G1W-CB not turning on, power button turns on front-facing light

[cab93]

I got this G1w-CB back at Christmas and have been dealing with the date reset issue until tonight when I happened to want to find a recorded video on the SD card. Well the video wasn't there because it overwrote it because the date. I decided to do some more research and that lead me to the thread here on how to update the firmware. I formatted my card, put the bin file in the root and tried updating. At first it was booting straight to recording without trying to update. I then read that you may have to rename the bin file. I did that and the screen started black as it is supposed to and I left it for for 5+ minutes. I tried tapping the power button to turn it off and it just turns on the front facing LED.

I've tried renaming it back to the original filename, holding the reset button with a pin, and tried using it powered via my laptop. I cannot get it to do anything besides intermittently flash the red LED and turn the front facing LED on when I press the power button. Did I brick it? Anything I can try to do to save it?

 

[cab93]

Update for anyone who searches in the future for a similar issue:

I'm not sure exactly what I did to fix this, but I was reading [this page](https://dashcamtalk.com/g1w/) and I decided to take my g1w-cb apart to see if it had a legit processor in it and to check the board for a model number so I can make sure I get the right firmware from that page. I found the board was legit and I downloaded the firmware. I put the camera back together, popped the card into my laptop and formatted it and loaded the firmware on there to just give it a shot again now that I know I had the right firmware. Pretty sure I had already tried this firmware based on a forum post here, but no harm giving it a try again.

I loaded the card into the camera and plugged it in, success! A splash screen of a red sedan popped up then a menu message in Russian popped up. Not knowing Russian, I clicked the Mode button and then it went to a blue screen with more Russian text. Figured this was the update screen and I download Google Lens on my phone and translated it. It read Flash Memory. Sometimes translation can be iffy, so I let it stay on that screen and it's been that way for 10~ minutes. About to turn it off and try again using my phone to translate the initial menu. I'll make another post after I get it up and running again. Thought I had bricked it the other day, glad to know there is still hope.

 

[cab93]

I press the power button, it had the red Mercedes again and said GOODBYE. Powered it on again and was a black screen for probably 20~ seconds until the red Mercedes splash screen popped up again and then the Russian menu. The translation app says the menu shows the option says Flash Memory. So I assume I successfully flash the memory and updated the firmware before. I pressed the REC button and got that blue screen again. I took the card out and deleted the bin file, popped it in and got the same message. I formatted the card and got the same result.

The menu showed it was in USB mode, so I powered it off and unhooked it from my laptop. I decided to try to power it up unplugged from USB and it turned on without that message! Looks good to go finally! I will put it back in my car in a bit and change the language to English and set the time/date. I will report back after it's in my car.

 

[cab93]

Glad to say it's up and running like new! I set the date and will report back in a few weeks or as soon as the date resets to see if this firmware fixed it. I've also read it's just the capacitor or battery that keeps the date current and they can go bad separately, but I don't see how the battery doesn't stay charge when driving everyday. But below is what I did:

1.) Took apart and confirmed the NT96650 processor and S1088 board
2.) downloaded the firmware titled "G1W Firmware estore009. 2014.0108 (S1088_M_Ver1.0)" from https://dashcamtalk.com/g1w/
3.) Formatted SD card to FAT32, placed the bin file from the Zip on the root of the SD card
4.) Inserted the SD card into the dash cam and plugged the dash cam directly to my laptop with the USB cable.
5.) If not powered on automatically, power it on and it should be a black screen with an intermittent red LED for 10-60 seconds then a splash screen with a red mercedes
6.) The screen should be in Russian and at this point I clicked REC and it went to a blue screen with more Russian. You probably don't have to do that and can just turn it off, but it takes 5 seconds, so why not?
7.) Powered the dash cam off, removed the SD card and formatted it again on my laptop.
8.) Re-insert the SD card into the dash cam and unplug from USB or you'll just get the menu again. You can test it before reinstalling in your car by powered on when NOT connected to your computer.
9.) Change the date and you're good to go!

 

[cab93]

Update:

Already lost the date and it reset. But now it seems worse than before. Maybe I flashed an old version of the firmware? Before when it would reset the data it would be 2014/01/01, now it reset to 2013/01/01. The year earlier to me indicates I actually started with a newer firmware. My car sat for less than 15 hours being drives and the date reset. Thinking it may be the capacitor or just not a feature this camera actually supports.

Should be my last post about the dash camera as I'll just have to live with the date being wrong

 

[Tanchbattery]

First and foremost, never remove the memory card while the camera/computer is ON. This corrupts the memory.
The only way out is to insert the memory card in a laptop/PC, and use a file recovery software.