[raymw]

Further to the above posting it would be useful if one of the real experts here like Josh could outline the pin shorting method exactly step by step. None of us seem sure how long to hold the pin shorting on for when booting up and whether or not to hold in the usual recessed reset button at the same time, and if so for how long is recommended with this technique? And what is the best configuration and files to use for the SD card for unbricking?

Quite a bit of ambiguity with this unbricking so would be good to have a definitive procedure written down, that is more likely to reliably unbrick first time. So anybody ?? Would be very much appreciated by the community here.

I'm far from being an expert, but what I can tell you is that if the box is badly bricked, then using an empty SD boot card will not cut it. I have found that it is generally sufficient to use the boot card (link in post 1406 of this thread) and just to short the pins with the box powered on. You can go through the whole routine as below if you want to though.

• Start with no power applied to the box
  
• Short the pins and hold in the reset button
  
• Apply power
  
• After 5 seconds remove pin short
  
• After another 5 seconds release the reset button
  
• Sit back and give the box at least 2 minutes to do its thing
  

One other piece if advice - I found that one of my TV's screen remained black long after the box was recovered, so I thought the recovery process had failed. So, after 2 minutes, try removing and reconnecting the HDMI cable to be sure this is not the problem.

Thanks for the input. The relevant bit you mentioned here is that you found it sufficient just to short the two pins (I assume for only about 5 seconds) with the box already powered on, and of course with the boot card in the SD port. That will make things far easier if that is a sound and reliable method and exactly the feedback I wanted to get form raising this important unbricking issue.

Yes I have wondered if it was really necessary to struggle with pressing in the usual recessed recovery button at the same time as pin shorting and then with a third hand plug the power back in. I will try this simple pin short with power already on method and see how I get on with my still bricked ATV1220T box. If this works it will make the job so much easier though it is important to carefully make that SD boot card as per the full instructions using that little Dos based application that Geniatech refer to.

As I said we need a solid system that works and works as easily as possible for folk here. For now it seems sticking to MX Linux Helix builds is the safest way to go to avoid bricking, Whatever way you use, of course most of us do not want to be stuck with Android bloatware.