language selection) that it was checking for updates. The setup then halted with an error window that it could not connect to Amazon's server, and that I should power off and reset the AFTV. I then flashed prerooted 5.0.4_r2, completed the initial setup, and reflashed prerooted 5.0.5_r2 (which let me get around the update error).
Again, thanks for all your work!!
rbox said:
After using unbrick.img, if you put the ramdisk on the sdcard, you should get recovery. If not, then there is something bad the hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i wonder what caused that bricked.. , ( well it was already bricked, when amazon send it to me it was stuck at white amazon logo, then only when i applied the pre rooted firmware, thats when it stop showing screens from there..wouldn't it fix the problem already since i was able to get to recovery.....
id try the sd card 1 last thing il probably go to walmart and try that, if nothing fix it i guess its total beyond brick..
Hi,
thank you very much for your great work @rbox!
Just a note:
I think, in the bash script, there is a "2" in the last line that doesn't belong there?
And there is a "unbrick+ramdisk.img" file, but no "unbrick+recovery.img" in the zip container. Some might get confused by that...
But everything works fine (using ramdisk)!
thx
Takeoo111111 said:
Hi,
thank you very much for your great work @rbox!
Just a note:
I think, in the bash script, there is a "2" in the last line that doesn't belong there?
And there is a "unbrick+ramdisk.img" file, but no "unbrick+recovery.img" in the zip container. Some might get confused by that...
But everything works fine (using ramdisk)!
thx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I fixed it all.
rbox said:
After using unbrick.img, if you put the ramdisk on the sdcard, you should get recovery. If not, then there is something bad the hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
rbox, looks like its a hardware problem? but problem is i had white screen when i applied the pre rooted fire tv, thats when i get no screen, no boot... do think its possible a fix for this, via handshake?
daffung said:
rbox, looks like its a hardware problem? but problem is i had white screen when i applied the pre rooted fire tv, thats when i get no screen, no boot... do think its possible a fix for this, via handshake?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well try the unbrick image and see if it works.
rbox said:
After using unbrick.img, if you put the ramdisk on the sdcard, you should get recovery. If not, then there is something bad the hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
rbox said:
Well try the unbrick image and see if it works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup,
sucessfully flashed unbrick.img, and had sd card ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzm.
still the same...
no boot, no screen, not even white screen?
and no signal from hdmi
I am afraid I have to report a brick on 5.0.5r3 -
Played some Vice City, went back into Kodi, played a video that was still in the paused state, then the screen flashed to black and then back to the Video in Kodi twice and then - a dreaded blackscreen.
Upon a reboot I still get the amazon logo, I get the recovery bootscreen and also can still enter TWRP recovery, but when I try to boot into the normal OS I only get the amazon logo and then a fade to black (amazon Fire TV animated logo not showing up). The blue LED on the Fire TV is steadily blinking along...
(Switched TVs and HDMI cables - just in case (no HDCP problem.. ))
Already wiped /system /data /data including media /cache and /dalvik - and reinstalled both 5.0.5r1 and r3 multiple times.
Right now I have two questions - 1st (for the fast ones, because I am trying it anyway) - should I still try to unbrick using this tutorial (i.e. If I have access to the recovery and already formated the whole range of partitions once - does the unbrick image do anything more than that?).
And 2nd - is there any "factory image" maybe without the stock recovery disabled - just in case, at this point - I'd try most things - really...
harlekinrains said:
I am afraid I have to report a brick on 5.0.5r3 -
Played some Vice City, went back into Kodi, played a video that was still in the paused state, then the screen flashed to black twice and then - a dreaded blackscreen.
Upon a reboot I still get the amazon logo, I get the recovery bootscreen and also can still enter TWRP recovery, but when I try to boot into the normal OS I only get the amazon logo and then a fade to black (amazon Fire TV animated logo not showing up). The blue LED on the Fire TV is steadily blinking along...
(Switched TVs and HDMI cables - just in case (no HDCP problem.. ))
Already wiped /system /data /data including media /cache and /dalvik - and reinstalled both 5.0.5r1 and r3 multiple times.
Right now I have two questions - 1st (for the fast ones, because I am trying it anyway) - should I still try to unbrick using this tutorial (i.e. If I have access to the recovery and already formated the whole range of partitions once - does the unbrick image do anything more than that?).
And 2nd - is there any "factory image" maybe without the stock recovery disabled - just in case, at this point - I'd try most things - really...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The unbrick image just puts enough on system to be able to get to recovery. If you can already get to recovery, it won't get you anything. The disabled stock recovery isn't going to effect anything while running android. All it does it prevent the bootloader from running it. I can't really explain it if you did an advanced wipe of data.
Hardware Issue probably. Thanks for the fast response.
Cheers.
