SG9665GC v2 2016 edition, another case of bootloop and screen flickering

aimalkay

New Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2019
Messages
2
Reaction score
1
Country
Canada
Dash Cam
SG9665GC v2 (2016)
Hello,

I have a Street Guardian SG9665GC v2 2016 edition, that I purchased new in July 2016 from. FYI the Amazon link shows v3 as the v2 is no longer available, but I got there from my Amazon Order history.
It was purchased from the seller "Pier28" on amazon.ca as they used to be (IIRC) the official SG retailer in Canada. The entire time, it has been running on the original Transcend 32GB MicroSDHC Class 10 UHS-1 that came with the dashcam.
Happy to provide proof of purchase privately if needed.

Sometime last year, the dashcam started screen-flickering and rebooting, so I replaced the original power cable with the official SG9CCM Metal-Tip Power Cable, as the original plastic one was falling apart anyway. It worked for a while, but since September 2018 it's been happening again persistently. I think there maybe either a capacitor issue, or a similar hardware-related fault, as firmware is up-to-date, and SD cards work.

I have tried the following suggestions from @Street Guardian USA 's other posts:

  • Updated firmware to latest ( SG9665GCV2 – Firmware update 20181127 from the SG website)
  • Rebooted with NO memory card. Screen continues to flicker a lot, then bootloops sooner or later.
  • Inserted a DIFFERENT memory card (SAMSUNG 32GB EVO Class 10 Micro SDHC), same thing, flicker and instant reboot
  • Rebooted with NO memory card, and inserted memory card AFTER turning on. Screen flickers until memory card is inserted, then instantly reboots before I'm even finished pushing the card in all the way (pre-"click"). This happens with both memory cards above.
  • Tried car charger (above), as well as WD HDD mini-USB plug into two different wall-warts (a Samsung S9+ OEM block, and a OnePlus 3T Dash OEM block). Likewise with a fast-charge USB port (1A) on my laptop. Same results each time.
  • Tested the memory cards on different devices (a phone with SD card slot, laptop via SG's microSD-to-USB adapter, laptop via microSD-to-SD adapter). SD cards work well, and copy files at their advertised speeds, no dropouts.
From searching this forum, it looks like I might have the same hardware problem as @DarkNightRider007 's post from Nov 2018 (see link).

Any thoughts on what I can do here? Are there any other troubleshooting steps I could have missed? Any help would be appreciated.
 
That wasent nice by that camera, 2 years + a little :cautious: i would like to have seen a bit more, and they can my SG9665GC V1 still work just fine.
But as Jon say above, try to hook up with Sam at "SGC" and i am sure he will be able to do a little something something for you if you want to proceed with this brand.
If you do register your new camera online and you now get 2 year warranty on camera and bundled memory card, and additional bonus the newer cameras will have better low light performance as they pack better image sensors.
 
Last edited:
Will be something power related by the sounds of it, hard to know without seeing it

Camera will reboot if you insert a card while the camera is on as they're not hot swappable, should refrain from doing that in future
 
@jokiin Understood, thank you, I thought it may have been caused by a short between the SD reader tip or similar, so figured it's worth a mention. Good to know that's not the case, and will be sure not to try it with any future units.

That being said, the mere act of have a SD card in there causes it to bootloop repeatedly, within 2-3 seconds of bootup ( + flicker near-constantly), while having NO SD card causes flickering and occasional reboots.

@Street Guardian USA thank you, I will for sure reach out. I am a bit concerned about this though. While I understand electronics don't last forever, any idea on if this is expected at this age? I figured it was a one-off, since SG quality and after-sales support is universally praised on /r/dashcam, dashcamtalk, blackboxmycar etc (and my own personal experience too!), but I'm seeing a few more instances of this, like @DarkNightRider007 's above, and am wondering if this was a bad batch, or a production quality issue in the v2 2016 lineup maybe? Wondering if you'd be willing to share your thoughts.
 
It’s not common but anything can happen from time to time when it comes to electronics as you know. Many thousands of GC V1/V2 were sold globally.

I‘ve given a steep discount to a few previous V1/V2 customers that had an issue in the USA that were in need of a replacement. (Case by case) I just upgraded someone to a new SGGCX2PRO a couple months ago for example. Again it’s not a wide spread issue just a few premature failures. One customer admitted they had it recording 24/7 for years, GC is definitely not designed for that, pre-parking mode support of new 2019 models. The latest new products have even higher specs than the early models, everything is improved incrementally each year each production.

