Problem with WD Marvel Demo

[Peter_M]

Many Thanks for your help. On me Terminal now access, i can write and all work.
I must solder R40 and unpopulated above him, both are 10Kohm, connecions your picture are the same with my PCB, but resistors are arranged differently and some are not described.
Did you trying run your PCB with External ROM?
Theoretically You must solder R74 and write your ROM.
MY ROM file are is correct, and have 192KB.
Actually I trying to run PCB with Extrenal ROM, and here is actual sytuation:

[Severence]

Awesome, well done, I'm glad you were able to get terminal access. Keep me posted if your able to figure out any cmds etc or software which is compatible in this mode as i didn't have much luck.

It'd be great is some of the pros lurking could chime in at this point... as i don't have a clue what I'm on about

As for running my board from external ROM... i don't know, I'm unsure what the default bootmode is on my board.. was it originally exclusive external, or ext parallelled with main MCU flash, or was it an exclusive MCU flash rom. would be nice if WDMarvel and other software told us these things...if they even can?

your saying R74 enables external rom? I cant remember if i tried R74 independently but i definitely did try R74 > 10k & R75 > GND with my Ext-Rom pre programmed with a valid rom dump - result was the same as my previously mentioned "kernel mode" in which the drive would respond to reset commands via SATA PIO but i couldn't seem to do much more than that - perhaps if the board is properly utilising internal or external Rom you'd get detection in this mode but i didn't have much luck.

Your screen cap of Wdmarvel shows exactly the same behaviour i have with my drive - like it's not even connected.

try this

semi detect... i don't know name mode
JTP36 > 22K >3V3
JTP20 > short > GND
TP-E61 > short > 3V3

And let me know your results, as i said earlier though you can only use one "mode" at a time, so you'll have to remove the terminal mode config resistors you just installed etc and most likely need to keep the resistors R40, and the one above that you installed in place.

[Peter_M]

Awesome, well done, I'm glad you were able to get terminal access. Keep me posted if your able to figure out any cmds etc or software which is compatible in this mode as i didn't have much luck.

It'd be great is some of the pros lurking could chime in at this point... as i don't have a clue what I'm on about

Yeah Hehe

your saying R74 enables external rom? I cant remember if i tried R74 independently but i definitely did try R74 > 10k & R75 > GND with my Ext-Rom pre programmed with a valid rom dump - result was the same as my previously mentioned "kernel mode" in which the drive would respond to reset commands via SATA PIO but i couldn't seem to do much more than that - perhaps if the board is properly utilising internal or external Rom you'd get detection in this mode but i didn't have much luck.

Yes, because, all materials about CPU 88i8945 they say that solder R74 ->22K to 3,3V
And this supposedly allows you to launch an external Flash.

try this

semi detect... i don't know name mode
JTP36 > 22K >3V3
JTP20 > short > GND
TP-E61 > short > 3V3

And let me know your results, as i said earlier though you can only use one "mode" at a time, so you'll have to remove the terminal mode config resistors you just installed etc and most likely need to keep the resistors R40, and the one above that you installed in place.

Well, I checked your suggestion, and result is the same like your. Semi detect, and read from external ROM chip = 16MB file, and CPU also not execute read from External ROM.

[Severence]

hmmm, ok i'll give R74 a try on it's own and see if i get any results, have you tried it since installing R40 and the pads above?

Can you tell me which MCU pins R40 and the unpopulated above go to on your board? and i'll cross reference with my board and update my image to reflect these values - just for reference and to help anybody out in future - as these resistors do seem to be required to enable the previously mentioned modes.

It's good that the "modes" at the very least are repeatable with the same MCU and pin numbers even on different board models - if we can work out whats going on - then the solution would not only be compatiable with our drives but many which use the same or similar chipset.

The 16MB file size is an interesting one, i wonder is this is is unpartitioned flash space on the MCU or maybe it's half the cache size... or maybe it's just WDMarvels dump size limitation.... be interested to know which exactly.

