Pandora won't start!

[shadow.8]

Out of nowhere last night my Pandora wouldn't turn on. It was working fine all day before that but suddenly it just wouldn't turn on.

I tried reseating the battery, no luck. I also tried turning it on with the battery out and attached to the wall (this worked before). Took out the sd cards just in case. After panicking, I finally calmed down and decided to take out the battery out and let it sit overnight. Woke up this morning, popped the battery in and still nothing.


I actually had this problem before, it wouldn't turn on no matter what I did so I finally gave up, put the battery in, plugged it in and did something else. I came back 5 minutes later and it was working... I tried that this morning, its been sitting, plugged in, for about 2 and a half hours and I'm not seeing any signs of life. The battery isn't even slightly warm.


Any suggestions before I contact the team?

 

[craigix]

Hold down start when powering it on, then try start+right shoulder button.

 

[shadow.8]

Hold down start when powering it on, then try start+right shoulder button.

Neither worked

EDIT: I don't think the battery is the culprit here but fyi the battery was at ~85% when I turned it off last.

 

[craigix]

Hold down start while you put in the battery, trying to make 'contact'.


It's extremely rare that a unit will just die and not boot up. No one has had access to it and dropped it or got it wet etc?

 

[shadow.8]

Hold down start while you put in the battery, trying to make 'contact'.


It's extremely rare that a unit will just die and not boot up. No one has had access to it and dropped it or got it wet etc?

Giving that a shot now.


No one had access to it but me and my wife (no kids) and I was in the room the whole time it was off. It never moved. I have never had it near water so there is zero chance it ever got wet.

 

[shadow.8]

No luck. I tried it maybe 20 times in a row... I did have some other strange problems with the sd card slots but I figured it was just a quirk of my unit. See here.


Also, I have opened the back to make my shoulder buttons feel nicer as described here. I don't think its related but I thought I would mention it. I have since stripped one of the lower screws...

 

[shadow.8]

So I was playing around with the battery, taking it out and putting it back in and suddenly it turned on!! After being a paperweight for almost 24 hours its suddenly working!


I'm excited but nervous at the same time. Should I turn it off? I guess I have to turn it off eventually but... Also, what's going on? I guess my Pandora is just special.


Thanks for the help earlier Craig. Hopefully I don't have anymore problems.

 

[FaeMinx]

I'm just throwing this out there as I'm no techy and I have no idea, but:


Is there any kind of onboard battery in the Pandora's PCB? You know - that maintains the clock and so forth. I was wondering if yours might be faulty, i.e. won't hold a charge anymore. The fact that your Pandora has been off for such a long time now, might mean that battery has ... um... got a little spark of it's charge back? And now you can switch on again (but probably won't be able to again when you switch off). In other words RMA required.


I would have suggested purchasing a second battery for your Pandora, but you've already stated you tried plugging it into the mains sans battery - so the fault must be with the Pandora itself.


:mellow:

 

[Nintendo]

So I was playing around with the battery, taking it out and putting it back in and suddenly it turned on!! After being a paperweight for almost 24 hours its suddenly working!


I'm excited but nervous at the same time. Should I turn it off? I guess I have to turn it off eventually but... Also, what's going on? I guess my Pandora is just special.


Thanks for the help earlier Craig. Hopefully I don't have anymore problems.

Charge the battery to 100% and then switch it off.

 

[WizardStan]

Is there any kind of onboard battery in the Pandora's PCB? You know - that maintains the clock and so forth.

No, no backup battery. The Pandora was originally designed that the battery would always be in, and only removed on rare occasions, so all the internals are powered by that main battery: in an off state, it can keep the clock ticking for months on a full charge, so there wasn't ever really any fear of that.


It was only after weeks of public discussion that the clips were added to make it easy to swap the battery, but by then the board design had long been completed, so no changes were to be made to include a backup battery.

 

[FaeMinx]

No, no backup battery.

Any idea what's up with shadow.8's Pandora?

