"Bricked" My Onda Vi40 Dual-Core, Anything I Can Do to Recover?

DavidGC

Member
Jan 2, 2013
2
0
Hi,
I (unwisely) tried to update the firmware on my Onda Vi40 Dual-core to the firmware from onda.cn in VI40D_v2.0-1129SD

I loaded the unzipped contents to the root directory of the micro-SD card and booted into recovery mode by pressing the on button with the Home button depressed. After some time I got the recovery screen. There were some error messages at the end of the status section, so I entered "reboot now"

Unfortunately, now the Vi40 won't turn on (black screen, no sign of life).

The thing isn't completely dead - when I connect it via USB to a Linux PC it doesn't mount as a file-system like it used to, but it does indicate there is some life:
New USB device found, idVendor=1b8e, idProduct=c003
New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Product: M3-CHIP
Manufacturer: Amlogic
SerialNumber: 20110406

Does anybody have any idea how to recover a "bricked" Onda Vi40 Dual Core ?

Many thanks,
David
 
Last edited:

leeshor

Senior Member
Dec 27, 2011
6,330
1,037
Welcome to the forum

We have a few Onda experts on board. One will be along in a while I'm fairly certain.
 

iiDiabolusZz

Senior Member
Nov 9, 2012
441
113
Hi,
I (unwisely) tried to update the firmware on my Onda Vi40 Dual-core to the firmware from onda.cn in VI40D_v2.0-1129SD

I loaded the unzipped contents to the root directory of the micro-SD card and booted into recovery mode by pressing the on button with the Home button depressed. After some time I got the recovery screen. There were some error messages at the end of the status section, so I entered "reboot now"

Unfortunately, now the Vi40 won't turn on (black screen, no sign of life).

The thing isn't completely dead - when I connect it via USB to a Linux PC it doesn't mount as a file-system like it used to, but it does indicate there is some life:
New USB device found, idVendor=1b8e, idProduct=c003
New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Product: M3-CHIP
Manufacturer: Amlogic
SerialNumber: 20110406

Does anybody have any idea how to recover a "bricked" Onda Vi40 Dual Core ?

Many thanks,
David

Hi, does the 2.0 firmware package include the "Usb Burning Tool"? if not download the file below, it is the 1.5.5 firmware, drag the "USB-Burning-tool-SPI" folder to your desktop then drag the "Resource.Vi40D_v1.5.5.zip" file to the "USB-Burning-tool-SPI" folder you just put on desktop.
Now switch off the tablet and connect it to the pc, run the USB program (you can change the language in top left of main window) then with the tablet, HOLD home key for 4 seconds then still Holding home key hold power key until the USB program picks up the tablet, now select "CONFIG" tab and choose "Import upgrade" and in the window select the "Resource.Vi40D_v1.5.5.zip" and then start the process.

Firmware 1.5.5 http://file2.mydrivers.com/ondata/download/driver/oamp3/Vi40D/Vi40D_v1.5.5.zip
 

Spider

Administrator
Staff member
Mar 24, 2011
15,785
1,813
Hi David, congratulations on your new Onda tablet and welcome to the forum. Glad you decided to join us here at Android Tablets.
 

DavidGC

Member
Jan 2, 2013
2
0
Hi, does the 2.0 firmware package include the "Usb Burning Tool"? if not download the file below, it is the 1.5.5 firmware, drag the "USB-Burning-tool-SPI" folder to your desktop then drag the "Resource.Vi40D_v1.5.5.zip" file to the "USB-Burning-tool-SPI" folder you just put on desktop.
Now switch off the tablet and connect it to the pc, run the USB program (you can change the language in top left of main window) then with the tablet, HOLD home key for 4 seconds then still Holding home key hold power key until the USB program picks up the tablet, now select "CONFIG" tab and choose "Import upgrade" and in the window select the "Resource.Vi40D_v1.5.5.zip" and then start the process.

Firmware 1.5.5 http://file2.mydrivers.com/ondata/download/driver/oamp3/Vi40D/Vi40D_v1.5.5.zip

Many thanks indeed.

The 2.0 package doesn't include the USB-Burning-tool-SPI folder, so I used the v1.5.5 you suggested.

I didn't need to do the "press home button then power button" sequence. I guess it was stuck in a mode where it presented the correct interface to USB anyway. Other than this I had no problems ( I did try to run the AMIlogic ImageBurnTool.exe in a Windows XP virtual machine in VirtualBox on Linux, but wasn't really suprised when this didn't work (the process starts, but causes the Onda Vi40 to present a different USB VID which confuses VirtualBox) and I had to use a real Window XP machine )
 

iiDiabolusZz

Senior Member
Nov 9, 2012
441
113
Many thanks indeed.

The 2.0 package doesn't include the USB-Burning-tool-SPI folder, so I used the v1.5.5 you suggested.

