[raymw]

Hi Tiswas

Sorry to hear that but I fear from your description it seems that your box was not bricked by a image flashing error or a wrong/corrupt firmware image, but looks like a hardware failure. Though that is difficult for me to diagnose remotely of course but certainly seems likely.. I have had a few of these boxes and they were all damaged by reported very nearby lightening strikes giving big EMP spikes usually through the copper adsl/cable lines to your router, and/or mains electric supply born surges too. So seems maybe you have had this problem and likely your router may have been damaged or destroyed too, and sometimes your TV as well. All otherwise firmware bricked boxes of the ATV1200 and ATV1220 type have unbricked nicely with the described method and indeed I personally have now successfully unbricked quite a few and all went smoothly as per the earlier posted procedure.

I assume that you used the special formatting utility to format those SD cards ?? Though I must assume you did as you confirmed that you indeed followed the instructions to the letter.

Sounds like a bin job sadly mate, but at least it was worth the attempt to bring it back to life. Good news is the MXQ M12 metal cased boxes are superb and a lot cheaper than those old dual core ATV1200/1220 boxes and indeed run EmbER very well too with their latest S805 build available on their website download page. Read some earlier posts re useful tips for installing EmbER to these quad core boxes

[tiswas]

hi again mate.
guess what - i've only gone and done it.
read your reply last night and thought well we haven't had any bad weather so probably just hardware failure but i'll have one last go tomorrow.
set it up again this afternoon but this time i put the screwdriver across the soldered terminals on the board instead of across the chip pins [which in my mind would have been a better short] and bang - life back in the box.
went back to your previous posts and now have ember up and running.
thanks again raymw.
out of interest, who manufactures the mxq m12 box you mentioned above

[ed_davidson]

hi again mate.
guess what - i've only gone and done it.
read your reply last night and thought well we haven't had any bad weather so probably just hardware failure but i'll have one last go tomorrow.
set it up again this afternoon but this time i put the screwdriver across the soldered terminals on the board instead of across the chip pins [which in my mind would have been a better short] and bang - life back in the box.
went back to your previous posts and now have ember up and running.
thanks again raymw.
out of interest, who manufactures the mxq m12 box you mentioned above

Great feeling when you unbrick a box isn't it I've had a few in my time and always with a little perseverance won on the end.

Anyway, I can recommend this box. It's made by MXQ and it comes with Android on to start. Make sure you change the Android screen settings to 720p before you flash with ember. Here's a link to the box:

http://s.aliexpress.com/VNB3EJR3


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[raymw]

Great news tiswas Good to her it was not the hardware

I see Ed has answered you re the MXQ metal cased boxes and have ot endorse all he says there do not be tempted by the cheap plastic cased boxes also branded MXQ because quite frankly I think hey are rubbish in comparison to the metal cased boxes, they so have a very weak WiFi reception and worse of all the guys at EmbER have seen 4 different mainboards in them and all different making firmware upgrades a nightmare. All a case of you get what you pay for and anyway the metal cased boxes are still very inexpensive too.

Only seen one mainboard type in the metal cased MXQ M12 box so far thus no incompatibility problems with upgrading to EmbER. The brand name on the packaging is OTT by the way.

Enjoy your unbricked box and especially with EmbER 4 firmware installed.

[raymw]

If anyone is interested I have a replacement remote.conf file for the MXQ M12 metal case boxes. This will cure the annoying hardware bug that means you cannot reboot your box from the remote power button if you went into suspend mode using that remote power button. This edited remote.conf file will give you the usual old 3 choice menu instead when you hit the remote red power button and by choosing Suspend from the 3 options it will put your box as it says into suspend mode. However now the remote power button will warm reboot the box as it should without the annoying need to power off/on reboot your box. This appears to not be an EmbER problem as I have noticed from testing that this same fault is also often there with the default Android OS as supplied with the virginal new boxes.

If you want this amended remote.conf file (ONLY FOR MXQ M12 metal cased boxes running EmbER) then get it here " https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1731...xed%29.zip " from my Dropbox public folder (it is very small file) unzip this file called "M12 remote (fixed).zip" and using file manager (with access to hidden files and deletions enabled as usual) add it to the folder /root/Configs/kodi/ and then reboot your box for it to take effect.

I hope Josh may be able to incorporate this into the next EmbER update V4.0.1 but I gather that is still some weeks away yet.

[ed_davidson]

Can anyone point me in the direction on how to dual boot a plastic cased MXQ M12 with Android and LibreELEC. I'm after getting Netflix and Kodi. If I could only have Netflix on the Android side and none of the other bloat that would be even better.


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[bubblegum57]

Read this for S905 & S805 https://forum.libreelec.tv/forum-38.html

Use the confluence skin, you can reboot to android

[Gecja]

Hello all,

I'm new to this TV box experience, and I would really appreciate any help regarding my scenario:

Recently installed on myGica ATV520e dual core Ember 3.0.1, the install went well but when I try to access Programs\Settings I get a: "script error " there for I can't configure the network even though the network cable is attached, there isn't any network activity what so ever.
I tired to install OpenELEC but after the install its just blank screen (blue light though) I let it seat for more then 10 min i reboote it and then the light become Red I gues its in brick mode. I am able to recover back to Ember 3.0.1 thought with bootable SD. So basicaly I'm stuck with Ember without network connection.

