I understand you want to install an image downloaded from the internet. But did you back up the original SD card with the suggested software? Give it a try; it won't cost you anything. If there are any corrupted parts, the software will detect them, and you can fix them if necessary. If you manage to make a copy (img) of the entire SD card without any found errors, and then copy it to a new SD card, the Stick will definitely work again. Downloading huge, cumbersome backups randomly from the internet is a tiresome and frustrating task.
Okay Nikokaro... as you know I'm incredibly stubborn and stupid. THIS IS TOTALLY UNRELATED TO YOUR THREAD BUT JUST LEAVING THIS INFO AS IT MIGHT BE USEFUL FOR SOMEONE ELSE? Dunno!
Anyways!
So here's the good and bad news about today's sleep deprived shenanigans (been awaken since yesterday's 4pm and been trying to save this shit since yesterday's 9pm and now it's 1pm)
Good news: I've identified the three main chips on the thing:
- HCSEMI A3101 BAAC 2520: SoC
- UnilC SCB15H2G160: 2Gbit RAM
- UC25HD40: SPI Flash
Bad news:
- Boot loader for my device ISN'T IN SD. It's why whatever alternative (GStick, RetroArch, "firmware.img" I've been testing since yesterday aren't working at all.
- This is why I can't find anything on the device's SD. Even "backing up" won't solve anything, nor will find the "boot loader" because it's all in the SPI Flash...
This is very reminiscent to that time I fixed the bricked Android Tablet (and I found the compatible firmware in a site in arabic
) last year:
- I need a VERY SPECIFIC FLASH IMAGE THAT MATCHES THE SPI, RAM, BOARD, SoC... but my board is "new" (from March 2025) and I haven't been able to find anything from 2025, and the ones I have found doesn't even has any "xxx.img" file to reflash... BECAUSE THE BOOT IS IN SPI FLASH ON THE DEVICE NOT ON SD.
*sigh*
Unless someone backs up the SPI Flash image, and I somehow acquire a SPI Flash burner thing, this shit won't work.
Thanks for your help Niko, but it's all useless for now.
Device works, SD has no partitions nor boot/firmware because it's all in SPI Flash on the device, presumably damaged or corrupted and I require specialized hardware to reflash it... so game over.
