Sansa will not turn on / only blue ring appears

[chrisjs162216]

Sansa Will Not Turn On

Sometimes, when updating the firmware using Sansa Updater, the bootloader isn't written properly and causes the blue scrollwheel on the Sansa to be the only thing that turns on, and the display doesn't turn on at all. When this happens, a low level device mode, Manufacturing Mode, must be used to attempt to recover it. Details for recovering it are described in the Guide: Recovering a bricked Sansa (USE AT YOUR OWN RISK) thread. Please note, while it is risky, the only other thing to do besides those steps is to return it to Sandisk, which will take about two weeks. Sandisk (usually) will still accept Sansas even after those steps have been performed.

Also, here's a howto I wrote for those who don't have any luck with the Windows version:

Download a copy of Ubuntu Linux: http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu-rel...sktop-i386.iso

• The ISO is nearly 700MB, so it may take a while to download.

Burn the ISO image to a CD

• Use ISORecorder or another program to burn the image to a CD. Be sure it creates several files and folders, and does not burn just one iso file.

Run the live CD you just burned

• You may need to reconfigure the boot order in your BIOS to boot from the CD before booting from your hard drive, depending on your current configuration.

Once Ubuntu is started, go to Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal.
A black window should appear. In that window, type:

cd ~
mkdir e200tool
cd e200tool
wget http://daniel.haxx.se/sansa/e200tool/e200tool
chmod +x e200tool
wget http://nuclearscripting.com/other/sansafw/BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORTSD.ROM
wget http://nuclearscripting.com/other/sansafw/PP5022.MI4
md5sum BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORTSD.ROM PP5022.MI4

After the md5sum command, it should say

6a10d79a2e13f6b4a7c8243f422e5608 BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORTSD.ROM
d9f946067844e2a24fcbb6cfedb75057 PP5022.MI4

If it does not say exactly that, do

rm BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORTSD.ROM PP5022.MI4
wget http://nuclearscripting.com/other/sansafw/BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORTSD.ROM
wget http://nuclearscripting.com/other/sansafw/PP5022.MI4
md5sum BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORTSD.ROM PP5022.MI4

If md5sum does not say exactly what it should say (as mentioned above) repeat again as needed.
Next, put your Sansa into Manufacturing Mode:

Power off
Turn ON lock/hold
Hold down center select button
Insert USB cable

If, in the Terminal on Ubuntu (the black box) you type 'lsusb' you should see a line saying:
"Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0781:0720 SanDisk Corp." (Mainly, just the ID is important, 0781:0720. The bus and device may change.)
If you do, you're in Manufacturing Mode, and you may continue.
Enter the following while holding REC:

sudo su
./e200tool recover BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORTSD.ROM

It should say something similar to

e200tool v0.2.3-alpha (c) by MrH 2006, 2007
Searching for device 0781:0720 ... found!
Initializing USB stub (4780 bytes) ... done!
Writing 'BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORTSD.ROM' to address 0x10600000
Searching for device 6666:e200 ... 9 found!
Write at 0x10660198
Write done!
Running from address 0x10600000
Searching for device 6666:e200 ... found!
Execution started!

If it does not say 'Searching for device 6666:e200 ... 9 found!' and instead says something like 'Searching for device 6666:e200 ... 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 not found!' turn off your Sansa, go back into Manufacturing Mode, and try again. If it does say 'Searching for device 6666:e200 ... 9 found!' (or similar) you may also notice the scrollwheel flash once. This is normal. If it flashes more than once, it means the Sansa has detected a fatal error, and should be turned off before trying again.

When it gets to 'Execution started!' you should see the Sandisk logo appear on your Sansa's screen. If you are still holding REC, it should then go to Recovery Mode. (if you weren't holding REC, repeat this entire process again) After it enters Recovery Mode, Ubuntu should Auto Mount the drive, under something similar to /media/disk.
If it didn't get mounted under /media/disk, find what it was mounted under, and substitute that location for /media/disk in the next section. If it wasn't mounted at all (it should have been) do "dmesg" and look for a line near the bottom similar to "SCSI device sdc: 32769 512-byte hdwr sectors (17 MB)". You are mainly looking for what's after the word 'device' - in this case, sdc. Then do 'mkdir -p /media/disk && mount /dev/sdc /media/disk' being sure to substitute sdc for whatever dmesg said, if needed.

Once it is mounted, do:

cp BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORTSD.ROM /media/disk
cp PP5022.MI4 /media/disk

Again, if your Sansa was mounted under something different than /media/disk, be sure to substitute it for that (this is different from the sdc thing mentioned earlier by the way).

Next, do

umount /media/disk

Again, if your Sansa was mounted under something different than /media/disk, be sure to substitute it for that.

Disconnect your Sansa, turn off hold, and see if it works. If it doesn't, repeat these steps again if needed.


Also, these steps were done on a fresh, unmodified copy of Kubuntu 7.04 from a USB drive. On Kubuntu, to get to the terminal, go to the 'K' symbol -> System -> Konsole.

--

I've also found the following:


If e200tool hangs when initializing the USB stub, disconnect and reconnect the Sansa, and try again.

Reading and writing to the I2C isn't completely stable. I found that when programming it, the scrollwheel flashes rather fast. While I can't say for sure if it's normal, it doesn't seem to affect the Sansa when programming it. If there's a protocol error, I noticed the scrollwheel will flash on and off about every second. MrH says this means there's a serious error, but in the three times I got that, my Sansa was not permanently affected.

While not suggested (never 'try' this) I found that programming the I2C with invalid text will not harm the Sansa. It will however, force it into Pre-boot mode.

If you get a protocol error, disconnect your Sansa and try again.

There are two I2C files on Daniel's (Bagder) site. One is a dump from an e260, the other was from an e280. When dumping the I2C from my e250, I found that the md5sum matches the e280 I2C. I have tested both I2C files on Daniel's site, and both work with the e250 (and probably the others)

While I have been able to do a lot of 'testing' with e200tool without bricking my Sansa, I suggest you do not test what e200tool can do unless you fully understand what you are doing, with the exception of when following a guide, such as this (though we aren't testing what it can do in this guide)

I have not attempted to format the Recovery Mode partition, so I can not say what the effects of that are.

I have found that in line 1245 of the bootloader, it mentions the e250. I have tested changing it to e260 etc., and see no difference.

In the bootloader, it mentions:
BIN.ROM.MI4.FNT.
UID

UID is on a new line, and while I don't see it mentioned anywhere else, I'd recommend not placing a file in Recovery Mode that ends with UID.

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