Problems with eMMC

[paul.szymanski]

Hi, I am using my ODROID-N2+ to run home assistant.

After a couple of months, it suddenly stopped working. Red LED solid. Blue LED off.

In SPI mode Petitboot does not start up. Blank screen, Red LED and blue LED solid.

With removed eMMC Petitboot starts up fine and I can access the shell. Red LED solid. Blue LED flashing.

I noticed that Petitboot would start if I lift up the eMMC a tiny bit on one end. I guess the eMMC now doesn't make full contact to all pins or maybe it now has better contact? Anyways, with the card being crooked like this Petitboot starts up but if I press any key on the keyboard I get the message "Failed to launch petitboot, dropping to a shell".

With that setup `ls /dev/mmc*` reports multiple entries (mmcblk0, mmcblk0boot0, mmcblk0boot1, mmcblk0p1 to p9, and mmcblk0rpmb).

If I connect to OTG and run `ums /dev/mmcblk0` only one partition "hassos-boot" shows up with a size of 25.2 MB.

Does anybody have a clue what is going on? Is there a chance I can save the data?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[odroid]

I think your eMMC might be corrupted accidentally.
I have no idea how to save your data.

Consider posting your issue to HomeAssistant community forum since we have very limited HA users here.
https://community.home-assistant.io/

[paul.szymanski]

Thanks, I posted this in the HA forum as well.

Just for my understanding: Will Petitboot not boot if the partitions, filesystem (or something else) is corrupted on the eMMC? Why would that be? To me, this looks like some kind of hardware or firmware problem...

Any chance I get more insight by looking at the console output (4-Pin CON5 UART header)?

[paul.szymanski]

It really looks like the connection to the emmc is not right. If I press down the emmc in a very specific way HASS starts up. So it looks like there is a problem with the connectors. Found a thread with someone having the same problem viewtopic.php?t=1816.

Now I am wondering what I can do about that. I don't even know which side of the connection is the culprit. Could try to resolder the pins...

[odroid]

Try cleaning the connectors with cotton ear buds and alcohol.

BTW, where & when did you purchase the N2+ and eMMC?

[mctom]

Better yet, use Kontakt 60, a specialized solution for cleaning contact surfaces and protecting against future oxidation.
(Or a polish knockoff Kontakt S)
Unfortunately the connector is very small and fragile, so cotton buds may be the best tool for the job... However be careful, as cotton strands may tangle up with contacts and it's too easy to rip one off.

[paul.szymanski]

BTW, where & when did you purchase the N2+ and eMMC?

Dec 3, 2021 from reichelt.de

[paul.szymanski]

Sorry no, on December 3, 2021

[paul.szymanski]

Backup your important data first once it boots fine when you gently pressed the eMMC module.

[mad_ady]

Also - for the petitboot locks up when emmc attached problem - try running pb-update from within petitboot.

[paul.szymanski]

Also - for the petitboot locks up when emmc attached problem - try running pb-update from within petitboot.

Already did that. Version dev.20220317 is installed. At least HDMI on my other display works now, that's great