Street Guardian doubled the warranty on the latest models if that says anything.
 
I do think SG try to improve where they can make sense of it, both in hardware and on the production floor.
My V1 did slide in focus so i had to take it apart and fix that, which was no problem as i have the knowledge to do that and the camera was a free test sample sent to me.
Since then back in 2013 i think i it was i have had a GPS antenna that was really slow in doing its job, probably due to a bad RCT battery in it, i have only heard about one other guy with similar problems aad he got a new antenna shipped out at once.
Me i have not bothered with that as it is still a free camera and its on my windscreen where there are plenty of other cameras with working GPS antennas, so really it don't matter one bit for me, or for SG cuz if i said i needed a new one they would just send me one.
 
Last edited:
It’s not common but anything can happen from time to time when it comes to electronics as you know. Many thousands of GC V1/V2 were sold globally.

I‘ve given a steep discount to a few previous V1/V2 customers that had an issue in the USA that were in need of a replacement. (Case by case) I just upgraded someone to a new SGGCX2PRO a couple months ago for example. Again it’s not a wide spread issue just a few premature failures. One customer admitted they had it recording 24/7 for years, GC is definitely not designed for that, pre-parking mode support of new 2019 models. The latest new products have even higher specs than the early models, everything is improved incrementally each year each production.

Street Guardian doubled the warranty on the latest models if that says anything.

Hello, I started getting the same issue as aimalkay at the beginning of this year. The screen flickered and the recordings matched the flickering for a month, then eventually the camera stopped working and gets into a boot loop. Is there anything that can be done for my camera? I have the original Amazon invoice from Pier28 from Jan 6, 2016.
 
screen flickering is generally power related, that can be the power supply or the camera, have you tried a different power supply at all?
 
screen flickering is generally power related, that can be the power supply or the camera, have you tried a different power supply at all?
I tested it with different power options, USB battery and wall plug, and it was still behaving the same way. I didn't have a spare mini-USB cable, until a coworker handed me one today. It looks like it was the cable after all, it might have gotten pinched or warped. My v2 worked fine on the spare cable, odd that my cable decided to crap out after 3 years, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ indeed.

Cheers.
 
Which mini-USB cable were you using? The included Cig Power adapter or 3rd party cable? Many 3rd party cables have a high failure rate for sure. (less copper in the cables, connector etc)
 
does that mean you weren't using the supplied cig power adapter then?

I've been a 6-foot mini-USB cable to a USB extension cable, which was plugged into a 4-port USB cig power adapter, which has worked fine for the last 3+ years. Something happened to the 6-foot cable. The extension and the v2 still work fine after I got another cable.
 
Which mini-USB cable were you using? The included Cig Power adapter or 3rd party cable? Many 3rd party cables have a high failure rate for sure. (less copper in the cables, connector etc)
3rd-party that I could connect to a 4-port USB power adapter. I couldn't use the provided cig power as that wouldn't allow me to power my other devices.

Anyways, sorry for the trouble.
 
My wife rang me on her way home this afternoon to tell me that our SG9665GC V2 was in boot re-loop mode. Immediately I thought we were up for a new dashcam.
I told her to just pull the power lead out of the dashcam and I'd look at it when she got home.
When my wife arrived home I checked out the dashcam, yep, it was in boot re-load mode, only occasionally it would ask for the card to be formatted. So when it asked to be formatted in the camera, I obliged. (y)
It repeatedly did a boot re-load and asking for the card to be formatted.

Last night I had to tried review a segment from the dashcam from earlier in the day, but to no avail.
I couldn't even get the USB SD Card reader to even show a sign of life, i.e. light up, let alone get my anti-virus to acknowledge it was reading the card. I blamed the USB Reader for the failure, never suspecting the micro-sd card.

Today I bought a new USB Card Reader, same problem, no life from the micro-sd card.... it's DEAD!
Now I'm back to a 32GB card until I can find a replacement 256GB or 200GB card at a good price.
 
How old was that card?

It was the 256GB Transcend that you sent to me approx. 3yrs ago.
I bought a 200GB Sandisk card on 02/05/2019 to replace it.
I figured the 256GB card had run it's course so I cut in 2 and dumped it in the bin. (y)
 
Back
Top