9Xtreme stuck on "SHUTTING DOWN: EEPROM BUSY"

[ksrivatsan]

I bought a SmartieParts 9Xtreme kit in late December 2015. I have just gotten around to installing it now. However, I ran into a problem: The radio does not turn off in the main mode! (It actually does power off in "maintenance" and "bootloader" mode.) Whenever I slide the power switch to turn it off, the screen says "SHUTTING DOWN: EEPROM BUSY".

The radio attempts to turn off, but gets stuck on this screen.

The only way I can turn it off is by removing the battery.
Other than these issues, the firmware appears perfectly installed- except for a "Bad EEPROM" error when I power it on.

Normal screen.

Oddly, when I press a key to get out of that screen, it says "MESSAGE: EEPROM FORMATTING" for a split second, but that does not seem to change anything.
I have re-flashed the radio several times, trying to fix this problem. It flashes the firmware correctly, but that does not fix the problem. I am currently running r218 of ersky9x, and version 0.3 of the slave firmware on the 9X board.
I tried using "maintenance mode" to flash the original 9X board with ER9X firmware, to see if that would do anything- only to find that I cannot select the "Flash AVR CPU" option.
I really want to use the new-found power of my radio. How would I fix these problems?

Apologies that the pictures are upside down: they just showed up like that. If you click on them, they show up correctly. Hopefully you can make sense of this.

[MikeB]

Do you get the "Bad EEPROM" error every time you power on?
You should only get this the first time.

Mike.

[s_mack]

It does seem odd. Hopefully Mike can think of a couple of tests and if we determine it is a hardware issue, I'll get that swapped out ASAP.

Either way, sorry for the headache.

[MikeB]

If it reports "Bad EEPROM" every time it starts, then it is likely to be a problem with the EEPROM, which would explain why it doesn't shutdown.

Mike.

[s_mack]

The Spansion flash chip, right?

[ksrivatsan]

Yeah, it shows "Bad EEPROM" every time it starts. My computer also has some issue in which it cannot write the EEPROM properly- it reads just fine. Is there any way to fix this?

[s_mack]

Well... assuming its the 9Xtreme's flash throwing the error it could be a faulty flash chip or a faulty logic/buffer chip between it and the mcu. In that case, no... repair is unlikely.

It more likely is a solder bridge (something I *really* have to address with better testing in the future). I could try to point you in the right directly with where to look if you've got a meter, some magnification and some patience.

[ksrivatsan]

I have all three, so show me!

[jhsa]

If this helps somehow, I had a similar problem on one of my radios sometime ago. It showed bad eeprom all the time and the display would get darker.. It was one of the processor pins not well soldered.
It wasn't the 9xtreme though..

João

[s_mack]

Yeah, I'm hoping Mike can tell if by "eeprom" we mean the 9X's eeprom or the 9Xtreme's flash memory. I'd assume the latter, but awaiting confirmation on when/why that error appears.

[ksrivatsan]

I may have found the culprit...
I hunted around for bad solder joints, and may have found one on the underside of the board, on the Spansion flash chip. One of the pins is only very loosely bound to the board. It's the pin nearest the "N" in "SPANSION":

Do you think this is it?

[s_mack]

From your description, yes... from the photo, I wouldn't say it looks unusual. But if you have a soldering iron and are confident enough in your skills that you can remelt the solder on there and get a better connection, you can certainly see if that resolves it.

[ksrivatsan]

Unfortunately, I don't have a soldering iron, and do not feel confident about fixing this. I will try to see if anyone can help me with this. Would it be possible for you to ship me a new one, in the meanwhile?

[s_mack]

I'll contact you via email

[MikeB]

You say you can read the EEPROM with your computer. How are you doing that?

Mike.

[ksrivatsan]

I was using eepskye. It was able to pull the EEPROM data (?) off the board into a file. The file appeared blank, though.

[MikeB]

OK, using eepskye, use the burn menu option "Read EEPROM memory to file", then put the resulting file in .zip file (to save space on the forum), then please post it here for me to look at.

Mike.

[ksrivatsan]

Okay, just did that. Here is the file.

[MikeB]

Some bytes right at the beginning are written OK, it looks like the general settings are written OK as zeroes, but no proper default data, and no default model data has been written. It does look like there is a hardware problem somewhere.
It may be a pin on either the EEPROM itself, or one on the processor that isn't making a proper contact, but did at one time.

Mike.

[s_mack]

Can you clarify Mike, please. By "eeprom" do you mean the 9X's eeprom of the 9Xtreme's flash? ie. hardware problem where?

[MikeB]

We don't use the original 9X EEPROM (on the AVR processor) when the 9Xtreme is fitted, so I do mean the SPANSION EEPROM on the 9Xtreme board (actually a flash device rather than an EEPROM).

I'll have a look into doing something specific to test this device tomorrow, it's very late here now (01:17).

Mike.

[s_mack]

I was pretty sure, but since "eeprom" was the term being used... Thanks for clarifying.

[MikeB]

I've posted a special test version of ersky9x for the 9Xtreme. On the shutting down screen, this displays 6 numbers across the bottom.
You will find it here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4676&p=65894#p65894.

Please let me know what these 6 numbers are when you are stuck on this screen.

Mike.

[silversurfer48]

I was pretty sure, but since "eeprom" was the term being used... Thanks for clarifying.

you try removing all the stack flashing to the board what I mean is if you continue to flash on top of another flash this happens somtimes it has happen to me I just countinue to open from the read from tx over maybe 3 to 5 times I dont know how many re-flash were done its a possibility it fix my tx

[ksrivatsan]

Hi everyone.
Unfortunately, I am currently in college (I was in Spring Break in early March), and can't get to my radio at this time- it is in my house, 2000 miles (3200 km) away. I will try to figure this out when I can- which is likely going to be in early May, when the winter semester ends. I'll keep you posted when I resume testing. Thanks, everyone who replied, for all your help!

[ksrivatsan]

Okay, I'm back from Michigan, and I have put Mike's new test version of er9x onto the 9Xtreme. The 6 numbers are: 0 0 3 0 1 0

[MikeB]

Are the numbers the same every time?
They imply I've issued an ERASE blaock command and I'm waiting for it to complete, but it never does.
I'll investigate further.

Mike.

[ksrivatsan]

I think so, and that would make sense. Would that be consistent with a slightly loose pin on the flash chip?
By the way, I got another 9Xtreme and it works like a charm. I want to figure out this one, though.

[MikeB]

I'm trying to collect as much information as I can to try to locate what this problem is.
Please try the following.
Start the radio in bootloader mode and connect to the computer.
Run eepskye and read the EEPROM so you get the window up showing what has been read.
Now create a new model in an unused slot, then write the EEPROM back to the radio.
Close eepskye, and unplug the USB cable, this will unmount the radio drives and clear any cache on the computer.
Now replug the USB cable and run eepskye again, then read the EEPROM.
What I now need to know is do you see the model you created?

This is a general test of whether the EEPROM is getting written.

Mike.

[ksrivatsan]

I'll get to it, as soon as I fix the battery holder- one of the wires came out of the balance plug. Oops...
I think I have tried this before, and it didn't work. I'll try to keep you posted.