Internal Nand

[sephiroth111]

Will there be such a big issue with the NAND as the GP2x's? that's one thing that kinda irked me about the GP2x, everyone said it had a horrible lifespan, which is true probably, but i know mine never broke, and i really never used it (though it was handy when i didn't have my SD card in place... at least i had a few books to read)

i guess what i'm asking is if there is an option to make a user serviceable NAND or something similar (some easy way to pop out the old chip without having to get out microfine soldering tools, a high powered magnifying lens, and solder in a brand new SMD chip.

 

[trooper]

I could be completely wrong (but i don`t think i am), But i am pretty sure that any problems users had with the internal nand was not down to a hardware fault, But down to GPH`s dodgy firmware code.

Though i could still be completely wrong.

Someone care to correct me ?.

Trooper

 

[Gaeryc]

I could be completely wrong (but i don`t think i am), But i am pretty sure that any problems users had with the internal nand was not down to a hardware fault, But down to GPH`s dodgy firmware code.

Though i could still be completely wrong.

Someone care to correct me ?.

Trooper

If I remember right the nand could handle something like 200,000 writing cycles but the firmware made corrupted and unusable sectors that would get bigger and bigger and that made updating risky. Nands don't last forever and can't be replaced easily, but something like few hundred thousand times is enought for the os if it makes sure that the nand is "clean".
(I'm not really sure why gp2x broke it's nand)

 

[Tobriand]

Afaik the 2x was doing significant writing every time one turned it on on Firmware 1, and that was what would reduce the lifespan. There was an issue with the NAND getting corrupted, but I can't remember the details for that - got a suspicion it was when one updated the early firmwares, though rather than just in general.

Either way, any issues were software.

Considering that Pandora has a hardcoded function to boot from SD, I doubt similar problems will arise for it - if your nand does die (and it should't), you just plug in an SD which has a bios image on it and boot from that.

Actually, your battery is much more likely to get unusably small before the nand dies for Pandora, and even that will take quite a long time!

 

[Squidge]

Will there be such a big issue with the NAND as the GP2x's? that's one thing that kinda irked me about the GP2x, everyone said it had a horrible lifespan, which is true probably, but i know mine never broke, and i really never used it (though it was handy when i didn't have my SD card in place... at least i had a few books to read)

The problem with the NAND on the GP2X is GPH's fault. When you buy NAND there's always some bad sectors, but these are clearly marked so you can avoid them. However, GPH ignored this and gave every GP2X the exact same bad blocks. The end result was that GPH basically overwrote the manufacturer list of bad blocks, so some good blocks were marked as bad and some bad blocks marked as good. Hence writing to the nand memory was always risky. Combine this with several other "ropey" techniques, and you have the big issue with the nand as it is today.

i guess what i'm asking is if there is an option to make a user serviceable NAND or something similar (some easy way to pop out the old chip without having to get out microfine soldering tools, a high powered magnifying lens, and solder in a brand new SMD chip.

We have thought long and hard about this, but the end result is that we feel it is unnecessary if you treat the nand memory with some respect. Observe the manufacturer guidelines, and the nand should last easily as long as the rest of the hardware.