Reflash Firmware

[Natalí Stibb]

Forthe life of me I cant get the camera to boot into firmware flash where im supposed to get a solid purple light. I know your suppose to shut the camera off (I have a switch on my flood light in my house so I just turn the switch off) then hold the setup button while powering it back on (again i just flip my switch on) and hold it for 3-6 seconds until the red and blue light is solid purple.

This just never happens at all, it goes straight to ready to connect if I hold it long enough or factory resets it which also doesnt downgrade my firmware which is the reason for this to begin with. Ever since updating a few days ago to the latest firmware the sd card doesnt record audio anymore.

I know this to be true because saved videos from the sd do not record audio, playback doesnt produce any audio from the sd card, even saving a video from playback and then taking it to a different enviroment (my pc, VLC Player, Media Player) also does not produce any sound. Just a static sound at the beginning of the video and then nothing like its on mute.

Ive tried toggling sound on and off, during before and after my videos on both the playback and in the advanced settings. Ive tried from iOS and Android both neither work. The new firmware has essentially broken my SD cards audio recording which is unacceptable its half the reason I have the cameras to begin with.

So I went and downloaded a prior firmware, formatted a 32gb wyze brand sd card and a brand new sandisk 32gb sd card i bought today using both windows and the sd card format utility everyone on reddit suggests both quick and full formats, extracted the bin file to the root of the sd card and renamed it with .bin at the end like the instructions say to do. Then I turn the power off, install the sd card, hold the button while turning the power back on, and hold it for 3-6 seconds but I NEVER get the solid purple light.

Maybe in previous versions of windows ? Im on Windows 11 Home Insider Preview so basically a beta test version of windows 11 (was the only way to play Assassins creed Valhalla lol). Anyway thanks man I will mark that the solution I figured it was something simple and stupid.

In computing, firmware is software that provides low-level control of computing device hardware. For a relatively simple device, firmware may perform all control, monitoring and data manipulation functionality.For a more complex device, firmware may provide relatively low-level control as well as hardware abstraction services to higher-level software such as an operating system.

Firmware is found in a wide-range of computing devices including personal computers, phones, home appliances, vehicles, computer peripherals and in many of the digital chips inside each of these larger systems.

Ascher Opler used the term firmware in a 1967 Datamation article, as an intermediary term between "hardware" and "software". Opler projected that fourth-generation computer systems would have a writable control store (a small specialized high-speed memory) into which microcode firmware would be loaded. Many software functions would be moved to microcode, and instruction sets could be customized, with different firmware loaded for different instruction sets.[2]

As computers began to increase in complexity, it became clear that various programs needed to first be initiated and run to provide a consistent environment necessary for running more complex programs at the user's discretion. This required programming the computer to run those programs automatically. Furthermore, as companies, universities, and marketers wanted to sell computers to laypeople with little technical knowledge, greater automation became necessary to allow a lay-user to easily run programs for practical purposes. This gave rise to a kind of software that a user would not consciously run, and it led to software that a lay user wouldn't even know about.[3]

As originally used, firmware contrasted with hardware (the CPU itself) and software (normal instructions executing on a CPU). It was not composed of CPU machine instructions, but of lower-level microcode involved in the implementation of machine instructions. It existed on the boundary between hardware and software; thus the name firmware. Over time, popular usage extended the word firmware to denote any computer program that is tightly linked to hardware, including BIOS on PCs, boot firmware on smartphones, computer peripherals, or the control systems on simple consumer electronic devices such as microwave ovens, remote controls.

In some respects, the various firmware components are as important as the operating system in a working computer. However, unlike most modern operating systems, firmware rarely has a well-evolved automatic mechanism of updating itself to fix any functionality issues detected after shipping the unit.

A computer's firmware may be manually updated by a user via a small utility program. In contrast, firmware in mass storage devices (hard-disk drives, optical disc drives, flash memory storage e.g. solid state drive) is less frequently updated, even when flash memory (rather than ROM, EEPROM) storage is used for the firmware.

