K2 shuts down for no reason/at random

Wow that did not work at all. I got maybe 3 minutes' worth of video from about an hour and a half of riding.

Several times during the ride, I tried to connect to the K2 via the app to make sure it was recording. I could get to the app's main menu, but any time I tried to do anything, I got the old "Reconnect cameras..." error message.

I gave up and headed home.

When I got home, the DVR was quite hot to the touch. So was the SD card when I removed it to view the videos.

There was something very wrong with the SD card. It was blazing hot to the touch, not enough to burn my fingers but definitely not normal. It would not read in my PC. In fact, the first time I plugged the SD card into my reader, it caused my PC to bluescreen!

Once I was done rebooting I waited a while for the card to cool off.

When it was back to room temp I put it back in. Access was super slow, but eventually I got the video folder to come up. That's when I saw I only had 5 video clips, 2 partials and 3 full ones per camera, from the whole ~90 minutes of riding.

I thought the SD card might be physically damaged, but I formatted it and it seems to be working.

What the heck.

Obviously, something is wrong with my K2 other than just the power supply not working. The DVR should not get as hot as it did. Yes, it was about 92°F here this afternoon, but if the K2 is going to get hot enough to malfunction in that kind of weather, it's useless to me.
 
I'm not sure it is possible to operate the K2 with the rear camera disconnected - it won't connect in the app if you have both disconnected.

Nothing will work including the app if zero cameras are hooked up. I'm told you can connect a single camera for troubleshooting purposes.
I'd try one at a time and see if that helps point the finger at what's going on there.
 
At minimum I need the front camera or there's not much point having a dashcam. So
I guess I'll try connecting only the front camera, just to see what happens.
 
It looks like that SD card I was using yesterday got physically damaged from being so hot. Tried it in the K2 today. Formatted it inside the app, got a "disk error" message in the app, and the K2 wouldn't record any video on it.

Putting the card in the PC makes File Explorer lock up. It can't be accessed at all. Wow. Really was not expecting the K2 to eat an SD card.
 
I tried operating the K2 with only front camera connected. Doesn't work. When I try to access the live view inside the K2 app, I get the "Camera initialization failed..." error.

(This is with a different, non-damaged SD card inserted)

I had to reconnect the rear camera and restart the K2 for it to work normally. Of course it usually works fine in my garage - it's only when I'm out riding that it malfunctions.

update: Yeah I have no idea what's going on. Shut down, disconnected rear camera, powered up. K2 is now working happily with just front cam. No idea what happened earlier.
 
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update to the update: on a suggestion, I've rolled back to the v0.57 firmware since that's the last version that worked reliably. It's the version I was using from the time I last had a power module replacement (late Dec 2019) until some time in April, when I tried the v0.67 update.

I hooked up all the hardware normally (both cams, power cube instead of USB power) to simplify matters.

The thinking is that there's a hidden flaw in versions after v0.57, that cause the DVR to generate excessive heat. Excessive heat leads to locking up, failure to record, maybe even the random shutdowns & failures to power up, that I've seen with warmer weather.

This firmware flaw wasn't causing problems until the weather warmed up. It was masked by cooler conditions, earlier in the spring.

Don't know whether that's right yet - but testing the idea this week.
 
Samsung is doing a warranty claim on the card. Maybe the K2 fried it, but maybe the card shouldn't have failed even with the heat. That's Samsung's call.

It's interesting that the card shows no outward sign of physical damage. It sometimes cooperates long enough to be formatted, but access is very flaky. Lots of the computer pretending the card isn't there, or File Explorer not responding for a minute or two.
 
Running firmware v0.57 did not really do anything, unfortunately.

K2 worked normally on some shorter rides in lower temps, but for some reason failed to record GPS on an entire trip yesterday. I did have GPS logging turned on (double-checked in the app, afterwards).

Today, I went riding in 90°F+ temps. K2 shut off after about half an hour. I tried manually restarting it (big silver button) but it just shut down again. Tried again about 20 minutes later, after some highway riding, and it stayed on for the rest of the ride (about 15 minutes or so). Forgot to feel the DVR when I parked in my garage, don't know whether it was overheating or what.
 
Another ride yesterday. DVR packed it in about 20 minutes from startup. Wouldn't say on when manually restarted, just like before.

After ~10 minutes on the freeway, DVR was able to restart & stay on.

This problem acts as if heat-related. I've ruled out everything else within my ability (power supply, SD card, firmware). As I installed it, DVR should get better ventilation than it ever would under a seat, but appears to be overheating & malfunctioning anyway.

Sent DVR in for further testing.
 
Looks like you’ve had this about 2 years. I’d like to offer you a steeply discounted complete whole kit replacement (latest production) if you’re interested and open to that. Send me an email or PM.
 
No, I only bought it last July. You must be thinking of someone else.
 
No, I only bought it last July. You must be thinking of someone else.

Ok thought I saw posts from you about comparing K2 against C5 from a few years ago.

If that’s the case you’re welcome to send in your complete system for warranty service. I know it’s not easy to remove but we’ve already replaced most parts so not sure what’s uniquely wrong with your setup. Let me know and I’ll message you our new south Florida office address.
 
Yes, we've been exchanging emails about it and the Post Office picked up the DVR today. Thanks!
 
It looks like you guys sent me a new DVR. Appreciate that, hope it works.

If you've figured out what went wrong with the previous DVR, I'm sure everyone here would be interested.
 
Yes replacement is on the way per email sent.

Original unit will get shipped back to the factory for analysis eventually but it’s hard to ship anything to China currently with restrictions in place.
 
Another happy bit of news: it looks like Samsung sent me a replacement for the fried SD card.

Not only that, but they did it UPS 2nd day air. Wow. I would have been perfectly happy with UPS Ground or USPS first class.

Maybe they can learn something from the destroyed card. Hope so.
 
New DVR installed. It worked perfectly one day, then on the next day's ride I noticed it was powered off for no apparent reason.

Not sure whether it did the classic "turns itself off during a ride for no reason" thing, or simply failed to power up after I stopped for gas (also possible). After noticing it was off, I stopped, turned off the engine, waited 30 seconds, then started up again. K2 turned on and stayed on for the next hour and a half or so as I rode home.

I'll keep an eye on it.

It was hot yesterday, but I was doing a lot of highway miles. No reason the DVR should have overheated.

I don't understand the power supply "logic" at all. There is no reason the K2 should ever turn off, as long as long as there is power on the cube's "yellow" wire.
 
It must somehow be one or both of the cameras then at this point. everything else has been replaced already.
 
If I keep seeing more mysterious shutdowns/failures to power up, would you like me to send in the whole system - DVR, cameras, GPS antenna, power cube? I don't know what else to do at this point.

Thanks!
 
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