Bricked my WP-34S

[andrewtune]

So I built my WP-34S back in November. Bought a USB board along with crystal from Harald, installed it and flashed it and it worked perfectly first time. No drama. Very happy with myself.

After a few months of flawless service, a couple of weeks back, I got a notification that the latest version of the firmware had been released. Yep, I thought, let's upgrade!

While it's a little embarrassing, I will admit to having been distracted and tired when I sat down to re-flash my calculator, and therefore I can't say with 100% certainty exactly what I did that caused things to go wrong. Frankly, I wasn't particularly paranoid about it at the time, as I just expected it to all work. Bottom line: I've bricked it. It's (for all intents and purposes) dead.

I have at my disposal an ASUS Windows 7 notebook and a Macbook Pro running Mavericks. I have downloaded and successfully installed all the right drivers on both machines but neither machine can flash the calculator and the Apple can't even see it! In the case of the Windows box, Windows recognises the device and in device manager you can see a USB serial port (COM7) and the driver is the FTDI driver. mySamba cheerfully suggests COM7 but then says "Error: unable to connect". This is despite going through the steps B3-B9 on p. 168 of the manual a dozen times.

In the case of the Macbook Pro, wp34sflash launches but can only see my bluetooth devices and iPhone.

The batteries have been removed and checked (2.95V+ each).

It seems to me there are four possibilities: the cable, the USB board, the calculator, or drivers.

I can use the same cable to access my kindle (charge it and see content) so I figure the cable's OK.

Getting a new board from Harald or a new calculator are possibilities, but these seem unlikely to be the problem. It was all working couple of days ago. I think this is more a driver issue. Thoughts? I would be grateful for any help.

[walter b]

First of all: don't despair. I don't think you could have bricked it.

Please make sure you really RESET your calculator, and you really turn it ON. It needs some time in either case. That's especially important as long as you don't see anything on the display. Just try again, but make sure you start with a well defined state.

HTH

d:-)

[Jonathan Cameron]

You might try this slightly different flashing procedure:

1. Turn on the calculator (do not worry if it is unresponsive due to earlier flashing failures)
2. Plug in in the programming cable into the calculator and plug the USB end into the computer
3. Set up MySamba to prepare to do the download (do not press [Send File])
4. Press and hold the [On] key
5. Press and hold the ERASE button (or toggle in on in my case)
6. Press the RESET button inside the back cover of the calculator with a paper clip
7. Release the ERASE button
8. Release the calculator [On] button
9. Turn the calculator on (should not get any response)
10. Press the MySamba [Send File] button to send the flash image. After a few seconds you should see the transmit progress.
11. Disconnect the cable on both ends and exit MySamba
12. Press the reset button with a paper clip again
13. Press the calculator [On] button! It should come alive with the new flash image.
    

Notice that you hold down the [On] button during an extended part of the this procedure. I thought I had bricked my unit and had the same issues that you've encountered. When I found this procedure in http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/...977#200119 it was first time I could get the flash to work.

-Jonathan

[Didier Lachieze]

You may also try with fresh new batteries (3.2v).

[Paul Dale]

Despite thinking I've bricked the 30b a couple of times, it always came good by following the reset and reflash process. Sometimes a couple of times.


- Pauli

[andrewtune]

Well, thanks to everyone for the helpful suggestions.

I replaced the batteries with 2 brand new ones each reading 3.0V+.

I followed Jonathan's instructions to the letter. I assumed they're intended for those with a cable: I have Harald's USB board. However, I assume using the Erase button is the same as shorting the top-right and bottom left of the six pads under the reset hole. Sadly, this did not help.

I then realised that my Windows machine is now not seeing the device at all. Sheesh... it get worse! Device manager is now showing NO PORTS at all. (If I plug other USB devices in, they show up, so it looks like the problem is not at the Windows end.)

Walter: your comments about "really reset" and really turn on. I've left it a couple of seconds in each case. Is that long enough?

