What are the possible ways to flash firmware on a phone?

[Daniel Fernandes]

So, I have this phone, Asus Padfone Mini PF400CG that got bricked (stuck in bootloop). I downloaded it's firmware (I got it as a zip file) from their official website and wanted to install it. The is an option called SD DOWNLOAD in droidboot provision OS (recovery mode?). It seems that if I put this zip file in a SD card and rename it to "ASUS_BUNDLE.zip", then insert the SD card and select SD download, then the firmware should get installed.
I did that, but things didn't work as expected. I got this on the bottom of the screen:

Factory resetting...
E:Unable to create /cache/recovery directory!
Installing demo content!!
No detect APD image file. skip!
ERROR:Can't find image file

I believe that I got something before this, but I can only see the last 5 lines and everything happens very fast. Whatever happened, I knew that this image file cannot be flashed this way...

So, I googled a bit, found this:
https://android.gadgethacks.com/how...actory-images-android-using-fastboot-0175277/

I saw that his firmware file has a lot of image files in it. But I can only see this in my firmware:

So I can't really flash my phone the way he did. We did have one file in common though: boot.img. I flashed that, but things seemed to get worse. I normally get two different animations in during bootup. Normally, it would get stuck at the second one. Now it's getting stuck at the first one. Anyways, I am just hoping that it gets fixed when I flash the firmware.

Looking at my firmware, I am sure that it has all the files (or most of them). The problem is that they are in folders not as .img files. So I had to find a way to flash them as they are...

I found this video. It's for another asus phone but the firmware is quite similar to mine:

Here, you can see that he first flashes recovery.img then he uses the ADB update command. That's the difference, I don't have recovery.img. But the screen that gives me the option to SD download was the recovery right (droidboot provision os)? So I don't (think) I need that. But the problem is that I don't have the option to update from ADB. Can I access this option using fastboot?

So, I was wondering, like how Samsung has Odin, does Asus also have something similar? Or are there any other ways I can get this firmware in the phone?

 

[Daniel Fernandes]

Hmmm.... Okay it seems like the SD card updating thing is working another step. But it's still giving me an error:

Formatting /data...
Finding update package...
Opening bundle update package...
E: Can't open /cache/ASUS_BUNDLE.zip (bad)
E: Unable to copy multi-media package, please try again


Here, ASUS_BUNDLE.zip is the name of the firmware file that I placed in the SD card.

On the top I see that android "sleeping" with the cover on the stomach opened with a red triangle and black exclamation mark.

But what's causing the error? How to fix it?

 

[El Presidente]

I'm not aware of Asus having their own firmware flashing program, sorry.

A number of stock recoveries will only accept firmware zips which are digitally signed by the manufacturer (or at least passes a CRC which will fail if you rename the zip), are you sure the firmware is legit?

 

[lunatic59]

The first thing I'd do is to verify that the firmware file is intact. Does the site you downloaded it from provide an MD5 checksum to verify? You could always just try downloading it again. It's quite possible that the download was corrupt or it could also be that your SD card is failing. try a different card.

 

[Daniel Fernandes]

I'm not aware of Asus having their own firmware flashing program, sorry.

A number of stock recoveries will only accept firmware zips which are digitally signed by the manufacturer (or at least passes a CRC which will fail if you rename the zip), are you sure the firmware is legit?

Yes I downloaded the firmware from the official asus website, but I did rename it...

I had to rename it because it only detects files named "ASUS_BUNDLE.zip" as far as I know. (When I had inserted an empty SD card, it said "Unable to find ASUS_BUNDLE.zip" or something like that)

 

[Daniel Fernandes]

The first thing I'd do is to verify that the firmware file is intact. Does the site you downloaded it from provide an MD5 checksum to verify? You could always just try downloading it again. It's quite possible that the download was corrupt or it could also be that your SD card is failing. try a different card.

No, I can't see any MD5 checksum there. Here is the site if it can be of any use:
https://www.asus.com/ph/Phone/PadFone_mini_PF400CG/HelpDesk_BIOS/
I'm downloading WW_6.5.36 which is KitKat 4.4

Previously this was 4.3 which I think is JellyBean. Before it got bricked.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try another card. Let's hope for the best .

I want to avoid downloading it again, because it's a huge file (800+ MB) and I only get 1 GB per day internet. It also takes quite a lot of time...

Let's try with another card. Hopefully it should work now...

EDIT: Okay, so I tried another card, that didn't work. I'll charge the phone overnight and try with the other SD card available in my house tomorrow. I'll take some rest now, spent the entire day trying to fix my phone....

 

[lunatic59]

I want to avoid downloading it again, because it's a huge file (800+ MB) and I only get 1 GB per day internet. It also takes quite a lot of time...

Unfortunately metered connections are notorious for corrupting downloads, especially with very large files. When I saw this ...

E: Can't open /cache/ASUS_BUNDLE.zip (bad)

it immediately raised a red flag for me.

 

[Daniel Fernandes]

Unfortunately metered connections are notorious for corrupting downloads, especially with very large files. When I saw this ... it immediately raised a red flag for me.

Oh... That's bad then.

I'll have to wait and find some free WiFi I think

But thank's for telling me! Otherwise I would have wasted all my time trying every other way to make it work. Thank you so much!

 

[gachineh]

rename ZIP file to K017_sdupdate.zip
uppercase letters is important (k017_sdupdate.zip not work!!! )

then select SD UPDATE