COWON X7...this was supposed to be an unboxing and happy times

[Future Tomorrow]

Originally Posted by dfkt

PID 0xb057 means it's a Telechips TCC7901 - same chip as the S9 and J3. So the correct SDCFG for the X7 might already be available, and unbricking it might actually be possible already (since both the S9 and J3 can be unbricked with the same settings).

Either 0xa1102800 or 0xaaac7800 might work.

So finally got some better results from tcctool under XP64 but here's what's happening -



If I use cowonx7 or cowonX7 I get errors and a list of supported devices I should use. The X7 being so new it's not on that list.

So then I use cowons9 or cowonj3, both appear to work but produce the same results. Ends with "Patching application uploaded successfully" So I disconnect the device as per the link FURR provided but then the device is completely frozen and only a hard reset will then show that I didn't totally brick the X7. Once it starts to reboot the FW still isn't updated and it sticks at the same place during "Updating DB".

I've ran tcctool on the X7 quite a few times already and same results each time. If anyone else has got any ideas, clearly I can't sleep.

[CrowdAds]

[Future Tomorrow]

Another careful consideration for MAC/Apple owners interested in the X7, J3 or S9. COWON is "apparently" aware of the problems some of us face with connecting certain devices to Apple computers but I doubt something will be done about it or at least any time soon. Why so pessimistic?

Below is a snipped bit from the latest email from Export Prive in which I kindly asked that the returned X7 have a deep or full diagnostics done. lol...I know it's not a car but this I would imagine is very possible.

snipped...It will be sent to Cowon for deep diagnostics. As for the letter, we will send it to our direct contact at Cowon's headquarter, but I can guarantee you that they are more than aware of the situation with Mac owners since they started experiencing problems with the S9.

So...let's see what we got here. ExportPrive can "guarantee" me that COWON is "more than aware" of increased MAC incompatibility and increased "situations with Mac owners" as far back as the S9 huh? Would suddenly explain how(but not why) I was able to brick 5 J3's by simply transferring large amounts of .mp3 and .flac files to the devices. Would also explain how I bricked the X7 but it does not explain why the 16GB J3 remains immune.

[FURR]

the Device itself needs to be added to the list. i would post your problem and what you have done so far @that Link i posted. be sure to mention the values...

0xa1102800 or 0xaaac7800

[dfkt]

Future Tomorrow, you can try the TCCtool I compiled: http://www.mediafire.com/?qxi665llljlo57l - both J3 and S9 settings should recognize the X7, both use the two different SDCFG values mentioned before. (The V5 setting won't work for the X7.) Maybe install the included tcc.inf again as well, just to make sure.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Future Tomorrow

... COWON is "apparently" aware of the problems some of us face with connecting certain devices to Apple computers but I doubt something will be done about it or at least any time soon. ...

Sorry to hear of the problems you've had, good write up and pics, but just a thought I had about the above comment. I don't really think all the blame should be put on cowon for the 3 players you've mentioned as I find two of them great, what about jobs and mac, IMHO they should be at blame here too for their lack of compatability ...

[deadohiosky]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

Sorry to hear of the problems you've had, good write up and pics, but just a thought I had about the above comment. I don't really think all the blame should be put on cowon for the 3 players you've mentioned as I find two of them great, what about jobs and mac, IMHO they should be at blame here too for their lack of compatability ...

that's my opinion as well.

if it wasn't for those ghost files and other crap, it would very well be mac compatible. unfortunately, jobs only allows their very own idevices the full compatibility with their macs.

[metaldestiny]

so, if on Windows, I dump 30GB onto a COWON player I'm planning on unbricking?

[dfkt]

I never had any of my 8 Cowons brick on Windows (except the crappy V5, for other reasons). This is only an issue with Apple computers.

[The DarkSide]

I dropped 30gb at a time on my S9 and J3 - I never had any issues what so ever. Like I said, I received the S9 bricked - I solved that issue. Otherwise, never a problem with XP or Vista Ultimate.

