Recover Dead Skybox/Openbox Flash Using Serial RS232 Null modem Cable

[walkaton]

maybe something else wrong with the receiver.

you could take alook in the receiver at the capacitors
easy to judge if they have popped. Top of them will have a cross which will bulge when failed. I don't know how general it is but two cap went to give me the problem you are now having. ps do not rip them off the board etched track is very thin

[Barry Doherty]

I think the trouble i was having (errors) were caused by my homemade cable ie 'Initialize STB sram is failed' and 'set stb memory error'

I am still trying with the bought null modem cable and not getting anywhere.

What should the parity and flow control setting be on my pc and also on the erom loader?

[Barry Doherty]

I'm using 2.0.0c.

I know in some of the earlier posts, the device manager settings were mentioned. I am just worried incase I have one of these set up wrong in the dev mngr.
the settings on it are: 115200 bits per second, 8 data bits, parity even, stop bits 1 and flow control xon/ xoff.

If I restore defaults in the device manager, they are listed as: 9600 bps, 8 data bits, parity none, stop bits 1 and flow control none.

I know that everyone re-flashing their boxes have experienced one difficulty or another with timing, wrong loader, wrong image file or wrong cable.

Hopefully it'll come good in the end.

[slugworth]

i've only seen that on real old versions of the loader,like 2.0.0a

[Barry Doherty]

now getting 'set stb memory error' even before I power the box on.

[slugworth]

maybe something else wrong with the receiver.

[Barry Doherty]

I am getting the 'synchronising STBs please reset target - done' .................. 'Initialize STB sram is failed. message as soon as I click 'next' the unit hasn't even been powered on by this point

[Barry Doherty]

I ended up getting the 'proper'? null modem cable and all I got was 'synchronising STBs please reset target' even after I powered up the unit tried lots of different power on timings for hours and still no joy.
I then decided to make a 3 wire cable wiring 2-3, 3-2 and 5-5. The message that i'm getting now and have been for the last 10 attempts is 'synchronising STBs please reset target - done' but also displays 'Initialize STB sram is failed.

Is this a step in the right direction or is there other problems?

[slugworth]

wrong cable

[Barry Doherty]

I had tried the process several times last night to be stuck on what many people before have been, the 'synchronizing stb reset target'
I tried different timings and still got the same message, I also checked my settings in device manager were the same as the erom upgrade.

I then thought about the rs232 cable that I was using and I realise that some of these cables are set up differently so I've ordered one which has the pin setting as the first post does.
The cable that I have at the moment is a rs232 female to female straight wired.

[mahrkpat]

See first post.

[Barry Doherty]

Silly question maybe but are all female to female rs232 cables null modem cables. If the rs232 cable was a straight wired cable does that mean that the pins would be set up different to a null modem cable ie,

pin 2 - pin 3
pin 3 - pin 2
pin 4 - pin 6
pin 5 - pin 5
pin 6 - pin 4
pin 7 - pin 8
pin 8 - pin 7

[slugworth]

Dual-Core CPU, 450 MHz MIPS Processor NEC61325 Chip
so forget any using old openbox files/programs

[Barry Doherty]

Seems to be manufactured by a company called Shenzhen ever-star technology co ltd.
I'm not sure if the firmware/ support files that has been posted on this site will be suitable for it.

[Hadron]

never heard of x6 so probably no support files

Plenty of hits on Google, including Ebay.