[SOLVED] Pandora Won't Boot Minimenu


Marc

Still Fresh
Joined
Feb 6, 2006
Messages
19
My Pandora arrived on Tuesday, and I've had a lot of fun with it, but also a couple of problems.

I first tried to use Minimenu as the default GUI. I started filling out the info, but it stopped working half way through, so I reset the Pandora and chose to run XFCE instead (I had to make a new profile).

This worked fine, and I could switch between the 2 GUIs with no problems. However, I left it in Minimenu and turned the unit off to conserve the battery. When I now try and turn it on it loads to a black screen with a cross-hair in the middle of the screen. This cross hair cannot be moved with the nubs or d pad and none of the keys are doing anything.

I tried leaving it like this for 10 minutes or so, but it still didn't load properly. Does anybody know how I can get this to load or get the Pandora to load XFCE instead?

Sorry if this has been asked before. I had a quick glance in this forum but didn't see anybody reporting anything similar.
 
Hmm.. it might be caused by the power saving mode bug. Basically the Pandora is running at 14MHz now so boot up will take _very_ long. When it has booted go to the overclocking settings screen and turn the clock back to normal.
 
marc81 said:
I first tried to use Minimenu as the default GUI. I started filling out the info, but it stopped working half way through, so I reset the Pandora and chose to run XFCE instead (I had to make a new profile).
This happened due to a bug that was fixed in Hotfix 1, and it *may* cause you some problems down the line - you might want to reflash the unit in order to avoid that, and then immediately apply Hotfix 2 (which includes all of Hotfix 1's fixes, as well).

However, I left it in Minimenu and turned the unit off to conserve the battery.
Further to mali's question, how did you turn the unit off? If you used the switch, you didn't turn it off - you put it into the super-slow-clock-speed low-power mode that mali is referring to.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hmm.. it might be caused by the power saving mode bug. Basically the Pandora is running at 14MHz now so boot up will take _very_ long. When it has booted go to the overclocking settings screen and turn the clock back to normal.

I've had it switched on for 15 minutes now and still nothing other than the black screen with white cross-hair. Any idea how long this will take? I guess I can just leave it on over night.

This happened due to a bug that was fixed in Hotfix 1, and it *may* cause you some problems down the line - you might want to reflash the unit in order to avoid that, and then immediately apply Hotfix 2 (which includes all of Hotfix 1's fixes, as well).

First thing I did after loading up XFCE the first time was install Hotfix 2. I have no idea how to reflash the unit. I put the hotfix 2 pnd back onto my SD card and held the R shoulder button whilst the pandora was starting up. The options I got were: default boot, power off, and serial prompt (nothing I pressed in this last option did anything). Choosing default boot just goes back to the black screen with cross hair.

Further to mali's question, how did you turn the unit off? If you used the switch, you didn't turn it off - you put it into the super-slow-clock-speed low-power mode that mali is referring to.

To switch it off I selected shut down from the GUI then closed the lid.
 
marc81 said:
First thing I did after loading up XFCE the first time was install Hotfix 2. I have no idea how to reflash the unit. I put the hotfix 2 pnd back onto my SD card and held the R shoulder button whilst the pandora was starting up. The options I got were: default boot, power off, and serial prompt (nothing I pressed in this last option did anything). Choosing default boot just goes back to the black screen with cross hair.
It seems your system is just borked. Here are instructions how to reflash:
http://pandorawiki.org/User_manual#Replacing_the_Firmware
 
Last edited by a moderator:
marc81 said:
This happened due to a bug that was fixed in Hotfix 1, and it *may* cause you some problems down the line - you might want to reflash the unit in order to avoid that, and then immediately apply Hotfix 2 (which includes all of Hotfix 1's fixes, as well).

First thing I did after loading up XFCE the first time was install Hotfix 2. I have no idea how to reflash the unit. I put the hotfix 2 pnd back onto my SD card and held the R shoulder button whilst the pandora was starting up. The options I got were: default boot, power off, and serial prompt (nothing I pressed in this last option did anything). Choosing default boot just goes back to the black screen with cross hair.
to further clarify, there was a bug in minimenu if you chose it as your first default that would prevent the system from completing first boot. If you don't finish first boot properly, the system gets into a weird state. So even though you applied the hotfix, because your system had already entered this weird state, there was no going back. Only way to fix it is to reflash.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks mali for guide to reflashing link. I have reflashed the firmware and reinstalled hotfix 2 and so far so good. I really thought I had buggered it up!
 
Back
Top