[olpc-help] B2-1 bricked?

[Jerome Gotangco]

Hi all,

I was testing a B2-1 unit from friend for evaluation when I told him I
think I can upgrade the firmware to the same version used in the mass
production units. After reading the notes, I upgraded it with
q2d03.rom using the flash u:\q2d03.rom command and it went fine and
rebooted to the Sugar UI without any problems. When I rebooted it and
accessed the system, it booted to the USB. This is where the problem
started.

Before I upgraded the firmware, I added q2d03.rom, fs.zip and
os711.img in the USB and rebooted. When the new firmware took over, it
promptly started the upgrade process without confirming so I couldn't
stop it less I end up with a non functioning unit. When the image
finished installing and rebooted by itself, the screen became blank
with a loud hissing noise from the speakers. Doing a hard restart
won't budge either as I only get a blank screen and the power and
battery LEDs continue to light up. The funny thing is that when its
turned off, the speakers emit a loud hiss and I have to pull out the
battery to turn it off.

A peer suggested to do a blind test-all in the hardware but that
didn't work at all and I'm worried that I've erased the nand to the
point that the unit doest see anything to boot up but at the same time
I'm wondering why the display is not showing at all.

Also as this is a B2-1 unit, I'm aware that its basically beta
hardware (I do not have access to a production unit). I wanted to
check first to the list if this is something that can still be
remedied without opening up the hardware. While the B2-1 is not the
ideal unit to evaluate for a project, it helped me convince some
potential partners to seriously look into it for the near future.


-- 
Jerome