A129 Duo freezing issue (RESOLVED)

CaptnEric

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Dash Cam
VIOFO A129 DUO, Thinkware F770 1CH & 2CH
EDIT: April 7th, 2021

Just want to update on my issue for anyone else who might have the same problem in future.

Thank you to everyone who responded with suggestions, I really appreciate it! I ended up contacting the business who I bought the A129 from, Linelink. Although I was out of warranty they contacted Viofo Australia on my behalf. Viofo Australia replied back stating that there was no known issue with Australian stock freezing up. They also did not recommend I continue with the Sandisk High Endurance V30 A1 microSD card because "Sandisk are renowned for causing issues with dash cams and are not recommended and void warranty". That is odd because Viofo Australia actually recommend and sell the Sandisk High Endurance V30 A1 cards on their website. Which is why I bought it and also for the recommendations for them to use with an A129 Duo in some threads in this forum.

Viofo Australia recommended I either use Samsung, Blackvue or their own Viofo cards first before I send it off for them to check the dash cam. So I put my old Samsung Evo Plus 128GB card back in and what do you know, it started working like a charm again. I left the card in there all last week to be sure the freeze ups didn't return and they didn't. So I bought a 256GB Samsung Evo Plus and it is still going strong.

Out of curiosity I updated to firmware v2.1 again with the Samsung Evo Plus and suffice to say I was disappointed again with the performance of the firmware. For some reason it would not switch to parking mode for at least 45 minutes. I'm using my old DOD DP4 hardwire kit and the A129 would normally go into parking mode within 3 mins. So after a couple of days testing with v2.1 with no improvements I switched back to v1.9 and have been happy with it again since. I think I will just stick with v1.9 as it's quite stable and gives me the footage I need. I also don't need any of the fancy new features in v2.1.

So consiidering my experience with the Sandisk High Endurance V30 A1 cards, seems they are no good in an A129 Duo after all (although I did use it trouble free for about 10 months till I updated the firmware to v2.1 and that's when all my troubles started). Stick with Samsung Evo Plus, even though it's not recommended to use with dash cams, they do actually work with the A129 Duo. When Samsung comes out with the 256GB version of their High Endurance card, I will buy that as I get at least 4 days worth of footage with a 256GB card compared to only a day and a half with a 128GB.

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Hi Dashcam community, been awhile since I posted!

My A129 Duo started freezing up 6 weeks ago, after nearly 2 years of faultless operation. I have no idea what is causing it after spending a lot of time troubleshooting. I will give some background info first...
It's a bit of a long read so only dive in if you have the time.

  • I live in Melbourne, Australia.
  • I bought my A129 Duo in June 2019, hardwired it myself with my old DOD DP4 hardwire kit (that I had used with my DOD RC500S).
    (I like the DP4 as it has an on/off switch to cut power off when my car is parked in my garage.)
  • Car is a 2016 Toyota Corolla Hatch (non-hybrid)
  • SD card is a 256GB Sandisk High Endurance V30 U3 (Used for a year so far)
  • Current firmware is v1.5 (reverted back after updating to v2.1)
  • Original Viofo power and rear camera cable
  • Power cable connected to the front camera (not the GPS unit)
  • Current settings are:
    Bitrate: High
    Loop Recording: 1 min
    WDR: Off
    Parking Mode: Low bit rate
    Time-Lapse Recording: Off
    Motion detection: Off
    GPS: On
    G-Sensor: Low
    WIFI: Off
    Record Audio: Yes
    Screen Saver: 1 mins
    Boot Delay: 5 secs
    Time Zone: +11
    Frequency: 50Hz
6 weeks ago I updated the firmware to v2.1 after having v1.9. Followed the recommended update procedure as follows:
  • Formatted the SD card with Fat32 Formatter on my pc.
  • Downloaded v2.1 firmware from Viofo website, support page and renamed file to FWA129.bin
  • Copied file to root directory of SD card
  • Restarted the camera and waited till the update completed
  • Formatted the SD card with the camera
  • Then reset to default settings
  • Then changed settings to my choices as above
The next day I drove to do some errands. Had the car parked for about an hour. Upon my return to the car, I quickly looked at the camera and the two red LED lights were on (REC and MIC) with the screen off. Obviously this was normal and I assumed the camera was in parking mode. With the DP4, the camera will go into parking mode after about 3 minutes of no motion. So I started the car and drove off. Normally the camera would restart, the screen will come on after the boot delay and start normal recording...this did not happen. The two LED lights kept illuminating and the screen was still off. After I arrived home, I pressed the record button to turn the screen on. It did not turn on. Matter of fact, there was no response at all, no beep sound either when I pressed the button. Only option was to turn the camera off and restart. I long-pressed the rec button and the camera turned off. Then I pressed it again to start it up. It started normally with both the front vision and the rear vision overlay. I turned the camera off again as I normally do in the garage then turned the power off on the DP4. Later that day, I looked at the videos that were recorded and it was all good till about 30 minutes into parking mode. The camera had stopped recording after around 30 minutes and there was no other footage till I had restarted the camera when I got home. I checked the settings and made sure the parking duration wasn't set to 30 mins. I had it set for 24 hours. So there should've been more parking mode footage. This was quite odd as this had never happened with the other versions of firmware I had.

