new Pandora user/owner - long time follower


akuma

Still Fresh
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Messages
31
Hello all.. I have been following the Pandora project since day one. I never commented and not to long a go I created an account on the board. I was so happy when I received the e-mail that you can now pre-order the Pandora, that was back in 199x. I took a wait and see approach. waited and waited, followed all the problems that the team had to endured. In 2010, I pre-order a Pandora and followed all the problems with cases, china, 2 plus week. In late 2010, I canceled my order because I could not take the drama anymore. I kept on following the Pandora, problems with China, Texas, production on Germany now. I'm happy to see all the news and sad to see the Pandora price point, $500 is way to much for my pocket and I was not sure if the pandara was for me any more. I was also discouraged by the failure rate and RMA. I would hate to place an order and then have to return the unit for repairs.


My approach to getting a pandora was simple.. I wanted a unit that was already used and everything worked as it should and had no surprises. A board member in the trading section was selling a Pandora and he described that the unit had a problem with the A button (mushi button) but that the button worked. I paypal the amount and the member send me the pandora which I received the next day. It was a quick process and no problems. My first impression where positive on the look and feel on the unit. I power it on and started playing some MAME and SNES. At first I was like, that sucks no SNES at full speed? The previews owner then told me that SNES runs at full speed. I researched everything that I could on the pandora. I re-flashed the Pandora with the newest software and added the latest emulators. I was able to run MAME and SNES at full speed.


But as I started playing more and more, I was getting very frustrated with the A button problem. It got to the point where I had enough, I opened up the Pandora and took a look inside. My heart was going extremely fast and I was being very careful. I was thinking that if I damaged the pandora it would not make a difference because the A button problem made the Pandora useless to me. I took apart and put the Pandora back about 10 times and nothing worked to fix the A button. I then had an idea, I opened up my icontrolpad and took the A button and replaced the Pandora A button with it, I was shocked to find out that this process did the trick. The A button was now perfect on the pandora. I was very happy to play MAME and SNES with a perfect A button but while playing SNES I pressed the right shoulder button and guess what? The button does not click right/correctly, it seems stock. I do not know if that problem was there to begin with or if I cause that problem when I opened up the Pandora to fix the A button. I open the Pandora a few more times trying to fix this issue but I could not. I looked under the help section and there is a fix for it, you have to sand down the inner part of the right shoulder button because it does not align bla bla bla. I have not try that fix and the right shoulder button is not something that I use that much so no big deal there.


Now lets go back to the main reason why I wanted a pandora, I love MAME and sold one of my MAME cab, the other cab is currently in craiglist. I gave away my Nintendo wii because I do not touch it. I have a PS3 which I will be giving away. I just do not have the time to myself due to family, to play on a console or MAMEcab. I wanted the Pandora to replace my MAME cabs which I play shinobi, kof, SFA, SF and galaga and to play SNES. It is a very cool device and has the best dpad on any device, it is small, portable and I can play in the leaving room while my son trashes the living room without much interruption.


What I am trying to say is - to the Pandora team, when you ship these units make sure that the units are 100% without defects because this will make or break the user experience. The previews owner mentioned that this was his second pandora and his first was sent for repairs. I can imagine how he felt and the frustration.


My advice to anyone thinking on buying a Pandora - think about how you are going to use the pandora before buying one. Look at the trading section and purchase a use pandora that has been tested and with zero defects, then flash the firmware to the latest and use the latest emulators.


I love the Pandora and it is a very cool hand held device and to me it is a replacement for Arcade MAME games and SNES. I have not tried amiga but looking forward to. Overall, thank you Pandora team for a great system and I will keep on with development and monitor your progress.
 
Pretty much all of the issues you mentioned have been fixed with the new platinum cases. The shoulder button issues have been corrected by the German board company spending a bit of time to get the accuracy of soldering the buttons in place better on their machines.. The Texas company never spent any time to do that.


I seem to be lucky, I avoided most of these issues on my first batch Pandora and my black cased Rebirth Pandora.
 
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I got the platinum case one. Just got it today.


MY problem is I can't make it DO ANYTHING!!


I took forever to manage to finally get the SD card to format...then to mount...so it now finally shows up as an icon on my desktop.


I managed to create the needed folders and subfolders in the SD Card.


I managed to use the PNDStore to download PNDManager. This is as far as I have gotten.


When I ask the thing to EXECUTE PNDManager...not a goddam thing happens. WTF?!?!?


I am really really frustrated.


I just want to play my MAME games and stuff!!!
 
I got the platinum case one. Just got it today.