 

[FaeMinx]

I'm very glad the battery is easily removable. Because now I can use my Pandora for 20 - 28 hours straight without recharging. (not that I've had the opportunity to do so, but still...)

 

[craigix]

I just sounds like it had a bad connection all along. Maybe pad the sides of the battery area until you know it is absolutely perfect, sometimes the battery wrapping can make the battery a bit bigger/smaller depending on local conditions (and because it is a huge battery).

So I was playing around with the battery, taking it out and putting it back in and suddenly it turned on!! After being a paperweight for almost 24 hours its suddenly working!


I'm excited but nervous at the same time. Should I turn it off? I guess I have to turn it off eventually but... Also, what's going on? I guess my Pandora is just special.


Thanks for the help earlier Craig. Hopefully I don't have anymore problems.

 

[shadow.8]

I'm still having problems, but I don't think it's RMA worthy. My Pandora will have moments where it won't turn on so I will have to play with the battery until its seated just right but after that it turns on just fine. I'm not sure why it suddenly started happening but at least it's working and I know how to fix it when it stops working.


My Pandora is just special in it's own way

 

[shadow.8]

Ugh, having more problems...


I haven't been able to get my Pandora to turn on since Monday. I spent hours last night taking the battery out and putting it back in with no luck. This used to work. Today I've been playing with slips of folded paper to pad the sides and get the battery in 'just' the right spot but it's just not helping. Does anyone have any other ideas?


I /thought/ the battery was simply not in the right spot but now I'm not so sure. Is my Pandora having other problems? It also used to power on with just the ac adapter but it doesn't do that anymore. Could my board be faulty?

 

[shadow.8]

After reseating my battery a few times it seemed to turn on but I couldn't see anything on the screen. About 2 minutes later it just turned off... I can't get it to turn back on again.


I think I will email the team now. I think there is something seriously wrong with my Pandora.

 

[MWeston]

Before doing that, hold down the right shoulder button while booting and leave it at that menu for several hours. It sounds like your battery can't get a charge if the software is preventing a full boot when it detects a low percentage remaining and then you are not able to let it sit and charge because you get frustrated when you see it do this. I'd just like to see what happens if you let the system sit in uboot for a few hours.

 

[EvilDragon]

Holding START while switching it on will only work if you have a bootable SD Card with a special MLO bootloader in the left SD slot, as this forces the Pandora to boot from SD.


To me, it sounds like the battery is not properly seated - and I got an easy fix for this:


It won't help to put a piece of paper on top of the battery. You need to make sure it stays in place SIDEWAYS.


There was supposed to be a clip that would keep the battery in place, but for some reason unknown to us, it had been removed by the case company...


Anyways, here's the fix:


Lay your Pandora in front of you with the L/R buttons facing up. Open the battery lid.


If you take a look at your battery, you can see it can wobble up and down.


I use some padded selfadhesive small sticker (about one millimeter thick) and stick that sideways on the top left area of the battery compartment, just a bit below the R button in the compartment to make sure the battery stays in-place.


You can do the same or used some folded paper (should also be 1-2mm thick) for testing.


It's kinda hard to explain, so if you have no idea what I was talking about here, I can make a picture for you.


The trick is to ensure that the battery contacts can't move sideways anymore.

 

[Mr_Loon]

After reseating my battery a few times it seemed to turn on but I couldn't see anything on the screen. About 2 minutes later it just turned off... I can't get it to turn back on again.


I think I will email the team now. I think there is something seriously wrong with my Pandora.

Have you tried turning it on with the Pandora connected to mains power but the battery removed? If that does not work then my guess is that there is something wrong with your Pandora.

 

[EvilDragon]

After reseating my battery a few times it seemed to turn on but I couldn't see anything on the screen. About 2 minutes later it just turned off... I can't get it to turn back on again.


I think I will email the team now. I think there is something seriously wrong with my Pandora.

Have you tried turning it on with the Pandora connected to mains power but the battery removed? If that does not work then my guess is that there is something wrong with your Pandora.

Not neccessarily. This is an undocumented feature that might work, but doesn't with all Pandoras.