How To: Enabling File Browser
 

Before you begin to perform this guide on merging firmwares to enable the file browser, i would like to express no responsibility whatsoever should this procedure fail, and kills your player. Do this only at your own risk!
This is not a 100% guaranteed guide to file-browser enabling. I performed this on my player on the risk of killing it, but succeeded.
My player is a nano-clone running off an ATJ2085W and original firmware version 3.5.37.

You will agree to accept full responsibility should you proceed with the procedures as outlined within this thread.

Credits for this procedure:

• loverboy1981 from S1mp3.org Forum - Instructions on how to update your firmware to 3.5.37 Here
• ROLLEYFLEX - Merging Firmware Here

Before you begin on the firmware merging, you should do the following:

• Backup your original working firmware. The guide is Here.
• Download and install EasyFW 3.7 Here.
• Download and install any version of MP3 Utilities. You will only need the Upgrade Tool.
• Download and save loverboy1981's original firmware Here.

Step 1
Using EasyFW, load your own original backup firmware.
You will see something like this.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1166/01dh9.th.png

Record down the various settings like Contrast, Standby-time, etc. Or simply do a screenshot to save time.

Now, leaving the EasyFW program running, go to
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temp\
Depending on the Windows profile you are using, the user in bold would be the profile you have logged into Windows with.

Once in the .\Temp folder, look for a folder named ACT.
Now rename this ACT folder to another name, in this case, i used Original.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/8936/02cw9.png

Now close the EasyFW program, and you will notice that the Original folder that you have renamed is still in the directory.


Step 2
Now, open EasyFW again and load loverboy1981's original firmware as mentioned above.
In the same directory that you have renamed the Original folder, you will now see the ACT folder re-appearing again. If it does not appear, click Refresh or press F5.

Go to the Original folder, located at
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temp\Original\
and you should see 2 files named BRECF641.BIN and SYSINFO.BIN.
Should you not see both of these 2 files, stop this procedure and do not continue as your player's firmware might be different.
Select these 2 files and click on Copy.

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/5007/03rg8.png

Now go to the ACT folder, located at
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temp\ACT\
and replace these 2 files by Pasting into there.

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/731/04hz1.png


Step 3
Go to the Original folder again, this time go into the FW sub-folder.
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temp\Original\FW\
Now you will need to Copy the following files, a total of 14 files.
SD_FF321.DRV
SD_FF641.DRV
SD_FF644.DRV
SYSINFO.BIN
UD_FF321.DRV
UD_FF641.DRV
UD_FF644.DRV
UD_SDMMC.DRV
UD_SF321.DRV
UD_SF641.DRV
UD_SF644.DRV
UI_6B33L.DRV
UI_6B33S.DRV
UI_6B33T.DRV

Again, should you not see all of these 14 files, stop this procedure and do not continue as your player's firmware might be different.

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/3852/05yg6.png

Now go to the ACT folder, and into the FW subfolder.
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temp\ACT\FW\
and replace these 14 files using the Paste function, same as Step2.


Step 4
When all the file replacing has been done, go back to the EasyFW program.
Now you will need to set back the settings that you have recorded in Step1.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/8769/06vq9.th.png

Once done, click on Create Firmware to save the new firmware file that you have merged together. i have saved my new firmware file as new_dump3.bin, you can use any name you like, just remember which file it is.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1451/07wj2.th.png


Step 5
Now comes the fun part.
Open the familiar MP3 Utilities Upgrade Tool, and let it detect your player.
Select the new firmware that you have saved in Step4 as the new firmware to upload.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/8259/08py6.png

Now click on the Begin Upgrading button, and let the program do its work.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/6349/09rw8.png


Step 6
Let the player restart by itself. You will notice that the hourglass would appear.
The player would also disconnect and reconnect to your computer. And in some cases, would be detected as a new USB device. Just leave it alone and let it detect and install.


