Amiko Alien Spark Broken

Background:

I have an Amiko Alien 8900 HD set, which I use with mgcamd. The firmware I use is the default firmware" Spark".

As mgcamd was giving me lot of trouble, I chose to uninstall, and reinstall ir using the FTP programme. Even after doing that, channels never opened.
I tried and downloaded many versions of mgcamd until 1.35 version, but no luck. I updated the firmware using spark portal, but still no luck.

I decided to flash the box with Spark rescue image, and I did the following.

1. unzip spark rescue image to the fat32 formatted usb
2. Power off the box from behind, and plug th eusb drive into the box.
3. Start the box while holding the "right arrow button" in front
4. It says something on the light, and I press OK button.
5. The LED lights on the panel start showing : 7 7 0 .... 7 7 0... and so on.
6. This 7 7 0 shows for almost 30 minutes, and the system is still not flashed!

Please tell me what to do? can I also flash it using RS 232 cable? if yes what is the process?

Please help.

I had the same issue; the problem was in the flashdrive model; with another one, a Kingstone DataTraveler (100 G2), 8GB, rescue went perfectly.

You should check with multiple thumb drives. I've tried up to 4 sticks, finally it worked.

another one,flashdrive model
Kingstone DataTraveler ( G3), 4GB

A no name version: Recondata D33B05 1GB. It`s working fine with Alien.
(And I have a Kingmax 8 GB what doesn`t working with Alien)

Tried many usb sticks, sitll no luck.

Does anyone know the rs 232 cable method please?
I have found the loader to flash it, but I dont have an image abs binary file.

thanks

Second way (byTFTP): 1.Install TFTP tools [csicotftp11.rar] to your PC 2.Set your PC IP addr to [192.168.40.19] 3.connect your PC to STB by LAN, now we only support LAN, do not support WLAN 4.Set default booting system to [spark] Upgrade Step: 1.copy [mImage] and [userfsub.img] to a folder called spark of your PC, for example [C:/spark] 2.select folder in TFTP tools 3.Keep Pressing [OK] Button in Front Panel, then power on STB. 4.After 5 seconds you will see [Forc] in LED, release [OK] button and press [Right] Button. 5.If everything OK, You will see [T LD] shining in LED and you will see some debug information in TFTP Server, like “Mon Oct 25 14:02:36 2010: Sending 'mImage' file to 192.168.40.19 in binary mode Mon Oct 25 14:02:39 2010: Successful. Mon Oct 25 14:02:50 2010: Sending 'userfsub.img' file to 192.168.40.19 in binary mode Mon Oct 25 14:03:33 2010: Successful.” 6.if upgrade success, You will see [SUCC] and STB reboot automatically. If upgrade not finishes in 5 minutes, then there must be something wrong, please check your configuration and re-try.

Thank you.

1. I did something new: I formatted the usb drive with the Amiko Spark system itself, and it worked!

I think it is because Amiko formatted it in the way it likes it to be! Now I will save this USB drive for future.

2. Now, which mgcamd plugin shall I use, which will work perfectly? Any links please?

Try Sparkbox all plugin 12-07-2012, from [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...], after upgrade to 1.2.54