OSSC Pro: Failed Firmware Update

[JAMIEvx]

Just tried to update my OSSC Pro to firmware v0.77. I put the file on my FAT32 formatted microSD card and renamed it to “ossc_pro.bin” as per the instructions. Seemed to be updating, but it never seemed to finish. After about 30 minutes I got impatient and attempted to power cycle the OSSC Pro by unplugging it and plugging it back in. Now it will not turn on at all. I don’t get a green light nor anything on the display.

Any hope of resurrecting it? I’m willing to try to re-flash the firmware via JTAG but I’ll need to get a hold of a USB JTAG programmer first as I don’t have one. With it not showing any signs of life, would that even work?

[BuckoA51]

It’s definitely worth trying a JTAG but the unit shouldn’t fail due to a firmware update so if you want to return it simply e-mail into the website and we will sort that for you.

[JAMIEvx]

I’ve ordered a USB blaster and I’ll try reflashing the firmware via the JTAG port. If that fails I’ll send off an e-mail. Thanks!

[BoldFusion]

Same thing happened to me. It’s been stuck on the “Updating. Please wait…” screen for 20 minutes now. I’m just going to let it sit and hope it finishes. I’m afraid to turn it off.

*UPDATE* It’s been two hours now and it still says it’s updating.

• This reply was modified 4 days, 1 hour ago by BoldFusion.

[Morpheus_79]

I’ve ordered a USB blaster and I’ll try reflashing the firmware via the JTAG port. If that fails I’ll send off an e-mail. Thanks!

Please be aware, that (aside from the very expensive original Intel/Altera USB blaster) a lot of cheap USB blaster clones are out there. Some work better than others – depending on the combination of driver version, Quartus Prime version and OS. I’ve found those two blog posts to be an intereresting read about that:

Fixing a knockoff Altera USB Blaster that never worked

Fixing more cheap Altera USB Blaster clones: CPLD adventures

[ケイ | Cae]

I’ve been unable to get the update to work as well, but for me it almost immediately gives me a message saying it failed with a -9 in parenthesis.

[marqs]

@JAMIEvx @BoldFusion When have you bought the board and do you remember which fw version was installed when you initiated the update? Did you start the update from test pattern or an active input? We may need to get one of these failing boards for return analysis and try to replicate the failure.

Regarding Error 9, that is listed in wiki: “Error -9: CRC error while checking the data copied to DRAM. Change to test pattern or restart the device, and try again.”.

[Zacabeb]

I too had problems with the update initially not installing but the OSSC Pro getting stuck. After power cycling it functioned as normal however and I was able to upgrade the firmware from 0.76 to 0.77 without it taking very long at all (half a minute or so.)

[JAMIEvx]

@JAMIEvx @BoldFusion When have you bought the board and do you remember which fw version was installed when you initiated the update? Did you start the update from test pattern or an active input? We may need to get one of these failing boards for return analysis and try to replicate the failure.

@marqs I believe it originally had 0.75 on it when I received it. I had successfully upgraded it to 0.76 shortly after receiving it. When it failed I was trying to upgrade from 0.76 to 0.77. There was no input active when I attempted to update to 0.77.

[BoldFusion]

@marqs I purchased the OSSC Pro in March 2024. I had never updated the firmware so it still had the stock firmware version on it. I had recently bought the Legacy AV expansion board so I needed to at least update to 0.75, but when I saw that 0.77 was available I decided to try that. The expansion board was installed while attempting to update. I also had no active input when updating.

Something I noticed when updating was when the update first started, I still had HDMI signal. After about a minute the HDMI signal dropped out like it was rebooting, but this is when progress seemed to stop. I ended up letting it sit for six hours on the “Please wait…” screen and it never finished updating. I tried removing the miniSD card and the expansion board but that didn’t help. I had no choice but to unplug it and now it too doesn’t power on anymore.

 

[JAMIEvx]

I had recently bought the Legacy AV expansion board so I needed to at least update to 0.75, but when I saw that 0.77 was available I decided to try that. The expansion board was installed while attempting to update. I also had no active input when updating.

Possibly worth noting that I also had the legacy AV expansion board plugged in when it failed while attempting to update from 0.76 to 0.77.

EDIT: I also had the legacy AV expansion board plugged in when I successfully updated from 0.75 to 0.76.

• This reply was modified 3 days, 8 hours ago by JAMIEvx.

[ケイ | Cae]

I’ve tried restarting the device a number of times (already on the test pattern) and it still gives me the same error.

Edit: Finally got it to update after putting it on a hard surface instead of carpet and leaving it unplugged for a little while.

• This reply was modified 3 days, 1 hour ago by ケイ | Cae.

[marqs]

@Cae are you able to try another SD card? For some reason the image is corrupted after it has been transferred to DRAM.

[JAMIEvx]

Got the USB Blaster this morning so I gave it a go. I got firmware version 0.76 working, but 0.77 will not work.

Here’s the process I tried:

• Disconnected everything from the OSSC Pro except for power and the USB Blaster (all AV inputs disconnected from the device, removed the Legacy AV expansion board)
• Flashed version 0.70 to the OSSC Pro using the .jic file from GitHub. This appears to have been successful. The unit booted up and was running with 0.70.
• Attempted to update to version 0.77 via the mciroSD card. This was, again, not successful. Same thing as before. Would never complete the update, and all LEDs and the display were off/blank.
• Flashed version 0.70 once again using the USB Blaster.
• Successfully updated to 0.76 using the microSD card.
• Successfully loaded my saved profile from the microSD card.
• Reconnected AV inputs and the Legacy AV Expansion Board.
• Everything appears to be working now as it was before I originally tried to update to 0.77 last week.

So, it appears 0.76 works but 0.77 doesn’t.

[marqs]

@JAMIEvx interesting, it looks like that either a) both 0.70 and 0.76 are unable to update to 0.77 or b) update completes as expected but 0.77 does not boot on your board. I just added a .jic version of 0.77 on github – can you try flashing it via USB Blaster to see if that results to inability to boot as well?

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