Beware: Updating Sidecar firmware kills it!

Have you ever gotten a message from Game Disc Emulator, asking if you would like to update your Sidecars firmware from such things as "FF.FF to 61" , etc...?

First, DO NOT DO THAT. This should come as no surprised, but this is merely a glitch that GDE assumes your sidecar is "out of date" on terms of firmware version - however it is not! This error seems to be thrown when your sidecar is stuck in "emulation" mode, without the USB plugged in. This mode can get stuck when you hit "emulate" on GDE, and then remove the sidecar USB while still emulating. The sidecar will function normally but will have an extra 1-2 LEDS on the bottom board active. It will continue to act this way until you disconnect power and fully reset the kit (just unplug and it's good)

however... updating your firmware in this case of a glitch, will show an update progress bar, which will quickly fail after 2-3 seconds. (because there's nothing to actually update..) - Your kit will function normally until a full power-down. Next bootup will cause RROD.



I have a track record of TWO dead sidecars now, due to this exact issue. A zephyr and an XNA sidecar..
Take my word, avoid this update, save a sidecar! I'm glad to finally be able to narrow down this issue to the "update" of GDE itself. Hope this can help you in the future..

 

Moments ago i bricked my sidecar due to a similar mistake. Although when I did the update it was around 2 days ago and nothing had happened until yesterday when I unplugged the console to move its location on my desk and when I plugged it back in the red light was on the sidecar and the dvd emulation stopped working, now all I get is http://i.imgur.com/HFkF3YJ.png after it goes down the 46 FPGA flash banks and this http://i.imgur.com/g0D8lmR.jpg from the sidecar. I am guessing I will have to go on the hunt for a sidecar now.

 

This is why we are hoping to find a fix for this! :-(

 

Program the fpga externally?

If someone has a dead one, I'm happy to have a go at fixing it.

 

Well if you want to have a go just let me know, I have dead one right now.

 

Sounds good, pm me and we will sort something out

 

It's not the FPGA chip that's gone bad, it's the nand flash chip on the sidecar board (near the usbs)

 

I can program and/or replace the nand too.

 

Wouldn't you need a working one as well? Too read a good dump to use on the bad one.

 

I have a borked one but not because of anything I did to it. Slim, with box.

 

Depends, may be able to pull the data out of the updater package.

But otherwise yes, might need a working one. Just need to get hands on one to take a look first.