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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: swissdane23 on Thu, 23 March 2017, 04:53:38

Title: Bricked Board
Post by: swissdane23 on Thu, 23 March 2017, 04:53:38

I was trying to update my Ganss GK87. The goddamn firmware updater program thing was in Chinese. But the instructions via MS Word pictures showed that i should press the left button first, then the middle one. So I pressed the left button, then all the lights(underglow and the keycap Leds) went out on my board. No notification that the update was happening. i gave it a minute then unplugged it and replugged it. Now its just sitting there being a brick. When i plug it in it goes "installing device" and when i check my USB connected devices and its under "Unspecified Devices". Is there a way to fix this? Or is it a brick forever?

Title: Re: Bricked Board
Post by: TalkingTree on Thu, 23 March 2017, 05:37:16

If there's a SPI jumper on the board you can try and reflash with a programmer (http://www.fischl.de/usbasp/).
Look on your board for a group of 6 or 10 plated holes close to each other marked MISO, MOSI, RST, SCK and so on.

Title: Re: Bricked Board
Post by: merlin64 on Thu, 23 March 2017, 09:30:12

I would say to try a different computer, something running a different OS than windows and see if that works. If not, it's probably bricked and using the above mentioned method will be tricky.

Title: Re: Bricked Board
Post by: romevi on Thu, 23 March 2017, 09:32:08

Psh.

That's not a bricked board.

This is a bricked board:

More

(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SEEzQKJfNE0/maxresdefault.jpg)

Title: Re: Bricked Board
Post by: dante on Thu, 23 March 2017, 10:42:29

Huh!  Say wasn't it just a week or two ago that someone said they felt no difference in quality between a Filco and the Ganss? :D

Title: Re: Bricked Board
Post by: falkentyne on Thu, 23 March 2017, 12:40:24

I Guess you get what you pay for.
Buy cheap Chinese boards, except cheap spaghetti code or no instructions to avoid bricking.

To answer your question, the board is in bootloader mode.  Seen this on other devices like arcade controller PCBs or USB adapters that are in bootloader mode.   Usually you unplug and replug the device either before or after running the flash update tool, but getting codes to make the flasher execute may be hard with a bricked board (I guess use another keyboard).  If that doesn't fix it, contact the Chinese company you bought it from, see if you can ask for help, or an RMA, otherwise, toss the keyboard.

Title: Re: Bricked Board
Post by: tp4tissue on Thu, 23 March 2017, 13:37:55

there's an app called pleco (free),  and it's a pretty fast dictionary that allows you to draw in the chinese characters

Title: Re: Bricked Board
Post by: digi on Thu, 23 March 2017, 13:45:11

Quote from: swissdane23 on Thu, 23 March 2017, 04:53:38

I was trying to update my Ganss GK87. The goddamn firmware updater program thing was in Chinese.

LOL

Title: Re: Bricked Board
Post by: swissdane23 on Fri, 24 March 2017, 00:11:35

Quote from: falkentyne on Thu, 23 March 2017, 12:40:24

I Guess you get what you pay for.
Buy cheap Chinese boards, except cheap spaghetti code or no instructions to avoid bricking.

To answer your question, the board is in bootloader mode.  Seen this on other devices like arcade controller PCBs or USB adapters that are in bootloader mode.   Usually you unplug and replug the device either before or after running the flash update tool, but getting codes to make the flasher execute may be hard with a bricked board (I guess use another keyboard).  If that doesn't fix it, contact the Chinese company you bought it from, see if you can ask for help, or an RMA, otherwise, toss the keyboard.

Nah i dont think its the Chinese fault. They bring us SA and DSA knock offs, EnjoyPBT and what not and now Topre Clone switches on plum boards. God bless their hearts. A friend used teamviewer and got it out of DFU mode. Its working now. It was my fault for expecting some sort of screen to show me that it was doing the update. I panicked when the lights went off(my Varmilo and Pok3r dont use lights), so i proceeded to unplug it DURING the update that was invisibly running in the background. First time updating something with firmware that isnt a cell phone :(

Title: Re: Bricked Board
Post by: swissdane23 on Fri, 24 March 2017, 00:13:37

Quote from: dante on Thu, 23 March 2017, 10:42:29

Huh!  Say wasn't it just a week or two ago that someone said they felt no difference in quality between a Filco and the Ganss? :D

 I woudlnt know anything about filco, but compared to my Va87mr, Ganss be solid. :D

Title: Re: Bricked Board
Post by: TalkingTree on Fri, 24 March 2017, 03:37:02

Quote from: swissdane23 on Fri, 24 March 2017, 00:11:35

They bring us [...] EnjoyPBT [..] God bless their hearts.

Amen to that.

Quote from: swissdane23 on Fri, 24 March 2017, 00:11:35

i proceeded to unplug it DURING the update

Then you're safe. You actually screwed up the firmware but not the bootloader, since it resides in a different memory portion (think of a hard disk partition). You need to put the board into bootloader mode again and upload your firmware again.
Flashing firmwares are usually fast operations but perhaps the chinese tool you used did some routine before actually flashing, like read, verify and erase the memory before uploading.

Title: Re: Bricked Board
Post by: swissdane23 on Fri, 24 March 2017, 11:16:58

Quote from: TalkingTree on Fri, 24 March 2017, 03:37:02

Quote from: swissdane23 on Fri, 24 March 2017, 00:11:35

They bring us [...] EnjoyPBT [..] God bless their hearts.

Amen to that.

Quote from: swissdane23 on Fri, 24 March 2017, 00:11:35

i proceeded to unplug it DURING the update

Then you're safe. You actually screwed up the firmware but not the bootloader, since it resides in a different memory portion (think of a hard disk partition). You need to put the board into bootloader mode again and upload your firmware again.
Flashing firmwares are usually fast operations but perhaps the chinese tool you used did some routine before actually flashing, like read, verify and erase the memory before uploading.

Its all good. Next time ill try not to panic and friggin wait. xD