HK1 Max RK3318 4/64 Reporting different/wrong RAM/ROM size

[Slash402]

Hi,
I recently flashed armbian on the emmc of this tv box and noticed that the reported size of the internal memory is 16GB and the RAM is 1GB. Now the tv box specs should actually be 64GB and 4GB of RAM. 
Now I'm not sure if this is a case of a software issue, or what I suspect being fake specs reported. Is there a way I can make sure which case it is? 

I also opened the box and took a pic of the inside where you can see the RAM modules.

 

There are 8 of them, 4 on each side. I'm not entirely sure about their capacity, maybe you can help me figure it out.
If oyu need any other information I will provide, let me know if there is any other way to find out the exact capacity of this box or if it's just a software/armbian issue. Thanks.

[hexdump]

@Slash402 - it is not uncomming for chinese android tv boxes to have fake specs - one cannot really trust anything, from ram to emmc sizes, emmc vs. nand and even sometimes a different soc is inside than what is printed on the box

[Slash402]

@hexdumpI know they can have fake specs written on them, that's why I'm asking for a way to make sure this is the case. I even attached a pic of the inside to check for that. 

[jock]

I have the same board and the specs on the chassis of the tvbox says 4GB of RAM and 32GB of flash; the flash amount is correct, but the amount of RAM is actually 2GB 😕

 

In your case, this is the datasheet: each memory chip is 2 gigabit, so 8 chips account for 2 gigabytes.

[Slash402]

@jockThanks for the information. So it's a software issue in this case. Any idea how I might be able to solve it? Armbian only sees 1GB of RAM and 16GB of flash. I used your guide to flash it with multitool and flashed it to the emmc. I've tried to flash 2 different images, but same issue. Thanks.

[jock]

@Slash402 Well actually *i suppose* you have 8 chips (the other 4 should be on the other side). To be sure I need both the serial output of the box when it boots and the original firmware of your board. There are several reports that armbian detects a lower amount of memory than installed chips, but we have not yet understood if the chips are fake or the issue is really software-related.

[Slash402]

@jockYes they are 8. I think I wrote it in the main post. As for the serial output, where and how can I get it? For the original firmware I made a backup with multitool. Can I put the link here and should I PM it to you? Thanks.

[jock]

@Slash402 For the original firwmare, you should upload it on some services like google drive, mega, or whatever and then post the link here.

For the serial output, I guess you don't have an USB-to-TTL adapter, so for now the original firmware will suffice.

[Slash402]

@jock Firmware link: https://mega.nz/file/GUYgFCSI#me8b78lfHxlJHTOVL7qaCHx0Ycspe1QzulEMBs2BTvk

If by USB-to-TTL you mean something exactly like this: https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B07TFSZ3ZP I have it. 

 

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Slash402

[jock]

@Slash402 Thanks for the firmware, it looks like there is only the first part of the firmware and not the whole eMMC image. It is sufficient to do some tests on my board, but beware that you won't be able to restore the original system with that, I hope you cut the file on purpose...

 

About the serial adapter, yes it is the one you shown in the photo. On the "front" side of the board you have the serial pads (there are "GND", "RX" and "TX" label markings nearby) that you solder and connect to the serial adapter to grab the serial output of the box. The baud rate of the serial must be set to 1.5mbps

[jock]

@Slash402 checked the proprietary ddrbin of the firmware you supplied, it is exactly the same as the one available in the armbian image, so the problem must be somewhere else. The serial output from your box is definitely required.

[Slash402]

@jockNo I didn't cut the firmware on purpose. That's the output the backup option of the multitool gave me. Well seems I won't be able to restore the original firmware then, not that I needed it anyway. 

I will check the serial output but I need to ask you if you could help me out in that as I never did it. Where should I solder the pins to (and which pin to what)? After plugging it to the computer what software do I need to use in order to read the serial? Thanks.

[jock]

@Slash402 Mmh, if you didn't cut the firmware on purpose, then it may be that the eMMC is broken, it has been reported in the past that these boards have very lousy soldering and the eMMC is often failing after a while, just be aware of this.

 

About the soldering points, this is the front side of my board:

 

 

You can see I soldered an array of holes in the bottom-left corner. You can solder directly some wires to the pads or do whatever you find better for your case. The pin with the downward arrow is Ground (GND) and this must be absolutely connected to GND of the serial adapter. The two immediate pins on the left of the GND pin are TX and RX. Honestly I don't remember which one is RX and TX, so you have to connect them to RX and TX pins of the serial adapter and see if it works; if it does not work, switch the pins. The leftmost pin should be left unused.

 

About the software to use, I don't know if you use linux or windows. For Windows Putty is surely one of the best options, on Linux there is a pletora of suitable application like minicom or picocom. You can search with google. Transmission parameters are: 1500000 bps (1.5mbps), 8 bits per symbol, no parity, 1 stop bit ("8N1" for friends).

 

Good luck!

[Slash402]

@jock Here's the output. Didn't make it in time to copy it as a text, but hope it's ok. 

Also, in case anyone else would need it. TXD is the most left from the ground (not the last hole, but 3rd one) and RXD is the middle one, next to the ground.

