Gp2x Doing Very Strange Things Indeed

[1101]

My GP2X has been playing up, sometimes when booting the screen will turn to shit (one way or another) either before the first boot screen, during the first or during the second. Sometimes it displays random lines, sometimes the boot image slowly deteriates, some times it just goes on flashing randomly.

I have no idea why this is happening, i would really like to find out and fix it. I have firmware version 1.1.0. I dont know if it happens based on the quality of the batteries i use, i somehow doubt this as it usually wont help to change the batteries over.

Some times doing such strange things as wiggleing the power switch will fix the crap on the screen, but it wont boot after it does it (or hasent yet). This is really annoying, because the GP2X will SOMETIMES boot, it is becoming rarer.

Other people seem to have described similar problems, i just want to get to the bottom of it. Any good ideas are woth posting.

Cheers.

 

[mat_basset]

i think it must be the batterys! but im not sure, i have has similar probs, but i leave it fo about 5 secs and then turn it on, then it goes back to normal :S

 

[GiG]

Try with 2500mAh rechargeables.

 

[jbb]

Mine always has some rubbish on screen for a frame or two before the first logo at power-up. Like if it displays the VRam content before initialising it...

Also, it sometimes doesn't complete its boot sequence... (ie: stays on the second loading screen- the green 1.01 one, forever) Switch off/on again and it's fine... weird. Slightly flaky SD card maybe?

Small things really, probanly normal on those preversions.

This said, my biggest rant is the boot time. 15s before hitting the menu is just a pain when you develop and it crashes... oh well.
JBB

 

[Radek]

Other people seem to have described similar problems, i just want to get to the bottom of it. Any good ideas are woth posting.

​

What are you describing is quite normal when batteries are starting to be depleted. Use working ones and recharge them right. Yep - good charger is very important - I bricked my gp2x at upgrading firmware because one of batteries wasn't loaded at all (thanks to the crap charger I had).

If this will not help then this is probably a faulty gp2x. Your talking about turning on/off to improve situation might suggest that something isn't contacting properly inside.

 

[chaos engineer]

It might also be a sd card compatibility problem. Since I replaced my slow 1 GB SanDisk card with a faster 2GB one, the booting problems disappeared.

 

[beanfarmer]

no its battarys i had that problem on xmas day when i got i put some good energizer 2500mah rechargables in and it boots fine every time

 

[taras]

http://instant.gp2x.net/#Linesinterferenceonscreen

 

[1101]

Yes, replacing the batteries does work, however it dosent take very long untill my batteries are not good enough to boot again. Like say 10-30 min of use?, this is simply retarded if it is the real reason because i have 12 rechargable batteries and 4 non-rechargables sitting here and none will work in it, and theyre not flat or anything. Does this problem occour from voltage or current deficiency?, surely it would solve a lot to have the LCD off whilst booting!

 

[OmarNawaz]

hiya

didi you manage to find a solution for this because i am having the same problems i just bought a brand new pack of panasonic batteries and it wont run of them

very weird

 

[bassdevo]

I too am having the same problem with loading, some times the unit loads 1st time, other times I have to switch off and start again. The non-loading even take place with new batteries.

 

[Hanz™]

Yes, replacing the batteries does work, however it dosent take very long untill my batteries are not good enough to boot again. Like say 10-30 min of use?, this is simply retarded if it is the real reason because i have 12 rechargable batteries and 4 non-rechargables sitting here and none will work in it, and theyre not flat or anything. Does this problem occour from voltage or current deficiency?, surely it would solve a lot to have the LCD off whilst booting!

​

LCD off while booting?
Kind of a good Idea, but you would not be able to see if it was doing anything funny.

 

[1101]

OK, it was the batteries - this makes everything more annoying (because i have to stop being such a cheapscate). Anyway, why dont you turn the LCD off during bootup - but make the battery LED (or power, whatever) flash in turn with the processes, so if it jams - the light jams. You could also get creative and make it flash in two diffrent ways one to signify that the kernal has loaded. Anyway it seems to me that it is something to do with the power during bootup that is critical, as my unit very rarely does the same sort of jamming once booted. Also the fact the the LCD will jam, but then stay on and well lit says to me that its not really way too low on power (my battery testers confirm this).

But hey that said its probably a pretty shit idea anyway, would it actually solve anything, what do you all think?