Peter i may open a thread over at hddoracle with all this info, as the forum seems allot more active (at least for native english speakers) and hopefully someone there might understand whats going on. i think part of the problem here is that we are in the free section of this forum - and the guys in the know don't want to share thier knowledge for free... don't understand this logic myself as i think the more open and free the info is the better you can utilise and validate paid software such as WDMarvel (and others) just my 2pence

[Peter_M]

hmmm, ok i'll give R74 a try on it's own and see if i get any results, have you tried it since installing R40 and the pads above?

Yes, But result is the same CPU not execute On External Flash.
On My PCB R40 going to 44pin CPU and acctually is soldered and have 22Kohm.

Can you tell me which MCU pins R40 and the unpopulated above go to on your board?

Yes R40 on my PCB is unpopulated. Sure I'll make on a papier Schematic CPU

Peter i may open a thread over at hddoracle with all this info, as the forum seems allot more active (at least for native english speakers) and hopefully someone there might understand whats going on.

Link, please. Vlad and all team, good to know stuff, but do not have the tools to examine various options.

[Severence]

thread is at this link http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1983

i'll add the updated info which has been gleamed here later on. and update my img etc

Also, i completely understand WDMarvels devs not providing info in relation to hardware and nor would i expect them to - as there are far to many models and variations. My point is, over the course of this thread many questions have been raised in direct relation to the WDMarvel software - none of which have received an answer. For example, why did my flash rom - dumped with wdmarvel not include data relative to module 0A, 0B etc but the Sediv trial did?, why didn't WDMarvel backup indavidual Rom modules but sediv did? the reason these questions are important is because i flashed my drives rom using WDMarvels incomplete (unknowingly at the time) rom dump when the drive was in a ready state - after which my drive is in the condition explained prior - I think it's important to have an open dialogue here to prevent the next 10.... 20 guys from accidently doing the same thing.

But i'm not at all familiar in this area and could be completely wrong - the rom dumps made with wdmarvel could be completely valid for other reasons.... but i won't know until a pro puts me in my place

[Vlad]

why did my flash rom - dumped with wdmarvel not include data relative to module 0A, 0B etc but the Sediv trial did?, why didn't WDMarvel backup indavidual Rom modules but sediv did

You always can download demo and read rom
All rom modules will be in dump
Individual rom modules also can be dumped by demo
I think, instead to dump rom, you used old free version to create image of rom from copies in SA
If your drive have empty copies of the rom modules, result will be empty image of rom...
Problem not in program

[Severence]

Hello Vlad. are you the developer of the program?

I used the most recent demo to read and dump the rom originally using the "Read Flash" button (multiple times) i think i took approx 7 dumps - all of which were identical in terms of content & size but checking all manually in a hex editor all were missing data relevant to module 0A, 0B etc... i then used the sediv trial and dumped (it dumped automatically) about 3 Rom files, all files match but unlike WDMarvel when checking in a hex editor contain the data from mod 0A, 0B etc, following that i tried several other tools including WDR Pro tool which produced identical results to WDMarvel - again missing mod 0A, 0B etc as well as not dumping any indavidual rom modules.

I also used the paid version of wdmarvel a fair while after this, and the results were the same, if you'd like i can provide the dumps taken with WDMarvel and Sediv for comparison - is there some sort of encryption on the raw data which sediv is correctly decrypting which wdmarvel is not?

In any event, i think a good feature to implement is an auto data integrity check on flash roms when dumped to ensure the integrity of data pertaining to mod 0A, 0B etc if it's blank in these areas or has incorrect length - it should be flagged and failed by the integrity check and the resulting dumped file should be named accordingly - maybe "incomplete"

I also think individual & separate modules - 0A, 0B, 0D etc should be dumped automatically when performing flash read operations.

Also following this, based on my "semi detect mode" i get an error "invalid buffer size" when attempting to load an overlay, do you know the reason for this error? i was under the impression that the overlay modules 11 etc defined the drives parameters - including the buffer size, am i wrong on this front?

