Beginners Step by Step to UN-Brick Sansa

[yowu7446]

I am writing this guide as i feel it could help a few people who was like me, unsure, lost in all those text and technical notes on how to fix a bricked sansa using the e200tool.

Please understand that I am a noob in all tweaks and hacks, so it is obvious that you use the information I detailed only as a advice. I do not accept any responsibly for harmful advice I give on this forum, I trust you not to be an idiot. Please know the information is based on the method that I took, and may not match the process set by Mr.H or other posters on this forum. Its my first post trying to help people. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!

I Write the process in lay man’s term, so its easy to understand, here it goes:

What you need:
1. A Bricked Sansa

2. A computer with a fully working USB port keyboard mouse (Easy)

3. 3 files to download mostly from nice poster on this forum: http://chrisjs.com/?page_id=57
A) PP5022.mi4
B) BL_SD_boardSupportSD.rom
C) The e200tool (get the complied version, http://daniel.haxx.se/sansa/e200tool/e200tool)

D) Optional (recommend it): sansa.fmt (it will format the drive when it boots, It removes other stuff that you might have on your sansa which may cause it not to boot. This file will force the sansa to format and clean your sansa memory.
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=11233

if you use this option, file A and B can be replace from download above, otherwise, we only need the fmt file from that link.

4. Ubuntu Live CD, I think all version will work. I used version 6.10. just get one from: http://www.ubuntu.com/ you need to burn the ISO onto a CD, should be easy to do. EASY.


What to do:

• Burn a working Copy of Ubuntu on CD, using Nero or whatever you use.
• Copy the 3 files listed above (and the optional one if u want to overkill the process) on to a USB drive or something similar.
• Optional: if you are like me, fearing Ubuntu will wreak your or change your current installation of windows, shut down computer and unplug the Hard Drives and other PCI or devices you don’t need, You only need a graphic card, mouse and keyboard. This way you can be sure that nothing can go wrong. LOL insurance. THE AMAZING THING IS, UBUNTU CAN BOOT WITHOUT YOUR HARD DRIVE!!!
• Change the Bios of the Computer to Boot from CD, think we all know how, if not, u restart, press delete, it shows bios screen, and the options are usually under boot device, or something similar, just don’t do anything else other than that. EASY
• restart, with the Ubuntu CD in CD drive, and boot from the first option from the first Menu you see. It takes a while to load.
• when Ubuntu is loaded, insert your USB Flash drive, and Ubuntu should detect it, (I had trouble with a 1GB stick, if so, try a smaller capacity stick), it will have an icon on desktop of your flash disk. Or it can be accessed from the top menu, Places>Computer>your disk.
• go to your home folder from the top menu, places>home folder. Copy the files from the USB here, after DISCONNECT THE USB FLASH DRIVE.
• HERES WHERE THE HARD PART BEGINS:
• Launch terminal: Applications>accessories>terminal.

Type: sudo ./e200tool recover BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORTSD.rom

Don’t press enter yet. Highlight those text in terminal and right click copy it. It will be useful because you don’t have to retype it if attempt fails.

• with your bricked sansa off, switch on hold, press and hold the select button with your thumb as though you are using it with your LEFT HAND! If you are right handed. After holding the select button for more than 5 seconds, connect the sansa to your computers USB port, the wheel lights up still holding it, don’t let go.
• now. Using your right hand to operate the mouse, paste the lines sudo ./e200tool……etc. into terminal
• on your left hand, using your index finger and press and hold the record button on your sansa as well as continue to press the select button. (this is awkward, I discovered that it works better this way), from here hold it in this position until I tell u to let go.
• now, after 5 seconds, use you free right hand. Press ENTER on keyboard after the lines of text
• the process should start and see the following:

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 0x1065feb8
Write done!
Running from address 0x10600000
Searching for device 6666:e200 ... found!
Execution started!"


15. if the above steps worked then u should see a new 16mb disk on desktop. With the left hand still busy with 2 buttons, copy and drag the PP5022.mi4 and BL_SD_boardSupportSD.rom form home folder to the 16MB disk.
16. close all windows: to makes sure this is done correctly and the files are copied correctly. Right click on the 16mb disk on desktop select eject. (still not letting go your left hand) the disk should be nicely removed with no error messages.
17. turn off hold switch on sansa, let go all buttons, disconnect usb, and the sansa should work. If you used the 4th optional file, the screen should display that it is formatting. If not it will boot up saying firmware upgrade completed or something like that. I really recommend using the 4th file, the format solved my problem, it would boot with the mi4 file and rom file alone.
18. the end, Congratulations, otherwise start again. I am limited to here, I only explained what I did in detail, other problems I may not be able to help with. Cheers.

