1 week of pandora - several problems

[tzn]

hello community,


I have now been a Pandora owner for about a week and tried several things. I also wanted to write a review but unfortunately I have several issues with the device. If somebody has any idea about any of the problems I'd really appreciate any help.


1. Nub-"barrier"


First thing I realized immediately when trying the nubs is that there seems to be some sort of loose barrier inside. I can't really describe it, but it feels as if there is a small moveable part inside the nubs that sometimes blocks it from moving all the way to the edges. I have to rotate the nubs to move the barrier away to be able to use them to full extend. This is for both nubs, so I figure it's not an isolated issue, but maybe by design, or a bad production run? Did anybody else realize sth. similar or can give any hints about the source and solution of the problem?


2. Touchscreen calibration


The touchscreen's precision is off by a about 5 mm near the edges of the screen. At the center it's perfect, however, the nearer I go to the edges of the screen, the further off the mouse pointer gets. This is extremely annoying since it practically renders the touchscreen useless (can't use scrollbars, close or move windows ...). I tried the calibration but it doesn't help in any way. Is this a hardware issue, or simply a matter of xorg configuration?


3. CPU-Speed an N64 emulation


I can't get over 800 MHz. If I try to overclock to more than that, the Pandora crashes after a couple of secs and leaves me with a blinking cursor in the upper left corner. Also, I tried N64 emulation. Nothing is running smoothly which rather surprises me since there are a lot of videos available that clearly show smooth N64 emulation (I tried the same titles, like Mario 64, Star Fox). It's really unusable.


4. Keyboard screwed up


Well, this is the most serious problem because it now prevents me from doing anything at all, and most probably self made. I ran the following commands:

$ sudo opkg update

$ sudo opkg upgrade

Well, now I know I shouldn't have done that (read it here on the forums), but I'm some kind of notorious upgrader. Then I waited. For more than two days (_not_ kidding). After two days of upgrading I decided to kill the upgrade process (ctrl-c). After a reboot the keyboard was all screwed up. First it seemed that only every second key press gets registered (I have to press every key twice to get the intended response). But trying the terminal I realized that the keys alternate between two different functions. E.g. pressing 'p' consecutively alternates between the character 'p' and cursor up. It's quite strange and I have no idea how to fix it.


Now btw, is there any means of completely resetting the pandora to factory state, or reflashing it with a clean OS image? If so, how do I do that? I'd like to exclude any software issue (especially the touchscreen and overclocking problems) before thinking I have flawed hardware.


I'm grateful for any help you can give me. Thanks in advance.

 

[Prometheus]

3. CPU-Speed an N64 emulation


I can't get over 800 MHz. If I try to overclock to more than that, the Pandora crashes after a couple of secs and leaves me with a blinking cursor in the upper left corner. Also, I tried N64 emulation. Nothing is running smoothly which rather surprises me since there are a lot of videos available that clearly show smooth N64 emulation (I tried the same titles, like Mario 64, Star Fox). It's really unusable.

I'm sure, like the opkg upgrade thing, that you've read by now that overclocking can only ever be considered a bonus - that 800MHz was never guaranteed, and it's a pretty good speed to be able to reach. I'm afraid I can't comment further on the N64 stuff specifically, as it's not something I use. I know that there are probably some tips out there about it, though - I just don't know where.

Now btw, is there any means of completely resetting the pandora to factory state, or reflashing it with a clean OS image? If so, how do I do that? I'd like to exclude any software issue (especially the touchscreen and overclocking problems) before thinking I have flawed hardware.

There certainly is! Try here. There are other things like this in the "Tips, tricks and tweaks" thread, which is a sticky in this section.


Welcome aboard, by the way. I hope we can help you out.

 

[tzn]

There certainly is! Try here. There are other things like this in the "Tips, tricks and tweaks" thread, which is a sticky in this section.


Welcome aboard, by the way. I hope we can help you out.

Thanks a lot for the fast reply and warm welcome. I'll try the flashing at once. Thanks again!

 

[craigix]

If you want to overclock you will have to raise voltage too. With the default settings you will be lucky to reach over 800mhz.

 

[tzn]

I reflashed with the Hotfix 5 full image. It worked perfectly and solved at least the keyboard problem (I'm now posting from the pandora ). But I still can't use the edges or corners of the touchscreen. thanks for the help so far. That's really great. BTW: All the best to OPT. You have done a really great job, despite all the difficulties and issues. Keep it up!

