sigh...
i'm fighting with 3.7. I've gotten to be aces at tapping it just after the beep and getting the preview screen with no text (tap immediately after the beep very briefly, about half a second). But it doesn't seem to do the trick. One trouble with this forum is that few people explain exactly how they get it to work. You do the short, then what? Plug in the cable immediately? Power cycle first? When the short is successful, do you get the "pure digital techonology" screen, or does it skip that and go right to the preview? Similarly, could someone explain the "black screen" trick in detail? I find that I am getting the black/gray screen when I try to power down after a short attempt, and have to pop a battery to reset it. Is that the black screen we're talking about? Or do people get the black screen after the short, without attempting to power down? Please, for the love of god, be explicit about every step you did to make it work. I feel like I've tried everything several times over. If I ever get mine to cooperate, I'll post the blow-by-blow.

IMHO it does not matter what you do after a successful short (You can't undo it) You just have to decide how you want to check your success. (Vulcan pinch or plug into OPS) My first 3.70 was easy, My second is a brick after about 75 attempts! Patience and Good Luck, RayM

I'm going to second gsprog's plea. From the directions, at least the ones I've culled together from hours of scrutinizing the forum, it doesn't seem to me to be implicit as to order of steps or even the specifics of the actual shorting procedure, results and methods seem wildly varied and unscientific. Logically, at least for the 3.7's, there should a maximum of three different short procedures (at most one per PCB versions) yet it seems unnaturally difficult to sort through how to go about the short. However, I do love this forum's sincere desire to help the community, especially from those men and women who have already been successful.

I think most people's comments are based off the originating post for this thread, which is quite explicit. So, for example, when they say "try after the beep for a 3.70 cam", they really mean "do everything in the original post, except try shorting after the beep instead of before". IMO, there are other factors which may to the variability of the procedures. Off the top of my head, if a cam has been recycled before it might be a factor, since USP.BIN will be in a different location in the FAT and it may affect timing. As well, since timing of short is variable, what happens as a result (and what you should try) may also be variable.

i put a switch between the batt and the resistor. worx well!

Going crazy
I have a 3.70 with pcb ver: B2 and have been trying for days now. I can get the screen with just video and no letters every time, but I am still unable to unlock the camera. I have a 3.4 for a long time now and I am an electronic engineer and have been involved in projects like this one for a good 30 years. I thought my experience would help, but I am going nuts... Is there anybody with some good advise I can use?

I'm in EXACTLY the same boat as you aherrera (except 30yrs, I'm only at 4)- 3.70 with B2 and haven't got anywhere for a couple of days now - the camera just won't unlock. I've had it turn on with various numbers on (which is just the time remaining and videos taken without the surrounding graphics) and stick can't unlock it. (Hmm just thinking out loud - I have 6 videos saved, could loading this info change the time of startup? aherrera - do you have any videos saved on yours?) Have watched the flash pin with a scope and it doesn't seem to be similar to the 3.63 bootup posted earlier (bottom of page 8 of this topic) Any hints would be greatly appreciated!!!

kuenrg, that's a very insightful thought. The camcorder does sanity check the videos during the boot process - it will delete uploaded videos that don't have the XVID internal stamp - so it's quite likely that this would affect timing. If the vids aren't precious, delete each of them and try again.

Can you post the scope shot of the flash CE line? It would be even more useful if you could also grab one of the speaker lines on a second channel. The CE line gets pulled low when the Zoran is reading/writing the flash. We are pulling this line to VCC to cancel one of these operations. I searched but could not find in these forums - has anyone tried to hack by pulling the flash RE (read enable) line high instead of CE? It is possible that people are having problems hacking the 3.70 because it may do a read-write in rapid succession. It may be that the write needs to be successful for the hack to be complete. If you hack with the RE line then the write should be unaffected. RE is pin 8 on the flash. According to the schematics this routes to resistor R100. What would be REALLY useful is a three channel scope trace of CE, RE and the speaker.

Scope of lines
I can get a single capture of: -power -ce -re -speaker tomorrow at work... but a quick scan of the hynix sight didn't give me a pinout of the flash - if someone could just give me the easiest way to watch power, re and speaker that would be great. I know I've seen a schematic around here but can't find it now and not sure if it was a B2 schematic.

yo...all the talk about the paraell port being used...how would i go about that? cause i put a momentary switch between the resistor and batt. so i dun have to take the cam apart when i wanna upload. but now its just annoying. and frustrating trying it a few tmes to get it. but this paraelle port seems like a good idea. how would i go about it?