I didn't need to do the "press home button then power button" sequence. I guess it was stuck in a mode where it presented the correct interface to USB anyway. Other than this I had no problems ( I did try to run the AMIlogic ImageBurnTool.exe in a Windows XP virtual machine in VirtualBox on Linux, but wasn't really suprised when this didn't work (the process starts, but causes the Onda Vi40 to present a different USB VID which confuses VirtualBox) and I had to use a real Window XP machine )

Great, now when you update to 2.0 inside the package drag ALL the files (except the .docs) update/patch.zip uImage, factory update etc to the sdcard then boot to recovery it is a auto process and you should be fine.
 

n3benyo

Member
Jan 6, 2013
2
0
Hi, I experienced same problems but thanks to the thread got ahead. I also managed to update to JB.
However, now I am stuck in a sequence, where whenever I shut down the tablet and turn it on again the settings are restored to default (chinese language, google account gone, no saved internet connection, widgets all as default). There seems to be another malfunction with the storage-distribution as well: "internal storage" shows 0.0B as total space, all free space is dedicated to "onda mid" drive - this results in google play not downloading any content due to "insufficient space on device". What could have gone wrong?
Many thx,
Bence
 

n3benyo

Member
Jan 6, 2013
2
0
A few more reinstalls and reboots seemed to have solved the problem. Thanks for the chance anyway :)
 

pescadorsp

Member
Dec 1, 2012
13
5
I have same model as you, I already briked it and used this way to recover:
Download the Firmware 1.5.5 at onda site:
ONDA
Extract the file, there is a .doc in Chinese, use google translator to translate the instructions.
Baically you have to use the "USB-Burning-tool-SPI" to write back the boot loader. The tricky part is that the driver is recognized only in Windows 32bits, I used a computer with win7 32bit.

1. open the USB-Burning-tool-SPI (imageburning tool.exe)
2. Select "config => import upgrade file"
3. Select the Resource.Vi40D_v1.5.5.zip (extracted from the file you downloade from onda site)
4. Use a paper clip to press the reset key
5. Press the home key and insert the usb cable. If your computer doesn't seem to detect anything plugged in the USB, press the tablet power key (keep home kep pressed all the time)
6. When you computer detect a new hardware it will fail because there is no driver. Go to Windows Device manager, select the device with the yellow exclamation, select to update driver, select to manual install and point it to USB-Burning-tool-SPI\AmlogicusbBurningdriver\
7. No you probably can see that the Amlogicburning tool detect your tablet in one of the ports. Select "Erase Nand" and press start. It will erase all the crap that bricked the tablet.
8. Press reset with paper clip again, press home and connect the USB.
9. Un-select the "erase nand" and press start. You will see at the status window that it will start writing and erase a bunch of stuff especially the boot loader or uboot.
10. It will probably fail in the end, but the good news is that now your tablet is capable to update trough the SD card.
11. Copy the firmware 2.0 files extracted from what you can download in onda site to the SD card.
12. Hold home key and press power, it will start the firmware update. JB update usually fails, but even if it succeed, you always need to just to repeat the SW update again.
13. Switch off, press home key, power and let it update the same JB firmware 2.0. This time it will work.
14. Great you recovered your device. Now you can follow this thread to root it:
Easy root and install google play on any onda tablet+firmware
15. And follow the instructions in here to fix the Play store to show all apps:
Easy root and install google play on any onda tablet+firmware
 

alyntony

Member
Aug 25, 2012
2
0
I have same model as you, I already briked it and used this way to recover:
Download the Firmware 1.5.5 at onda site:
ONDA
Extract the file, there is a .doc in Chinese, use google translator to translate the instructions.
Baically you have to use the "USB-Burning-tool-SPI" to write back the boot loader. The tricky part is that the driver is recognized only in Windows 32bits, I used a computer with win7 32bit.

1. open the USB-Burning-tool-SPI (imageburning tool.exe)
2. Select "config => import upgrade file"
3. Select the Resource.Vi40D_v1.5.5.zip (extracted from the file you downloade from onda site)
4. Use a paper clip to press the reset key
5. Press the home key and insert the usb cable. If your computer doesn't seem to detect anything plugged in the USB, press the tablet power key (keep home kep pressed all the time)
6. When you computer detect a new hardware it will fail because there is no driver. Go to Windows Device manager, select the device with the yellow exclamation, select to update driver, select to manual install and point it to USB-Burning-tool-SPI\AmlogicusbBurningdriver\
7. No you probably can see that the Amlogicburning tool detect your tablet in one of the ports. Select "Erase Nand" and press start. It will erase all the crap that bricked the tablet.
8. Press reset with paper clip again, press home and connect the USB.
9. Un-select the "erase nand" and press start. You will see at the status window that it will start writing and erase a bunch of stuff especially the boot loader or uboot.
10. It will probably fail in the end, but the good news is that now your tablet is capable to update trough the SD card.
11. Copy the firmware 2.0 files extracted from what you can download in onda site to the SD card.
12. Hold home key and press power, it will start the firmware update. JB update usually fails, but even if it succeed, you always need to just to repeat the SW update again.
13. Switch off, press home key, power and let it update the same JB firmware 2.0. This time it will work.
14. Great you recovered your device. Now you can follow this thread to root it:
Easy root and install google play on any onda tablet+firmware
15. And follow the instructions in here to fix the Play store to show all apps:
Easy root and install google play on any onda tablet+firmware
Hi All this is very usefull but i can not get it to work i have carried all the steps listed but the tablet is still dead
when i am trying to load the upgrade onto the tablet two progress bars appear one completes the other fails something about uboot and its like the tablet goes from recovery mode into usb storage mode as the pc picks it up as onda mid rather than world cup device then says no device connected failed i have tried the reset and the home and power buttons with the sd card but still will not boot can i send this somewhere to get fixed please help me before i die of old age
thanks
 

Griggsy

Member
May 8, 2013
2
0
Hi, gang... Experiencing the same problem as the original post but with a V812 quad core (I'm a noob...screwed up flashing a custom firmware...now it's dead as a doornail.) And like the original post, my Windows 7 laptop does somewhat see something when I connect via USB. Device seen as: USB Device(VID_1f3a_PID_efe8). Is there a way in through USB for my tablet?
 
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