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SD600 Firmware?

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Offline SpareParts

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SD600 Firmware?
« on: 25 / December / 2009, 16:36:31 »
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I started using CHDK on my Canon SD600 a little over a year ago, and a few months in the battery died mid-use, causing the camera to fail in shutting down properly. I'm not sure if some files were corrupted or what, but since then I have been unable to use my camera, with or without CHDK. It will power up but then the power button stops working and it won't power back down. It displays images on the screen, but always thinks it's in video mode. The menu button will get me into the menu but not back out and I can't navigate while I'm in the menu. The list goes on.

I went to Canon's site to see if there was a firmware update I could download to flash the camera and just start over, but they don't offer one for the SD600. If I want to fix it, the only option I can find is to send it in to Canon tech support and pay them a minimum of $99 to do for me something I think I could do with reasonable ease on my own.

Does anyone know of a way for me to flash the firmware on my bricked SD600? I'd even be open to third-party or open-source firmware--I just want to get my camera working again.

I apologize if this is a screamingly obvious issue I should have been able to figure out on my own.

Thanks.

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Offline reyalp

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Re: SD600 Firmware?
« Reply #1 on: 25 / December / 2009, 17:40:18 »
Running out of battery would not damage the camera onboard firmware, which is stored in flash ROM on the camera, not the card. The card might have been corrupted, but if that is the case reformatting the card (in your PC if you can't do it in camera) will fix it.

As a test, you can also start the camera without a card. It should work normally, except you obviously won't be able to save pictures. You should still be able to enter/exit the menu.

I would be very surprised if re-flashing your firmware will this problem. It sounds more like you suffered a hardware failure.

There is no third party firmware for any of these cameras. CHDK works in addition to your existing firmware, not as a replacement for it.
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Offline SpareParts

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Re: SD600 Firmware?
« Reply #2 on: 25 / December / 2009, 20:15:38 »
If it's a hardware failure, it was completely without any physical shock to the camera--and only a little over a year after its purchase. I don't think the battery failure /necessarily/ caused the problem, the two things juts coincided. Given the symptoms, I feel a software glitch is more likely (speaking from my non-camera IT experience) than anything else and I'd like to rule it out before I go any further. I know that CHDK is not a firmware replacement, it's only a firmware 'extension', but I figure, in order to write a tool that works with the existing camera software the way CHDK does, someone has to have access to compilable code for the original Canon firmware. That's what I'm looking for.
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Offline reyalp

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Re: SD600 Firmware?
« Reply #3 on: 25 / December / 2009, 21:01:25 »
Quote from: SpareParts on 25 / December / 2009, 20:15:38
I feel a software glitch is more likely (speaking from my non-camera IT experience) than anything else and I'd like to rule it out before I go any further.
The "software" on the camera is stored in onboard flash memory, in an area which is not written to unless you run an actual firmware update. Specific areas of the onboard flash are written under normal operation (there's a crash log and an area to save settings), but it would take extremely unlikely sequences of events this to affect the parts that contain the code, and an even more unlikely one to leave your camera partially functional.
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but I figure, in order to write a tool that works with the existing camera software the way CHDK does, someone has to have access to compilable code for the original Canon firmware.
This is absolutely not true. CHDK is created by disassembling the machine code from ROM, we do not have the code to the original canon firmware. While you could theoretically write a firmware dump back to your cameras onboard flash, no one has released a program to do this.
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Offline SpareParts

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Re: SD600 Firmware?
« Reply #4 on: 25 / December / 2009, 21:27:36 »
That's really good to know. I guess I'll just have to accept that my poor ol' camera is bricked and start parting with dollars. Thanks for the info, and on Christmas day no less. You guys are dedicated.
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