 

[gruso]

Overclocking/overvolting tip: In Hotfix 5 the options are in the menu under Settings -> CPU Settings (set up defaults, OPP, notifications etc here)


Actual clockspeed is still adjusted under System -> CPU Speed

 

[EvilDragon]

One thing about the nubs:


There is no physical barrier in them, but sometimes, the case is a bit too high and they keep bumping there.


Simply push the case a bit down around the areas of the nubs. Normally, it will stay like that and won't cause any more issues here.


The touchscreen is an odd one.


You need to restart after calibrating, otherwise, it won't work.


However, it should be pretty accurate from the very beginning...

 

[Mr_Loon]

...


2. Touchscreen calibration


The touchscreen's precision is off by a about 5 mm near the edges of the screen. At the center it's perfect, however, the nearer I go to the edges of the screen, the further off the mouse pointer gets. This is extremely annoying since it practically renders the touchscreen useless (can't use scrollbars, close or move windows ...). I tried the calibration but it doesn't help in any way. Is this a hardware issue, or simply a matter of xorg configuration?


...

This sounds like a rare hardware fault to me, which sadly will probably need an RMA to get it sorted. It is not a generic problem with the Pandora touch screen.


My First unit from June 2010 suffered from this as well (accurate at centre, inaccurate at edges despite recalibration), the replacement unit worked perfectly without any need to recalibrate the screen.

 

[craigix]

Have you looked carefully around the edges of the screen to make sure there isn't the tiniest bit of plastic/grit/something touching the screen anywhere?

 

[tzn]

One thing about the nubs:
There is no physical barrier in them, but sometimes, the case is a bit too high and they keep bumping there.


Simply push the case a bit down around the areas of the nubs. Normally, it will stay like that and won't cause any more issues here.

Thanks ED, I tried your suggestions and it seems to have worked. Both nubs now feel natural.

The touchscreen is an odd one.


You need to restart after calibrating, otherwise, it won't work.


However, it should be pretty accurate from the very beginning...

I tried calibration and restarting several times, but it didn't work so far. At the edges the pointer is still off several millimeters.

Have you looked carefully around the edges of the screen to make sure there isn't the tiniest bit of plastic/grit/something touching the screen anywhere?

Well there seem to be two small areas at the center bottom and top with small remaining grit. But they do not extend to the projection area of the screen and I'm not sure if they really touch it.


There has been one short awkward moment with the screen again today. When I opened the lid this afternoon about 50% of the screen center area was blurry with changing colors. It look like some foil or something was loose. It also reacted to touches. I wanted to make some pictures later, but when I used the unit some hours later the phenomenon was gone and now the screen looks normal again. It's really strange.

This sounds like a rare hardware fault to me ... My First unit suffered from this as well (accurate at centre, inaccurate at edges despite recalibration), the replacement unit worked perfectly without any need to recalibrate the screen.

I thought so too. Combined with the awkward 'foil' experience I really think the screen is broken. But I will wait a while before turning in my unit for replacement to allow ED to satisfy other preorders. I guess he has enough work for now.

Overclocking/overvolting tip: In Hotfix 5 the options are in the menu under Settings -> CPU Settings (set up defaults, OPP, notifications etc here)
Actual clockspeed is still adjusted under System -> CPU Speed

Yes, I tried that. I also tried one time to go up to 1GHz which instantly shut down the unit.

If you want to overclock you will have to raise voltage too.

How do I do that? This sounds like it requires hardware modifications. Since there are software settings for overclocking I thought it was a software only solution. But then again, it's not really important for me to go with high clocks. I'm quite happy with 800MHz for now

 

[gruso]

OPP is the voltage setting. Set it to OPP5, and you should have no trouble getting into the 1ghz ballpark.


Usual disclaimers appy - your mileage may vary, overvolting reduces life of CPU etc.

 

[tzn]

OPP is the voltage setting. Set it to OPP5, and you should have no trouble getting into the 1ghz ballpark.

Doh, I should have known that. I'm feeling quite stupid right now . Thx Gruso.

 

[DoubleDash]

One thing about the nubs:


There is no physical barrier in them, but sometimes, the case is a bit too high and they keep bumping there.


Simply push the case a bit down around the areas of the nubs. Normally, it will stay like that and won't cause any more issues here.


The touchscreen is an odd one.


You need to restart after calibrating, otherwise, it won't work.


However, it should be pretty accurate from the very beginning...

Interesting, I might give this a whirl too as I sometimes experience an obstruction with the left nub, as if something is physically preventing it from moving freely.


Thanks Ed.