(I'll do another advanced wipe - just for kicks.. )
edit: Went through with another full wipe - rebooting the device afterwards (= softbrick for sure, because not even TWRP is accessible and there is no OS on the device) - which at that point got "parked" on the white amazon logo indefinitely. (Perfect for the "I aint know nothing" returning the device approach. Just in case Amazons 5.0.5 turns out to brick a few more Fire TVs... As long as rbox didnt modify the kernel, I'd say its Amazons fault. ) Then went through the unbrick procedure in this thread - which worked as described (TWRP was installed on the device and autobooted on the powercycle after the unbrick script had finished). Then installed 5.0.5r1 again and rebootet - just to be met with the same error profile as before "dark screen" - not even the animated amazon logo (just the white one in the beginning).
This time - on a better TV screen it was visible though, that the screen showed a small horizontal line, and then flashed in a lighter black color twice, before going back to full TV black. So yes the problem seems to lay somewhere on the video signal path. Its curious though, that TWRP still got (and gets) displayed...
Works perfect. Thx
Can someone help me? I followed all the steps in the guide and when the unbricking program is writing the filesystem, it always gets stuck at 17%. Maybe I am doing something wrong?
rbox said:
After using unbrick.img, if you put the ramdisk on the sdcard, you should get recovery. If not, then there is something bad the hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am in a boot loop. Goes to amazon white logo. Light on FireTV2 turns orange then reboots into custom recovery but it automatically starts trying to mount partitions (one of them is cache) and it fails on all of them. Then moves along to the white amazon screen again and repeats the entire process. I ran the unbrick.img and the problem persists.
I'm currently in the process of running unbrick+recovery.img method to see if it makes any difference. Should it? Is there anything that I may be overlooking?
I'm fairly sure that the reason this happened is from checking ALL the check boxes in the format/wipe section of the custom recovery. After that these issues happened. Does that mean permabrick?
So, for Christmas my daughter's mom got her an A33 Q88H QuadCore Softwinner tablet, and we discovered the OS it came with had some very strange issues related to a lack of compatibility with Google Play, so I tried to get around that with software, but I needed to be rooted. However, I had bizarre difficulties with SuperSU, unlocking the bootloader, rooting, and even more difficulties trying to flash a custom recovery that I could use to ROOT-- the obscure china tablet had no TWRP or CWM support. I finally tried a very convoluted method of flashing what appeared to be a ROM for the A33 Allwinner tablet, which hadTWRP already installed, so I could use TWRP to root it, and then finally fix the software issues.
However, the process didn't work, and when I rebooted the phone, I found it stuck on a black screen with a tiny android symbol, and that's how it's been since. Holding volume and power button only reboots it to the same screen -- no bootloader or anything, so I can't find any way to try to flash a factory ROM to get it back to regular settings. When I plug it into my computer, it makes the input noise, and shows up in Device Manager as "Android Device" with "Android ADB Interface" drivers successfully installed, but ADB doesn't recognize it as a device, and I can't get it into any sort of download mode -- it isn't recognized in My Computer as a hard drive. So, I can't find a way to interface with the tablet to reflash a stock ROM. :frown:
It's her Christmas present, so I don't want to admit that I've broken it; I've been trying to solve it all night for 12 hours straight, but I just can't find anything that works! Is there any way you guys can help me? :crying:
I tried to attach some pics but the uploader isnt working.
bump
While trying to flash on atvXperience (following the instructions blindly,stupid of me), I have bricked the box. When I was in TWRP, the install part only gave LOGO, RECOVERY and BOOT as the install locations. Should have installed TWRP first before fully wiping the device. The M16 does come rooted. HDMI doesn't output anything and a faint green LED is lit when powered on, originally it was a blue LED on normal operation.
USB Burning Tool comes back with "[0x10303004]Romcode/Switch status/Identify/Error result" basically everytime. Tried different ROMs, I have asked to get the original firmware from the eBay seller (have to wait for them to ask the manufacturer, I guess)
Looking for some ideas. Thanks for help in advance!
Link to the box: https://androidtvbox.eu/the-new-firmware-for-m16-tv-box-with-amlogic-s905x-20171030-release/
Board Images (on Google Drive): Images
So an update to the situation: The first box seems completely bricked. So, I acquired a new box and booted TWRP and took a full backup, then killed the recovery mode while trying to flash TWRP over stock recovery. Rebooting and holding down the AV reset button would normally just factory reset but now just shows the non-animated boot logo and sits there (Since flashing TWRP).
I want to replace the firmware because I have detected the default firmware on the box is talking back to China (at least on the 8GB/1GB RAM version because I ordered it in a hurry). You can thank Watchguard for that info.
I'm also not really up to buying another (or 3rd) box because it takes 3-4 weeks delivery and the amount of money already spent. I might try and use a hot air rework station to remove the eMMC from the bricked unit and directly flash it; also to work out where the ball grid maps out too. God help me on this effort.
Is there a way to convert the TWRP backup in to a flash-able IMG file? This could restore the bricked box, which i like cause it's the 2GB RAM version.