Pandora Won't Brick

[banjeed]

Hey all, I have to say that the prime reason I'm jumping ship to the Pandora asap is for it's "unbrickable" nature. I bricked my GP2X a few months back when the latest firmware came out and was wondering how many of you are here for the same reason. Also, I'm one of those that bricked it down to the uboot level so I don't even get the boot screen. I've heard of using jtag with my BoB to fix this and was wondering if anyone else has ventured down this path. It's also unfortunate that I only have access to a Mac and dell laptop right now so going down the serial port path is not an option. thanks guys

 

[trooper]

You could always send it to someone who can unbrick it for you, As have a lot of people who don`t have the equipment to perform the unbricking procedure.

Maybe worth asking.

Trooper

 

[juanvvc]

I'm jumping ship to the Pandora asap is for it's "unbrickable" nature.

I found that line in several threads in the last few days. Why is the Pandora "unbrickable"? As far as I know, it is as brickable as any other personal device, and special care must be taken to protect the core of the operating system (unprivileged accounts and so) I'd like to be wrong, but I really think that the Pandora team has not enough time to make the Pandora "nearly unbrickable", at least with the first firmware.

 

[trooper]

I'm jumping ship to the Pandora asap is for it's "unbrickable" nature.

I found that line in several threads in the last few days. Why is the Pandora "unbrickable"? As far as I know, it is as brickable as any other personal device, and special care must be taken to protect the core of the operating system (unprivileged accounts and so) I'd like to be wrong, but I really think that the Pandora team has not enough time to make the Pandora "nearly unbrickable", at least with the first firmware.


As far as i know, It`s all to do with the fact that you can boot from an SD card with a copy of the (compatible) firmware on it, No matter what the condition of the firmware on the internal nand flash.

Sounds unbrickable to me.

Trooper

 

[WizardStan]

I'm jumping ship to the Pandora asap is for it's "unbrickable" nature.

I found that line in several threads in the last few days. Why is the Pandora "unbrickable"? As far as I know, it is as brickable as any other personal device, and special care must be taken to protect the core of the operating system (unprivileged accounts and so) I'd like to be wrong, but I really think that the Pandora team has not enough time to make the Pandora "nearly unbrickable", at least with the first firmware.

I'll tell you something you'll like, then: you are wrong.
The boot loader can load from SD card, and it's static ROM (or PROM, or at least unwritable EPROM) so can't be changed. Even if the NAND flash is completely wiped, no firmware on the thing at all, you can just copy the OS onto an SD card and boot as normal. And from there you can reflash the firmware.
I was going to say "it's all in the wiki" but I can't actually find where it explains this, just that it also claims to be unbrickable without saying why.
But now you know: if the firmware becomes corrupt (ie, "bricks") then you can just boot off of SD card.

 

[TaG]

I'm jumping ship to the Pandora asap is for it's "unbrickable" nature.
I found that line in several threads in the last few days. Why is the Pandora "unbrickable"? As far as I know, it is as brickable as any other personal device, and special care must be taken to protect the core of the operating system (unprivileged accounts and so) I'd like to be wrong, but I really think that the Pandora team has not enough time to make the Pandora "nearly unbrickable", at least with the first firmware.
I'll tell you something you'll like, then: you are wrong.
The boot loader can load from SD card, and it's static ROM (or PROM, or at least unwritable EPROM) so can't be changed. Even if the NAND flash is completely wiped, no firmware on the thing at all, you can just copy the OS onto an SD card and boot as normal. And from there you can reflash the firmware.
I was going to say "it's all in the wiki" but I can't actually find where it explains this, just that it also claims to be unbrickable without saying why.
But now you know: if the firmware becomes corrupt (ie, "bricks") then you can just boot off of SD card.
I guess another way of saying it is that it is more like a normal pc than typical handhelds. Handhelds you do something and it bricks and there is often that danger. With a PC you can still corrupt things but then you 'just' re-install the OS, settings, software, data...

 

[banjeed]

Yes, sorry for the confusion. If I were to throw my Pandora out of a bus, It may in fact become "bricked" but what I was pointing to was the fact that there is little danger for things such as software upgrades. I'm sure I'm not the only one that held my breath and cringed in a praying position when upgrading my GP2X firmware. But as suggested, I'm in the US and am in need of GP2X unbricking services. Could somebody point me in the right direction. I can even supply the BoB.

 

[juanvvc]

I'll tell you something you'll like, then: you are wrong. The boot loader can load from SD card, and it's static ROM (or PROM, or at least unwritable EPROM) so can't be changed.

That explains everything. How could I miss that?

So, the Pandora seems unbrickable, thanks to show me my error

 

[Squidge]

The boot loader can load from SD card, and it's static ROM (or PROM, or at least unwritable EPROM)

or even Mask ROM

 

[rabidpoobear]

Juan, what equipment is required to unbrick it? I don't have any experience with the GP2x, but I've done homebrew and firmware flashing on other handhelds, and if I have the equip, I'd be happy to flash it for you.
You have a guide you could link to?

 

[atiflz]

Just a BoB or craddle, and a computer with a parallel port. It is easy under vinsux, a bit harder on other platforms.

 

[banjeed]

Just a BoB or craddle, and a computer with a parallel port. It is easy under vinsux, a bit harder on other platforms.

What exactly is "vinsux"?

 

[pyropandora]

Yeah, Pandora seems very, very hard to brick, I have already bricked my PSP, which is easy, tried to fix it, without thinking about what I was doing which is how i got ultimate brickage

 

[Squidge]

Yeah, Pandora seems very, very hard to brick, I have already bricked my PSP, which is easy, tried to fix it, without thinking about what I was doing which is how i got ultimate brickage

Tried Pandora's Battery?

 

[vuffi_raa]

Yeah, Pandora seems very, very hard to brick, I have already bricked my PSP, which is easy, tried to fix it, without thinking about what I was doing which is how i got ultimate brickage

if you use a pandora battery- use the cemetario stick (I belive it is on the 3rd cemetario release now) b/c it writes directly to the flash instead of doing a f/w load and patch which can be screwed up if the flash 1 and 2 slots are corrupted- I have fixed some bricked PSP's that have had flash 1 and 2 corruptions with it w/o a problem, and it is insanely fast as well .