Step 7
The moment of truth!
If the firmware merge works successfully, you will be able to see the charging screen on the player.
Safely remove the player and go to the Music menu and check if the file browser is now there.
Now you have a file-browser enabled player! :D


Additional Notes
Check for the other functions of the player that you used to have, and that they actually work.
AMV Player, Radio (if you had it), Games (probably you will have additional now), Picture viewer, Sound Recorder, etc.

I experienced player restarts when i tried to play .amv files.
The problem was solved by Copying the AMVDEC.AP and AMVDEC.DSP files from the .\Original\FW folder and replacing them into the .\ACT\FW folder. Then proceeding on from Step4 onwards.

If the player now has lesser functions as before, just use the Waterlily program to load the firmware file that you have created. And enabling the other missing functions. Then Download into your player.

Now that all these has been done, you are now left with theming your player to your liking. A note, do not try copying the UI30.res from the Original to the ACT folder, your player would end up with a blue/black screen.

Feel free to post/reply and questions that you may have.

Nice work "lattesurf" thankyou and congrats on passing all your exams. :)

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

No worries! Hopefully it would be useful to someone wanting to try something adventurous on their players.

Great work lattesurf.

I will try this out shortly to see how it goes.

I'd like to try it, but since I've installed the wrong firmware on my previous player and made it dead, I'm not going to change firmware anymore :P

But I can really use a file browsing function, so maybe...

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

:D well uhm i want to try it...but im afraid to use it because I THINK your player will be dead becuause you are using wrong firmware....it will probely say in the upgrade tool wrong firmware and it will brick....but i have almost brickt my mp4 ....in the upgrade tool :Dit said wrong firmware and my mp4 was hanging:Dbut i reboot it and it was all ok!!
lucky me ....but other people has tried it please tell.... :roll: so that i can use it to...

got a questions

suppose i do this process and it is unsuccessfull and my player dies...

can i then reupload my old firmware and it will work again or will it be dead forever..

thanks a lot lattesurf.

i am gonna give this a try on my old player. no problem if it dies, my new one is on its way :)

wuzzupnshiat , technically speaking it should be able to recover if you have a backup dump file. As the files that are swapped in this guide are from the dump, not the full version.

However, i've not experienced it before so i'm not sure if it is 100% guaranteed to recover even if you have a backup.

hey lattesurf

here's the info on my player...

ACTS16d_37
2006/04/14

3.5.37-001
2006/4/14

so if I use your firmware, will it work or will it make it die..

and do you have any pictures of the file browsing to see if it's worth my time to try...

thanks a lot.

wuzzupnshiat , i have no idea whether your firmware will work or not. As i've mentioned, it is a trial and error guide. So simply it is a 50/50 gamble.

i'll try to get a picture of the file browsing screen shot as soon as possible.

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

Ok as requested, i've got a snap shot of the file browser.
Do excuse me as i could not get a clear picture of the screen, i tried both with a digital camera (3MP) and a mobile phone camera (1.3MP), and this is the best i could get as i needed the camera to be very close to the screen due to the small screen size.

http://img465.imageshack.us/img465/5670/fileselhn4.jpg
This is the menu shot, the first line is the Local Folder, and the second is the File Select.

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/50/filesel2td1.jpg
Now this shot shows the individual files in the folder. The names would be the same as the names that are scrolling in the player whilst the music is playing.

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

Hi Lattesurf.

I did try your step by step guide and it didnt work. Luckily for me though i was able to restore the original firmware without any problems. Im thinking the reason why it didnt work is prehaps your music player is a Mp4? and this firmware is not compatable with a mp3 device. Just to breifly describe my Mp3 player, it's a Laser Multimedia Video Player (MVP) and as far as i know can only be sold in Australia. It's definitly a Nano Clone however. My firmware is a Wilson.Co 3.5.37 firmware.

So the basic question is can you use a Mp4 firmware for a Mp3 device with similar characteristics ie nano clone...

Thanks in advance

Crimson_Phoenix , basically your firmware version 3.5.37 indicates that it is the general common nano-clones/chi-pods. The casings/names are just manufacturer's mod to sell it better.

Also, my player only plays mp3 format, does not play .mp4, i don't know why they market these players as mp4 players. Maybe again to sell it better.

