Advanced Question for MrTim ****

[thepackrat]

A very good customer of mine recently brought me a T-100 that someone had tried to hack.
I want to RESTORE IT to FACTORY SPECIFICATIONS for him.
I am an ADVANCED electronics technician with over 30 years experience.
I am a LEGITIMATE repair shop.
I DO NOT DO FREE TV.

My questions are;
A) Is there some kind of " write protected " sectors on the TE28F160-C3TD70 ?
B) Does this unit use some kind of non-standard sectoring ON the TE28 ?

1) The unit powers up but gives NO DISPLAY.
2)The unit will NOT accept a write from the " updater " software.
3) ALL voltages are present on main board and within the chips data-sheet specs.
4) There are NO missing parts , and no damaged traces or via's.
5) The Sti and TE28F are both recognized and properly initialized when jtagged. (I re wrote a jkeys "def" file to support every mode the TE28F160-C3TD70 data sheet SAYS it can support)
6) It APPEARS to " go through the motions " in both the flash programming and in the development panel ...( used the factory bin from your site) ... but the unit refuses to come back to life.

I am NOT looking for a return authorization to have YOU fix it ... ( I KNOW you support your customers with quality products and services ...and have legitimate concerns over quality control and product liability ) ... and I would USUALLY just give the customer a stern lecture on buying used equipment from "shady" characters ...but this is a loyal customer, and sometime I have to EAT the cost of a " dog repair " to keep THIS kind of customer happy.
ANY help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mr Tony]

I moved this to the FTA area, but you might just want to PM mrtim

 

[thepackrat]

I didn't want to pm him " out of the blue " ...
... guy probably has a plate full of PM and I didn't wanna' add another slice !

 

[thepackrat]

Bumping it up

 

[Technojunky]

Did the receiver work before you tried to restore it? If somone tried to hack it, they may have caused the CPU to stop accepting commands. I am not familiar with the receiver you have, but there are ways to revive most receivers that have died from somone trying to hack it. Messing with non-standard firmware is not only flirting with trouble, and the law, it is also a good way to kill a receiver in one easy step. You might want to search the internet for the term J-tag. This is the method used to revive a receiver that it dead from receiving bad firmware. It basically involves building an interface to the Motherboard/CPU so you can trigger the CPU to boot a new program. Bootstrap comes to mind.

Good luck... Joe

 

[thepackrat]

Did the receiver work before you tried to restore it? If somone tried to hack it, they may have caused the CPU to stop accepting commands.

No it did not work at all when it was brought into the shop.
I SHOULD have said I ASSUME that someone tried to hack it.

Messing with non-standard firmware is not only flirting with trouble, and the law, it is also a good way to kill a receiver in one easy step.

I agree with you 100% and that is what I am ASSUMING was done to this one. As I stated in my first post..there does not seem to be any ELECTRONICS HARDWARE related problems with this unit ...( unless mrtim answers my question with some electrinics test that I can do to find some obscure hardware related problem...)...so I immediately suspected a FIRMWARE problem.
My customer is a Portugese immigrant and his english is a bit hard to understand at times...but from what I can understand HE purchased the unit from a third party ($50 for unit , dish, remote, LNB, etc...) expecting to be able to watch his Portugese channel. I am SURE My customer did NOT try to "hack " it himself because he has NO technical skills at all ...and KNOWS it !! ( He once called my shop to see if it was OK to use a 15 watt APPLIANCE bulb in a " table lamp " ) ...BUT... he DOES call me in for ALL his consumer electronics repairs, and has recomended a LOT of other customers to me ...so I do not want to let him down.
The OTHER side of the coin is that this unit is VERY affordable, and IF I feel confident that I can service it in my shop, then I MIGHT be able to get quite a few sales/installs from this guys friends and family !

You might want to search the internet for the term J-tag. This is the method used to revive a receiver that it dead from receiving bad firmware. It basically involves building an interface to the Motherboard/CPU so you can trigger the CPU to boot a new program. Bootstrap comes to mind.

I have a "basic working knowlege" of boundry scan technology and have already tried applying the factory firmware ( found on the company web site ) to this unit. I have a computer on my workbench DEDICATED to servicing firmware related problems... ( RCA TV's are SO notorious in the service industry for firmware related problems that there is a whole industry based on it ! ...google " chipper checker " and you'll see what I mean ! ) ... I KNOW my service bench equipment is working correctly and yet ...even thought this unit " went through the motions " of correctly restoring the factory firmware ... the unit remains comatose .

Good luck... Joe

Thank YOU !
TPR

 

[thepackrat]

PS ....
...I PM'd MrTim and pointed to this thread ...but have not recieved any kind of answer yet.