DR800 Bricked my newly acquired DR800SG :(

[lacol]

I apologize in advance for the long post, but I want to be sure to include all possible information that may be of use.

Two weeks ago I finally managed to get my hands on a DR800SG. During this time I played with it heavily, testing many of the custom software that can be found on this site. I crashed it a few times, but in all cases, the insertion of an SD card with the RC3 firmware uncompressed to it and a simple reset always managed to restore the device to a workable state.

A few days ago I thought I had found the final configuration that suited my needs: dr800+ v2b with uds.dr1000 from the RC3 of the DR1000S firmware, plus rxvt terminal emulator, and .CBZ viewer. Note that in rxvt, I never ran any other command than cd, ls, cat and exit, commands that should not modify the file system in any way. Since my current configuration was the result of a somewhat "unclean" sequence of installations/deinstallations, I wanted a final "clean" install. So I pulled out the 1 GB microSD card that was in the device (the device was turned off), and replaced it with a 2 GB card (known to be good, I had used it many times before to restore RC3 firmware) that I had prepared the same way as many times before (formatted in PC in FAT16, uncompressed RC3 from the same zip file I had used many times before), inserted the new card, turned the device on. A message appeared telling me that new firmware was available, did I want the restart the device ? Tapped "restart" with the stylus, device rebooted, backgroup image with concentric circles appeared after a few seconds with a message box in the upper right corner saying "installing new firmware". Note that the device was not plugged in to the USB cable, and that the battery was showing 100% charge. So after about a minute, the device seems to reboot, the display turns blank, the indicator light turns solid green, and then... nothing.

Fifteen minutes later, still nothing. Mostly blank screen, on wich the shadowy remains of the last display screen could barely be seen, solid green indicator light. By this time I knew something had gone wrong, and I chanced to reset the device. Slid the power switch to the left a few seconds, until the indicator light turned off, released the switch; indicator light turns on solid green again, and the display shows absolutely no activity whatsoever. After another fifteen minutes I started to worry.

I pulled out the 2 GB microSd card and inserted it in my PC the examine it. File system showed that the "update" folder in "system" had been deleted. Furthermore, the hidden ".adobe-digital-editions" folder had been created, as well as the files "global.db" in root folder and "dr.ini" in "system" folder, but nothing else.

I then left the 2 GB card untouched (I still have it intact) and prepared another card, one of the 1 GB cards I had used many times successfully before) for firmware update. I then unplugged the battery and left it unplugged for fifteen minutes. I inserted the new 1 GB card and plugged in the battery. Indicator light turned on solid orange this time, and nothing else happened. No activity or apparent change in the display, nothing. After a few minutes I proceeded to reset the device the way I had done it before. Indicator light turned on solid green, and then nothing. Unplugged the battery again, but plugged in only the USB cable this time: indicator light turned on solid orange, and nothing. Reset the device: indicator light turned on solid green, and nothing else.

I removed the 1 GB card and examined it on my PC: nothing had changed. It's as if the card hadn't been accessed at all. I unplugged USB and battery and tried to restart the device without the microSD card: same behavior: solid orange after pluggin in power (battery and/or USB cable), and then solid green after either a single flick of the power switch, or a device reset. In desperation, I left the device unplugged and the battery removed for 24 hours, and tried again to revive it with the different methods I've described above, without success.

Whether or not there is a microSD card inserted (either blank or with the RC3 firmware uncompressed on it) or no card at all, behavior is always the same: First solid orange indicator light at power up (either by plugging in the battery, or the USB cable, or both), and then solid green indicator light after either a single flick of the power switch, or a several seconds reset flick. And the display never exhibits any kind of activity at all: no blanking or darkening, no flicker, nothing. As I write this, it still shows the same ghostly remains of the last screen it ever displayed. And when a microSD card is present, it's contents aren't modified in any way, shape or form.

Additionnal information: I've repeated the tests above with the USB cable plugged in either in the computer or the wall charger that came with the device, and that I'd used before to charge the battery when the device was still operational, so I know the charger is good. I've also thorougly tested all my microSD cards, all are perfect. I redownloaded the RC3 firmware from irex's site and did a byte-for-byte comparison with what I had previously used: everything is 100% identical. Also, before this crash, the device had never shown the slightest sign of instability.

So finally, my question is: Am I screwed ? Is there anything that anyone of you could think of that I haven't tried to try to revive my DR800SG ? Or am I now hopelessly stuck with a very expensive paperweight ? Irex's support site clearly claim that there is no way to permanently "brick" one of their devices by performing a simple firmware update. Guess I found one.

I doubt very much that this could be a hardware problem. The fact that the crash happened precisely after a firmware reinstallation would just be too much of a coincidence, especially since my device never exhibited the slightest sign of instability before.

I read that the old iliad models could be configured to boot from the OS on their external memory card. Could this be possible with the DR800SG as well ? Is there some kind of undocumented feature of these devices that can restore them to their original manufacturing state ?

Any hint or advice would be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to ask any question I haven't answered in the post above or suggest any test or procedure that you feel may be of use. Thank you in advance. Right now, my DR800SG is sitting, dead, with its battery removed for fear that the continuously lit indicator light will drain it completely.

[Iñigo]

I'm so sorry to read this.

Something similar happened to me some months ago... after hours and hours of different tests I finally let the device to run out the battery completely (2 weeks), then I've prepared a new formatted SD card with original firmware (2.0RC3 I think), and connect the power to a wall-charger, after an hour I switched on the device and it worked, performing the upgrade.

As you mentioned IREX said it's not posible to brick the device, I can imagine breaking the screen with some malformed refresh calls but this is not the same.

