madman34
13-03-2008, 11:41 AM
Greetings all,
Just off of the success of fixing the frustration of the broken audio adapter after upgrading to a new ROM problem, I think that a new and even more valeuable project is at hand: UnBricking these that are really bricked.
Ok, here is my thought and experience in as short a summery as I can give. Almost ALL consumber products these days evolved from general purpose processors with outboard EPROM or EEPROM, RAM, and peripheral components. As the devices develope, custom chipsets come into play to reduce size, component count, weight, power consumption, cost, etc, while upping the reliability, battery life, features, speed, and just the joy factor of these things. Look at them as they get better and better, just the transition from 6th gen 6700 to the 7th gen 6800 how much better it works. This goes for everything from the PDA/Smartphones, to the refrigerator, to satellite receivers, everything. A problem was that as more stuff gets crammed onto a smaller number of chips, they needed a way to initially configure these things so they would not come out as dumb boxes. Enter the JTAG interface. For those who do not know the acronym, look it up, but basically it is a standard interface and protocol to communicate with dedicated microprocessors and program them, without having to exactly speak the language of each model and brand. When you get a device off the production line at the end it goes to a workstation that has a JTAG interface jig and a PC configured to load the initial stuff, like the bootloader and basic stuff needed to make it what it is. I have been working with stuff for many years now and have JTAGGed satellite receivers, cell phones, air cards, cars, yes even cars use it, and a standard set of software talks to it all. The only difference is the connector or jig that is used and the BIN file you load. This is usually createable from the bootloader file that we usually load up to the USB port with the RUU, but without a bootloader in it already we can not do anything with it, so we need to JTAG like OLIPRO2.40 straight to the memory address range it needs to go to. JTAG software will, thru the interface, establish communication with, communicate, identify, and program the flash directly, heck you can put the entire ROM on it if you want. I do this all the time with other devices, so I know it is possible.
If you have a 6800 that is bricked thru software error and NOT broken by any crazy stuff done to it afterwards, then JTAGging WILL fix it. I propose to start the JTAG project for the 6800 series HTC devices, as I see an ever increasing number of these getting bricked it needs to be done. The ONLY way one should be touched inside is if it is known to be bricked by software error that you can not get back out of and thats all that is wrong with it, and very important that there is no possibility of returning it to your carrier under warranty for repair. HTC would do exactly what I propose and send it back fixed but probably charge a bunch. I have not killed mine, and do not intend to do so just for this project, but if anyone has one that is just a paperweight and meets the above criteria and has nothing to loose and plenty of time (cause my paying job takes priority) I would be happy to take this on and find, probe, and JTAG your device, fix it and provide before, during, and afterwards logging of what is done. I would then prepare a package of instructions and software on how everyone else can do it as well.
Anyone got a really dead one that they would care to try ???????
Just off of the success of fixing the frustration of the broken audio adapter after upgrading to a new ROM problem, I think that a new and even more valeuable project is at hand: UnBricking these that are really bricked.
Ok, here is my thought and experience in as short a summery as I can give. Almost ALL consumber products these days evolved from general purpose processors with outboard EPROM or EEPROM, RAM, and peripheral components. As the devices develope, custom chipsets come into play to reduce size, component count, weight, power consumption, cost, etc, while upping the reliability, battery life, features, speed, and just the joy factor of these things. Look at them as they get better and better, just the transition from 6th gen 6700 to the 7th gen 6800 how much better it works. This goes for everything from the PDA/Smartphones, to the refrigerator, to satellite receivers, everything. A problem was that as more stuff gets crammed onto a smaller number of chips, they needed a way to initially configure these things so they would not come out as dumb boxes. Enter the JTAG interface. For those who do not know the acronym, look it up, but basically it is a standard interface and protocol to communicate with dedicated microprocessors and program them, without having to exactly speak the language of each model and brand. When you get a device off the production line at the end it goes to a workstation that has a JTAG interface jig and a PC configured to load the initial stuff, like the bootloader and basic stuff needed to make it what it is. I have been working with stuff for many years now and have JTAGGed satellite receivers, cell phones, air cards, cars, yes even cars use it, and a standard set of software talks to it all. The only difference is the connector or jig that is used and the BIN file you load. This is usually createable from the bootloader file that we usually load up to the USB port with the RUU, but without a bootloader in it already we can not do anything with it, so we need to JTAG like OLIPRO2.40 straight to the memory address range it needs to go to. JTAG software will, thru the interface, establish communication with, communicate, identify, and program the flash directly, heck you can put the entire ROM on it if you want. I do this all the time with other devices, so I know it is possible.
If you have a 6800 that is bricked thru software error and NOT broken by any crazy stuff done to it afterwards, then JTAGging WILL fix it. I propose to start the JTAG project for the 6800 series HTC devices, as I see an ever increasing number of these getting bricked it needs to be done. The ONLY way one should be touched inside is if it is known to be bricked by software error that you can not get back out of and thats all that is wrong with it, and very important that there is no possibility of returning it to your carrier under warranty for repair. HTC would do exactly what I propose and send it back fixed but probably charge a bunch. I have not killed mine, and do not intend to do so just for this project, but if anyone has one that is just a paperweight and meets the above criteria and has nothing to loose and plenty of time (cause my paying job takes priority) I would be happy to take this on and find, probe, and JTAG your device, fix it and provide before, during, and afterwards logging of what is done. I would then prepare a package of instructions and software on how everyone else can do it as well.
Anyone got a really dead one that they would care to try ???????