my Tanager went DEAD!

[Guest mlkanapi]

There's a no. 4 victim.

neo168 also had a 'dead set' which he brought to BP.

I hope he shares his experience that surrounded the phone's dying on him.

That way we will all know if there are things we can avoid to prevent board burnouts.

[Guest grifter]

@mlkanapi,

me and ppcsrfr was there when neo's unit "died".

these were the steps that were done before it conked out: (his SAP was on SMART 1.5)

1. load 1.07 bootloader

2. flashed to 1.3.7.8 ROM

3. downgraded to 0.98 bootloader

4. ran spvunlock to get unlock code

5. remove battery

then it won't turn on again. Weird. We successfully unlocked the other units using the exact same procudure and it works.

[Guest spv_dman]

So it implies that what we do (bootloader / OS modifications) can potentially damage the hardware of our phone?

[Guest mariolouis]

i guess you can put it this way.. "not all SAPs are created equal.."

i was keeping my Pingers crossed and holding my breath when unlocking /upgrading my SAP until it booted-up!

[Guest mlkanapi]

For me it occurred while I was going back to Smart 1.37 after deciding I didn't like i-mate that much.

What about baculao? Were you also in the process of doing something with the IPSM or bootloaders?

This is interesting as it may avoid other guys having the same thing happen to them :!:

[Guest randy]

it happened to me too. i just did hard reset. kainis nga kasi install na naman ng mga apps, tweak ng registry, etc... :x

[Guest mlkanapi]

@ randy,

Did you have to bring the phone to BP for repairs? Did it entail a change of the phone's mother board? :?:

We are counting those whose phones crashed beyond resurrecting it by any means other than an actual motherboard change.

[Guest neo168]

@ neo168

Can we add you as no. 4 victim of Tanager that died? Maybe you can post your experience leading to the 'dead set' in the other thread.

Ok. Count me in as a victim of a "dead set" tanager.

Well, we are testing on the bootloaders, usbterm and spvunlock utilities when it suddenly 'dies' :shock: .

I dont exactly know what happened - maybe weak hardware or maybe the utilities or the process itself :wink:.

I brought it to BP. As the result of the diagnostics, the board has to be replaced and I have to wait for a week or so before I can come back since they don't have replacement stock ;) .

[Guest neo168]

The last thing I remember before it dies is we run spvunlock again after downgrading to 1.37 to see if the code change - but it doesnt. Then grifter took plug off and remove the battery(right?) and bring it back again after few seconds. When we are trying to turn on the power it wont power up anymore.

At home I try to work on it. I think current still flows in the phone coz after releasing the power button I am hearing a soft tick on the speaker . Also notice the phone radio turn on for a while coz I see my pc monitor wiggles.

[Guest mlkanapi]

@ neo 168

It seems like the problem happens while the unit is booting up. Maybe the bootloader or bios equivalent gets corrupted and the phone is left without a set of startup commands.

On the other hand, the mere fact that the charging indicator fails to light up points to a failure of the hardware.

[Guest grifter]

@mlkanapi, neo,

i don't think it's a hardware problem.

the bootloader probably got corrupted. I'm guessing that the reason why the unit failed to indicate that it's charging is because the bootloader acts as the regulator for charging. It continuously checks the voltage of the battery. I would even go as far as saying that the bootloader checks to see if a charger is connected or not.

Needless to say, a corrupted bootloader, there's no way the phone could tell what the status of the battery is or even if the unit is plugged in or not. hehe... i hope i am making sense here.

[Guest randy]

@mlkanapi,

nope. i just did a hard reset.

[Guest mlkanapi]

Ok. Thanks for the feedback guys. I guess we all have to keep our fingers crossed everytime we bootup after playing around with the phone's bootloaders.

I guess neo168 and I will be geting our units back about the same time.

BP says there are a few orders for boards that are pending and awaiting arrival of a shipment.

I might even meet noe168 there....

@ grifter,

If that's the problem, they should have a way to flash the phone to reinstall the IPSM or bootloader. I recall my having trashed a motherboard sometime before by trying to change or upgrade the bios. It would have been possible at that time to send the motherboard back to the manufacturer for them to do this but it was not worth doing so. The program to do this sounded like EPPROM or something.

