Corrupt Firmware (error code E-02) - Recovering a bricked Toppy

If a Toppy displays error code E-02 when the firmware is corrupted or when new firmware has become corrupted when being written to flash memory.

The following procedure in many cases gets the Toppy up and running again (thanks to FireBird for information on how this can be done).

  1. Reformat a USB stick (Using a freshly formatted stick is advisable because the loader sometimes has trouble finding it if there are a lot of other files.)
  2. Copy your favourite Firmware file onto the USB stick. (You can use firmware that was being installed when corruption occurred as a different procedure is used to write the firmware to flash memory.)
  3. Rename the tfd file to "update.tfd" (all small letters!).
  4. Insert the USB stick into the rear USB port. (There are reports of better luck with the front USB port. So if the process fails, try the other port.) Don't use any USB extender cables!
  5. Power up the Toppy and press and hold one of the front panel buttons or 0 on the remote. After the short Lxxxx message on the front panel, the Toppy should display "CHECK" and then a countdown should be visible shortly afterwards.

If CHECK is not displayed, something went wrong during the key hold. Power down and try again. If LOADING is displayed after CHECK, the loader didn't find update.tfd. Try the another USB port and other sticks.

If all goes well, you should see two countdowns. The first one is the download of the Firmware from the USB stick, the other the flash process. After that a blinking END will be displayed and you need to reboot your Toppy.

The same procedure is also works for Toppies stuck in an endless reboot due to damaged settings.

This procedure has been successfully used with most TMS Toppy models. It has been used with the TRF-2400, TRF-2460, TRF-2470, TRF-7260, TF7100+ and the 7160. It should work with the 7170 (same hardware as the 7100+). It works with recent Android Toppys such as the TF-T6211.

It does not work with TMS+ Toppys (TRF-2100, TF-T5000 or TF-T6000).

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