Screen problem

[Pleng]

which is only serviceable by OP, right?

 

[mali]

^ Yep. You'll have to send it back, unfortunately.

 

[MWeston]

I changed my post rather than strike fear into the hearts of some people. It really sounded like some sort of hardware gamma thing but that would only be affected by USB load and not at all by screen hinge position. It's pretty clear your connector or cable is feeling a pinch and needs repair.

We still can't reproduce any LCD flickering and we are beating the hell out of the USB port. For the moment I am making the generalization that certain hardware just isn't compatible. The search continues...

 

[Polossatik]

For the people who missed the post in the other thread, it seams it's simply not a good idea to have people pulling on the screen/lid to get the Pandora out of your hand. *

Mine survived the impatient 'gimme now gimme gimme let me see let me see' tugging on it from the screen kind of attack from an over intrigued family-member-of-a-friend-of-the-family.

I was mortified when it was happening, and relieved when it survived it.

Actually it didn't because now your LCD cable is failing. Hmmn...

* understatement alert.

 

[mali]

which is only serviceable by OP, right?

I just want to add, that it might be possible to fix it yourself if the cable isn't seated properly in the connector or the connector isn't closed properly. This depends on you experience with delicate hardware though. If you are not sure what you are doing, leave it be.

 

[Pleng]

For the people who missed the post in the other thread, it seams it's simply not a good idea to have people pulling on the screen/lid to get the Pandora out of your hand. *

* understatement alert.

I'm trying very hard to keep my language clean here so rather than state my initial reaction to that comment I'll list the facts as they occurred:

• About a week ago(nearly two) somebody tried to get the Pandora from my hand by pulling on the top half of the case, by the screen. No problems were apparent.
• Yesterday, I plugged in a phone to charge from my Pandora. When I later opened the lid I noted the screen was going mental on me. I immediately unplugged the device.
• I noted that the screen appeared to have been damaged so I appealed to the forum for help.
• Members of this thread suggested the LCD cable might have been punctured by a wry piece of spiky solder. A diagnosis I was initially skeptical of.
• MWeston diagnosed that I had blown up the LCD due to carelessly plugging a USB device and not bothering to check what was happening to the Pandora.
• Further analysis conclude that it must, in fact, be a problem with the cable.
• MWeston implied the damage has nothing to do with the events which occurred immediately prior to the symptoms appearing, but instead were caused by something that happened over 7 days ago.

 

[conso]

For the people who missed the post in the other thread, it seams it's simply not a good idea to have people pulling on the screen/lid to get the Pandora out of your hand. *

* understatement alert.

I'm trying very hard to keep my language clean here so rather than state my initial reaction to that comment I'll list the facts as they occurred:

• About a week ago(nearly two) somebody tried to get the Pandora from my hand by pulling on the top half of the case, by the screen. No problems were apparent.
• Yesterday, I plugged in a phone to charge from my Pandora. When I later opened the lid I noted the screen was going mental on me. I immediately unplugged the device.
• I noted that the screen appeared to have been damaged so I appealed to the forum for help.
• Members of this thread suggested the LCD cable might have been punctured by a wry piece of spiky solder. A diagnosis I was initially skeptical of.
• MWeston diagnosed that I had blown up the LCD due to carelessly plugging a USB device and not bothering to check what was happening to the Pandora.
• Further analysis conclude that it must, in fact, be a problem with the cable.
• MWeston implied the damage has nothing to do with the events which occurred immediately prior to the symptoms appearing, but instead were caused by something that happened over 7 days ago.

I would think it was Red Herring!

 

[Pleng]

Anyway, I'm gonna call GBAX when they open in a few minutes. I'll explain what happened. If they want to charge me for repairs then so be it. I guess I should be (selfishly) glad that they have no cases to make new Pandoras, as turnaround time should be pretty quick. It's freaky to imagine a few days without it though - what'll I do?!

 

[Polossatik]

I'm not sure why you have a problem keeping your language clean , I simply posted this here to indicate it's very likely a physical problem with the cable and to avoid people reading this and worrying.
I did not called you anything or mocked you in any way.

but nice write up , cheers for that.

 

[Pleng]

I'm not sure why you have a problem keeping your language clean , I simply posted this here to indicate it's very likely a physical problem with the cable and to avoid people reading this and worrying.
I did not called you anything or mocked you in any way.

No it wasn't you who the bad language might have been directed at. It was the person you were quoting

 

[joseluisjazz]

Well, something like this just happened to me. I searched for screen problem and arrived to this post.

I have it since 2 days ago. I could already make my way with several emulators and apps, try several browsers, mplayer, set up the youtube-dl script, I was very happy getting to know it better, and and hour ago I was downloading some torrents with transmission client, and I had the lid closed in the meanwhile... but when I opened it the screen didn't seem to turn on. I thought it was some software misconfiguration thing, but then I realised it turned on if the angle of the screen was less than 50º, but displaying washed colors, like if it was using a 256 color palette. If I open it more than that, it goes black. Since it's still 'usable' at ±45º, I closed the programs, shutted it down, and booted again, but nothing changed. So I suppose it must be the LCD cable. I'm fearing the same story than when I had a Psion 5MX, machine which had a famous design problem with the LCD cable that would break after some normal use (by closing and opening the lid you were stressing a tiny point in the cable with a hole). But this is fast!

