Open Pandora not booting

[Gulag Picture Radio]

Hello! Happy OpenPandora guy here for some ten years. Never had a real problem until today.

I hadn't used OP for a while, but I booted it up a few days ago and all was fine. years ago I'd had the right trigger button inside the OP come loose from the PCB, so i repaired it and all was OK. I noticed today that the right trigger button wasn't making contact with the button inside so I opened up the OP. The PCB connection was intact, but the button wasn't in the right place. I carefully put it back and delicately used some Bondic (UV "glue" cured with a little UV LED) to secure the switch in place. I made sure not to get any into the mechanism of the switch.

Since then I'm unable to boot. The bootscreen's progress bar would get to the last centimeter (attached photo is from a few seconds before getting near the end and hanging), and then go an error screen that I've attached to this post. The only way to turn the system off is to remove the battery. After multiple tries to reboot (having to drop the battery out each time) with and without the boot SD card, now when I turn the system on it only gets as far as the boot screen and hangs on that last cm of the progress bar. No error screen.

I didn't do anything electrical to the right trigger switch in my repair, just put the switch back in place and bonded it. I don't think that anything got into the works of the switch... and if it did it would insulate the switch, not short it out - right? So I'm not sure what's going on. Grateful for any advice! Thank you!

 

[levi]

Looks like filesystem corruption to me. Might not be related to your switch repair at all, just a coincidence instead. It shouldn't take much investigation to find the reflash instructions around these parts.

 

[mamemaniac]

Hello! Happy OpenPandora guy here for some ten years. Never had a real problem until today.

I hadn't used OP for a while, now when I turn the system on it only gets as far as the boot screen and hangs on that last cm of the progress bar. No error screen.

I once had that issue in the past and, from what i remember, it is caused by a bug of the latest SuperZaxxon (v. 1.76 i think). In my case that issue occured when, by accident, i choosed to "Log Out" before power off my unit. The next time i powered up my Pandora the progress bar stopped before reach the end like you described. So, remember, never hit the "Log Out"option on the "Shut Down" screen whenever you want to power off your Pandora. To fix your issue you have to reflash your unit, that's how i solved it.

 

[ingoreis]

Hi did you try a Reflash @Gulag Picture Radio ?

Firmware Images

pyra-handheld.com

Sometimes a second Reflash ist needed..but i had that only one time.

 

[Farox]

Like @ingoreis said you should try a reflash...also from the pics posted your Pandora run with a really old release of the firmware 1.53, when the last is 1.76.

 

[Gulag Picture Radio]

Unzipping the 1.76 firmware now. It says it's gonna take 40 minutes? Seems like a long time for such a small file.

Appreciate the advice, everyone. Hoping to have an answer soon.

 

[Gulag Picture Radio]

My hats off to all of you for your friendly and rapid help that even I could follow. My Pandora is happily buzzing again, thank you. I'll have to check the SD compatibility chart and see if I can pick up a couple cheap 64 Gb cards to keep things humming.

It really is a brilliant system! I'm not as deeply computer savvy as a lot of the users of the OpenPandora, but I can appreciate all the smart touches throughout - and awesome resources like this message board. Plus I was able to use the input tester to see that my RIght trigger button isn't as fixed as I thought (I was able to reflash the firmware without the trigger thanks to the instructions you guys pointed me to create that Autoboot.txt file. THanks a million for making this a simple process!

Now to figure out how to fix or replace that pesky trigger button.

Thank you again!

 

[levi]

Yes, I'm not sure how you used glue to move the switch. It's meant to be soldered in and supported by the solder, and positioned by the solder holes.

 

[Gulag Picture Radio]

Yes, I'm not sure how you used glue to move the switch. It's meant to be soldered in and supported by the solder, and positioned by the solder holes.

I didn't describe that very well. The soldered in legs were all still in place, just it was a little bent out of shape. I bent it back into shape and used the UV resin (I shouldn't have called it a glue) to firm up the connection - the same way others use hot glue to stiffen the whole assembly.

I'll need to crack it open and see what's up. Maybe those solder points weren't as solid as they appeared... or some resin got where it wasn't supposed despite my best efforts.

Is there a listing somewhere of those specific parts? I'm in the US, and figure I should be able to order a little switch like that here somewhere. Thanks!

 

[levi]

If it's wobbly after bending it back into place, it makes me think those legs are failing due to metal fatigue, which will affect their resistance as well.

 

[matzesu]

My right Shoulderbutton on the Pandora got destroyed because I bend the trigger on the PCB back in shape after the Pandora fell from my Desktop , maybe whit some soldering it might get back to work but I can’t solder, and I want my Pyra to never fell from my Desktop ^^ , although it’s allready survived a E-Bike Accident: I only had to click in some pegs from the screen becel ..

 

[gunrock]

@matzesu my shoulder button got destroyed after a fall. I took it apart hoping it was just a contact issue, but it turned out I destroyed the button itself.