Keeps rebooing, Nothing will play the MP4 recordings

ajw1100

ajw1100

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Dash Cam
Now Viofo 119S. Was Mobius Action Cam
Thought I'd check my camera was working today, found it was not. Tried a few things in the car, unplug, replug, reset. remove and replace USB card. No difference.
Took it indoors and connected to a power supply, unit booted up, then re-booted and re-booted over and over. Tried another re-set. same result. Un-plugged and removed the 64gb Samsung card and plugged that into my PC. it showed as virtually full.
I then tried to view a few files, WMP, VLC and Windows Photo/Movies all reported the files were un-playable, wrong codec or corrupted.

I formatted the card in the camera and booted it up again, tried to view the file and again corrupted. Inserted Toshiba 16GB card and formatted it in the camera but it did not seem to record at all.

Re-inserted the Samsung in the camera and all it does is re-boot itself.

Any suggestions as to what is wrong and how to fix it?

My firmware is A119s_170222_V1.2.

Thanks
Alan.
 
Yeah, I would update and recheck.

How odes the camera act without a memory card inserted?
 
Thanks for the replies, been at this for about 2 hours and got nowhere. With no card installed the screen shows Mass Storage.
I have downloaded the new firmware file, only to find I had to download .7z file extractor program. I also found I had to format the card to FAT32 but W10 only offered exFAT so had to download and install Partition Wizard as I knew this would format to FAT32. Did all that and followed the instructions, upon which it got more complicated.
Please do the following to upgrade the dash cam
The firmware will be automatically deleted from Micro SD card after upgrade completed.

  1. Use max. 32GB card formatted by camera or on computer as FAT32 --- I only had the 64GB from the original install the 16GB did not want to work at all.
  2. Insert card in camera and connect it to computer using USB cable --- Did that, nothing happened.
  3. Copy the FWA119S.bin on the root of the card --- Did that by copying the .bin file to the card with the card connected to the PC (As per guide I found on another forum)
  4. After FWA119S.bin is copied to the card disconnect the camera from computer --- With camera off I inserted the card back into the camera. There was a GREEN light (Not RED) blinking under the ON.OFF button.
  5. Reconnect the camera to your computer and wait few seconds until the camera restart.
The front red LED will be blinking while upgrading.

The camera re-started and I thought all was fine, the firmware showed as A119s_171121_v2.2, I set settings to Default in the Menu, and then set my preferences.
I turned it off and restarted, then waited for it to record, I turned it off and removed the card, plugged in to my PC and found there was nothing on it, it was empty. Put it back in, switched on and it seemed to start recording, then it re-booted, and re-booted and thought here we go again. I removed the card, plugged it in to my PC only to find this time the files could not be played as I may have the wrong codec or the files may be corrupted.

So it looks like I will have to start again, this time I will format the 16GB card in PW and see if works then.

I have found getting into the Menu is difficult in itself, I have seen for a split second the message about formatting the card but the camera turns off before any chance of accessing the Menu in order to format it!!
 
You can use a 64GB card to update, it just needs to be Fat32.

It's recommended to power the camera with a USB wall charger (phone charger) during update. Plugging into a computer with a card inserted will just make camera enter Mass Storage (even though the Viofo site states otherwise).

During testing of camera, always power with a USB wall charger. Most computer USB ports don't supply enough power for the camera to run properly.

Viofo has a GUI format tool available on their website to format cards to Fat32. Link is http://support.viofo.com/support/so...0046583-micro-sd-card-format-tool-for-windows

I would use this tool to format the card and test again.
 
Okay, tried the 16GB sd card, formatted to FAT32 by Partition Wizard, inserted it into the camera. connected camera to PC.
Copied the .bin file extracted from the download and put on my desktop to the card.
Went back to PW and checked card contents and that showed the .bin file on the card.
Disconnected camera from PC waited then re connected camera to PC.
Green flashing light under on/off button.
Faint Red flashing light under REC button.
Screen appeared with live picture.
Picture disappeared after a couple of seconds to be replaced with blue screen entitled "Mass Storage" Menu Button not functioning.
Record button flashing Red, screen blue.
 