MY problem is I can't make it DO ANYTHING!!


I took forever to manage to finally get the SD card to format...then to mount...so it now finally shows up as an icon on my desktop.


I managed to create the needed folders and subfolders in the SD Card.


I managed to use the PNDStore to download PNDManager. This is as far as I have gotten.


When I ask the thing to EXECUTE PNDManager...not a goddam thing happens. WTF?!?!?


I am really really frustrated.


I just want to play my MAME games and stuff!!!

Did you format it ( the sd card ) to FAT 32
 
I got the platinum case one. Just got it today.


MY problem is I can't make it DO ANYTHING!!


I took forever to manage to finally get the SD card to format...then to mount...so it now finally shows up as an icon on my desktop.


I managed to create the needed folders and subfolders in the SD Card.


I managed to use the PNDStore to download PNDManager. This is as far as I have gotten.


When I ask the thing to EXECUTE PNDManager...not a goddam thing happens. WTF?!?!?


I am really really frustrated.


I just want to play my MAME games and stuff!!!

you need to go into the menu, and go into "System" you will find PND Manager there.


Read the manual !
 
Yes, all those issues are fixed by now. Maybe you shouldn't have gone for the used Pandora route, but I just think you didn't know better.


For the shoulderbutton: If you open the unit: does the button click, when you press it? I mean the button itself, not the black plastic button.


If so, the button is fine. You can try to carefully bend it up a bit. Also have a look, if the solderpads are not broken.
 
Yes, all those issues are fixed by now. Maybe you shouldn't have gone for the used Pandora route, but I just think you didn't know better.


For the shoulderbutton: If you open the unit: does the button click, when you press it? I mean the button itself, not the black plastic button.


If so, the button is fine. You can try to carefully bend it up a bit. Also have a look, if the solderpads are not broken.

the button itself does click when I open up the pandora... "bend it up"???? bend what up? what solderpads??? not sure what you mean..
 
This is of course if it is loose. But sometimes the whole button might get bent down a bit and you can gently push it up again.
 
http://boards.openpa...shoulderbutton/


This is of course if it is loose. But sometimes the whole button might get bent down a bit and you can gently push it up again.

well I broke off the button from the main board trying to adjust it so i do not recommend that approach to anyone but I was lucky, my coworker solder it back in about 5 minutes and it works better than the left shoulder now:).
 
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So, maybe it had a cold solderjoint or something before. Glad you got it to work :)
 
So, maybe it had a cold solderjoint or something before. Glad you got it to work :)
Thank you for your past advice/help on this mcobit and sorry for the late reply. I am one happy Pandora user:)
 
I've been following Pandora since day one also. I read about all the problems with the cases, LCD cables, and nubs and each time I was ready to by one I said to myself this isn't the time. Last week it was announced that 10 units in silver cases were made available for $300 each so I grabbed one. It had all the new upgrades and the was the right price. Did you really end up saving money by going the used route and having to sacrifice an icontrol pad? How much did you pay for the used Pandora anyway?
 
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well, i bet you can get a replacement part to fix the icp from craig for a decent price.
 
I've been following Pandora since day one also. I read about all the problems with the cases, LCD cables, and nubs and each time I was ready to by one I said to myself this isn't the time. Last week it was announced that 10 units in silver cases were made available for $300 each so I grabbed one. It had all the new upgrades and the was the right price. Did you really end up saving money by going the used route and having to sacrifice an icontrol pad? How much did you pay for the used Pandora anyway?

My issue was that, I no longer knew if the Pandora was right for me anymore and I wanted to purchase a Pandora without the pandora having any unknown issues or imperfection and right price. I have been reading left and right how people purchase new pandoras and how these new Pandoras have issues or defects and they need to be sent back for repairs. The person that I purchased the pandora from had to send his original pandora back for repairs. I would not be ok with that. Trust me when I tell you that, if your pandora has any imperfection it will bug the shit out of you, you want this baby to be perfect. I got a great deal on the Pandora, $220 including shipping with a 16GB Memory card and I received it the next day, this unit looks brand new, not a single scratch on it, It is a 1st batch 256 but I fine with that:). The previews user disclosed the A button problem and I was ok with that too. When is time for me to upgrade to a Pandora 2;) I will make sure that it is used with no surprises and has zero issues and defects.


The icontrolpad, I had a few problems with the dpad, two membrane have been replaced and the dpad is falling off, it needs some glue or something, I gave up on that... The a button that I took from the pandora, I placed it back in the icotrolpad and it does work fine. Taking a closer look at the A button I can see the imperfection in the inside of it.
 
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