Thread: IMPORTANT! If you want HELP in case of a bricked Garmin device, please follow this

Ok, it seems 100% certain it's a non-MTK then. I'll make a kit to try force-flashing the regions using a microSD so get a CLEAN small card of no more than 32GB ready, formatted in FAT32. Other projects take precedence ATM so watch this thread in several hours from now.

EDIT: Butters had in fact made the required kit some time ago and posted in [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] here for ISG to use on a malfunctioning nuvi 1310 which he'd reported in Post #270 could not be flashed normally with Updater.exe. It was returning the same error you got (see his Post #272 also in this thread) and in his case the 1310 had indeed been wrongly flashed with fw for nuvi 12xx HWID 0971 (it was that same error screen you reported which had made me highly suspect your device may have been cross-flashed too). It his case the 1310 wasn't recoverable using software means and although in your case i'm now convinced the 1350 hasn't been cross-flashed, that's just unfortunately pointing to a higher possibility that it's had a hardware failure, simply because that can cause the exact same Updater error.

So to explain fully about this flash kit using Updater and a media card and why we need to try this method:

A device that is unable to get at least as far as displaying "Loading Maps" on the splash screen is unable to read a media card because it doesn't look for a card until after loading those essential files. Your device isn't loading files of course, and even though it can attain preboot that too occurs before the device looks for a card. However, the modified ramloader (aka boot.bin) in the RGN executed by Updater.exe forces the device to read an inserted media card much earlier, while it's in preboot mode. Provided the device's flash regions aren't physically damaged, then the two firmware BIN files on the card will be forcibly flashed to the appropriate regions (14 & 127) allowing it to boot normally. I note that you initially reported being able to reformat it using RMPrepUSB so the visible flash region in rgn 48 will be empty and that's ok because 1xxx devices are capable of booting when empty. Therefore it's not 'soft-bricked' by a corrupt file even if that's what did actually cause the original failure while in use. There should also be a copy made of it's rgn 41 (the non-volitile memory), and if a gupdate.gcd was present that is deleted - but as your file system is empty that command will fail which is of no consequence.

So download the file "SD Flash - Patched boot RGN.zip" from Post #286 and extract it to find a folder "Contents For Card" and two files, Updater.exe and 097201000630.rgn. Open the "Contents For Card" folder and copy the Garmin folder and 2 BIN files directly to the root of the clean small microSD then insert the card into the 1350 ensuring it's completely OFF. Drag the RGN onto Updater.exe to open it, put the device into preboot and start Updater. If the flash initiates properly it will take a while so let it run until it hopefully re-boots itself. Good luck.

I am assuming that while using updater to flash the rgn file I need to press the top left of the screen before inserting the USB cabke. At what point am I able to to take my finger off the top left of the screen? Approximately how long will I need to be holding it?

Update:

So, after a couple of practice sessions, I ended up taking my finger off the left upper corner after seeing a successful flash of the rgn file in the boot patch using updater.exe. This is what happens after that (done this a couple of times, each time starting with a freshly formatted memory card):
- "Software Loading" appears at top of screen
- "Loader" appears at top of screen
- "Software Loading" appears at top of screen
- "Loader" appears at top of screen
- Green horizontal line at bottom of screen

After that the Garmin logo appears for a minute or so followed briefly by a blank screen. This process seems to continue indefinitely.

During this period, the Garmin device (i.e., its 8gb memory chip) is seen as a USB device in my PC, but I do not see any additional files. The first time I did this exercise, I saw a 41.bin file in the root, but after redoing this process, it does not appear.

If I turn off the 1350 and plug it in, it does not appear as a USB device in my PC and I basically have to start over.

If I try to use Garmin Express or WebUpdater, neither program detects this device.

Not sure how long to let this Logo followed by Blank Screen activity continue. I will let it go for a half hour more, but it does not appear to be moving forward in any way. It looks like there was some progress in getting it into file reading mode, but not much more.

Second Update:

Let it run for about an hour, but nothing else happened. After turning if off and restarting with a PC cable, it would not reconnect to the PC or respond to Garmin Express or WebUpdater. And the PC would not recognize it. I took a look an the memory card and saw the 41.bin file had been added. The update.log file in the 0972 folder indicated that both the device ID and the HWID werre 3827336719. That is the device ID. I would have thought the HWID should be shown as 0972. Perhaps that would eventually change if the new fllashing worked correctly.