NOTES:


1. if you are paying attention to the screen of your sansa, it is off when connected, it will be one the moment the initializing USB stub works, when the 16mb disk opens, the screen will have
LUN0 Locked
LUN0 unlocked
LUN0 Locked
LUN0 unlocked
LUN0 Locked
Then it stays there, if you copied the files correctly, the text continues: by the time u have correctly ejected the disk, it should add a few more lines of those text. Like:
LUN0 Locked
LUN0 unlocked
LUN0 Locked
LUN0 unlocked
LUN0 Locked
LUN0 Locked
LUN0 unlocked
LUN0 Locked
LUN0 unlocked
LUN0 Locked
Its indicates it is working, god knows how many times this failed on me, It only worked when I held all those keys for the entire process.


2. if you copied the files to your 16mb disk and discounted and nothing happens and the screen is still off, than the files did not copy properly.

[CrowdAds]

[DiSS]

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo ./e200tool recover BL_SD_boardSupportSD.rom
e200tool v0.2.3-alpha (c) by MrH 2006, 2007
Searching for device 0781:0720 ... 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 not found!
Searching for device 0b70:0003 ... found!
Initializing USB stub (4780 bytes) ... done!
Writing 'BL_SD_boardSupportSD.rom' to address 0x10600000
Searching for device 6666:e200 ... 9 8 found!
Write at 0x10601d88
Control message (-71, Protocol error)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

In what there can be a problem?

[chrisjs162216]

Few notes:

Don’t press enter yet. Highlight those text in terminal and right click copy it. It will be useful because you don’t have to retype it if attempt fails.

* with your bricked sansa off, switch on hold, press and hold the select button with your thumb as though you are using it with your LEFT HAND! If you are right handed. After holding the select button for more than 5 seconds, connect the sansa to your computers USB port, the wheel lights up still holding it, don’t let go.
* now. Using your right hand to operate the mouse, paste the lines sudo ./e200tool……etc. into terminal
* on your left hand, using your index finger and press and hold the record button on your sansa as well as continue to press the select button. (this is awkward, I discovered that it works better this way), from here hold it in this position until I tell u to let go.
* now, after 5 seconds, use you free right hand. Press ENTER on keyboard after the lines of text

You only need to press the select button until it goes into Manu mode. This takes about three or so seconds after pressing power, and after that you can release select. Same with when going into Recovery mode: once in Manu mode, begin holding REC as you execute ./e200tool recover [..] and continue holding it until your Sansa says "Welcome to Recovery Mode" - after that, you can release REC, and don't need to hold any buttons.

The LUN0 stuff is pretty much useless - it doesn't mean it's working or anything.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo ./e200tool recover BL_SD_boardSupportSD.rom
e200tool v0.2.3-alpha (c) by MrH 2006, 2007
Searching for device 0781:0720 ... 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 not found!
Searching for device 0b70:0003 ... found!
Initializing USB stub (4780 bytes) ... done!
Writing 'BL_SD_boardSupportSD.rom' to address 0x10600000
Searching for device 6666:e200 ... 9 8 found!
Write at 0x10601d88
Control message (-71, Protocol error)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

First thing to note is that you're in Pre-boot mode - your I2c rom is corrupt. Grab http://daniel.haxx.se/sansa/e200tool/i2c-e280.bin and run ./e200tool i2cprogram i2c-e280.bin before recover. If ./e200tool i2cprogram gives an error about not finding the sansa, do ./e200tool init first:

./e200tool init
./e200tool i2cprogram i2c-e280.bin
[something happens here, it's been too long since I've used e200tool. However, I believe it just gives you a success message, and then turns off. If it doesn't automatically turn off, press and hold power for 15 seconds, then return to Manu/Pre-boot mode [both accessed same way]]

After restart, do
./e200tool recover BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORTSD.ROM

--

There's another tutorial in the FAQ section that may help.

[DiSS]

buntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo ./e200tool init

e200tool v0.2.3-alpha (c) by MrH 2006, 2007

Searching for device 0781:0720 ... 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 not found!

Searching for device 0b70:0003 ... found!

Initializing USB stub (4780 bytes) ... done!

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo ./e200tool i2cprogram i2c-e280.bin

e200tool v0.2.3-alpha (c) by MrH 2006, 2007

Programming i2c rom (address=87) range 0x0000-0x2000 from 'i2c-e280.bin'

Searching for device 6666:e200 ... found!

Uploading at 0x085e

Control message (-71, Protocol error)

chrisjs162216

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=26340