How to Recover a Dead Openbox/Skybox

by KingsMan Wed May 11, 2016 8:51 pm

Recently many of Openbox/ Skybox owners reported their boxes are dead after showing a Clone message. There is only

one way to recover the box after being dead to reflash it with a serial cable RS232 (null modem cable)
I am wrinting this procedure just to make it easy for the members to recover their box without browsing other forums.

Things needed for recovery

1) A laptop or a Desktop computer with Serial Port
2) A null modem cable with female connectors at both ends.
3) A dead open/ skybox
4) A Clone safe firmware (Please ****** "HDS2_Openbox_by_anonymouSX_V2_New_Red_GUI.abs ")
5) An Upgrade tool (Please ****** "Upgrade_PVR800 HD Tool")

Method:

Connect your Laptop/ Desktop with your Box via RS232 Cable.
Make sure the Box is turned off.
Open the upgrade tool by double clicking on the file (Erom Upgrade).
Select the Correct COM Port from the drop down menu.
If you are not sure which Port is the correct one thne go to the Device Manager and find out which COM Port is Serial Port on your laptop/Desktop ( in my case it was COM4).
Leave the bit rate on 115200.
Parity: Even
Operate Mode: Upgrade
Browse the Clone safe firmware.
IMPORTANT: Check (Include Bootloader) otherwise the recovery will not work.
Press 'NEXT'
It will give you a message, "Snychronising STB" "Please reset target"
Now Turn the Box ON
The program will give you another message saying " Connection made" or Synchronised"
It will start downloading the software to the box by showing its progress.
When the download is completed It will show a message about burning the flash
Click Next or Ok to complete the process.
DO NOT turn off the Box in the process.

After Flashing is completed the Box will restart. You will see the front panel switched on and you will also a picture on TV

Tip: It's difficult to find a laptop/desktop with a serial port. There is a USB to serial port converters available in the market. Best to buy one on fleabay. The cheapest is under £2. I recommend HL-340. It supports Win XP, Vista and Win7 32 bit. You can download the driver for it from the internet.
One of our respected member pan1100 suggests to try to use a laptop/ desktop with the serial port instead of using a converter. And make sure the the PC speed is similar to the program speed.
But as Serial port cant carry a big bulk of data so make sure that the highest speed is selected in the recovery program which is "115200".

There is one thing annoying about the clone safe firmware that Its GUI is red. Not a cup of tea for many but at least it works.

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