Did I break my baofeng uv-5r?

[AlHO1966]

Alright I know there are a few Baofeng experts here I was trying to program a new radio I got using chirp using this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEpBo5lixsw&t=2s

I decided I didnt want to go through the whole process of adding police/fire channels and tried to load a file from another uv-5r on to the new radio... well something happened and now my radio has nothing but 7 black boxes and some things along the top of the screen... it wont go to any menus and has no response when buttons are pushed.

Any help is appreciated.

Edit: I think the issue may have happened from loading a baofeng file from a radio with a different firmware but cant really figure out how to fix it.

[Jongage]

We have an old rule when working with codeplugs.... Read the radio...SAVE THE READ CODEPLUG as archive, copy etc. Then play with new file. Try loading a different file.

[SkyHawk]

Try the recovery procedure

https://www.miklor.com/uv5r/UV5R-Recovery.php#N5R

Let us know if it works

[AlHO1966]

We have an old rule when working with codeplugs.... Read the radio...SAVE THE READ CODEPLUG as archive, copy etc. Then play with new file. Try loading a different file.

Certainly have learned this the hard way

[AlHO1966]

Try the recovery procedure

https://www.miklor.com/uv5r/UV5R-Recovery.php#N5R

Let us know if it works

Followed the steps and tried a couple different .img files and none of them worked but im not really sure which firmware came on this radio. I didnt see anything in the owners manual and couldnt find a SN lookup.

Also have noticed that when I try to upload to radio even though it seemingly works the red light flashes not the green.

[Old Marine]

I tried using Chirp


Frustrated beyond belief.

In th he mean time I installed a Yasue FTM-400XDR and used a software recommended by the folks at Ham Radio Outlet.

Was a breeze.
So I got it for my Baofeng.


Awesome sauce

Where you live?
Maybe we meet up at a Starbucks and try it from my laptop go you HT.

PM me.

[FeuerFrei]

Followed the steps and tried a couple different .img files and none of them worked but im not really sure which firmware came on this radio. I didnt see anything in the owners manual and couldnt find a SN lookup.

Also have noticed that when I try to upload to radio even though it seemingly works the red light flashes not the green.

Locked up uv5r ht can sometimes get the screen back by R&R the battery. Make sure your battery is 100% charged. Swap batts from known good ht to make sure the batt is 100% OK. Eliminate the obvious.

https://www.miklor.com/uv5r/UV5R-FWRelease.php

Display Firmware
1) Power the radio OFF.
2) Press and Hold the 3 key.
3) Power the radio ON.

Match your new image files according to FW #

[JoshlikesARs]

You cant use another UV5R file and import it into a seperate UV5R as theres differences out there especially if you have an older one. You can brick the radio doing this. Ask me how I know lol.

You need to open CHIRP, plug in radio, turn it on to a nonactive station and then clone it in CHIRP. Go to the radio menu and select "Download from Radio" and it will clone it. When done, save that as a stock configuration in a folder on your PC.

Then you can add stations, repeaters, etc. manually or open another UV5R you already did this with and copy and paste stations from that file into your stock config you made of your new UV5R. Then save that and when done, go back to Radio menu and click "Upload to Radio" and it will load up. Now, since you built it from the clone of the stock config it should work just fine.

[AlHO1966]

Locked up uv5r ht can sometimes get the screen back by R&R the battery. Make sure your battery is 100% charged. Swap batts from known good ht to make sure the batt is 100% OK. Eliminate the obvious.

https://www.miklor.com/uv5r/UV5R-FWRelease.php

Display Firmware
1) Power the radio OFF.
2) Press and Hold the 3 key.
3) Power the radio ON.

Match your new image files according to FW #

Thanks for the reply. Tried a different battery no change... I tried the holding 3 thing but still only black boxes on the screen so cant see firmware.

[AlHO1966]

You cant use another UV5R file and import it into a seperate UV5R as theres differences out there especially if you have an older one. You can brick the radio doing this. Ask me how I know lol.

You need to open CHIRP, plug in radio, turn it on to a nonactive station and then clone it in CHIRP. Go to the radio menu and select "Download from Radio" and it will clone it. When done, save that as a stock configuration in a folder on your PC.

Then you can add stations, repeaters, etc. manually or open another UV5R you already did this with and copy and paste stations from that file into your stock config you made of your new UV5R. Then save that and when done, go back to Radio menu and click "Upload to Radio" and it will load up. Now, since you built it from the clone of the stock config it should work just fine.

Yep... As I mentioned above I didnt know the UV-5R's couldnt use .img files from other UV-5R radios. Thats what I tried to do... Are you saying this radio is junk now?

[maxxrange]

Don't mean to hijack, it looks like the op got a reasonable answer. I just want to say my Baofeng 5 something or other caught on fire while charging last year. First it started smoking, then sec later it burst into flame. I was on my computer and it was on the desk next to me.

That was real fun. I wouldn't recommend their product to my worst enemy.

That CHIRP software never worked for me. I ended up programming it by hand off readily avail local settings. Even with an upgrade antenna its range was poor. You get what you pay for and nobody makes a cheaper radio that Baofeng.

[local_nobody]

found some bits on miklor.com that may help.

this one shows how to use Chirp to get your radio's firmware version (assuming it can still be read with Chirp.

https://www.miklor.com/uv5r/UV5R-FWRelease.php

with that in mind, jump over to the recovery page, which has stock radio images, based on your firmware version...pull the one for your firmware, and follow the recovery steps.

https://www.miklor.com/uv5r/UV5R-Recovery.php

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other than copy and pasting channels between images, you can also export the channels in CSV format from one image, and then import them to the desired image to then load back to your target radio. images themselves shouldn't be interchanged though.

i've had good luck with chirp across a few models...the recovery page also has instructions for using baofeng's software for the recovery as well.