My GP2X will no longer boot. The power light comes on, but the screen does not, and no startup chirp is heard. I do have a cradle accessory, with the JTAG port. Could someone point me to a troubleshooting guide for attempting to un-brick? Thanks in advance!
Gp2x Bricked?
- Thread starter mtaylor
- Start date
I suppose I should add some info about my particular handheld
This is a F-100 MK II model :gp2x
It has firmware 2.1.12 installed
It worked just fine, with no symptoms whatsoever until it became a "brick"
The cradle gets power form the handheld (red light comes on)
This is a F-100 MK II model :gp2x
It has firmware 2.1.12 installed
It worked just fine, with no symptoms whatsoever until it became a "brick"
The cradle gets power form the handheld (red light comes on)
iprice
Certified Guru
Have you tried it with a power supply or brand new rechargable high powered Mah batteries? Most dead GP2Xs are simply lacking the power to turn on.
Squidge
Certified Guru
Do anything appear on the screen at all? Does the backlight appear to function? What PSU are you using?
I was using fresh 2650 mAh batteries which just came off the charger. However, my official gp2x power supply is yielding the same result. Green LED on, nothing else at all. The backlight certainly is not coming on.
Thanks for the quick replies!
Thanks for the quick replies!
spookyln
Member
i have same problem. power light is on and still no boot. only black screen and .... nothing 
No chance to unbrick it with jtag interface
with psu of course.
same mk2 model.
after sucessfull update to 4.1fw [for sdhc support]. i worked with updated fw few hours and power off unit. next day i cannot boot.
maybe this is hw problem.maybe some capacitor is dead ? i dunno
No chance to unbrick it with jtag interface with psu of course.
same mk2 model.
after sucessfull update to 4.1fw [for sdhc support]. i worked with updated fw few hours and power off unit. next day i cannot boot.
maybe this is hw problem.maybe some capacitor is dead ? i dunno
I pulled off the back and side case to have a look around. I don't see any cooked capacitors or burnt contacts... Not really sure what happened to cause this.
edit
looks like some surface mount resistors (capacitors?) (little brown boxes) are missing! I'll get back with more specifics, but it appears to be marked on the board as C13, L2, C14 and C22. Of those, C14 is hanging on by a thread, and the other 3 are totally gone.
Anyone know if the GP2X is ROHS compliant? That could explain why the solder failed on my board... lead-free solder technology still has some catching up to do.
I suppose I need help identifying which parts are missing... They were not rattling around inside the housing, so I need someone with a working board and knowledge of circuit components to help me out. I 'll try and take a photo to illustrate exactly what is missing.
edit
looks like some surface mount resistors (capacitors?) (little brown boxes) are missing! I'll get back with more specifics, but it appears to be marked on the board as C13, L2, C14 and C22. Of those, C14 is hanging on by a thread, and the other 3 are totally gone.
Anyone know if the GP2X is ROHS compliant? That could explain why the solder failed on my board... lead-free solder technology still has some catching up to do.
I suppose I need help identifying which parts are missing... They were not rattling around inside the housing, so I need someone with a working board and knowledge of circuit components to help me out. I 'll try and take a photo to illustrate exactly what is missing.
I edited together an image from evilDragon's photos on the wiki.
The parts missing are labelled: C14, C13, C22 and L2
I assume L stands for Inductor and C stands for capacitor. Can anyone tell me the values of these circuit elements so that I can replace them?
The parts missing are labelled: C14, C13, C22 and L2
I assume L stands for Inductor and C stands for capacitor. Can anyone tell me the values of these circuit elements so that I can replace them?
Pickle
Mega GP Mania
If they fell off they should be in your case somewhere, did you look really good?
You would think, eh? The first thing I did before disassembly was to hold the buttons in place and shake the unit. No sound of loose parts clicking around. I don't know how they could have escaped! I did open the case around a year ago, but I think missing parts back then would have caused immediate failure. Can anyone read or measure the capacitance / inductance of those parts?
I hate to double post, but can anyone Please, Please, Please identify the passive surface mount circuit elements boxed in red in the figure above? I know that there are some hardware hackers out there who could do this for me in about 5 minutes. If I can't find out what they are, I can't fix my :gp2x and that would be very sad for me.
Squirrel61
Member
I have a F200 myself, so I can't help you with values. Only thing I can do is confirm that the C's are capacitors and the L is an inductor. Since they've been placed closely together, I assume they're part of one of the power circuitries in the F100. The F200 has 4 or 5 for different voltages and I guess the F100 also has some.
Since the components are gone, they must've been gotten very hot, at least hot enough to desolder themselves. So possibly there could be another problem hidden in your F100, making it draw too much power. Or are you overclocking on a regular base? This could also cause overheating, since an overclocked unit will draw more power, possibly more than what the circuitry has been designed for. Considering the parts fell of at soldering temperature, they could have molten themselves to another part or to the casing.
