Noob's guide to debricking through ATK :D

[atjeff1]

Originally Posted by knc1

You might be running in a mode that does not do any display output.

It doesn't boot altogether.

[hawhill]

Originally Posted by atjeff1

Do I charge it for a few more days and then try reflashing it with k3flasher?

I think so.

And do I disconnect and reconnect the charger when the charge light turns off?

Nope.

Note that these are suggestions. I haven't been there before.

[atjeff1]

T_T Suggestions and comments from experiences much needed.

Also, why does the charge indicator turn off?

[qlob]

Originally Posted by atjeff1

T_T Suggestions and comments from experiences much needed.
Also, why does the charge indicator turn off?

Dont quite understand it, but from what I've seen it is because the "thing" that controls said light is firmware powered and when the firmware is bricked, the light controls don't work, IIRC

[atjeff1]

Originally Posted by qlob

Dont quite understand it, but from what I've seen it is because the "thing" that controls said light is firmware powered and when the firmware is bricked, the light controls don't work, IIRC

It turns on fine until after an hour or two.

[hawhill]

First: don't trust it.
Second: What color? I think green is only ever toggled by firmware. Yellow/amber might be toggled by the battery/charging controller (exclusively?) which might operate in fall-back mode here (since it isn't controlled by the main firmware).

Did you try keeping it plugged to a charger for 2-3 days?

[knc1]

First: The led is under firmware control of some of the GPIO pins on the SoC.
Second: Don't trust it when the firmware is known to not be working as intended.
Third: It is a tri-color (rgb) led.
Fourth: The battery management and charge controller is on an external chip, under firmware control.
Fifth: Don't trust it when the firmware is known to not be working as intended.
Sixth: Some of the firmware installed on the system does not include control of the external chip, even when working properly.

Translation:
You may have to remove the battery and re-charge it on a charger external to the Kindle. If this is a K4 with a glued in place battery, doing that will be a challenge.

[hawhill]

knc1: Are you sure it's tri-color? I've only ever seen green and amber, neither blue nor red... Or is this about the K4? BTW, I did not forget about having k3flasher talk to the battery controller. It would reeeeally help in situations like these. However, I'm unsure if we can readily use the SPI controller and what we need to do about chip select lines...

[knc1]

Originally Posted by hawhill

knc1: Are you sure it's tri-color? I've only ever seen green and amber, neither blue nor red... Or is this about the K4? BTW, I did not forget about having k3flasher talk to the battery controller. It would reeeeally help in situations like these. However, I'm unsure if we can readily use the SPI controller and what we need to do about chip select lines...

On the K3, it is - I have visually confirmed Red and Green.

On the DX, it should be - the firmware is written to control a tri-color led. But I don't have a DX to bork it bad enough to get it to "flashing red" state.

You should find "flashing white" during network boot loading.

On the others - not a clue.

I have only read the DX firmware in enough detail to say that we can access the battery state via the SPI bus the external chip is on.

I have not (yet) read the K3 firmware in enough detail to say the same thing about it.

Like nearly everyone else here -
I have to use my available hobby time for my own requirements first.
Public Service work gets whatever is left over.

[atjeff1]

I have a K3 keyboard, not a K4. Since the flash and fail reboot, I have kept it on the charger for about 1-2 days now and ongoing.

[maciejka666]

Hi after reading the whole thread I almost lost hope to pass by this error.
It turned out that once you open the back cover of the kindle, theres a small secondary reset/power button beneath the original power button on the board.
What to do?
1) open your kindle and plug it in to the pc
2) set everything in ATK as you would to flash the kernel
3) press the little bugger while holding the vol - button (in my case 3rd press worked the charm)
4) press program in ATK

After few tries it should start working (the rest is like in the original tutorial)

one pic shows where is the magic button
second is a proof that in my case it worked ewentualy

ps. Thanks for the tutorial it got me my Kindle back from the dead !

[knc1]

What model Kindle is that?
Once I stood on my head, I recognized it - that is a K3

My K3 does not have the button but the circuit board has the pads for it and the silk screen has the legend: "reset" at that part position.

[maciejka666]

Sorry forgot to mention, yes it is a K3 Wifi B008 from 2010. Wonder if short circuit this place on board would have the same effect. With mine unit the problem was as other have mentioned earlier, 90 seconds reset, no reaction on screen, and that ATK (winxp32bit) would recognise it as MX35 from the moment it was pluged in the usb, but refusing to flash and no reaction to holding power button for 30 sec and vol-, even removing the battery didnt have any effect on the process, it worked the moment I started playing with this reset button.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by maciejka666

Sorry forgot to mention, yes it is a K3 Wifi B008 from 2010. Wonder if short circuit this place on board would have the same effect. With mine unit the problem was as other have mentioned earlier, 90 seconds reset, no reaction on screen, and that ATK (winxp32bit) would recognise it as MX35 from the moment it was pluged in the usb, but refusing to flash and no reaction to holding power button for 30 sec and vol-, even removing the battery didnt have any effect on the process, it worked the moment I started playing with this reset button.

Yup, I would expect it to still work and that Amazon just saved the cost of buying a few million push buttons.
(When buying in lots of a million parts, even 0.1 cent adds up to real money in a hurry.)

Note: It will take a very steady pair of hands and some needle sized probes to connect to these pads - they are not very big.

Maybe someone with an open K3 can test if the reset pads still work (there might be a few other parts involved that are missing from the reset circuit - not just the missing button).

[vdominguez]

Originally Posted by rbl

Does anyone have a link for the kindle 3 root file system (mmcblk0p1-k3g-3.3.zip)? The Gitbrew website doesn't work for me.

The 2 files stated in debricking process will not zip. Help