Menu Lockup

[HangFire]

I received my eBay e-prance Mini on Oct 23rd after a long wait from ordering Sept 13th.

When I first looked at it I couldn't get anywhere other than let it power up when attaching power. So, I just let it charge.

I took a longer look at it tonight and after about 6 tries got it to get into the menu (long press button up). Then it locked up.

After a similar number of tries I managed to get it into some of the menus and one time managed to get the time set. But now it's back to- into a menu and then lock up before I can set anything. Once locked-up the only thing I can do is power down by removing power or holding the power button down for several seconds.

Other info... From my PC I ran the hw test on the memory card overnight and it came back with zero errors. The lockup behavior is the same on USB power from my PC as from the included 12V adapter in my car.

If it started recording I might be able to put it to use, but it doesn't.

Any ideas, tricks, something I'm doing wrong, or is this just a bad example that needs to be RMA'd?

 

[jokiin]

Connecting the cable via the bracket or the camera?

 

[HangFire]

Trying a few more times, I got a power-on to a black screen, it took a bunch of long power-button presses to convince it to turn off (I was afraid I'd have to let the battery run down). Then I turned it on and got the camera view on the screen but no amount of button-up long-press gets me a menu. It just took a very long power button press to get it to turn off. Next try, I got right into a menu... and then the menu locked up, no response to any buttons. But at least it powered down easily this time.

That's they way it's been with this thing.

 

[HangFire]

Connecting the cable via the bracket or the camera?

Behavior is the same both ways, but seems to be a worse with the GPS bracket. This is the no-memory version (512? Not the 8GB).

 

[jokiin]

Tried powering up with and without a memory card, any change?

 

[HangFire]

Tried powering up with and without a memory card, any change?

Ah, yes. That's how I got the time set. Now I can go through the menus. It is running FW VER:20130903. At least I think it is a 3. It is too small to read.

 

[jokiin]

Try a quick format of the memory card on the PC before you put it back in the camera

 

[CheckYourLights]

I've had this happen before in a DVR-027 as jokiin mentions a PC format might fix should fix the problem if not the only other thing i could think to try is a different brand of card.

 

[HangFire]

Try a quick format of the memory card on the PC before you put it back in the camera

Interesting. This was a very well-tested card. I've had it for over a month while I waited for the Mini to arrive. It has a genuine 32GB and I ran speed tests on it in both Linux and Windows 7. I copied files on and off of it and tried it in my DSLR, it passed every test.

Now it is trashed with "No Size" or "0 Bytes Capacity". I try to format it on Windows 7 but it keeps failing. The only thing that has changed is it had a round trip through the Mini. I did try to format it in the Mini. I guess that was a big mistake.

 

[jokiin]

The camera not booting was indicative of a card issue, there's a file check process which happens when it boots

 

[HangFire]

The camera not booting was indicative of a card issue, there's a file check process which happens when it boots

OK I had to re-write the card's partition table with a low-level utility, then I could reformat under Windows.

Now when I put it in the powered-off camera and power it on, I get: "FORMAT PARAMETER IS NOT OPTIMUM: FORMAT? YES/NO".

I'm not inclined to let the cam format again.

What are the optimum parameters to use within Windows 7?

 

[jokiin]

Windows doesn't format them to spec anyway, download the Panasonic SD Formatter program and do a full format with that

 

[HangFire]

lol That worked, I just recorded my first vid with this dashcam.

All this wasn't in the paper manual, was it on the Mini-CD? Not exactly plug-n-play.

Anyway thank you for your help. We'll see how it does in the car now.

HF

 

[jokiin]

Might have been something about some of the testing you had done prior that had tripped things up, anyway good to see you got it working

 

[HangFire]

Might have been something about some of the testing you had done prior that had tripped things up, anyway good to see you got it working

Could be, you never know. I never changed the partition table, but "something" did and the only something it was in during that time was my laptop and the Mini 0801, and I did try to invoke the Mini's format option. Which failed.

I used it this morning and it seems to work, but the 12V adapter creates a lot of FM radio interference. I'll take that up with the vendor, though.

 

[Retired2Golf]

Had exactly the same problem. The whole thing was fixed by turning off the motion detection. The only way I could get into the menu was without a card in it. As soon as a card was installed I couldn't get into the menu. I removed the card, got into the menu and turned off the motion detection. Reinstalled the card and everything was sweet.