Please some one help me on this.

[ed_davidson]

You don't need any network connection to move around the system. Something has definitely gone wrong. Someone on here will be able to help. The only thing i can suggest is a reflash of EmbER.


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[Gecja]

Ed_davison, thanks for reply. I'm able to navigate within Ember, like system\settings manipulate video settings ect.. just that network settings located on Programs\Settings or even System\Ember Settings i'm not able to open. Always get system script error check the logs. I have reloaded Ember several times but still same result. Cant connect with SSH through another computer since the box is not on the network at all.

Unless some one tells me how to access the command line within the box and what commands to write, because I have no clue when it comes down to Linux commands.

[raymw]

Ed_davison, thanks for reply. I'm able to navigate within Ember, like system\settings manipulate video settings ect.. just that network settings located on Programs\Settings or even System\Ember Settings i'm not able to open. Always get system script error check the logs. I have reloaded Ember several times but still same result. Cant connect with SSH through another computer since the box is not on the network at all.

Unless some one tells me how to access the command line within the box and what commands to write, because I have no clue when it comes down to Linux commands.

Sorry but I have to say as been said before here that EmbER is NOT compatible with the ATV520 boxes and that is why it is not even shown on their download page. The reason is that by design EmbER requires that it sees a WiFi system and the ATV520 Broadcom WiFi hardware is NOT compatible as no drivers are available for it in EmbER and will not be so, with it being an outdated model now and all development work now concentrates on the compatible quad core boxes. So you will NOT get to run the EmbER System Settings on the ATV520 although the install works perfectly in all other respects. If you plug in an Ethernet cable into the box and connect directly that way to your router it should give you internet access I believe, though not having one to hand here to check I cannot for sure confirm that and from what you say it seems not to work.

So is there any solution ? Well from what I read but have not yet proven, you can get a suitable WiFi USB dongle which is recognised by the EmbER firmware and use that to satisfy EmbERs requirement of seeing available WiFi hardware. Not sure which type but probably a Realtek type device would likely work. I tried a TP L:ink model TL-WN727N and that DID NOT work with the ATV520 box I tried it on, though the device was good on my Windows 10 PC. Somebody else here has got theirs working with I believe they said a Belkin USB WiFi dongle but cannot find the post so maybe someone else here can comment as to which make and model does work. As long as the ATV520 sees a WiFi dongle it recognises then it will work perfectly with EmbER and then no boot up error message regarding the EmbER System Setting utility and you will then be able to run up the EmbER settings screens of course..

Good luck with it but do please in a good community sprit report back here with any success or failures you have as others will be interested in which USB WiFi dongles work with this ATV520 box, which many here still own. It will be well worth getting it to work for the low cost of a USB WIFi dongle as I feel EmbER 4 is superb and with it's OTA firmware updates too it is IMHO unbeatable and runs very snappy and reliably. You do though really need to register and activate the firmware to get the EmbER 4 upgrade from the public EmbER V3.0.1, which at only a US$10 donation required to activate is a superb deal and helps fund the EmbER project.. But you should note that officially EmbER do NOT support the ATV520 officially now because of this incompatibility with the boxes hardware and indeed its old age.

With the cost of the MXQ M12 metal cased box being so cheap then I have to say that unless you are very short of cash it is a no brainer to get one and convert it to EmbER S805 firmware, as they truly rock. Please though read my notes and those from others regarding installing EmbER safely and well on your M12 S805 boxes and indeed adding the suspend bug fix remote.conf file too. (See recent previous posts in this thread )

[cristyz]

Hello all,

I'm new to this TV box experience, and I would really appreciate any help regarding my scenario:

Recently installed on myGica ATV520e dual core Ember 3.0.1, the install went well but when I try to access Programs\Settings I get a: "script error " there for I can't configure the network even though the network cable is attached, there isn't any network activity what so ever.
I tired to install OpenELEC but after the install its just blank screen (blue light though) I let it seat for more then 10 min i reboote it and then the light become Red I gues its in brick mode. I am able to recover back to Ember 3.0.1 thought with bootable SD. So basicaly I'm stuck with Ember without network connection.

Please some one help me on this.

Hi, i am using usb tp-link (TL-WN723N) wifi adapter and works perfectly with Ember v3.0.1. I still atv520e.

[Gecja]

Thanks for detailed explanation raymw, I will try the TL-WN723N wifi dongle as cristyz suggested.

Will the TL-WN723N be plug and play or should I ran the install of Ember with the dongle connected in order to be recognized by ember?

[raymw]

AFAIK it should simply plug'n'playu with your already installed EmbER V3.0.1 but if it does not work then try a reinstall with the TL-WN723N plugged in.

Strange that the 727N does not work, obviously used a different WiFi chipset on the dongle to the 723N Must go and try one as they are cheap enough for that and dig out my ATV520 again (which is BTW brand new and unused just flashed with EmbER V3.0.1) Thanks for the feedback on that cristyz.

[ed_davidson]

Hi there,
I'm having some issues with Ember. Quite often I am doing something it even happened when I was watching a movie. Ember reboots all of a sudden. On restart I get a failed error with remote communication. I thought that there was a way to turn on debugging and send a log in Ember. Can you suggest what I can do?


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