After you've copied the 2 sets of files in and flashed into your player, what did your player show?

hey so when it didn't work...what did you do, just re-upload your old firmware back into your device and made it work or did you have to do more to make it work.

the reason i want to know is because i really want to try this but also i don't want to damage my player.

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

Well it's really hard for me to describe and i dont have a camera with high enough resolution to show you, but i might try if you want me too. Basically what happened was that the interface was completely different. I usually have a nice blue interface, but when i uploaded the new firmware it suddenly went green and words were all out of place (this is the music menu). I also then noticed the backlight was extreemly low. In the program Easy FW, i couldnt change some of my settings back to normal. Such as the standby time. For some odd reason it will only go up to 31, when i needed it at 120.

So to sum it up, my mp3 had a new music player interface with all the words out of place. When i mean words i mean song title, and when i went to check whether i could see my mp3 files it was all blured. The back light wasnt that strong, it was more of a dull grey light.

Yes, my computer still read a device in the computer so i quickly just reinstalled my original firmware.

Writing this wants me to try it again. I'll get back to you with images if i can.

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

Ok im sorry for the double post.

I re did the firmware today and a few things changed. The music interface is no longer green. it's blue. Also the only really thing wrong with the music menu is that all text such as the song title and all the menu options are only half written. What i really mean is that only the top half of all letters can be red. the bottom half of those letters are missing.

Another thing is that im missing my E-book menu and the games menu.

The back light is really bad as well. If i look at my Mp3 player at different angles, you cant see the screen at all.

The really positive note is that the music selection thing works. I can select the music i want to listen to, however the problem is that i cant always pick the correct song to listen to as the letters only half appear. I tried to get pictures, but like i said they arnt really that visable.

If you have any suggestions that could make my backlight working properly and that my letters appear correctly that would really be appreciated.

Crimson_Phoenix , when you say the interface is blue and green, what do you mean by that? Did the player display full blue or green screen? Or did it have a blue-ish or greenish shade?

I kind of recall the text being cut into half thing. I'll look up for that thread and keep you posted.

*edit* regarding the missing e-book and games , you can try enabling them through waterlily. Use the newly created firmware to load into waterlily to do this.

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

When i meant interface i was referring to the music players skin. Dont worry about that though everythings ok with that.

The only thing thats really concerning me is the backlight. Most of the time the light it emmits is a dull light. I tried to increase the brightness even beyond it's normal range and it still does this really dull colour. Another thing concerning me is the Cut Text.

I've been so caught up in this File Enabling business that i almost forgot to thank you for what you've been doing. I really appreciate your help. So again thankyou.

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

My Mp3 working great now!!!

I fixed my Backlight using Easy FW by changing the contrast to 50. My text issue i fixed by replacing all the simplified chinese text using S1res. The only issue i have now is with my File Browsing option... See it's really annoying when you only can read the band name... not much help if you want the title...

Crimson_Phoenix , great to hear that you solved the problems! i was looking for that thread which someone had the same half-cut text problem sometime ago.

But anyway, is the filename only limited to the first few characters? What do you mean by reading only the band name?

hey lattesurf

i was just trying the above steps

and when i went to the ORIGINAL folder i don't see a SYSINFO.BIN, but i do see a SYSINFO.BIN when i go to original then FW.

are they the same SYSINFO or not.

and should i keep on proceeding or stop.

wuzzupnshiat , the 2 SYSINFO.BIN are different files. The one in the Original folder is about 192bytes, while the other one in the FW folder is about 512bytes.

Perhaps you could try reloading your original firmware again, rename it, then see if the SYSINFO.BIN is both .\Original\ and as well .\Original\FW\

If these files are missing, i'll suggest to stop the procedure.

However, i would think that it might be alright to continue. As these files are your own original, and you are copying them to the new firmware.
So if your original firmware does not contain them, most likely the new firmware would not need them.

But again, it's your call to decide whether to risk it or not. Good Luck. :D

hey does it also matter that my player is 1.8" screen and i think the other firmware is from a 1.5".

i'm thinking that there are many differences between the 1.8" and the 1.5" screens.