Btw multiple messages being output in the log are strings of ???? or gibberish text with no meaning, i don't have the Russian language pack installed on my xp machine which i think is the primary issue... regardless it's really frustrating not being able able to read all log output messages in English - if you want, send me the logs output strings in a rich text document I'll translate them with google and make them grammatically correct in English for you, the same goes for other areas with text... one that springs to mind is "There is work" - which is grammatically incorrect and should probably read "Working, please wait"

[Vlad]

Yes, I am developer
At first, WD drives have 3 commands for rom:
read rom
write rom
erase rom
No command read rom without modules, so this

I used the most recent demo to read and dump the rom originally using the "Read Flash" button (multiple times) i think i took approx 7 dumps - all of which were identical in terms of content & size but checking all manually in a hex editor all were missing data relevant to module 0A, 0B etc... "

can not be truth

i think a good feature to implement is an auto data integrity check on flash roms

Absolutely useless idea, because again, no command read rom without modules

is there some sort of encryption on the raw data

No matter, you read encrypted image, then write encrypted image, nothing was changes in rom
And even more
I write empty roms without modules in PCB almost every day, because this is part of ARCO process, and all PCBs work after this operation

separate modules - 0A, 0B, 0D etc should be dumped automatically

Work folder
Save resources into work folder
Feel free to dump rom, rom modules, modules and tracks in one click

i get an error "invalid buffer size" when attempting to load an overlay

Maybe overlay file damaged?

overlay modules 11 etc defined the drives parameters - including the buffer size, am i wrong on this front?

Wrong, this define mod 02, overlay just upload 02 from media to RAM

in the log are strings of ???? or gibberish text with no meaning

Yes, not 100% translated, but in each version such messages number decrease

[Severence]

Yes, I am developer
At first, WD drives have 3 commands for rom:
read rom
write rom
erase rom
No command read rom without modules, so this

can not be truth

Maybe somethings getting lost in translation here, either my end or yours -The rom is read and dumped with WDMarvel using the "read rom" button, the resulting file is missing information, this missing information is the same as that held in sepearate modules 0A, 0B, 0D etc on the other hand the rom dumped with another tool tool has this information.

I don't understand how this is "not truth" and implying otherwise is incredibly rude - atleast for us native english speakers, there is absolutely nothing to be gained by me lying here....

Absolutely useless idea, because again, no command read rom without modules

I never stated anything about such a command - again i think somethings being lost in translation, I'm suggesting a software implementation to check data integrity based on the size and offset location in flash rom - the reason this would be useful is because i was initially under the impression the rom dumped with WDMarvel was valid all along - which as I've gathered later down the line it's not. this would prevent mistakes

No matter, you read encrypted image, then write encrypted image, nothing was changes in rom

Ah, ok - i thought the OS might alter the resulting data in this case - especially with an extension.

I write empty roms without modules in PCB almost every day, because this is part of ARCO process, and all PCBs work after this operation

Vlad I'm getting the vibe that your getting defensive on this subject, please don't, I'm not casting blame here - as i said at the beginning of this thread I'm sure the majority of the issues I've faced are down to my user errors and aren't related to the program itself - but on the same merit - a great software developer knows when to take constructive criticism.

Work folder
Save resources into work folder
Feel free to dump rom, rom modules, modules and tracks in one click

Then why not just have the program do this automatically? or provide a check box in settings "automatically backup Rom & Rom modules for new drives" remember if it wasn't for programs such a sediv trial doing these sort of actions i wouldn't have a valid Rom & Rom modules at this point in time - which as far as i understand it are going to be required if i ever hope to recover data on the drive again - however unlikely that may be.

Maybe overlay file damaged?

Possibly, although i try using an overlay from memory which didn't work, as well as an overlay from same & similar model drives with my microcode and i get the same result, any ideas?

Wrong, this define mod 02, overlay just upload 02 from media to RAM

Ahh, i do have mod 02 and i do believe i tried that but i can't remember the result or log output, I'll give it a try and see what results i get - although ill have to use WDR as my month is up.

Yes, not 100% translated, but in each version such messages number decrease

Fair enough, i think it's great that this program is in active development which is more than can be said for other tools it seems, like i said - if you want me to translate the text into something readable let me know.