[Future Tomorrow]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

Sorry to hear of the problems you've had, good write up and pics, but just a thought I had about the above comment. I don't really think all the blame should be put on cowon for the 3 players you've mentioned as I find two of them great, what about jobs and mac, IMHO they should be at blame here too for their lack of compatability ...

@WalkGood & deadohiosky. I understand both your views but would like to expand on a point about compatibility in regards to Apple and why my posts are fairly one sided. I have quite a few other devices from other manufacturers that allow me to connect and transfer files without an issue regardless of whether OS X is putting junk/ghost files on them or not. It seems rather unfortunate however that the last two devices I've purchased from this one manufacturer(COWON) is giving me issues that no other manufacturers device that I've owned has.

Now, if every time I connected my iRiver Smart, Creative Muvo, HTC Legend or other device to my MAC and junk files bricked it you'd never hear the end of me railing Apple's ghosting lunacy. I do understand and get that if MAC's didn't create these junk files the players would not be bricked in this manner from simple file transfers.

So in my humble opinion, it would be nice if COWON would simply look into whatever allows the vast amount of other devices to play well with a MAC(to an extent) and provide a better experience than a bricked device. Before switching over to MAC's again for work reasons last year I had not a single issue with a COWON device I owned on my Windows machine.

p.s - in my note to COWON/Export Prive I did ask COWON if I should get in touch with Apple to possibly offer a solution...see snipped bit below

snipped...We hope to hear from you and get better Apple support. Please let me know if it would help to ask Apple Computers to consider some solution on their end to this problem. Thank you for your time.

[Future Tomorrow]

Originally Posted by metaldestiny

so, if on Windows, I dump 30GB onto a COWON player I'm planning on unbricking?

Not that I know of. My Cowon devices never gave me an issue on a windows machine.

[saratoga]

I don't understand how you can brick a device over MSC?

[FURR]

Originally Posted by saratoga

I don't understand how you can brick a device over MSC?

it's got to do with Mac and other devices other then Apple Products. when a Device say a Flash Drive or MP3 Player is mounted... it writes ghost System Files to it causing a corruption or Crash. i think these Files are what they call .ion Files which contain Info. like icon Images, Trash, etc for the Devices i think. this is just something i searched up just now so. also, i also found with Macs that before EVER disconnecting a Device you should Empty the Trash Bin. if you say removed any Files from the Device... then Trash Bin for that Device should be emptied. i don't know how to go about doing that but i'm sure Google can help.

[Future Tomorrow]

Originally Posted by dfkt

Future Tomorrow, you can try the TCCtool I compiled: http://www.mediafire.com/?qxi665llljlo57l - both J3 and S9 settings should recognize the X7, both use the two different SDCFG values mentioned before. (The V5 setting won't work for the X7.) Maybe install the included tcc.inf again as well, just to make sure.

dfkt. Thanks for posting this but I could not get the X7 to work and that tcctool kicks off an error I have not seen in other compiles of tcctool I've used. When I get in later I can tell you what that specific error is. It still does the same thing where it seems like the device is being updated and I'm getting a successful message from tcctool but as soon as I disconnect it's frozen and needs to be reset. Once it's actually on, nothing has been updated/done to the device and it sticks in the same place.

[FURR]

Originally Posted by Future Tomorrow

dfkt. Thanks for posting this but I could not get the X7 to work and that tcctool kicks off an error I have not seen in other compiles of tcctool I've used. When I get in later I can tell you what that specific error is. It still does the same thing where it seems like the device is being updated and I'm getting a successful message from tcctool but as soon as I disconnect it's frozen and needs to be reset. Once it's actually on, nothing has been updated/done to the device and it sticks in the same place.

dfkt maybe wrong on the value as this happened with me for my S9 when it was bricked. at that time Tcctool didn't work with the S9 and we were all trying different values and thus' we finally found the right one. given to us by a user Titled joecool @iAudiophile hopefully joecool or someone else can help you out

[Future Tomorrow]

Originally Posted by FURR

dfkt maybe wrong on the value as this happened with me for my S9 when it was bricked. at that time Tcctool didn't work with the S9 and we were all trying different values and thus' we finally found the right one. given to us by a user Titled joecool @iAudiophile hopefully joecool or someone else can help you out

Will definitely get on this this evening as it's the second time you've mentioned iAudiophile and that thread is very useful. Thanks again FURR.