Any other thoughts?

[RMollov]

Not sure how much it is helpful, but I have had some of my 3 WP34s "bricked" number of times and always they could be recovered by the procedures described above by others. Difference is I use FTDI USB to serial cable AND new batteries - well, at least every time I was successful.
I have also taken both batteries out for some time and tried to "reset" the calculator sticking paper clip in the reset hole when in despare. All three work now.

[andrewtune]

I'm going to follow the suggestion about the FTDI cable (in fact, I've already ordered it). Does anyone know whether the presence of Harald's USB board will interfere with the use of the FTDI cable?

[walter b]

(03-06-2014 02:07 AM)andrewtune Wrote:  I'm going to follow the suggestion about the FTDI cable (...). Does anyone know whether the presence of Harald's USB board will interfere with the use of the FTDI cable?

Harald's USB board works just fine in my WP 34S for me, I didn't experience any problem with it so far. I've got another WP 34S without said board, and it works just fine with an FTDI cable for me.

d:-)

[andrewtune]

Well, folks, I am at the point of admitting defeat.

When I first posted this about six weeks ago I got much encouragement (thanks!) and several suggestions.

I have tried every one. I have replaced everything that could be replaced (batteries, cables, etc). I have even tried with a USB-FTDI cable as per the instructions here. Dead. As. A. Dodo.

I'm at the point of begging. Is there anyone (preferably in Australia) to whom I could send the calculator to have it re-flashed?

Please? Pretty please? I miss my WP-34S!

[Harald]

(03-22-2014 07:50 AM)andrewtune Wrote:  I'm at the point of begging. Is there anyone (preferably in Australia) to whom I could send the calculator to have it re-flashed?

Please? Pretty please? I miss my WP-34S!

Should you not find anyone in Australia you can send it to me. But I guess shipping costs might be an issue.

[Paul Dale]

I'm in Australia and I think I've still got a machine that can reprogram a 34S. It's been a long time since I reflashed one.


- Pauli

[andrewtune]

Well, it's been 8 months since the last posting on this topic so I figured I owed everyone a denouement (to use the literary term) or conclusion (for the non-literary snobs :-)

Paul Dale kindly offered me to re-flash my WP-34S if I sent it to him. I did, and he promptly returned it with a nice note saying (I'm summarising here) that it didn't seem to work and he suspected it was a hardware problem. I promptly put it back in the too-hard basket.

This weekend, finally, I decided to take a new look at it and I discovered that the connection between pin 6 on Harald's board and the top of C21 was a dry joint (in fact, had become loose). I quick resoldered it, and everything worked like a charm.

Lessons learned:

1. Proximity in time (problem occurred immediately after an upgrade) doesn't mean anything (in this case, it was a red herring);
2. Paul Dale was right.
3. My soldering is crap. Sigh.

Thanks to all.

[Paul Dale]

(08-31-2014 08:34 AM)andrewtune Wrote:  2. Paul Dale was right.
3. My soldering is crap. Sigh.

How I argue about these two . My soldering is utterly crap even though I'm right


- Pauli

[mpechner]

This process has worked for 2 new 30B.
For the heck of it I am trying to flash a 20B.

For the 30B the 115K rateand XP comparability mode works. For a 20B, is there a change in the settings that are required?

[Nigel (UK)]

(10-22-2016 04:45 AM)mpechner Wrote:  This process has worked for 2 new 30B.
For the heck of it I am trying to flash a 20B.

For the 30B the 115K rateand XP comparability mode works. For a 20B, is there a change in the settings that are required?

I've flashed a 20b successfully with no change in settings. I quite like the 20b - although there is no keyboard click, my sample of one has proved reliable! It is my WP-31s.

Nigel (UK)

[Otto55]

As far as I've read and seen the electronics of 20b and 30b are almost the same. No change in flashing parameters necessary.