[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ivanchogbg:
Hi,

I'm sorry if these details get too long, but I want to explain the stage and the problem currently I have.

I'm having a Broadcom 21552g device (Alcatel OT-983), which is hard bricked. The OTU of the device say that it already has the greatest version as I had made upgrade once before. I don't want to go to service or repair center because of my credentials.

As for the record, currently the phone is hard-bricked, because I've erased the modem partition only (which is the first partition starts 0x0 and have length 1000000) with fastboot. There is no fastboot any more. The phone shows only black screen and nothing happens on it. The phone was recognized as Alcatel One Touch Device COM5 after OTU install, but I found these 2 good articles:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2322414 and http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f606/celkon-a19-factory-tool-flash-file-my-birthday-gift-1600605/

I took the Broadcom drivers, so currently the phone is visible in device manager as Broadcom USB to Serial (COM5). I have Broadcom Multiple Flash Tool (FLASHLOADER) version 2.0.7.0, and I've read everything that I managed to find online (Flashtool.chm, BRCM_FlashLoader_ReadMe_V1.5.pdf, FlashLoader.log/s …) I got some understanding of this tool. I have full CWM recovery (made from Rom manager), and additional another live phone, just in case I need some file/partition that I didn't have in backup.

I will post some information that I've got for my phone:

mtd partitions are:

dev: size erasesize name

mtd0: 01000000 00020000 "modem"

mtd1: 00100000 00020000 "sysparm_ind"

mtd2: 00a00000 00020000 "comms"

mtd3: 000c0000 00020000 "dsp_pram"

mtd4: 00300000 00020000 "dsp_dram"

mtd5: 00100000 00020000 "bootloader"

mtd6: 00080000 00020000 "systemdata"

mtd7: 00040000 00020000 "deviceinfo"

mtd8: 00040000 00020000 "ckdatablock"

mtd9: 00100000 00020000 "bootloader2"

mtd10: 00080000 00020000 "FOTAFLAG"

mtd11: 00500000 00020000 "boot"

mtd12: 00500000 00020000 "recovery"

mtd13: 00040000 00020000 "misc"

mtd14: 00080000 00020000 "boot2icon"

mtd15: 07600000 00020000 "system"

mtd16: 03c00000 00020000 "cache"

mtd17: 00100000 00020000 "kpanic"

mtd18: 08300000 00020000 "custpack"

mtd19: 0a000000 00020000 "userdata"

I have this scatter file, generated to get the start addresses:

modem 0x0

{

}

comms 0x1000000

{

}

…

…

As there is no Firmware for my phone, I need to take some structure from some other phone and alter is for mine. I'm using the A51_R10_MMX_DS_NSL_0422 as structure rom (found here: http://micromaxa51development.blogspot.com/), but I also found another firmware, which only compared with A51 one for getting the diff. between them and get the picture what should change to work for mine.

Here I would like to say that I took A51 firmware, replaced all the files in AP directory and the file sysparm_ind.img in the COMMs … folder. Then recreated the bin file that is flashed into the phone by setting, and flashed. The results are absolutely same as my following more specific settings.

I did the following with clean firmware from A51:

1. Put only modem.img (taken with dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd0 of=/sdcard/modem.img) inside AP directory. There is no other file there

2. I copy sysparm_ind.img (taken with dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd1 of=/sdcard/sysparm_ind.img).

3. Alter the xml file: pctools\android_flash_acar_gingerbread.xml to look like this:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='iso-8859-1' ?>

<usbDownloader>

<!-- creating partition table command -->

<command name="create">

<partInfo>

<name>modem</name>

<length>0x1000000</length>

<attribute>w</attribute>

<address>0x0</address>

</partInfo>

</command>

<command name="flash">

<partInfo>

<name>modem</name>

<file>.\\AP\\modem.img</file>

</partInfo>

</command>

</usbDownloader>

The idea is to flash only the modem.img file inside start address 0x0 and length 0x1000000, also the attribute flag should be w for write (found from one of the manuals what options are available). I'm even giving Read-only flag on that file as original archive have this flag also.

4. Alter the files: pctools\cp_image_all.txt and pctools\cp_image_ind.txt to look like this:

#image file name and path	Address (in hex format)

#========================================================== ==========================

#nand preboot image

.\AP\modem.img	0x0000

These files are used when the flash image is generated.

5. After generating the image file, and setting the port setting I'm done. I plug the phone into the USB and with these settings, it is recognized, and Dloading 0% is shown, but after this I got error messages. Will show 3 different settings with 3 different errors (same errors if I use all the .img files in AP folder)

I case: Config file visible in Screenshot1.png, give Ready, then Dloading 0% and then Screenshot1error.png. I'm also attaching log in FlashLoader Screenshot1.log

II case: Config file visible in Screenshot2.png, give Ready, then Dloading 0% and then Screenshot2error.png. I'm also attaching log in FlashLoader Screenshot2.log

II case: Config file visible in Screenshot3.png, give Ready, then Dloading 0% stars increasing up to Dloading 118% (Screenshot3error1.png)and then Screenshot3error2.png, and nothing happens. I can only unplug the phone then Screenshot3error3.png happens. I'm also attaching log in FlashLoader Screenshot3.log

(All these files are in the attached zip file)

I found how should look like FlashLoader.log: http://pastebin.com/MnsRkRMi

According to BRCM_FlashLoader_ReadMe_V1.5.pdf manual, ERROR messages:

#define ERROR_LOAD_PRELOADER_FAILED 0x1000

#define ERROR_LOAD_SCRAMLOADER_FAILED ERROR_LOAD_PRELOADER_FAILED + 0x100

#define ERROR_LOAD_DOWNLOADER_FAILED ERROR_LOAD_PRELOADER_FAILED + 0x200

I go to conclusion that I have problem with PRELOADER.

Thanks to superusr there are similar problems in russian forum:

quick google for "broadcom" "port1" "f0001" and it comes up with a couple of pages in Russian. I didn't found anything that can help.

Thanks to gokur20, We've been in contact (sorry that coudn't reply in time because of urgent problem).

My further investigations lead to nothing useful. I found Alcatel OT-991 which seem to have the first partition called preloader, and in this model is possible to get accurate preloader.img. There is no such partition in my phone, and I can't find what exactly have to setup/download/touch in order to skip these errors and to flash my missing modem partition.

I hope if someone of you have this knowledge to share it with me! Any ideas are also welcome. Thank you!

Thanks also for reading this. Hope it wasn't boring.

Kind and Best Regards