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by FURR

dfkt maybe wrong on the value

Source code snippet from the TCCtool I compiled:

    {"cowons9",  "Cowon S9",                 0xb057, 0x20000000, 0xa1102800 },
    {"cowonj3",  "Cowon J3",                 0xb057, 0x20000000, 0xaaac7800 },

Nobody helped me with my bricked V5, since it uses a different TCC SoC, and obviously a different SDCFG value. But since the X7 uses the exact same TCC SoC as the S9 and J3 (and also has the exact same feature set, same screen res, etc), it would have been somewhat logical that one of the two values works. Well, that's all I could do - I'm not sure anyone could come up with different SDCFG values, since they have to be derived from the leaked/confidential datasheets of the manufacturer, depending on the RAM inside the player (you gotta open the X7 up to find out how much it has), etc.

[FURR]

@dfkt, i see man but still the values could very well be different and yes one would have to open the casing and take some snap shots

[PLazo]

Hi everybody,
It's the first time I post a message on ABI so I'll try to not make any english mistakes (french guy speaking).

If the problem between mac computers and Cowon devices is coming from junk files that mac OS creates each time you plug an USB device on it you should try this : BlueHarvest.
I searched "cowon blueharvest" on the web for information about it and it seems that many people had solved their problems with this app. I had just bought it but not tested it yet. I'll try to make a feedback as soon as i'll be able to.

I have a Cowon S9 with a broken "switch on/off" button so I can make a transfer test in order to see if without those junk files created it works well or not.
How many files should I transfer in order to brick it ?

Future Tomorow do you know if it's possible to change track without unlocking the X7 by pressing sound button as well as hold button for instance ?
Video quality is good, acceptable, bad or "why do you bother with that, my device is bricked".

EDIT : When I look for "cowon blueharvest" on google the first web page is a forum with a guy who have the same avatar as you and lives in Brooklyn too, so I suppose that this solution isn't the right one ?

Plazo

[Future Tomorrow]

Originally Posted by PLazo

snipped...

EDIT : When I look for "cowon blueharvest" on google the first web page is a forum with a guy who have the same avatar as you and lives in Brooklyn too, so I suppose that this solution isn't the right one ?

Plazo

Hi Plazo, welcome to ABI!

I would be the same guy from Brooklyn - After bricking several J3's I started threads on ABI and IAudiophile. Is this the thread you found?

Bluharvest didn't work for me as mentioned in that post. I did see this yesterday posted by a Samsung mod - http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/sho...umb+free+eject - It's called crumb free eject and seems to do exactly what blueharvest does. I'd reach out to the developer in that link if you have any questions but I'm interested in testing it out myself.

Originally Posted by PLazo

snipped...

How many files should I transfer in order to brick it ?

Try copying over 2GB's, then about 8GB's and then 1-5GB's...this was exactly what I did. If I transfer in small amounts(a few hundred megs and definitely under 1GB) I never have an issue. My 16GB J3 doesn't care what I do or how I transfer files it never has the same issues.

Originally Posted by PLazo

Future Tomorow do you know if it's possible to change track without unlocking the X7 by pressing sound button as well as hold button for instance ? Video quality is good, acceptable, bad or "why do you bother with that, my device is bricked".

Not sure about key combinations to control track selection but holding both the + and -(volume) and pause/play at the same time for 10 seconds shuts down the device.

Didn't bother with video.