Crash upon first boot

[LuciferRising]

No, It does go black for at least a few seconds (can't remember exactly how long). Maje sure you leave it during flash as it can take many minutes in fact they warn first boot if takes longer after reflash.


Good luck no matter what?

Thanks. I gave it plenty of time. It wasn't doing anything.

Yeah, it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to finish the reflash process (and maybe(?) that long to start after the flash is complete?). You have at most 3 seconds after it turns on to make sure you've hit the shoulder button to reflash it.

It is really hard for me to even get to where I can boot off the SD. Most of the time I can't get it to power up at all. If I do get to the boot options usually it crashes before I even get to select 'boot from SD1'. Only twice I thought maybe it was going to reflash, but I literally get 1 or 2 seconds of scrolling text and then nothing after that.

 

[WizardStan]

You've spent a lot of time going around in circles and nothing seems to be helping. Something definitely happened in transit, I'm pretty sure. Every device goes through some basic testing, and while I can imagine that the occasional bunch of screws are missed or a button will fail and not be noticed, what you're describing is a complete failure of the system to perform in a way that would even allow them to execute the tests. I think your only course of action is to RMA the unit. Contact whomever it was that you ordered from (the address should be in the confirmation email you got) and they'll lead you through the process. I know the shop keeps have been quite busy as of late (actually for a long time now), getting hundreds of messages a day, so you may need to wait a couple of days for a response while they catch up. Good luck!

 

[LuciferRising]

You've spent a lot of time going around in circles and nothing seems to be helping. Something definitely happened in transit, I'm pretty sure. Every device goes through some basic testing, and while I can imagine that the occasional bunch of screws are missed or a button will fail and not be noticed, what you're describing is a complete failure of the system to perform in a way that would even allow them to execute the tests. I think your only course of action is to RMA the unit. Contact whomever it was that you ordered from (the address should be in the confirmation email you got) and they'll lead you through the process. I know the shop keeps have been quite busy as of late (actually for a long time now), getting hundreds of messages a day, so you may need to wait a couple of days for a response while they catch up. Good luck!

Yeah I already shot off my email. I know they're busy and I'll be patient.


I guess for tonight I just don't want to give up the fight. I keep hoping it'll somehow let me reflash and then everything will be magically ok. But at this point even if I managed to get this sucker running, I think I would still send it back given all its bizarre behavior. Oh well. I'm off to drown my sorrows..

 

[the_marshal]

When you power up the Pandora and only the SDcard led is on and nothing happens, that usually means the bootloader is corrupted / missing.


What's strange is that you then got the unit to start... nevertheless I think you should try to reflash the bootleader.


The Pandora is basically unbrickable. Even if the boatloader is corruped it's still possible to boot of a specially prepared SDcard to restore it.


I am not talking about the usual fullflash were you just copy a few file to a SDCARD. You need to have a specially prepared SDCard for this to work and the procedure for booting is not same either.


Actually when my Pandora arrived it wouldn't boot at all (only green SDcard led) and I had to reflash the bootloader. Took me some time to figure out how to reflash the bootloader but now the unit works absolutely fine.


If you have some time (read: took me a few hour to figure it out) you might want to try this. You will need a Linux system and some CLI knowledge.


All the info you'll need is in this topic:


I created the SDCARD from scratch using the instruction.


I still have the SD card I prepared. I would offer to ship it to you if only you were in Europe...

 

[LuciferRising]

When you power up the Pandora and only the SDcard led is on and nothing happens, that usually means the bootloader is corrupted / missing.


What's strange is that you then got the unit to start... nevertheless I think you should try to reflash the bootleader.


The Pandora is basically unbrickable. Even if the boatloader is corruped it's still possible to boot of a specially prepared SDcard to restore it.


I am not talking about the usual fullflash were you just copy a few file to a SDCARD. You need to have a specially prepared SDCard for this to work and the procedure for booting is not same either.