[Guest grifter]

@mlkanapi,

EEPROM flashing is different kasi. Like old motherboards, when your CMOS dies, you just need to remove the chip and buy a new one at Virra Mall for 50 bucks.

Looking at the board of the Tanager, I didn't see any removable chip.

As for new motherboards, they have a "fallback" system embedded in the ROM that still boots the disk drive even if your CMOS is dead so you can still flash the CMOS. I don't think this is present in the Tanager. Once you kill the bootloader, that's it. Unless there's another type of "system cable" that can directly load the bootloader onto the ROM.

[Guest mlkanapi]

@ grifter,

Thanks for the info. If that's tha case then the only way to get a 'dead set' up and running is to change the board.

Lucky if the phone is still under warranty. I wonder how much a board would cost...

[Guest grifter]

i think the board is around 7K if i'm not mistaken.

[Guest mlkanapi]

Something new,

I was trying to set up another friend,s SAP which was running Smart 1.50.

Even from the beginning, it was kinda buggy. Some programs didn't install. It would show 'device not detected' when trying to install programs from the pc.

Finally I tried using the SD card that I have been using as described in another thread (http://smartphone.modaco.com/viewtopic.php?t=89735 ) with a 0.93 bootloader as well as a full back up of a SAP with Smart's 1.37 ROM and guess what...

It got stuck in the SAP Simply Amazing white screen.

Despite several attempts at reviving it, even trying to update back to 1.50 thru thr Canary screen, it stayed stuck.

This appears to be a less serious problem but still frustrating. Buti na lang still under 1 mo warranty. I advised my friend to bring it back for replacement.

Maybe randy's experience falls under this kind of situation..

[Guest mlkanapi]

I noticed that there are other experiences with the SAP hanging at the Smart Simply Amazing logo. It was disussed here

http://smartphone.modaco.com/search.php?se...rch_topic=91293

[Guest wolfman]

If you can still go to the canary screen (the bootloader), there still a chance to revive your phone. The Qtek 150 update seems to be a very stable release. I would suggest that you upgrade to this version. I got the same problem of being stuck with the SMART amazing logo. Since my bootloader is still working, I flashed the Qtek update and bingo, my phone is up and running!

Just be sure to run SPVunlock to get your unlock code on the downgraded bootloader (0.98, 0.93, etc...) first before you apply the Qtek 150, because when the Qtek 150 boots-up you will be prompted to enter your unlock code and voila! You now have an unlocked phone!

Cheers! ;)

[Guest mlkanapi]

@ wolfman,

Thanks. I'll try that suggestion when I encounter the problem again.

As for my friend, she will have the phone replaced and I'll get a crack at setting it up again.

[Guest mariolouis]

@wolfman

it does not boot even at the canary screen. i think what you are referring to is not really a deadset.

[Guest wolfman]

@wolfman

it does not boot even at the canary screen. i think what you are referring to is not really a deadset.

yup you are right. if you can still run the bootloader it still is a revivable unit. it's still not "dead". a deadset is a unit with nothing working, even the bootloader.

in this kind of situation, if you have something called a JTAG programmer, you can still be able to revive your phone. basically all SoCs provide a JTAG port which enables you to control the processor and basically allows you to reprogram your flash with a bootloader program and/or the ROM image if available.

bottom line: if you have a revived bootloader, you can revive your phone.

[Guest mlkanapi]

@ wolfman,

With what you know about JTAG programmer etc., would it be possible not to have to send 'dead sets' back to the service center and for someone like you to reprogram your flash with a bootloader program and/or the ROM image if available? :idea:

That would really come in handy :!:

[Guest wolfman]

@ mlkanapi

Yes that would be possible. But only if I could get my hands on an OMAP 710 datasheet which is the processor of our phones. According to another thread, they say that Texas Instruments only gives out the datasheet to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). Meaning you have to be an HTC to get one. Unless you have some friends at HTC ;) ??

Of course, this would mean opening-up your phone and voiding your warranty as the JTAG port is on the printed circuit board inside.

[Guest mlkanapi]

@ wolfman,

I'm sure there will be some guys who will be willing to explore that option of having someone flash their phone to revive it.

Probably a shorter wait than a board replacement ... Which I heard depends on the availability of the board ( I've heard of 3 weeks waiting time!) :twisted: