s43 win ce does not boot up

Hello!

I bought a S43 and now It stopped working. I hope that someone can help me with this wonderfull little player.

I am trying to flash it. I go into recovery mode. When I am in recovery mode the s43 asks me if I want to reformat the drive. It then asks me to transfer the fw (which consists of two files one called recovVer010008.bin and the other called biosVer010008.bin) and remove the usb cable. After that it does a System Recoverying (which takes 1½ sec) and then it restarts. It doesn't seem to do the fw update, and since I formated the drive it wont boot up.

The earliest fw I tried is 20061122_1.0.8_FW_recovery.zip and the latest is 20070504_NF_FW.zip. Please tell me that you can help me...

I don't know S43 but I have a question.... recoverying last only 1,5 seconde... how strange it is. V43's firmware a big big file and need more than one seconde and a half to be installed.
Did you check your firmware integrity?

I think you are right in that the firmware is not being installed. I've tried with several different firmware version, non of them seems to work. I think I am doing something wrong but I dont know what. You are suppose to put the fw in the root catalog on the S43. I think that you could change how the usb worked so that you could see the root or so you only saw a subdirectory where you put all youre mediafiles when connected to a pc.

Maybe I am not seeing the root directory when I am connected the s43? If that is the case I dont know how to switch without the win ce installed?

Or maybe I need the first version of the FW, but I dont know where to get that...

Thanks for helping me!

It would be surprising you'd need the first FW version...
Let me understand, you formated the root (system) partition via an usb plug? Maybe I'm wrong but I though it was only possible to format the storage partition ?
Can you still plug it on your pc and use your s43 as an external drive?

As I don't know S43/wince, the only thing I can do for you is describing V43/linux'procedure...
I don't have acces to the V43's root (system) partition via usb, only to a secondary partition (~a big storage partition). By the way, V43's recovery mode seems to work that way. When I update FW, two file are copied to the secondary partition (/dev/hda2). At the end of the recovery procedure, when my V43 reboot, the bootloader (booter) decompress/copy those 2 file in the root (system) partition and than boot on the new system
On my PC, I can acces to V43 firmware's file by decompressing (unzip). Updating FW is under PC's control. Double click on DataUpdate_v43.exe and the job is done. We don't need to copy "by hand" FW to the v43.

Hope this help...

When I press the upper button on the left size it goes into recovery mode. A menu appears with five steps.
1. connect adaptor (I cannect the power cable to the s43)
2. Do you want to format the hard disk ( I choose yes)
3. Connect the usb (I conect it)
4. Copy recovery file and disconnect USB (I copy the BiosVer010305.bin and recovVer010305.bin to the s43 and disconnect the usb)
5. System recovey (takes 1.5s, I do nothing)
6. Restart (5s I do nothing)

After the th S43 tries to restart but does not since it hasn't updated anything. When I start the s43 intor recovery mode and repeat (without formating the drive) I can see that the S43 didn't do anything to the filesystem

Before, when i've tried the same there were some extra files produced. One file was called xbas.dat (in the root dirctory), nonce.dat or bin in a directory called system and two more files in the root directory. I dont remember all and I they dont appear now.

If I press the lower right button the S43 says:
To load kerna osl image, press play button to continue...

If I press play button it looks like the s43 tries something (it prints Load os image. please wait) but nothing happens (the screen goes black, or the screen freezes...)

I am running out of ideas of what to try...

do you disconnect properly the usb from the pc before removing the cable ?
if not, data could still be in transfer and corruption can occur
did you format by default in fat32???

Yes, I am 'removing' the connection from the pc before I actually remove the usb cable. It seems that the S43 is formating the hard disk from recovery mode but I have also tried formating from the pc with fat32. The s43 still doesn't update anything Please keep on trying to help me, I am really gratefull. I really want to get my s43 working again.

Recovery mode can format root system partition (and maybe the other one), and your pc can format storage partition and not the system one ? Do you think I'm right? When you upgrade FW the first time, your made a recovery format , that's right ? Are you sure you plugged your S43 on electrical network during recovery?
I don't know very much windows but do you have file right acces on firmware ? Did you try to get into recovery mode twice, first you upgrade bios, disconnect, etc, than recovery once again for recovVer file?
By the way, worst case is: something bad happend, recovery can't use new FW to build a new system (assuming FW's integrity is OK). Than the first world who would come in my mind is : warranty

I think you are right in that you format the root system partiton when you are doing a recovery format. Maybe, when I connect with usb (during the recovery) I cannot see the root so I am not copying the fw to the right location and the player can't find the FW files? Is there a way to check if I can see the root (or system partition) or if I am seeing a storage partition?

Waranty means I have to get the player to Korea (since no one is selling it in europe) so I hoped that it could be solved without sending it there...

Ok, this time I used 20061122_1.0.8_FW_recovery and did the whole thing. When it restarted (with a black screen) I put in the usb and there where some files generated:
In what appears to be the root catalog:
nonce.bin 1kB
DID.bin 1kB
system/
system/xbas.dat 1kB

xbas.dat seems to be somekind of configuration file:
[information]
Product=TERUTEN_PMP
SN=00000000009220

so it does seem to do something with this version of fw. Any ideas of what these files are?

the aim of the recovery is to give usb access, use the firmware to decompress certain files to certain place, that are then loaded at reboot

did you connect the s43 to the mains while doing the upgrade?
it is mandatory when we do the firmware update for a v43, doesn't hurt to try

Try again by formating in fat32 4kb/sector, fat 16, ntfs...
label the partition S43

i believe the files are there at the correct place but the s43 can't run them because it can't read the filesystem...

use HDDScan.exe to test the disk under windows, might have issues
If you pass to dublin, i can try to help you...

to download lattest firmware s43 2007-05-04 :
http://www.i-station.co.kr/support/download.html?d_code=D1608&down_cat_cd=D2801&d_idx=200

this one should be the base firmware [several models of s43]
http://www.i-station.co.kr/support/download.html?d_code=D1608&down_cat_cd=D2801&d_idx=191

codes to download:
ID phjsun0
Password shadow

Yes I've tried all the things you mentioned and the s43 still doesn't install the firmware. The HDDScan doesn't report any diskerrors.

The S43 asks me if I want to format the drive before copying the firmware so it should now how to format it (I've also tried to format it via the computer with different sector sizes).

Maybe I should have taken an image of the drive before I tried to upgrade it...

I've been contacted by someone else who had the same problem so I am not alone. Their should be others on the i-station support forum that had the same problem. Maybe I do have to learn korean... (anyone speaks korean here?)

I've tried to contact customer service at coolzet.com but the email bounced... Ill try again later.

I think I'm moving from anger to depression now... Please keep helping me.

your problem is finish or no?

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No solution yet!