HOW TO RECOVER/EDIT/BACKUP FIRMWARE OF PMP PLAYER SUNPLUS SPMP3050A
By : Neno Molina -
http://www.vm2informatica.com.br - Brazil
nenomolina_at_vm2informatica_dot_com_dot_br
His company works whit a lot of types of PMP, MP3, Ipods, and he do some miracles, like this case.
***** Let's Begin!!!! *****
All the tools mentioned in this article are in my personal folder, at
www.4shared.com:
http://pmp-sunplus-recover.4shared.com/
At first, I have to say 2 things:
1) Sorry for my poor english
2) This procedure is for everyone who lost their PMP Firmware, want to backup their firmware or edit. Don't try to update if your device is working fine. I'm not responsible for what could happen whit it. I've recovered this type of PMP, maybe will work for your too.
Well, let's do it!
You will need :
FRM Pro
ISP 5.2 (to update the firmware, if it's necessary)
VDK (To open and edit AIMG):
Firmware Files
Drivers
For 3 days, I've tried to find the right firmware for this device:
http://img111.imageshack.us/my.php?i...2081730qa6.jpg
And what I could find it's a lot of compatible firmwares, AIMG, BIMG, with and without Radio, NES Emulation, etc. So, I've decide to make a "Frankenstein's Firmware", putting togheter all the firmwares, images disassemblys, crashes on Windows, trash, cigarretes, and a lot of junk :P At the end, I've upgrade the firmware with this file: and I saw the light.
First Step :
Install the drivers, FRM, and ISPBe sure that your device could be identified by Windows, in this case:
- Press and hold A + OK buttons togheter (Maybe in your device, could be others combinations)
- Plug the USB Cable holding A + OK
If you hear tha classic sound of plugged USB Device in Windows, and starts to install the drivers, you're lucky!!!
Second Step :
After the device is recognized by Windows, You can open the FRM application, and try to recover some parts of the firmware:
- Create a folder to work with the FRM, on C:\ (Example : C:\FRM)
- Open the FRM app, go to ADVANCED tab
- Click with the right button on the RSV, and next on the "Set Working Folder" (Example : C:\FRM)
- Right Click on A Icon, and select "Get A Image". Wait until finish.
- Right Click on B Icon, and select "Get B Image". Wait until finish.
- Right Click on Firmware Icon, and select "Get". Wait until finish.
At this time, you'll have 3 archives on the C:\FRM directory :
- AIMG : FAT Image of the applications and the whole system of the PMP device, included the SPMP3050A.BIN (inside the AIMG, you will see at the next steps), the driver for the SPMP3050A, i don't know if changing this archive will make the firmware work in other tipes of SPMP30XXX devices.
- BIMG : FAT Disk Image, whit one archive inside, I don't know yet what is it for =P
- DefaultFw.bin : the firmware image itself, it can change from one device to another.
If for some reason you get errors, the firmware and images are corrupted. This device that I've fixed have this 3 archives on the memory, and AIMG have 51MB, but when I open it with the VDK, have less tha 7MB of files, it's a signal of corruption on this image.
Well done. This next steps it's for someone whos want to edit your firmware too =D
Third Step : VDK and editing disk image.
To make it easy, unpack the vdk on the directory c:\FRM
As I said, the VDK it's an app that open disk image files. In Linux, You can open it whit
this commands (as root):
mount -t auto -o loop /home/user/AIMG /mnt/test
(Just an example)
In Windows, You have to go into directory that you saved those 3 image files, and mount AIMG as a disk into My Computer:
cd c:\FRM\vdk32-050406
vdk start
- To start the service
vdk open 0 C:\FRM\AIMG /RW
- to open the AIMG file
vdk link 0 0 Z
- This will make the AIMG mounted on My Computer as Local Disk (Z
You will see inside the Z: disk all the files that your PMP uses, as applications, translation files, Fonts, Icons and Images. Remember that this disk content can be edited, but have a limit of the size of the AIMG file. Maybe you can't include a lot of files, just edit.
Make the changes that you want. If you want to to create a new AIMG, You have to copy all those files into a new directory, creating the A directory on C:\FRM.
Next, you'll see how to create a new AIMG without limits of size.
Fourth Step : Creating a new AIMG file with FRM
Well, you see how to open the AIMG, but now, you want to include more images, or the system is complainig that the Z: have no disk space.
That's simple : create a new AIMG file!!!
- Go to FRM > Advanced
- If you have created the A directory inside C:\FRM, it will show at your interface. Click whit the right button on the left-panel A icon and next in "Create A Image". This will create a new C:\FRM\AIMG, whit the contents of A directory:
- When you click on "Create A Image", a new window will appear. Mark on the box "Enable Detect", next in "Detect blk size", to create an FAT image consistent with the number of blocks in the NAND memory inside the PMP, next in "Save blk size" and OK to start creating.
After this, follow the next step...
Fitfth Step : Uploading the firmware to PMP
Upload the firmware its simple:
- On FRM app, click on BASIC tab, select : Program All - Disk Img mode - Read Verify
- Click on ISP (the device should be connected at this time, sure)
- Click on Log Window button. A new window will open, to show the results. If fails, maybe the DefaultFw.bin maybe corrupted or the AIMG do not contains the SPMP3050A.bin file inside it. Try to recover the AIMG form the beginning steps, and put the driver file inside the C:\FRM\A\ directory.
There is some pics of the functional PMP:
http://img111.imageshack.us/my.php?i...2081730qa6.jpg
http://img115.imageshack.us/my.php?i...2081731hk0.jpg
http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?i...2081732to3.jpg
http://img218.imageshack.us/my.php?i...2081733vg6.jpg
P.S. : some features of this PMP isn't functional after this, the DV crashes and the NES roms isn't work, so I download one file : pmp400_firmware_ver07.zip from my personal folder, and using the ISP 5.2 to upgrade the firmware, after this, everythings works fine, included the NES Emulator, as you all can see on the pictures.
In the ISP :
- Select NORMAL and NAND
- Click on ISP, and select the unzipped firmware
- Let the program update it
As I said, everything works fine!!!
Thanks everyone, and I hope that this little HOW-TO help a lot of people to recover their PMP Sunplus.
OBS. : The complete firmware for this device is inside my personal folder, at 4shared.com:
http://pmp-sunplus-recover.4shared.com/
If you want to test it, its at your own risk. Update it with the file mentioned above
Thanks again to Neno, from Brazil!!!