Flashing Android TV box

[lawbet7eb]

Thing you should know before you start :
1- Do it at your own risk
2- There are many type of Boxes, this one is the one 4 (host) USB ports see the picture up
3- You may consider flashing the firmware using SD card method ( I have not tried it) see hotlink subject on upgrading the G-Box but use the inner (small) reset button.
4- You will lose the status led ( wont work after flashing)


Now how to flash “The One with Four USB”


1- Open screws under the little protectors after peeling them away

2- Take the bottom cover off

3- Undo more fore screws holding the PCB board

4- Take the board off ( be Careful not to damage the WLAN adaptor as its been held to outer case by antenna cable

5- When flipping the board you will see:

a. Four male connector for the slave (guest) mode USB as in the picture below (colours added to show the correct order for connecting the 4 pin USB connector)
b. A small reset button to get the device into flashing mode as in the picture below

6- You will need a USB A to 4 Pin USB like the one in the picture below ( or make your own)

7- Connect your computer to the box with the internal USB

8- Down load the firmware from:
g-box.zip
this provided by hotlink

9- Download and unpack Rockchip Flasher tool from
http://arctablet.com/assets/tools/Firmware/Rockchip_CPU_based/Rockchip_Batch_Tool_v1.4.zip?6949c1

10- Power up your box

11- Execute the flashing tool RKBatchTool.exe on your computer
On Windows Vista or Windows Seven, you will have to Right Click on the program and select Run as Administrator

12- You need to put the box in recovery mode to download the firmware to the box with Rockchip tool.

13- On the box, push the both reset buttons, release the big reset one and keep the inner (small) reset button pressed for about 5 ~ 10 seconds. Now you computer should pick on the box and trying to install the driver.

14- Install the drivers on the computer ( you will find the driver inside the unpacked Rockchip Flasher tool)

15- The flashing tool should display a green square around the number 1 in the lower left area of the Windows application. (if not disconnect the USB and reconnect)

16- Select the firmware file to flash using the button in the top right area of the application. Select the update.img file that you have downloaded.

17- Push the Upgrade button to transfer the selected firmware to the box..

18- The firmware will be copied to the Box, a progression counter will go from 0% to 100% on this step for several times, followed by a verification.
19- You are done, let the Box reboot and update itself (you can see the progress on your TV if connected). It should take a few minutes for the flash process to finish.

 

[evilzipik]

good work man =)
i think'd what 4 pin for rs232

 

[equancy]

But it's not necessary to do that or not?
Because I just put upgrade.img to SD card and device detect firmware self.

 

[Kasbert]

Thanks for this information. The upgrade from sdcard works as equancy mentioned, but I wanted to do it hard way and have a backup of the roms.

In my unit the board version is same but it is missing the yellow circled battery. I guess it is for clock. In my unit the usb connector pins are in 2mm grid and the standard for board connectors is 2.54mm, so the cable in picture won't fit without bending the pins. I made an adaptor from a usb connector (ripped from a broken usb flash memory) by cutting the end of connector wires and bending the strips of wire slighly, so the pins will fit under the wires.

 

[md22]

Hi

What version of Android?

 

[deliad]

But it's not necessary to do that or not?
Because I just put upgrade.img to SD card and device detect firmware self.

mine says
"Found a invalid firmware image file 'mnt/storage/sdcard/update.img' would you like to delete it?"

how did you successed to flash it from sdcard?

 

[alongkot]

your post make me cleary,thanks!

 

[sphp]

Thanks for the pictures of the PCB!

It seems that you can add some VGA Port (see attached picture on left down corner). Did somebody already try that?

Is it possible to get some analog Audio signal from that PCB? I have some old TFT with VGA and analog Audio (Chinch, one cable for left speaker and one for right speaker) and want to connect the TV Box to this TFT.

 

[alongkot]

My box is freeze at boot, it showing "loading..." and can't do anyting.

 

[cwolff]

My box is freeze at boot, it showing "loading..." and can't do anyting.

alongkot, did it shows:

Loading... (no space between letters)
or
L o a d i n g . . . (spaced) ?

I think you should update the boot.img through rkflashtool
You can use clamel tutorial do get a boot.img from a valid rom: rk2918 - Creazione di una Custom Rom per dispositivi (rooted) [clamel.netai.net]

 

[laziod]

Is development dead on this box? Would love to see ICS on it.

 

[ez2kal]

I see android 4 being used on this very exact box. in here: eForChina - 1080P Full HD Android OS 4.1 TV Set Top Box with WIFI, RJ45 + HDMI Interface, Support SD Card / USB Flash Disk and Remote Control (Baby Blue)

i was wondering if anyone has access to the firmware!

 

[darebux]

the link for downloading the file g-box.zip is not working...
could you please fix it?
Thanks

 

[BIGPAPI1]

theg-box.zip shows error or is deleted. can someone point a valid website to download the update.img file???

 

[BIGPAPI1]

my box is freeze at boot . the same thing happened to alongnot. it displays loading... (no space blinkin afterwards) cant really set the box to recovery mode. how can u do that?? i want to fix the boot section??? can u use the sd card method???

 

[Deadmencey]

where are the firmware???

 

[hschan]

I manage to get in to android system recovery utility mode, how to move down to factory reset option

 

[raogm2001]

hi,
my G-box midnight no display only blue light is on,
i tryed all the methods to reset by SD card & AV reset button, but no use still the same black screen(no signal).
can any one pls help me.