Don't connect to PC during update or during testing. Use a USB wall charger.

Menu button won't function unitl you stop the recording.
 
Crossed Posts so thanks CYA, I will continue with my 64GB card.
Here we go again......
First thing, W10 Found Errors on this card and fixed them, so that's a good start!

Nope. Still will not function as I believe it should.
Formatted card with via the link.
  • Use max. 32GB card formatted by camera or on computer as FAT32
  • Insert card in camera and connect it to computer using USB cable
  • Copy the FWA119S.bin on the root of the card
  • After FWA119S.bin is copied to the card disconnect the camera from computer
  • Reconnect the camera to your computer and wait few seconds until the camera restart.
Did exactly as above but used a phone charger and not the PC while it updated.
The camera restarted and is now in an endless startup loop, I removed the card from the Camera after turning it off and put it in the PC, using File Explorer I opened it up and checked the DCIM Folder, under Movies I found about 20 entries dated 21/11/2017 all MP4. I tried to open one but again came across the error of codec or corrupt files. This is odd as I had formatted the card a few minutes earlier so there should have been no movies dated then. Unless the endless loop is recording and the camera is somehow thinking that is today's date.
One other odd thing is that when I first found the camera was not working and checked the video files I am sure they were also dated 21/11/2017.

Now spent over 4 hours trying to get it to work, which is a bit annoying!

Got the date correct but the startup loop is still going, there is an SD icon in the bottom right of the screen, not sure what that signifies if anything.

Removed card from Camera, opened in File Explorer, date now showing correctly, files are roughly all about 25~30,000kb and not one will open, wrong codec or corrupted.:censored::mad:
 
Last edited:
That date is probably the default date of the firmware V2.2 release. Did you update the date after you updated the firmware?

Will the camera start normally without a memory card inserted?
 
Did you install the V1.2 firmware or did the camera come with V1.2? Versions V1.1 and earlier needed to have the boot loader updated before the camera could be updated to newer firmware. If you updated it, did you update the boot loader as well?
 
Hi.
It came with V1.1 and I updated to V1.2.
Did I update the boot loader as well? To be honest I have no idea, it was some time ago. I downloaded V1.2 on the 24th Feb 2017 to be exact and as a zip file and somehow managed to update the camera.
Do you mean there is hope on the horizon and it may not be dead? :)

Did you update the date after you updated the firmware? Yes I did.

Will the camera start normally without a memory card inserted? No it will not, blue screen showing 'Mass Storage' is all I see.


Where to I go from here, camera wise? At the moment, to bed, as it's getting late in the UK! Be back in the morning........ :sleep::sleep:
 
Tested on my TomTom USB charger, 5v 1.0A. It will start up with the card in place, then the reboot looping starts.
Without card it reports 'Please insert TF Card'
 
Tried on Samsung 64gb which is the card used for the last year, also Toshiba 16gb and a Kingston 32gb.
 
I would load the bootloader in case you didn’t do it when you updated from V1.1.

When it starts without a memory card, can you access all the camera settings? You press the Menu button to remove the “Please Insert TF Card”, then access the menu.
 
I would load the bootloader in case you didn’t do it when you updated from V1.1.

Okay, silly question, where do I find the bootloader?

When it starts without a memory card, can you access all the camera settings? You press the Menu button to remove the “Please Insert TF Card”, then access the menu.

Yes, I can access the Menu after the message.

Thanks for your reply.
 
The bootloader is on the same download page as the firmware.
 
Maybe my wife is right, I should not be let out, but there is no mention of bootloader on the page, as per the link above and my snippet below.

I have downloaded the V2.2 firmware at the top and installed it.
I have downloaded the .bin file at the bottom but did not know what is was, what it did or how to use it. I guessed in was the bin file only of the v2.2 firmware noted at the top.

As they say the questions only easy if you already know the answer.

Apologies, but I do not see any reference to bootloader.
 

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Ok. Sorry, forgot you have the A119S, not the A119. The A119S never needed the bootloader update, only the A119.
Curious though that the camera starts up fine and does not reboot with no memory card inside. Might indicate a card issue or power issue.
 
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