[jock]

@Slash402 Thanks for the log, I see that the ddrbin detected 1gb of ram. That is, there is nothing to do because that code is a proprietary closed-source rockchip blob and it does the detection:

[Slash402]

@jockWell, shit, that's a bummer. Thanks.
As for the flash? Is it just 16GB or more?

[jock]

6 hours ago, Slash402 said:

As for the flash? Is it just 16GB or more?

 

I'm afraid there are no chances for more, if the kernel detects such amount, that's it.

The one and only doubt I have is the "modded" 666mhz ddrbin in place of the "standard" 333mhz ddrbin could have some role in this.

 

If you want I can give you a 333mhz bootloader and the instructions to quickly install it for a definitive test.

[Slash402]

@jockSure why not, let's try it.

Do you mind also telling me how to backup the current one so I can restore it in case anything goes wrong? Thanks.

[jock]

@Slash402 Okay, so here it is.

I attach two "alternative" idbloaders, you can try both of them to see if something changes.

I strongly suggest you to do these tests on a sdcard rather than emmc. If something goes bad on the sdcard, swapping it is easy. If something goes bad on emmc, you will soft-brick the board and need to force it in maskrom mode (it is not pleasant task to do).

 

If you want to go the sdcard way, you will need to first erase the eMMC completely using the multitool, then just burn armbian on sdcard and boot the tvbox with the sdcard inserted.

 

The devices are:

• sdcard = /dev/mmcblk0
• emmc = /dev/mmcblk2

 

To backup the existing idbloader:

dd if=/dev/mmcblkX of=idbloader.old bs=32k skip=1 count=4

 

(change mmcblkX with the device you choose, so mmcblk0 if you choose the sdcard way, mmcblk2 if emmc)

 

To burn a new idbloader:

dd if=idbloader-333mhz-1.16.img of=/dev/mmcblkX bs=32k seek=1 conv=fdatasync

 

(again, change mmcblkX accordingly as above).

 

then reboot and see if something changes.

You can also try idbloader-333mhz-alt.img idbloader using the same command.

 

 

idbloader-333mhz-1.16.img idbloader-333mhz-alt.img

[Slash402]

@jockHi, so I tested both idbloaders as you suggested but sadly RAM still appears to be 1GB.

The serial output of both idbloaders was basically the same and here's a pic of the first one: 

I used the sdcard method as you suggested instead of flashing to emmc. 

[jock]

@Slash402 thanks for testing, as I suspected the issue is not in the software but in the hardware. This clarifies some other dubious cases that were raises in the rk3318 thread where other people was claiming similar issues.

Sorry, but I think there is really nothing to do about 🤷‍♂️

Perhaps you could put the board in the oven, if there is a soldering issue... I'm not joking, it is a known trick to do cheap "reflowing" of the BGA chip soldering. Of course it can melt down the whole board...

[Slash402]

@jockI see, so it should actually have 2GB of RAM, but because of hardware issue, 1GB is not seen. 

Yea I've tried the reflowing method once with a GPU (didn't really work out xD), in this case I should remove a lot of stuff first as there is a lot of plastic.

Don't really know if it's worth it putting in the work, the tv box doesn't have very good specs after all.

Should I reburn the original idbloader or keep it with the ones you sent me in case I plan on using it?

Edited February 17, 2023 by Slash402

[jock]

@Slash402 actually, I don't even know if there is real fault in the hardware or 4 chips are fake or whatever... looking at the PCB there are 8 chips of 2 gigabits each, so they should account for a total of 16 gigabits = 2 gigabytes.

Now 1 gigabyte is missing, but who knows why... the tricks and gimmicks of chinese cheap tv boxes are infinite.

 

The original idbloader runs the memories at 666 mhz, it is a very nice bump in general performance against the 333 mhz of these other idbloaders, so I suggest to use the original one if it works ok for you.

[Slash402]

@jockYou're right, they could be very well fake chips as well. Thanks.

May I ask which image of armbian would you recommend using? Going with the stable ones or nightly builds? I know you made some precompiled images based on stable, but Idk how updated they are, while nightly, well, they're probably too updated xD. Maybe there are precompiled images based on the latest stable somewhere (which should be 22.11)? Thanks.

Also, kinda OT, but, I noticed your github is called paolo, are you italian by any chance?

[jock]

5 hours ago, Slash402 said:

May I ask which image of armbian would you recommend using? Going with the stable ones or nightly builds? I know you made some precompiled images based on stable, but Idk how updated they are, while nightly, well, they're probably too updated xD. Maybe there are precompiled images based on the latest stable somewhere (which should be 22.11)? Thanks.

Yes I made some precompiled images in the past, but they are not updated anymore because there are the "nightly" ones.

I suggest you to go with nightlies, which are updated very often, even though they are not declared "stable" because they come with the "edge" kernel flavour. You can always switch to a "current" (ie: older kernel, considered "stable") kernel using armbian-config if you prefer. The only drawback with nightlies is that the userland comes with debian sid or latest ubuntu, which is not always an optimal choice (debian sid is way too edgy, for my tastes).

 

5 hours ago, Slash402 said:

Also, kinda OT, but, I noticed your github is called paolo, are you italian by any chance?

Yes I am

 

[Slash402]

Okok, thanks!

 

2 hours ago, jock said:

Yes I am

Me too! 😁