Thread: Garmin 265w boot loop, logo, white screen, 3+ years later

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After about 3+ hours, Ldr.bin update.txt dumped the internal stuff to SD and here is what it looks like inside garmin.
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Attached file listing dir /s. I noticed it 10gb dump. Few folders are copy's like /voices/n/, /system/ are the same as root. I believe it was caused by update.txt. I also found out that reg 5.bin is sw 6.40 but 14.bin is sw 4.60. Both hwid 827. So we have boot/fw mismatch.

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Log after the Ldr.bin doing copydir cmds for over 3 hours.

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Good that it's reading and writing to SD. Although most of your commands were wrong, you've managed to fluke the entire Garmin folder and also have rgn41 which is great.

If it still won't load Cure3 firmware, i'd use txt commands to delete some files possibly causing the problem. You could start with the detail map [gmapprom.img and gmaprom.gma], gupdate.gcd, Voice & POI folders, etc either one by one or you could just delete the entire Garmin folder and then copy it back empty to see it it can boot with only that. If it does you can replace everything with GarminExpress or MapUpdater & WebUpdater. You will need to have original firmware loaded though for it to boot. If you have the patched boot loaded it can't get past the logo of course.

So you should read this thread anyway before starting: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. In particular from kunix's [Only registered and activated users can see links. ].

I tried to del those files with ldr.bin and is says Success but they won't go away. Tried flashing boot.bin only rgn with 4.6, 6.4, 7.2 and 7.6, even though if flashes successfully, boot sw still stuck at 6.40. Sometimes I got fw_all.bin Only grn to flash but nothing changes.

I think filesystem is corrupt and/or NV corrupt.

I am ready to clear some NV now like rgn 14, 41, 48, 83...

I will wait for some responce.

edit: It seems rgn 48 looks like internal drive. Inside I see same files and also GarminDevice.tmp, this is a bad sign.
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How did you confirm they wouldn't delete, were you able to copy them to the card again after running the del script?

Yes rgn48 is internal drive. I did think that it wasn't copyable in 2x5 series, only deletable. Maybe i'm mixing it up with 2xx/3xx/6xx.

Best wait for opinion of kunix and/or Loly etc.

What size is your 41.bin?

Originally Posted by Neil

What size is your 41.bin?

Its 4,194,304 bytes, the real data starts at 0x10600.

Here is a log of a script I ran. I am able to rrgn 48, its 1,939,677,184 bytes. Winhex and Ultaedit can open the image.

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I also tried writing dummy to Garmin, read back, its a match. After few reboots the dummy.bin is gone.

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Something weird here. 1st copy/del Success, 2nd failed, 3rd Success. Its as if files come back, maybe I need to use refresh cmd or some other commit?

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Originally Posted by kunix

flagmax, please, try doing the following:
1) flashing the RGN with fw_all.bin only. What messages does updater.exe show?

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2) saving fw_all.bin from RGN as SD:/fw_all.bin and running xrgn,14,1:/fw_all.bin in update.txt. What's written in update.log?
Use RGN_Tool for RGN files manipulation.

I tried sw 6.40 and 4.60, same result.

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Attached rgn 5 and 14 from inside Garmin [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

It seems I can write to region 14 but in a crazy way. I first upload boot.bin only rgn from sw 4.6, I see white screen, after this it goes in pre-boot automatically, I keep holding top left corner until it reboots in few seconds and goes back into second pre-boot caused by me pressing the screen, at this time updated.exe uploads fine any sw (4.6, 6.4, 7.2, 76) fw_all.bin only rgn, it doesn't not reboot when finishes writing, takes around 3 minutes to finish. It will now allow to upload boot.bin only rgn. So it seems one or the other depending when it went into pre-boot. I used rrgn,14 and hex editor to verify contents, and it matches exactly to fw.all.bin with padded FFs in the end. This is the ONLY way uploader sends fw_all.bin. It seems 4.60 boot is fine with it.

How and when does boot.bin region 5 gets updated? I am guessing either rgn 5 is bad or corrupt or 3 years ago I flashed wrong hardware boot.bin. Maybe its write protecting reg 14 now.

So maybe dangerous boot.bin rgn5 needs to be fixed?

After playing some more I, FFed fw_all.bin from address 0x100 to the end and uploaded it, now Garmin acts differently, it goes in pre-boot automatically and stuck at SOFTWARE LOADING...

It shows Logo, SYSTEM SOFTWARE MISSING...LOADER LOADING...SOFTWARE LOADING...LOADER...SOFTWARE LOADING... stuck here
Video


How should region 5 layout match boot.bin? I compared it to sw 6.40 boot.bin inside gupdade.gcd found on internal drive and they don't match like rgn 14 = fw_all.bin?

EDIT. I put gupdate.gcd on sd:/garmin/ and now the unit stays at SOFTWARE LOADING... 4 seconds, white screen flash, reboot, then repeats. So it does see gupdate.gcd on SD and causes a reboot.

EDIT2: Tried to xrgn,48,1:/48.bin and ergn, 48 both error. I wonder if we can use updater.exe to write to region 48?