My M3 died and resurrected!

wpyh · 01-28-2008

Two days ago while playing around with M3's firmware, I managed to download a bad firmware onto the device. Of course, it died.

I looked here:
Please, help, my M3 doesn´t start

Well, I tried Adikosa's procedure on Windows 98 SE and Windows XP SP2, and both didn't work. Maybe I did not follow his instructions very carefully, because I did not hold down the M and play buttons for the whole procedure.

The first thing I tried is running secdfu.exe on Windows 98 SE, since it's the only available Windows installation then (I use Linux exclusively for daily work and study). Windows detected my M3 as a "USB DFU Device", but secdfu.exe did not show "S5L8700 Rev.1".

Then I tried the flash utility for M6SL, but it did not work either.

I found a Windows XP SP2 installation on a friend's computer, and secdfu.exe recognized my M3 correctly. Unfortunately, the upgrade process stopped after 4 bars. It might have been because I did not hold the two buttons firmly.

After that incident, well, everytime I tried to get my M3 recognized as a DFU device, Windows will show a "USB DFU Device" and seconds later disconnect it. I also tried this on Linux, and what I get is like:

Code:

usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
usb 1-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
usb 1-3: USB disconnect, address 3

The third line shows that the USB device has been "disconnected".

I can prevent the computer from disconnecting my M3 by releasing the M and play buttons just after Windows/Linux recognizes the DFU device. But still, secdfu.exe doesn't show "S5L8700 Rev.1".

Today, I installed Vista on my old PC and tried Adikosa's procedure again, but this time:
1. I did not let go of the M and play buttons.
2. I did not change "SST39VF800.dfu" to "S5L8700 Rev.1" in secdfu.ini.

It worked! I let go of the two buttons, then pulled the USB plug. After that, I can see "Loading..." on the screen.

I have not tried any functions at all, but I think my M3's fine now.

As for my firmware adventures, I will share them at the Firmware section soon.

Update: I killed my M3 again, and tried to recover it on Windows XP. It worked. *shrugs*