Actually when my Pandora arrived it wouldn't boot at all (only green SDcard led) and I had to reflash the bootloader. Took me some time to figure out how to reflash the bootloader but now the unit works absolutely fine.


If you have some time (read: took me a few hour to figure it out) you might want to try this. You will need a Linux system and some CLI knowledge.


All the info you'll need is in this topic:


I created the SDCARD from scratch using the instruction.


I still have the SD card I prepared. I would offer to ship it to you if only you were in Europe...

Checked out the link. I think that's all a bit advanced for me. I better leave it to the pros. Good looking out though!

 

[LuciferRising]

The saga continues.. Believe it or not actually made it through the reflash. Got all the way to 'Hit Enter to Shut Down'. Hadn't even gotten close to that before. Unfortunately once again couldn't get pandora to power up. Kept getting the SD card light again. Finally got power light and no SD light. Had black screen for about 15 min or so (wasn't really timing it). Just as soon as I saw something pop up on the screen.. blam! the damn vertical bars again.


Sorry everyone. I know I'm beating a dead horse, but I actually had a glimmer of hope there for a minute. I'll stop posting.

 

[BaDToaD]

Just a thought. When I do a forced reset on my panora via power button plus pandora button the screen displays vertical green lines for a couple of seconds. Maybe when you power up your pandora the power button doesnt slide fully back to tthe left making the unit unstable. unlikely but worth checking maybe.

 

[J_J]

Hey Lucifer and All,


Not sure if anyone's still looking at this but, I guess I encounter the same thing as Lucifer and, my situation is even worse.


Yestday I finally got the delivery which was ordered in late 08(familar huh?), only to get the box with the left-most green LED on when plug in the power cord or place the battery. Attached a phone showing how it looks:


View attachment 327


And that's it. Nothing displayed on the screen. However I try (reboot-R key, press "Cube" key + Switch, ...), I didn't see anything changed. Not a twinkle to see anything in the right side.


Maybe Lucifer is only experiencing a poor contact issue, but my box is a complete failure.


Folks, any suggestion?

 

[LuciferRising]

Hey Lucifer and All,


Not sure if anyone's still looking at this but, I guess I encounter the same thing as Lucifer and, my situation is even worse.


Yestday I finally got the delivery which was ordered in late 08(familar huh?), only to get the box with the left-most green LED on when plug in the power cord or place the battery. Attached a phone showing how it looks:


View attachment 327


And that's it. Nothing displayed on the screen. However I try (reboot-R key, press "Cube" key + Switch, ...), I didn't see anything changed. Not a twinkle to see anything in the right side.


Maybe Lucifer is only experiencing a poor contact issue, but my box is a complete failure.


Folks, any suggestion?

Sorry to hear that. I feel your pain. Mine is on it's way back to OP now.


Sounds just like mine was behaving except that I was able to power up occasionally.

 

[J_J]

Hey Lucifer and All,


Not sure if anyone's still looking at this but, I guess I encounter the same thing as Lucifer and, my situation is even worse.


Yestday I finally got the delivery which was ordered in late 08(familar huh?), only to get the box with the left-most green LED on when plug in the power cord or place the battery. Attached a phone showing how it looks:





And that's it. Nothing displayed on the screen. However I try (reboot-R key, press "Cube" key + Switch, ...), I didn't see anything changed. Not a twinkle to see anything in the right side.


Maybe Lucifer is only experiencing a poor contact issue, but my box is a complete failure.


Folks, any suggestion?

Sorry to hear that. I feel your pain. Mine is on it's way back to OP now.


Sounds just like mine was behaving except that I was able to power up occasionally.

Looks like in my case going for OP is inevitable too.


I've tried the suggestion above, which was mentioned in this thread:





And it doesn't work still.


Is it possible that directly send it back to OP UK rather than back to the original distributor?


Because I placed this order with help from my friends in US, it seems not wise to shoot it over pacific sea to US, and then from US back to UK.