The next day I went for another drive to test it again. Sure enough, after having parked the car for about half an hour, the same thing happened. So when I got back home, I downgraded back to v1.9. All was good for a day and while I was driving, the camera just restarted. I looked at the footage when I got home. During my drive, about 2 minutes of footage was missing leading up to the restart. The next day, I had the same issue of freezing again after driving off from parking mode. So I decided to check the SD card on my PC with H2testw. The test passed with no issues. I then unplugged the rear camera and just used the front camera for the next 2 days. I had no freezing issues so I plugged the rear camera back in again, then turned the power back on. All was good the next day with no freezing. The next day after that the freezing started again. I had suspicions that it could be the rear camera cable or the rear camera itself. I checked the connections and it was securely connected. I have the cable at the rear secured with cable clips to minimise movement. I also checked the cable for any damage and it was still in good condition.

I have no idea why the freezing all of a sudden started with firmware v2.1. Was it a coincidence or did the update break something? As I had no freezing issues before I updated from v1.9 to v2.1, I wanted to check one more thing and do another test to eliminate any doubt that it could be a firmware issue. I downgraded to v1.5, which I have read on these forums is the most stable firmware. For the next 5 weeks the camera was operating perfectly again, no freezing. Just when I concluded the issue had been fixed....the freezing started again yesterday! After doing some errands, I came home and parked in the garage. When I tried to turn the screen on the camera, it wasn't responding again. So I shut it down and restarted it. So now, I'm back to square one!

I really like this camera and it has been working great till now. I'm really frustrated with it, especially after spending so much time trying to troubleshoot this issue. I'm quite busy to waste anymore time on it. I've never had so much trouble with electronic devices as much as a dash cam! My first dash cam, a DOD RC500S died after 2 years and now the A129 Duo is causing me grief after nearly 2 years as well. Would it be the rear camera cable causing the freezing or the camera connections or both? I don't want to go out and spend good money on a new cable or a new rear camera if it's not going to fix the issue. I rather buy another dash cam tbh.

Have I done something wrong or missed something? Has the update to v2.1 caused something? It's really bizarre to me that all this started after updating the firmware to v2.1. I expected these dash cams to last more than 2 years. I bought both my mum and my partner a Thinkware F770 4 years ago and both of their dash cams are still operating flawlessly with no issues what-so-ever! The only thing I don't like about Thinkware dash cams is the amount of space their software allocates to different recordings. There is not much space for parking incidents and they don't take more than 64GB SD cards...well this model doesn't. My partner and mum don't do much driving so those cameras are perfect for them. I drive a lot and need a reliable dash cam that takes large capacity SD cards with no restrictions on space and doesn't require me to be a technician to troubleshoot every issue.

Has anyone else faced this same freezing problem? Any advice or solution is welcomed right now as I'm at a loss. If worse comes to worst I am prepared to ditch Viofo and go for another, more reliable dash cam. I'm currently looking at the Street Guardian SG9663DCPRO, Thinkware Q800 Pro / U1000 or even a BlackVue. If nobody can shed some light on this issue but has had good experience with other brands/models, I'd like to hear it!

Thanks in advance for anybody who is willing to help!
 
Last edited:
When you downgraded back to V1.9 (orV1.5), did you manually default the settings again? You should also press and hold the hard reset button on the side of the camera for about 5 seconds.

As posted above, use SDFormatter. Perform the full overwrite, not the quick format. Format in the camera again after using SDFormatter.
 