After reading Mali's post about the spikey-solder-blob-from-speaker-connection-killing-LCD-ribbon effect I'm a little worried about if this could be the cause and under what conditions can it can happen. Since I have not dropped it or anything, neither sat over it, but I have walked with it in the hand, grasping it normally, and I have put it in my bag with some books, normal things I'd say. How easy is it for the lcd cable to detach or damage? Maybe it was a little loose from the beginning?

Oh, and also since the first day I noticed a nice warmth coming from the keyboard and from inside the battery case. My guess is that it's the normal working heat, and it has nothing to do with this problem, but I say it just in case, because I've heard no one commenting about the warmth before. It's not very much heat, something around 25-30 ºC. And I though it will be a nice thing when I use it in the winter. As far as I know the battery life is perfect, getting from 9 to 15 hours depending on wifi & sd usage, and lcd brightness on full charge. And the only little complain on the hardware side was that the right corner button was a bit loose, and the right side case looks like it's not fully "clicked in", but doesn't felt like anything major.

I suppose I'll write to openpandora this afternoon and ask them for instructions.

 

[mali]

After reading Mali's post about the spikey-solder-blob-from-speaker-connection-killing-LCD-ribbon effect I'm a little worried about if this could be the cause and under what conditions can it can happen. Since I have not dropped it or anything, neither sat over it, but I have walked with it in the hand, grasping it normally, and I have put it in my bag with some books, normal things I'd say. How easy is it for the lcd cable to detach or damage? Maybe it was a little loose from the beginning?

The solder blob stuff has already been fixed and shouldn't affect the latest batch of 200 devices. You could open up the device to check the connector, but apparently the quickstart guide specifies that opening the case will void the warranty. ED handles this on a case-by-case basis, but you'll have to deal with Craig.

 

[joseluisjazz]

The solder blob stuff has already been fixed and shouldn't affect the latest batch of 200 devices. You could open up the device to check the connector, but apparently the quickstart guide specifies that opening the case will void the warranty. ED handles this on a case-by-case basis, but you'll have to deal with Craig.

I was just commenting on this with my brother. It would be easy and immediate to open it and check the cable is well inserted, but what happens if the problem is not a loose cable but a cracked one, how could I demonstrate I didn't break it on the operation? So I prefer not to touch it, and send it pristine to the pandora team. Hey, that rhymes.

Good to know the blob thing has been addressed.

So now I'm writing an email to openpandorasales. I also thought about making a phone call but I don't have any number, but it would be fun to call from Spain, and I could practice my english too . I'll update on how the story evolves.

EDIT: typo

 

[mali]

I also thought about making a phone call but I don't have any number, but it would be fun to call from Spain, and I could practice my english too . I'll update on how the story evolves.

You can get us on
0191 243 2253: 10am - 4pm GMT/BST Monday to Friday.

 

[Pleng]

Not much point in phoning, they're having some problems with the phone system at the moment (in that it's not working at all!). I emailed and got a very quick response. I've sent my Pandora off to be fixed. I'm already having withdrawals.

just over 2 weeks till my next flight...

 

[joseluisjazz]

Thanks Mali for the phone, and thanks Pleng for the info. I wont call them, so now the only thing left is waiting. (Again!!) I was missing the waiting part somehow :lol: (or so I thought until now)

 

[Pleng]

I'm feeling a bit dizzy. I've been off of Pandora for about 3 hours now...

 

[joseluisjazz]

Ok, after reading Prometheus' post, and realizing that it seems there is always a USB device involved behind these LCD problems... I now remember that the problem with my pandora happened very shortly after trying a usb led lamp, that I bought several months ago intended for typing in the dark and I've used it with my laptop. It's small and has 3 leds, and it worked very well. I had it plugged for like 20 seconds (since it was daylight, there was no point in having it more) Then I unplugged it, and left the pandora downloading... the next time I opened it, or the next one, I can't recall precisely was when the problem appeared. Could it really be usb related? :huh:

 

[Pleng]

I have one of those two (well, more like 10 of em - don't ask!) I was going to use it with Pandora too.

In answer to your question it appears that yes, this could have causes your problems. Seems the Pandora just doesn't know how to say no to a device that's trying to get it to put out more power than it's prepared to give.

It seems strange though as both your and my symptoms appear to be damaged screen cables rather than screens themselves. Is there any possibility that the additional current draw is somehow causing the screen CABLE to burn out rather than the screen itself?

 

[mali]

Nah, coincidence happens, sometimes a few times in a row. Those lamps don't use much juice, anyway.