Try to locate the power converter that's associated with the parts. It could be a small square IC very close to these parts or even a three pin part. Read the text printed on it (usually 3 or 4 letters) and use google to convert it to an actual part. You may post the text if you can't find anything and maybe I can help.
After you've found out the part number (it's probably from Linear Technology since GPH gets all power parts from them), find a datasheet. It usually has an example application diagram with component values. GPH closely follows these diagrams, so when you follow the PCB traces from the chip to the parts, you must be able to sort out which part has which value.
Since the components are gone, they must've been gotten very hot, at least hot enough to desolder themselves. So possibly there could be another problem hidden in your F100, making it draw too much power. Or are you overclocking on a regular base? This could also cause overheating, since an overclocked unit will draw more power, possibly more than what the circuitry has been designed for. Considering the parts fell of at soldering temperature, they could have molten themselves to another part or to the casing.
Try to locate the power converter that's associated with the parts. It could be a small square IC very close to these parts or even a three pin part. Read the text printed on it (usually 3 or 4 letters) and use google to convert it to an actual part. You may post the text if you can't find anything and maybe I can help.
After you've found out the part number (it's probably from Linear Technology since GPH gets all power parts from them), find a datasheet. It usually has an example application diagram with component values. GPH closely follows these diagrams, so when you follow the PCB traces from the chip to the parts, you must be able to sort out which part has which value.
My working theory is that they popped off during a fall. I don't overclock it. There is also frankly no way that the components got hot enough to desolder themselves. Just no way! The mounting pads for the missing parts look like fractured surfaces anyways, so let's just assume that they popped off during some mechanical trauma. Knowing the power supplied to the parts does NOT tell me the value of those parts. Thanks for trying to help, anyways.Squirrel61 said:
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Squirrel61
Member
mtaylor said:
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GRRRRR I just got my gp2x f-200 v.2 to work with FW4.1.0, did not upgrade to 4.1.1 yet, i was using mame4all and loaded tempest and played a minute and got a white screen, now fw 4.1.0 tries to load and tehn I get a white screen.what do i do? tried to upgrade to fw 4.1.1 or go down to 4.0.2 and start again ???? HELP !!!
By the way, where do I get the front end for mame4all that shows all the screenshots (if I get it to work again) thx for any info
I just got my gp2x f-200 v.2 to work with FW4.1.0, did not upgrade to 4.1.1 yet, i was using mame4all and loaded tempest and played a minute and got a white screen, now fw 4.1.0 tries to load and tehn I get a white screen.what do i do? tried to upgrade to fw 4.1.1 or go down to 4.0.2 and start again ???? HELP !!!By the way, where do I get the front end for mame4all that shows all the screenshots (if I get it to work again) thx for any info
Squirrel61
Member
C13 and C22 are marked C106 and are identical to the capacitors just to the right of the WM chip. The marking indicates that the value should be 10 uF. The white "dot" on the capacitors (still visible on the pic) has a "P" written inside and probably indicates the + side of the electrolytic capacitor (confirmed by the fact that the other side is soldered to the ground area).
C14 and L2 have no value written on them and my multimeter isn't able to produce results. C14 looks very similar to C17 and L2 looks very similar to L3, but that doesn't mean they are identical...
Btw. the WM9711G is an audio codec. I've looked up the datasheet but there's no sample diagram which includes inductors.
C14 and L2 have no value written on them and my multimeter isn't able to produce results. C14 looks very similar to C17 and L2 looks very similar to L3, but that doesn't mean they are identical...
Btw. the WM9711G is an audio codec. I've looked up the datasheet but there's no sample diagram which includes inductors.
atomicthumbs
I am the king of the collectors, with hospital bed
I opened up my GP2X to see if I could make the headphone jack work consistently today.
C22 was hanging by a thread and fell off when I touched it.
Strangely enough, my GP2X seems more stable. I'm keeping it inside the case to keep from losing it.
(This page is the top result for "gp2x C22".)
C22 was hanging by a thread and fell off when I touched it.
Strangely enough, my GP2X seems more stable. I'm keeping it inside the case to keep from losing it.
(This page is the top result for "gp2x C22".
)
Squirrel61
Member
atomicthumbs said:I opened up my GP2X to see if I could make the headphone jack work consistently today.
C22 was hanging by a thread and fell off when I touched it.
That seems to support my theory that the components sometimes get hot enough to desolder themselves.
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Squidge
Certified Guru
Squirrel61 said:
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Thanks for taking a look. Were you looking at a F-100 or F-200? Are the boards the same apart from the touch screen?
I really doubt the capacitor is getting hot enough to de-solder itself. What you are suggesting is very extreme. Heat may still be the culprit, however. It may be the case that cycles of heating and cooling could crack the cheap, brittle solder that was used in the manufacturing process.
I really doubt the capacitor is getting hot enough to de-solder itself. What you are suggesting is very extreme. Heat may still be the culprit, however. It may be the case that cycles of heating and cooling could crack the cheap, brittle solder that was used in the manufacturing process.