Format the SDcard with the formatter from the SDcard association www.sdcard.org (runs on Windows - understands sd cards better than Windows does)
Then reformat in the camera.
See if that sorts it out.
Ok thanks, I'll try that
 
When you downgraded back to V1.9 (orV1.5), did you manually default the settings again? You should also press and hold the hard reset button on the side of the camera for about 5 seconds.

As posted above, use SDFormatter. Perform the full overwrite, not the quick format. Format in the camera again after using SDFormatter.
Yes I manually defaulted the settings each time I upgraded and downgraded. I did do a hard reset using the reset button when I upgraded to v2.1 but not when I downgraded back to v1.9 and v1.5. I'll try that as well.
When I had formatted the SD card with Fat32 Formatter, I have always used full format. Very time consuming though with a 256GB card.

What's weird now is, it's been good since I posted this thread. I'll wait if it freezes up again before reformatting it in SDFormatter, then the camera, soft format, hard reset and manually defaulting settings. Tbh, we shouldn't have to do this each time we upgrade or downgrade firmware. I've updated my mum and partner's firmware on their Thinkware numerous times without having to do any camera formats or manually resetting etc, and it just works.
 
Ok so, upon the advice from @peterhr and @CaptureYourAction I did a full format of the SD card with SDFormatter on my pc (Windows 10) yesterday. Then reformatted in the camera, then manually defaulted the settings. I put the camera back in the car this morning before going on a two hour drive to do some errands. During that drive the camera froze up 4 times before I shut it off. When I got to my destination, I left the rear camera cable connected to the front camera but disconnected the rear cam. Had the car parked for a good hour or so. When I returned back, I checked the camera and it was recording ok. I pressed the menu button and it was responding. On my return back home for another 2 hour trip, I had no freeze ups during that 2 hour drive either!

Seems like it's either the rear camera or the rear camera cable causing the freeze ups. If the problem was with the SD card, it still would've caused the freeze up while disconnected from the rear camera...right or wrong?

My question now is...is the issue with the rear CAMERA or the rear camera CABLE?
I don't want to go out and buy both if it's one or the other. How can I find out which is causing the issue?
 
Could be a failing power supply as well. How are you powering it?
 
Could be a failing power supply as well. How are you powering it?
It's hardwired with my old dash cam's hardwire kit, the DOD DP4, using the car's battery. Viofo's power cable is plugged into the DP4.

Never had issues with the power supply. In fact, since I bought it in June 2019 till a few weeks ago, it has been working flawlessly with both cameras connected. This issue started after I updated to firmware v2.1 and it's been happening with every firmware I've downgraded back to since then. Now I wish I hadn't upgraded it at all and just left it with v1.9. This has really stumped me
 
Seems like it's either the rear camera or the rear camera cable causing the freeze ups. If the problem was with the SD card, it still would've caused the freeze up while disconnected from the rear camera...right or wrong?

My question now is...is the issue with the rear CAMERA or the rear camera CABLE?
I don't want to go out and buy both if it's one or the other. How can I find out which is causing the issue?
Maybe you are lucky and you can find a user with A129 Duo or A129 Pro Duo from Melbourne and ask him to test your rear camera on his car. If not, the cheapest for you is to buy the cable first.
Check the connector on the rear camera and see if it is not damaged. Usually the cable go damaged on hatchback cars.
 
I would try another power source and or card before I spent money on a cable or replacement rear camera. Failing power source or card can cause your issues. Do you have another 12V car adapter you can try for a day or two?
 
Maybe you are lucky and you can find a user with A129 Duo or A129 Pro Duo from Melbourne and ask him to test your rear camera on his car. If not, the cheapest for you is to buy the cable first.
Check the connector on the rear camera and see if it is not damaged. Usually the cable go damaged on hatchback cars.
Thanks mate, I don't know anyone personally that has a A129. I have checked the connector and the cable, it all looks good. But will check it all again on the weekend.
 
I would try another power source and or card before I spent money on a cable or replacement rear camera. Failing power source or card can cause your issues. Do you have another 12V car adapter you can try for a day or two?
The card is ok, I have tested it on my pc and other devices and it's ok. I have also full formatted numerous times with the same result in the camera, but I'll test it with my old SD card I used to use, the Samsung EVO+ 128GB.
I don't have another power adapter but I will try connect the A129 power cable directly to the car's cigarette lighter, bypassing the DP4 and see how that goes. . Thanks mate!
 
I'm having a similar issue


 
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