Spontaneous Gp2x Bricking

[Sofox]

I was wondering, could it be that something on the SD card caused the GP2x to think there was a firmware update on it, hence starting the process that caused the bricking.
I think we should compare the contents of all the SD cards that were in when the bricking occured to see if there are any similarities. It may give us a clue to what's causing this.
Critical, do you mind starting off by tell us what was in your SD card?

 

[reaper79]

THIS, among a few other reasons, is why I will wait til some time this summer to buy a GP2X. There are just too many random issues with it. I've been an early adopter of a lot of gadgets and new hardware/software, but the GP2X is still risky business at this point.

Reaper

 

[Puck2099]

Uhm, I think that I will not insert the SD card until the menu screen appears...

 

[thesilente]

Now, whenever I switch the GP2X on, it just fades into the rainbow lines screen (LCD test?) and nothing more happens. No boot loader. No further updating messages.

​

Similar happened to me, believe it or not, it just ended up being the batteries. GP2X does some wild things when batteries are low...

The rainbow test, from what I remember, is a common symptom of low batteries.

 

[Eolair]

do i even dare to turn mine on?

im pretty shaken up by the fact that if i turn my gp2x on and it bricks itself, i wont be able to get it replaced whatsoever or anything from GBAX.

i can imagine getting it...25th...christmas morning...turn it on...omg, updating? wtf? *BRICKED* ohwel..£200 brick and warantee doesnt cover shit...

​

Who said that the guarantee doesn't cover it? This is clearly not a user fault. Just return it if it happens.

 

[critical]

I was wondering, could it be that something on the SD card caused the GP2x to think there was a firmware update on it, hence starting the process that caused the bricking.
I think we should compare the contents of all the SD cards that were in when the bricking occured to see if there are any similarities. It may give us a clue to what's causing this.
Critical, do you mind starting off by tell us what was in your SD card?

​

A very sensible suggestion.

The card layout was thus (from the root):

Audio (empty directory)
DCIM (empty directory)
MISC (empty directory)
PALM
    |
     ------ Launcher (empty directory)

Fawlty Towers - 1x01 - A Touch of Class.avi
Fawlty Towers - 1x02 - The Builders.avi
Fawlty Towers - 1x05 - Gourmet Night.avi
Fawlty Towers - 1x06 - The Germans.avi
FromDuskTilDawn.avi

The card's a half gig Kingmax Platinum.

To re-iterate, it was playing things from the card fine until its untimely death.

 

[efegea]

On my case the card had a short video clip named arahan.avi of 3,3MBytes. The card is a 128MB SD kingstom. I was playing with a 16MB Nokia MMC and then inserted the SD, turned on the console and.. doh! firmware upgrading, WTF!

Of course that's not the first time I put the SD or the MMC on the gp, nor the first time I put the SD with the arahan.avi file. Very weird :S

 

[Paradox]

do i even dare to turn mine on?

im pretty shaken up by the fact that if i turn my gp2x on and it bricks itself, i wont be able to get it replaced whatsoever or anything from GBAX.

i can imagine getting it...25th...christmas morning...turn it on...omg, updating? wtf? *BRICKED* ohwel..£200 brick and warantee doesnt cover shit...

​

Who said that the guarantee doesn't cover it? This is clearly not a user fault. Just return it if it happens.

​

err, do you think they will believe that it happend randomly? if they took every gp2x back and replaced it because someone said it bricked itself for no reason, theywill lose a lot of money.

 

[craigix]

Actually as soon as we get the cable we can reflash them.

 

[Paradox]

awesome. ill need to get one of those. how much will you be selling them for?

 

[critical]

On my case the card had a short video clip named arahan.avi of 3,3MBytes. The card is a 128MB SD kingstom. I was playing with a 16MB Nokia MMC and then inserted the SD, turned on the console and.. doh! firmware upgrading, WTF!

Of course that's not the first time I put the SD or the MMC on the gp, nor the first time I put the SD with the arahan.avi file. Very weird :S

​

So your card had one avi file in the root directory, and nothing else?

What about your battery level when you switched the GP2X on and it started trying to upgrade? I'm wondering if it fails to read something properly in low battery conditions.... I don't think my batteries were that low at the time (I'll check with a multimeter tonight just in case), so it's probably not that, but just in case...

 

[efegea]

On my case the card had a short video clip named arahan.avi of 3,3MBytes. The card is a 128MB SD kingstom. I was playing with a 16MB Nokia MMC and then inserted the SD, turned on the console and.. doh! firmware upgrading, WTF!

Of course that's not the first time I put the SD or the MMC on the gp, nor the first time I put the SD with the arahan.avi file. Very weird :S

​

So your card had one avi file in the root directory, and nothing else?

What about your battery level when you switched the GP2X on and it started trying to upgrade? I'm wondering if it fails to read something properly in low battery conditions.... I don't think my batteries were that low at the time (I'll check with a multimeter tonight just in case), so it's probably not that, but just in case...

​

Not battery, I was using a PSU. I thought it was better to let it upgrade if it want, and soon the "upgrading firmware" message dissapeared and the standard green boot up screen appeared and it hung there

Perhaps interesting information: It had 1.0 firmware, I tried to upgrade the firmware the previous day, I had the sterm utility copied into /mnt/nand, I didn't played around with sterm doing weird things, anything more? h34r:

 

[Eolair]

do i even dare to turn mine on?

im pretty shaken up by the fact that if i turn my gp2x on and it bricks itself, i wont be able to get it replaced whatsoever or anything from GBAX.

i can imagine getting it...25th...christmas morning...turn it on...omg, updating? wtf? *BRICKED* ohwel..£200 brick  and warantee doesnt cover shit...

​

Who said that the guarantee doesn't cover it? This is clearly not a user fault. Just return it if it happens.

​

err, do you think they will believe that it happend randomly? if they took every gp2x back and replaced it because someone said it bricked itself for no reason, theywill lose a lot of money.

​

It's not up to the buyer to prove anything (within 6 months of the purchase). If the seller don't believe the buyer then it's up to the seller to provide proof that the buyer is to blame. At least if you bought it from a EU country where they all have similar consumer protection rights.

 

[Sofox]

Could it be the act of having an avi int the root directory that's causing this problem? We need to find more people who've had this problem.

 

[critical]

Could it be the act of having an avi int the root directory that's causing this problem? We need to find more people who've had this problem.

​

That's the only obvious commonality between my card layout and efegea's (assuming that they put the avi in the root too - it's not specified).

 

[peter.stegemann]

Call whoever you got yours from and arrange to return it. If you didn't put any firmware image on your SD card and it did this on its own, then it should be covered by warranty.

The firmware update is an advertised feature, if it is broken and damages the device, it's not the users fault. The official update process does not even warn about interrupting the update process, which definetly breaks the gp2x...

 

[joerg.stegemann]

BTW: I disagree with that, but that is an ongoing discussion between them and me...

​

UPDATE: They have agreed to flash the unit once they have the necessary cable!

 

[lucoxade]

BTW: I disagree with that, but that is an ongoing discussion between them and me...

​

UPDATE: They have agreed to flash the unit once they have the necessary cable!

​

I think I may have just recieved the exact same email from GBAX, hurrah!

 

[peter.stegemann]

Great news. Quite a relief for some users

 

[Knuckles500]

Any chance of the new GP2X's comming in through GBAX for the people who ordered around the end of November to get a less defective GP2X?