I bricked my Flipper!

Firmware update / qFlipper
#1

Greetings all,
I am no longer able to connect my device to qFlipper after holding left and back for 30 seconds while USB is disconnected. My Flipper arrived last Thursday and I was able to flash the stock firmware and a few different ones from 3rd parties.

Before this happened, I flashed a version from QuenOn < quen0n/flipperzero-firmware-rgb: Flipper Zero firmware source code with RGB-backlight mode (github.com)> and it didn’t play nicely with the stock apps. I then re-build the stock firmware from the release branch and uploaded via: fbt flash_usb command and received this message: “2024-04-21 10:31:52,569 [ERROR] Failed to find connected Flipper
2024-04-21 10:31:52,570 [ERROR] Failed to guess which port to use”

If I hold the left and back and release the left while holding the back key, the front LED will flash white for a second but nothing else happens so there is something working but stuck in a bad state or some NV memory is corrupted.

Is there a way to do a “hard reset” by disconnecting the internal battery? Or cycling the internal battery with a jumper enabled?

I do own a JTAG programmer as well. It’s an old Segger J-Flash and a really old BDI JTAG if that can help.

Any advice or help would greatly be appreciated.

#2

If the led still flashes it should be able to go into DFU and you could use qFlipper to repair it, after try other FW again.

If FW install’s keep failing, extract the tgz on the SD in the update folder, in the root of the SD and try that again, it will prolly just recover and finish update after.

1 Like
#3

Try rebooting with SD card unplugged. My Flipper reacts similarly when something goes wrong and SD fails. Then reboot without SD brings it to life and inserting the card back a few times makes it work again.

#4

The 1st step never makes it boot into DFU mode. The LCD remains blank and there is no response from the serial connection and the UI. Copying the tgz on to the update folder of the SD card does not work either.

#5

I tried this as well with no luck either. I tried to reboot with and without the SD card and even re-formatted it just to see if that was hanging up the boot. In the past if there was something wrong with the SD card, you would see it after the initial boot sequence and there will be something on the LCD and logs

#6

@Sir_Fap_A_Lot @maqumih, I figured out what I did wrong! On the document there’s a 3rd step where you hold the “OK” button and the “BACK” for 30 seconds to pull it put of a bad boot mode or lockup. Since the earlier step was “LEFT” and “BACK”, I somehow missed the “OK” button instead of “LEFT”. This along with the LCD will remain blank was the key. The internal UART connection became active and I was able to repair the firmware with the qFlipper app running and the USB unplugged until after the 30 second hold.

It helps to pay to attention to details. I was so flustered I thought I broke my brand new favorite toy, I missed the details in the documentation.

Thanks for your responses and help!