Bootcode update step-by-step process

[The Globule]

If you have “bricked” your PBO or want to update your PBO Bootcode to the latest version, this post is for you.

First of all, I want to give credits and my thanks to mikez who pointed the original post to us and Entity who is the original poster of this procedure on the great http://minimodding.com forum

I tried to make this fool proof but you are following this procedure at your own risk!
If you cannot afford or are not willing to take the risk to trash your PBO, do not do it!

I updated this thread after successfully upgrading my PBO Bootcode a few times back and forth from different versions

To restore or flash the Bootcode and firmware on your PBO you will need the following:

- an USB to TTL interface and leads like this
- the Bootcode and the UI Firmware files which are available from Patriot here
- WinRAR archive software available here
- A TFTP server for your PC available here
- PuTTY (or similar terminal application) available here if your Windows version does not include the HyperTerminal application

Step by step process to change or restore your bootcode:

If you only need to restore your firmware from a bad flash or other modification, you do not need to install and use a TFTP server or Ethernet connection (only the TTL serial connection is needed). Skip steps 1 to 4 and go directly to step 5 of the detailled commands.

To update the Bootcode only (on a working unit), you can skip steps 2, 5, 6 and 7

Since I keep my Bootcode files in the same directory, I always go to through complete update, it takes just a few seconds anyway


- Install the TFTP server on your PC
- Open the UI Firmware file (install.img) with WinRAR and extract the “bluecore.audio” and “video_firmware.bin” from the “package2” directory of the archive to your TFTPD’s root directory
- Put the Bootcode update file (1073_c0000_Deimos_avhdd_P023P00_PAL_128x1_pal_rsq. 0000.0202.0023.bin) in your TFTPD’s root directory and rename it 0023.bin
- Launch TFTPD (no configuration needed)
- Make sure your PBO power switch is OFF
- Connect your PBO to your computer Ethernet port and manually assign an IP address and subnet mask 255.255.255.0 to that port (I assigned 192.168.1.65 to mine). You can also use a router or switch but it could complicate things...
- Connect your USB to TTL interface to the internal serial port of your PBO (serial port setup is 115200,8,N,1,N)
- Start Windows HyperTerminal (C:\Program Files\Windows NT\hypertrm.exe)
- Choose a name and an icon for your new connection and click OK
- Select your USB to TTL interface serial port in the "Connect using:" field (mine was COM 19)
- Configure the port settings as follow: 115200,8,None,1,None and click "OK"
- Hold down the ESC key and turn your PBO power switch on
- After a very short time, you should see a screen starting with ?Hello World! and you should have a Realtek> command prompt with a blinking underscore
- Release the ESC key
- If you do not have the prompt, do not go any further, turn off the PBO and recheck you followed all the above steps exactly
- If you have the prompt, all is good and your PBO is ready for the upgrade

The actual firmware restore/upgrade should take about 10 seconds or less

Just press Enter in the HyperTerminal console (the cursor should go on new line) and paste the following text in your HyperTerminal console (change the IP addresses to match your own situation, in my case the PBO is set to 192.168.1.66 and my computer to 192.168.1.65):

set ipaddr 192.168.1.66
set gateway 192.168.1.66 
set subnetmask 255.255.255.0

fread tftp://192.168.1.65/bluecore.audio  0x81b00000 
fread tftp://192.168.1.65/video_firmware.bin  0x81d80000

fread tftp://192.168.1.65/0027.bin  0x80100000

go 0x80100000

erase -m

The firmware will be flashed from the front USB port on the first reboot.

Here is an explanation of the different commands:

1. Commands to set up the Network:

set ipaddr 192.168.1.66
set gateway 192.168.1.66 
set subnetmask 255.255.255.0

2. Commands to download the audio and video firmware into memory (only needed if you seriously "bricked" your PBO):

fread tftp://192.168.1.65/bluecore.audio  0x81b00000 
fread tftp://192.168.1.65/video_firmware.bin  0x81d80000

3. Commands to download the Bootcode into memory:

fread tftp://192.168.1.65/0023.bin  0x80100000

4. Now, we execute the bootcode update to flash the PBO with working bootcode:

go 0x80100000

After the flashing program finishes (a few seconds), you should see a "User application returned with code = 0x00000000" message and the Realtek> command prompt

5. Command to erase the existing Firmware (only to correct a wrong Firmware configuration and force the firmware to reflash from a USB stick at next boot):

erase -m

6. You have successfuly flashed the Bootcode and can turn the PBO power Off

7. To upgrade or restore the Firmware:

- Put the UI Firmware update image (install.img) in the root directory of a freshly FAT32 formatted USB key

- Plug the USB key in the front USB port of your PBO, like you would do with a normal firmware update

- Turn the PBO power on and the rescue kernel will start the firmware update process, after it finishes, the box will have a fresh Bootcode and Firmware!