So let's the device run out of battery completely and repeat the process.

Well, hope your DR800 will recover.

Iñigo

[lacol]

Thanks for your reply Iñigo. Your post reignited a little hope. I replugged the battery on my DR800SG yesterday before going to bed. To my surprise, when I woke up this morning, the indicator light had turned itself off. I assumed that the battery had drained overnight. So after breakfast I plugged my device to the wall charger. I've read that with a dead battery, it can take up to one hour of charge before the indicator light turns on orange. Unfortunately in my case, it turned on immediately as I plugged in the device, so I don't think this is a good sign...

It's been plugged in, untouched, for a few hours now. Light is still orange. I'm naively waiting for some sign of life from this device, like for example if the light turns green by itself, but I don't have my hopes up.

I understand why you like the dr800 so much. This really is the ideal reading device: optimum size, ideal form factor, minimalistic unobstrusive interface, wacom tablet, open software architecture. It took me weeks, if not months, to get my hands on this one. When it's easier to get your hands on an Apple Lisa than on one of these devices, this really gives a new meaning to the word "scarcity".

[dima_tr]

Originally Posted by lacol

Unfortunately in my case, it turned on immediately as I plugged in the device, so I don't think this is a good sign...

That means the battery was not empty yet. When I received my device I could not start it even when plugged (got scared a bit .. ), I had to wait for about 20-30 minutes. Only then it launched correctly.

[lacol]

Originally Posted by dima_tr

That means the battery was not empty yet.

Yeah, I figured that much... My guess is, since the indicator light was green as the result of a reset, something in the device must have automatically turned off the light after a while, which is an indication that some code is still executing after a reset. That might be seen as good news, right ?

Iñigo, I have a question for you: How did you know that the battery in your dr800 had completely drained after two weeks, if the device was unresponsive ? Was the indicator light on and it took two weeks for it to turn off ?

Right now, I turned the indicator light back to orange by unplugging and replugging the battery. I hope it doesn't turn off after 24 hours like the last time... I had hoped that maybe an ex-IREX employee would read this thread and maybe have some good news for me. But I guess I'm the first one to have a device fail like this. Oh well, I knew the risks when I bought a used device from a company that had gone belly-up...

[Iñigo]

Originally Posted by lacol

...
Iñigo, I have a question for you: How did you know that the battery in your dr800 had completely drained after two weeks, if the device was unresponsive ? Was the indicator light on and it took two weeks for it to turn off ?
...

Well... just wait day after day...

[lacol]

Well, it looks like the battery does drain out overnight. Found the indicator light off this morning. Plugged in the usb cable, the light immediatly turned on orange. Unplugged it immediatly, it turned off. I then disconnected the battery, then reconnected it, and the light remained off.

This may be a hardware problem afterall. Just my luck. I'll be damned if I just look at this several hundred dollars paperweight and don't try something. I've repared hundreds of computers and other electronic devices in my carrier so why not give it a go.

Anyone here know how to open the case of a DR800SG ? I found a few posts about the DR1000, but none about the dr800 type devices.

After all, it's already dead, isn't it ? I mean, what more could happen to it ?

[Iñigo]

Originally Posted by lacol

Well, it looks like the battery does drain out overnight. Found the indicator light off this morning. Plugged in the usb cable, the light immediatly turned on orange. Unplugged it immediatly, it turned off. I then disconnected the battery, then reconnected it, and the light remained off.

This may be a hardware problem afterall. Just my luck. I'll be damned if I just look at this several hundred dollars paperweight and don't try something. I've repared hundreds of computers and other electronic devices in my carrier so why not give it a go.

Anyone here know how to open the case of a DR800SG ? I found a few posts about the DR1000, but none about the dr800 type devices.

After all, it's already dead, isn't it ? I mean, what more could happen to it ?

I'd wait a couple of weeks.

[kerriemetworst]

Does any of you by any chance know how you can connect to the dr800 when it does not recognizes the sd-card. So how to connect to the linux system directly.

I changed the fstab a little. I wanted to mount the sd-card with ext2. But now it hangs after booting with the message no sd-card found...

[TGS]

Originally Posted by kerriemetworst

Does any of you by any chance know how you can connect to the dr800 when it does not recognizes the sd-card. So how to connect to the linux system directly.

I changed the fstab a little. I wanted to mount the sd-card with ext2. But now it hangs after booting with the message no sd-card found...

Can you not simply put a good version of the software onto an SD card, put the SD card in the unit and boot from that - like you would if you were installing a software update.

[kerriemetworst]

Already tried that approach, but it seems the system only starts updating after reading the sd-card. So it needs to mount it first.
I changed the mount part so it can't find the sd-card...
I need to get in to /etc/fstab in some way, but haven't found out yet how to contact the device via usb without the programs on the sd-card.
Normally i start up usbnet and get in via ssh, but since the program icon is on the sd-card i can't start usbnet.

[Mackx]

Does the 800 also have a reset button? If the bootloader also checks for updates, that might help.

[kerriemetworst]

well sort of. you can hold the on/off switch for more then five seconds, but its a reboot. so gives me the same behavior. starting up not finding the sd-card...
how do you reset your 1000S?(presuming you still have that device?)

[Mackx]

We have a 'paper-clip-reset-mode' (i.e. a small hole in the bottom-side where we can use the stylus to press a button.) Maybe disconnecting power and reconnecting? (I believe that is possible on the 800?). But you probably also tried it...

[kerriemetworst]

[solved] Thanks for the advice guys, but solved my little problem. Made two partitions on a card. The second one was recognized. So i can get in again.
Thanks for the help