Most computer peripherals are themselves special-purpose computers. Devices such as printers, scanners, webcams, and USB flash drives have internally-stored firmware; some devices may also permit field upgrading of their firmware.

Consumer appliances like gaming consoles, digital cameras and portable music players support firmware upgrades. Some companies use firmware updates to add new playable file formats (codecs). Other features that may change with firmware updates include the GUI or even the battery life. Smartphones have a firmware over the air upgrade capability for adding new features and patching security issues.

Since 1996, most automobiles have employed an on-board computer and various sensors to detect mechanical problems. As of 2010[update], modern vehicles also employ computer-controlled anti-lock braking systems (ABS) and computer-operated transmission control units (TCUs). The driver can also get in-dash information while driving in this manner, such as real-time fuel economy and tire pressure readings. Local dealers can update most vehicle firmware.

Flashing[5] involves the overwriting of existing firmware or data, contained in EEPROM or flash memory module present in an electronic device, with new data.[5] This can be done to upgrade a device[6] or to change the provider of a service associated with the function of the device, such as changing from one mobile phone service provider to another or installing a new operating system. If firmware is upgradable, it is often done via a program from the provider, and will often allow the old firmware to be saved before upgrading so it can be reverted to if the process fails, or if the newer version performs worse. Free software replacements for vendor flashing tools have been developed, such as Flashrom.

Sometimes, third parties develop an unofficial new or modified ("aftermarket") version of firmware to provide new features or to unlock hidden functionality; this is referred to as custom firmware. An example is Rockbox as a firmware replacement for portable media players. There are many homebrew projects for various devices, which often unlock general-purpose computing functionality in previously limited devices (e.g., running Doom on iPods).

Firmware hacks usually take advantage of the firmware update facility on many devices to install or run themselves. Some, however, must resort to exploits to run, because the manufacturer has attempted to lock the hardware to stop it from running unlicensed code.

The Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab discovered that a group of developers it refers to as the "Equation Group" has developed hard disk drive firmware modifications for various drive models, containing a trojan horse that allows data to be stored on the drive in locations that will not be erased even if the drive is formatted or wiped.[7] Although the Kaspersky Lab report did not explicitly claim that this group is part of the United States National Security Agency (NSA), evidence obtained from the code of various Equation Group software suggests that they are part of the NSA.[8][9]

Researchers from the Kaspersky Lab categorized the undertakings by Equation Group as the most advanced hacking operation ever uncovered, also documenting around 500 infections caused by the Equation Group in at least 42 countries.

Custom firmware hacks have also focused on injecting malware into devices such as smartphones or USB devices. One such smartphone injection was demonstrated on the Symbian OS at MalCon,[12][13] a hacker convention. A USB device firmware hack called BadUSB was presented at the Black Hat USA 2014 conference,[14] demonstrating how a USB flash drive microcontroller can be reprogrammed to spoof various other device types to take control of a computer, exfiltrate data, or spy on the user.[15][16] Other security researchers have worked further on how to exploit the principles behind BadUSB,[17] releasing at the same time the source code of hacking tools that can be used to modify the behavior of different USB devices.[18]

Worst case, I think that you should be able to attach to the SPI flash on the backside of the mainboard with a chip clip (for example, this Pomona SOIC-8 clip) and hold the EC in reset while you reflash it over SPI. I should probably try this out before officially recommending it to people.

If I can get that connected, do you think it would be possible to fix a broken EC by loading in a pristine backup into memory using a series of memory write commands from the debugger? That would depend on being able to get the debugger connected at a point where I can overwrite the firmware image in memory before it tries to execute it.

The only product data that has been observed is a list of serial numbers for the components that the product shipped with (which the EC firmware neither reads nor writes) and a region containing the date of first boot (which the AP firmware writes directly to EC flash and is likewise not read by the EC firmware).

3a8082e126