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

Well yes. When i go into the file browse option the file moves (right to left off the screen) but only reveals the first 11-12 characters. So if im looking for bands with more then that many characters (Which alot of them do) it's really difficult if i cant see what song i want to listen to.

It also turns out that it isnt so great. whenever i try to load a movie/pic the screen suddenly turns blue... i do however remember a topic that had this issue so im going to go look for it and hopefully find a fix. :D

wuzzupnshiat , i'm not sure of between the difference of the 1.5" and 1.8". No one posted anything regarding merging firmwares for the 1.8".

It's a tricky situation, and i guess again that it is upto you to decide whether to continue or not.

However, if you do have a backup of your original firmware and accidentally killed your player, there is still a chance for your player to be recovered.

Crimson_Phoenix , regarding the movie part, load the newly created firmware in EasyFW.
Next, copy the AMVDEC.AP and AMVDEC.DSP from the Original\FW folder (which you had renamed previously) to the current ACT\FW folder.

And for the Picture part, do the same thing, but copy VIEWPIC.AP from your Original\FW instead.

When done, save the new firmware, and reflash back into your player.

i had the same problem with the amv player, and it was mentioned in the last part of the guide.
But anyway, i'll keep a lookout regarding the filename thing.

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

Thanks for the info, but it didnt help :(

I did what you said and reflashed it back onto my Mp3 and then when i went to the AMV, the system restarted. As did the Picture Veiwer.

By the way. Does your filename thing reveal the artist, title and album or just the firt 11-12 letters?

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

Hi Lattesurf

This is farfetched but i dont suppose you could upload your AMVDEC.DSP, AMVDEC.AP and VIEWPIC.AP?

Do you think if i upload those into my modded firmware it could enable the pic veiwer and video player?

Cheers

Crimson_Phoenix , i would have no idea on whether it'll work by swapping these 3 files. But however, if you had a backup of your original firmware, it should not be much of a matter.

Here the link for these 3 files of mine http://www.savefile.com/files/394635

And regarding the filename thing, i'm able to view the full filename that the file was named.

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

Thanks but it didnt work as i expected. im thinking the reason that this firmware doesnt work is because it's incompatable to my hardware. I actually found my player on wikipedia and im starting to think it's different from a nano clone and thats why the firmware wont work. here's the link

My player: http://wiki.s1mp3.org/images/f/f7/Inovix_iMP_5500.jpg

bye.

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

yo crimson, can i ask where you got that theme from?

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

That mp3 you see is something i found off wikipedia. It's not exactly mine. however it's the same model, and i just wanted to know how much more different this is from a nano clone.

However the theme on this mp3 player is the same as mine, and it came with the original firmware. I didnt really like it so i've already changed it. I still have the original though...

anyone hope that answers it.

Re: How To: Enabling File Browser
 

Alright, excellent tutorial on how to add file browsing. i have the N05-02GD 1.8" 2GB 160x120 (auto sideways) with speaker MP4 player (http://www.mympxplayer.org/album_showpage.php?pic_id=73)

I was curious on trying to activate the file browsing option on it, as the menus looked completely the same, only in a 1.5" size. I tried, and successfully added the option...

HOWEVER: of course, using a 1.5" player firmware, my screen was now that of a 1.5" size, all buttons working perfectly, all features working correctly, and seemingly faster, at a smaller screen size, all this risking killing my player completely. (Brave move, huh :P ) My question is, would it be possible for me to a) Activate this option on a 1.8" size, b) Have all buttons working correctly (remapped or not) and c) Be able to keep my modded menu theme and player skin, all custom, by myself. Does anyone know what each firmware file that is overwrote in the ACT folder do?, or maybe are there extra files from my "Original" folder that I could also move over to the ACT folder to make this option accessible. Maybe someone with a firmware from another player that HAS this option AND a 1.8" screen could send that my way, and I could try the same method on a larger screen. I'm very curious on getting this to work correctly, and have now reloaded my old firmware until I can figure this out. Thanks!