Is this a faulty unit?

[Dave18]

Hi


I've been playing with my Pandora for a month and a half now and have experienced some issues, some of which are severe enough to make me believe I should return my unit. I thought I'd see if my issues were commonplace (and possibly something to put up with) or far worse than most users were experiencing:


Touchscreen intermittently not working: A few times the touchscreen hasn't worked. It will register the presses but not in the correct place despite calibrating several times. Having said this it seems to have been working all the time recently so maybe a loose connection has sorted itself out.


Battery discharges when powered off: Even when I completely shutdown my Pandora it discharges overnight, roughly 10 to 12 percent loss. This means that if I leave if for a few days it completely discharges. To make matter worse, once fully discharged it won't recharge just by plugging in the charger (no leds come on at all and won't power up), I have to physically remove the battery and reinsert to get it to recharge.


Note: The battery issue appears to be the same as the one mentioned here although there is no resolution in that topic.


Can't keep correct time: No matter whether I shut down my Pandora or put it on standby using the power switch, the next time I turn it on the time will be incorrect.


Electric shock from Ext port: Not always, but on occasion I have received an electric shock when touching the ext port while the unit is on charge and in use. Same sort of sensation as putting a 9v battery on your tongue but via my fingers.


Slow wifi: The wifi is so slow it is unusable for anything other than basic web browsing. I know there were wifi issues a while back but I thought these had been resolved by now: Test results from http://tenmeg.myby.co.uk/speedtest.htm (I am in the UK and needed a non-flash speed test).


Laptop 6458.3 kbps


HTC Desire 63176.9 kbps


HTC Desire 6317.9 kbps


Pandora 449.2 kbps


Keyboard: The keyboard does work but the keys on the lefthand side often don't register when typing normally and require a bit of extra pressure, just wondered if other people were experiencing the same.


Screen is floppy: In videos, Evil Dragon always stated that the screen would stay open around the 90 degree mark so you could use the Pandora like a laptop. Mine doesn't, the screen is so floppy that if you manage to get it to stay a 90 degrees the merest pressure from the stylus will cause it to flip open to 180 degrees. 180 is fine for playing games but no good for using other applications. Again, wondering if others were having the same issue.


So there seems to be a lot of issues, should I ask for an RMA or is everyone else in the same boat? Grateful for any feedback.


Thanks


Dave

 

[Yannick]

Electric shock from Ext port: Not always, but on occasion I have received an electric shock when touching the ext port while the unit is on charge and in use. Same sort of sensation as putting a 9v battery on your tongue but via my fingers.

weird, first time i read about it.


this is not supposed to happen, try to write out the steps to reproduce it.


maybe someone here can try to shock himself on another pandora :blink:


discharge/wifi/time are know problems


much info can be found on these forums and on gp32x.de


the keypad and screen problems should be mentioned to your supplier


contact them via e-mail

 

[Dave18]

I really noticed the electric shock when I was in Cyprus, however Cyprus has pretty much the same electricity supply as the UK: 240v, three pin plugs, so I don't see what difference that would make.


The unit was on, and I was charging and playing at the same time. I was using the supplied powerpax charger, and if I rested my finger on the ext port (where the tv out cable plugs in) i received an uncomfortable electric shock.


I've not been able to recreate it recently, so it's hard to be sure exactly what set of circumstances caused it.


Dave

 

[urjaman]

I really noticed the electric shock when I was in Cyprus, however Cyprus has pretty much the same electricity supply as the UK: 240v, three pin plugs, so I don't see what difference that would make.


The unit was on, and I was charging and playing at the same time. I was using the supplied powerpax charger, and if I rested my finger on the ext port (where the tv out cable plugs in) i received an uncomfortable electric shock.


I've not been able to recreate it recently, so it's hard to be sure exactly what set of circumstances caused it.


Dave

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/55185-psu-leaks-little-bit-of-ac-to-gnd-pin-normal ...


EDIT: its a different PSU, but I think the circumstances match. My guess is that it is the PSU, not the pandora - and usually its nothing to be really worried about, just dont touch metallic/grounded parts of the pandora while its charging - if you're not into getting shocked.


EDIT2:

Can't keep correct time: No matter whether I shut down my Pandora or put it on standby using the power switch, the next time I turn it on the time will be incorrect.

