Reactivating a Bricked?

[EmEiBee]

Shame on me :(

I, or rather my dog, just turned one of the two radios into a paperweight. He was just trying to be nice, but he ripped the USB cable out of the computer with his huge paw while flashing... What a bummer...

Anyway...
Unfortunately, when connected via USB, the connection is no longer possible. Windows just keeps "pinging" and activating and deactivating the USB port every second. The display is dead, and even a reset doesn't work.

So, my question: Is there any way I can fix it? Connect the ESP directly? Something like that?

[Hamberthm]

The flash partition may be now corrupted due to the failed transfer, that's why the radio won't boot, but I don't think is that easy or even possible to brick an ESP32 preventing it from flashing again.

Sounds like you got damage on your USB port. You need to disassembly, check connections with a multimeter and possibly need to repair traces or change the connector.

You can start by changing the cable and testing in another port on the computer/another computer before assuming damage on the radio and do the above mentioned.

[EmEiBee]

The USB is fine. My dog ​​ripped the cable out of the computer, not the radio. It didn't even move on the table; the cable is quite long.

The port on the computer works, though, as does the cable. I just checked that with the other radio.

[Hamberthm]

Mmm, strange. I've been flashing ESPs for a while now and this never happened to me. Just to be sure try applying pressure on both ports and twisting the cable while the pinging is happening and watch for behavior changes. If something changes while doing that it's the connection. If you are absolutely sure the cable and both ports are OK then yes something is wrong with the chip.

[max-arnold]

It is easy to recover a bricked ESP32 device by putting it into the recovery mode. Check out the docs (the last section about BOOT/RESET buttons) https://esp32-si4732.github.io/ats-mini/recovery.html#recovery

[Hamberthm]

Oh I just read sometimes they keep on reconnecting and this can happen. Solution is as Max said. Sorry for the misleading! You learn something everyday...

[EmEiBee]

@max-arnold You're my hero of the day!
That was the solution: unscrewed the device, pressed the buttons (luckily there are some), released it, flashed... HURRAY! He's alive again °YEPYEP°
Okay, my dear Cira has now received a delicious sausage so she knows I'm not mad at her anymore ;)