Mini 0801 problems like crazy....

J

justinfromcanada

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So I researched, and saw nothing but good reviews for the 0801. the only con i noticed was some firmware bugs, but the seller E-PRANCE said he had newer firmware 20131202 is what came with them.

out of the box they both worked well, was able to set settings on one and installed it in my truck. wire is ran, mount is on windshield, camera in mount, mount not plugged in yet, truck started. then i plug in the camera, and it turns on and starts recording.. like its supposed to. right?

sometimes it freezes after 4 seconds, can move camera and see the picture moving but no buttons work and nothing is recording, the record icon in the top left is frozen with w big red dot (it usually goes from small to big showing recording is in progress) and time does not move. holding all buttons will reset unit.

sometimes it will record for 10 minutes then stop. the screen is off now, and wont turn back on. led light is a dim red and nothing happens. if i unplug or plug into mount the red light comes back on but it wont start up.

sometimes i have recording files on my sd card that i cannot play, they ones before and after them play but certain ones wont work.

all the settings i make in the cameras get reset to default all the time. probably having to do with it freezing all the time.

i drive 15 min to and from work, i honestly cant get one good trip out of the thing. all i see are good reviews but i feel this is the worst piece of technology ive ever encountered!

the second camera worked exactly the same way. nothing but problems. freezing, not turning on. the video quality is great, and i like how the camera is supposed to function. it just is not reliable at all. in the least. i just wanted a camera to install in the truck and forget about. then go back to if something happened feeling assured the footage is there. i find myself looking at the camera every minute to make sure its still recording, which it usually isnt.

any help??? using a class4 32gb card, i read somewhere these cams dont like high speed cards... maybe its the card causing these probelms i only thought of that just now... not getting IO errors or anything.. any help is appreciated, thanks!
 
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I'm using the same 10131202 fw and have no problems with Class 10 card. I had some problems initially with a defective card.

So regardless of where bought, I now always test them on my PC using a freeware USB SD card tester program. Last defective card I've bought was SanDisk in retail packaging.
 
update: it actually was the sd card causing all those problems. tried new one for last night and all day today, worked great, 0 problems. keep that in mind anyone who reads this! check diff sd card first!
 
justinfromcanada said:
update: it actually was the sd card causing all those problems. tried new one for last night and all day today, worked great, 0 problems. keep that in mind anyone who reads this! check diff sd card first!
Click to expand...

Well, I'm in a similar situation; however, I've come to the conclusion that the GPS mount is the cause of my issues.

I purchased the mini in early Dec. 2013 (sept firmware with .mov), popped in a 16GB class 10 Sandisk card, and all was well until mid-February '14 when I purchased a 32GB class 10 card. I then started getting "attempt to recover" or the rare "i/o error" messages. If I didn't respond "yes" or "no" to the recovery message immediately, the camera would lock-up; if, however, I quickly responded "yes" or "no", then I would get a couple of minutes of recording before it locked up without any message. (I'll refer to this cycle as "lock-up.")

After a couple of days of this, I decided to put the original card back in. The lock-ups persisted. Hmm?

I then read the forums and, although the original class 10 card worked for roughly two months, I decided to try a slower card (really doubt that's an issue). I purchased 16GB and 32GB (class 4 and 6, respectively) cards. Same issue. OK, then I tried flashing to the latest rev so that I would have the MPH option and the problem, of course, persists.

Over the last two weeks I've played around with it a bit. When it locks up, I remove it from the mount, cycle the power, and it records without a hitch until the battery is nearly discharged. Power down, put it on the mount, power up, and it locks up. I've done this numerous times and found that I have issues only when it is mounted. I've even brought the mini in to my office at work, and have tested it throughout the day without issue. After work I install it on the mount, and you guessed it: lock-up. (Note: The camera is securely attached and I've cleaned the contacts on both.) Could it be a communication error (?) between the GPS mount and the camera which is the root cause of the lock-ups? I guess it may be time to purchase another mount from ebay.

greg
 
greg kimnach said:
Well, I'm in a similar situation; however, I've come to the conclusion that the GPS mount is the cause of my issues.
[snip]
Could it be a communication error (?) between the GPS mount and the camera which is the root cause of the lock-ups? I guess it may be time to purchase another mount from ebay.
Click to expand...

Try plugging the power lead into the camera instead of the mount. It will still power the GPS, and you'll find out where the problem lies.
 
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