Is it off by a set amount of hours? Then it might be the timezone issue. There's a fix on the gp32x boards somewhere (I'm not that into searching right now, sorry...). Essentially, point your /etc/localtime to the City (like Europe/Helsinki), not to the GMT value.

 

[sebt3]

Touchscreen intermittently not working:

This is not supposed to happen. This unit is defective.

Battery discharges when powered off:

This can be because the battery is miss-aligned. Try to remove the battery and setup it by the book

Can't keep correct time:

See urjaman post

Electric shock from Ext port:

This is not supposed to happen. Once again : this unit is defective.

Slow wifi:

There is ongoing investigation on this point but this is to be considered "normal". (BTW I claim the HTC result bogus...)

Keyboard:

This is not supposed to happen. Once again : this unit is defective.

Screen is floppy:

It realy depend on units. Mine stay open at 90° (if I dont shake it obviously)

So there seems to be a lot of issues, should I ask for an RMA or is everyone else in the same boat? Grateful for any feedback.

I would consider getting in tough with your distributor if I were you.

 

[Link]

^


+1

 

[quartercast]

That's one faulty Pandora! Why don't you email Jacquelyn and get her to hold the next available Pandora for you, then send yours back when its ready. It doesn't sound like a simple parts replacement to me, you're having screen/case/motherboard problems, etc. That way you won't have to go without a Pandora for ANOTHER 2 months like I did

 

[WizardStan]

it's really quite amazing in it's own way that they can produce so many perfect units, the occasional one with a few minor issues which can acceptably be overlooked, and then the rare one with so many things completely wrong with it. I'm wondering if there are other things like that, with seemingly no real middle ground between "acceptable error" and "catastrophic failure". I've seen it in software a bit, too.

 

[doublebeta]

Laptop 6458.3 kbps


HTC Desire 63176.9 kbps


Pandora 449.2 kbps

...0.o...


You're complaining about 449kbps? That's plenty. Not optimal, but most certainly enough for pretty much anything except torrenting large amounts of data (but because you get the loss from packet loss, I can imagine gaming sucks major ass too )


And yeah - the HTC Desire output is absolutely bogus - it's above Wifi/g spec - you'd need to be on Wifi N - and I find it REALLY hard to believe you've got that on a phone. Annnnd it seems you did an internet test, not local, unless you've got a 100 megabit line to your house (run any servers??) then it's hard to believe .


Losing the time when you take out the battery seems very normal, unless there's another battery inside the Pandora that keeps the RTC running - if that's dead (EDIT: as well) then there's a very real, serious issue - i'd wonder how the Pandora was shipped and whether any xray scanners might be a little 'over spec' .


I'd certainly be worried about the electric shock - Battery/mains ground having more resistance than your body + boots/chair is very unlikely and if there is, there's an issue . Any sizable shock might mean zero connection to ground - OR did you put your finger OVER the connector - i.e. bridge the power connectors? If I do that on my DS, I get a nice pulse and a very hot console . Nothing odd in that case.

 

[sebt3]

it's really quite amazing in it's own way that they can produce so many perfect units, the occasional one with a few minor issues which can acceptably be overlooked, and then the rare one with so many things completely wrong with it. I'm wondering if there are other things like that, with seemingly no real middle ground between "acceptable error" and "catastrophic failure". I've seen it in software a bit, too.

As i know Craigx isn't doing all this alone, I'm starting to think there is a black sheep in the build team.... I hope Craigx found him...

 

[Mr_Loon]

I think the OP made a typo when posting the HTC desire result, that is all.


Just tested my HTC desire using the same test and got 16371 kbps or approx 2MB/s which tallies with experience when downloading large files from dropbox etc.


The test on Pandora gave 3271 kbps or approx 400KB/s which again tallies with experience when using the Pandora for downloading torrents.


The tests were performed in the same room as the router which is a Belkin N+.


@ OP : Your slow wifi speed does not mean that your Pandora is broken, you'd have to test with the same router to be sure there was something wrong with on the wifi side of things.


However a lot of the other problems do point to a defective unit that should be returned for repairs.

 

[Dave18]

Thanks for the responses, I think I'll drop open Pandora an email.


BTW, I was surprised that everyone was so shocked at the Desire speed test results, and then I noticed my typo , corrected now.


WiFi tests were all done in same room and on same router within a few minutes of each other.


Dave