Amlogic S905L TV Box won't boot CoreELEC / LibreELEC – Initialize DDR error when flashing

Help & Support Installation & Booting
1

Hello,

I need help running CoreELEC on an unknown IPTV TV Box with an Amlogic S905L processor.

Board information:
CPU: Amlogic S905L
Board: 5000-ZAMBA04
RAM: Samsung K4B4G1646Q (2GB DDR3)
NAND: SiliconGo S6M8000C (8GB)
WiFi: Unisoc module
System: Android (original firmware)

Problem:
CoreELEC does not boot from SD card.
LibreELEC also does not start.
Bootloader is probably locked.

Things I have tried:
– CoreELEC 9.2.8 Amlogic + different dtb files (gxl_p230, p231, p212, etc.)
– LibreELEC AMLGX
– shorting pins (JU03 / maskrom)
– USB Burning Tool v2.1.6

USB Burning Tool detects the box, but most firmware flashes end with errors:
Initialize DDR error
Download DDR fail

Tested firmware:
MXQ S905X
A95X S905X
Universal S905X
TX3 S905X
various IMG files from androidpc.es and other sites

Questions:
Is S905L supported by CoreELEC at all?
Which firmware / bootloader / dtb should be used for board 5000-ZAMBA04?
Has anyone successfully run CoreELEC on an S905L IPTV box?
Do I need to flash different firmware first to unlock SD boot?

Thanks in advance for any help.

2

Sort of off-topic:

I think you misread the model on the circuit board based on your photo https://i.imgur.com/i54xUKf.jpeg

Looks more like:

5800-2AMBA04

3

The s905l is a variant of the s905x (part of the GXL SOC family). CE-NG officially supports a handful of gxl devices with custom dtb’s. For other devices you can try the generic dtb’s that match your boxes RAM and Ethernet bandwidth.

CE-NG 21.3 is the last release to support GXL SOCs

If the bootloader doesn’t allow booting from USB or SDcard it won’t be able to boot CE.

4

Thanks for the information.

So if I understand correctly, S905L should work as GXL if the correct dtb is used.

I tried several generic GXL dtb (p230, p231, p212, etc.) with CoreELEC 9.2.8 but the box still does not boot from SD card.

It looks like the bootloader blocks external boot.
USB Burning Tool detects the device, but most firmware fails with DDR init error, so I suspect the original firmware uses different RAM settings.

Do you know if there is any known firmware compatible with board 5000-ZAMBA04, or any safe way to unlock boot from SD on IPTV boxes with S905L?

Also, is CE-NG 21.3 confirmed to work on any S905L devices, or only on selected GXL boards?

5

Based on photo S905L 3A

Likely skyworth

Speculative information, do not guarantee

e900v22c

You should have a look here : GitHub - KryptonLee/e900v22c-CoreELEC: Build CoreELEC for Skyworth e900v22c · GitHub

Very close but not exact match to : 晶晨S905L3（E900V21e）U盘启动 + EMMC写入经验分享（小白友好） · Issue #3342 · ophub/amlogic-s9xxx-armbian · GitHub

See if that information gets you further.

And yes it is 5800-2AMBA04