Unable to prepare emmc for a Zero 3w. Shows up as Unknown Device

#1

Hello everyone. I recently bought a new Zero 3w, but have not had any luck setting it up.

The first time I plugged it in, it showed up as Unknown Device #1 in Device Manager. I went through the steps to prepare the Zero (Not the Zero 3w, so I believe this may be an issue), such as installing a driver onto my computer, and attempting to rename it within Zadig to GX-CHIP & changing the driver as I was seeing in the guide, despite not having the same USB ID in the guide.

I’ve since found the proper instructions for the Zero 3w, but I am unable to complete them. When trying to apply the loader and image, it gives me the error “Creating image object failed, stop running!”.

I am using the loader from the guide, file name/path here: C:\Users\windows\Downloads\radxa-cm3-io-idbloader-g8684d740b9f.img

I am also using the image from the guide, file name / path here: C:\Users\windows\Downloads\rk356x_spl_loader_ddr1056_v1.12.109_no_check_todly .bin

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Device manager photos:

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image.png1173×853 126 KB

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image.png590×681 66.6 KB

Im worried I have broken it :confused:

Can someone give me some guidance please?

#2

Um, don’t you need to flash an actual Linux image to the eMMC, not just a loader?

#3

I have tried applying their image in place of this

file name / path here:

C:\Users\windows\Downloads\radxa-zero3_debian_bullseye_xfce_b6.img\radxa-zero3_debian_bullseye_xfce_b6.img

^ This is the image within a folder of the same name, created when I extracted it from the compressed xz download.

But I get the same result :thinking:

I also have no idea what Im doing, as you can tell :slight_smile:

#4

I have also tried to use Etcher but can’t get the device to show up. Forgot to mention that.

#5

I am sorry but I don’t have a zero 3W so can’t help much more. However, it seems to me that the manual might guide you (or there is a problem with it). I’m not sure what the loader does but it’s probably needed to flash the eMMC (but of course don’t flash the loader itself onto the eMMC).

#6

There’s an alternative (longer) method to get an image on to the eMMC, described here: Flashing of eMMC on Radxa Zero 3W fails

Just tried it (as I read of some users bricking their boards by maskrom issues?) and can confirm it works

#7

That’s my go to method tbh. You avoid using the Rockchip crap software.