Help please my S10 says it's a clone

[skel28]

just turned it on and it says COPY on the front panel, and Your Box is CLONE version!!!! (five times) and Invalid chip id : FFFF

just got this two days ago, it had said chip id was 00D0 so I thought it was ok.

How can I recover this please? (can I recover this)

Thanks in advance

[jockyboy12]

have you installed the newest firmware ??

not sure if that will help or not just trying to get some idea of what you have done prior to this happening

[skel28]

apologies, I didn't post much detail there.
just got box on Wed, updated f/w to s10_nds and tonight it says it's a clone
I've been advised a null modem cable and a recovery tool and clone safe firmware should sort me. I'm having trouble in finding the firmware.
Thanks

[nibblitz]

You'll be ok, not the end of the world, you just need to reflash it with firmware that predates June , then you'll be alright.. If its still booting up to the menu OK then you should be able to downgrade via USB, if not then yea you gotta do it via rs232 and a null modem cable..

[skel28]

nibblitz mate, I have the recovery program and some firmwares (it doesn't boot to menu at the moment)
rs232 eh? what speed should I set
hate to be lazy but whilst I'm doing that any idea of the best firmware I should use please?
thanks EVERYONE for putting up with me

[jockyboy12]

null odem cable m8 and make sure it is not a normal r232 cable.....they are wired a tiny bit different

[skel28]

ok guys, thanks so far, have null modem and have sseveral loader programs, am not sure about selecting bootloader or not, one site seems to say yes the other no, also do I need to load two different files?
cheers

ok I have a picture
I loaded the HDS2_CMT_Eng.abs file first with bootloader then the original shipped f/w that I dumped again with bootloader and it's ok for now.
Just need to find the best clone firmware to use. open to suggestions.
Thank you all so far

[nibblitz]

Hey, well done on recovering it.. I think the clone killer code started appearing in firmware releases from around about June, but from what I can gather, a February release is the most stable on a clone.. So have a trawl through firmware release forum posts to see if you can get a February release.. Or, if your box is working ok for you with the original firmware then maybe best to just stick with it..

Interestingly though, I read somewhere else where they claim the Clone message can occur even on a genuine box if it hasnt been flashed correctly, they say you MUST restore factory defaults to free up memory before flashing, otherwise it messes up the bootloader.. Dunno if thats true or not though..

[skel28]

Thanks mate for yours and everyone else's help. I wouldn't have a running system now if it wasn't for you all.
OK I'll try to find another firmware that doesn't have the lip-sync issue.
Might try that original one again and do a factory reset first (I'm not scared of it anymore )

CHEERS

[lukanio63]

Looks like I've got a clone as well Did you manage to sort it out? Did you foud safe software for your box?

[skel28]

it's back running on the original firmware mate (I had dumped it luckily)
I've not been able to locate a clone safe firmware that doesn't have the audio sync issue, can anyone else help at all please?

[rebop]

I'm in the same boat as well. Before the firmwareupdate, the 4digit hex was okey. After update, the hexcode is FFFF. Audio sync issue makes this box useless. Look like I should have bought the DM800HD instead (and used the pli image)

[nibblitz]

rebop, if you trawl some older threads on the forums and try and find a firmware release that was out before june, as the clone killer code only started appearing in firmware from june onwards.. Im pretty sure I read somewhere that firmware dated around February is the safest for clones, and has no audio sync issues..

[rebop]

Thanks for the replay!

I've found a image from may 2011, but thats not as good as the newest.

- List of transponders is not correct, have to manually add some.
- Audio lag quite a lot
- The stability is a not at all good.

As of the moment, the box is useless for the purpose I bought it for. I regret that I didn't buy the Dreambox DM800HD, that cost around 60$ more.

The flash process with null modem cable went quite easily okey. Happily I've done similar things before, and my only windows laptop (Toshiba 320cdt from 1998 with win98 + linux, the rest is linux/mac) always get the job done.

[nibblitz]

The transponders list is no issue really, cause if you blind scan or better still use a more recent tp_prog uploaded by somebody else, then you'll get all the transponders sorted...

Im sure I read somewhere that a paticular February release was best for use on the clones, have a good look about for it... Dont give up on your poor little clone just yet...