No name Chinese car head unit

[mollydog]

OK what I know about electronics and these no named Chinese head units can all be written on the back of a postage stamp

I came across this:

the WINCE part of the head unit is there for the GPS,

and its the Chinese OS that runs the entertaining part of the head unit

so it’s that thats giving me the issue, might explain why the GPS card is still readable and the sat nav working just fine,

@flip9 sounds like you’re on the right track about disconnecting the unit over night, reading from another post, the manufacturer/seller of one of these no name units mentions that if a deep rest is needed (as opposed to soft reset i.e. push paper clip in the small hole) then the unit needs to be disconnected from power for at lease 4 hours

I disconnected the car battery at 7am (UK time) so at midday I’ll connect everything up and fingers crossed it might remedy itself

 

[mollydog]

I didn’t realise just how old WINCE 5 is, come to think of it so is WINC 6 I think they stopped supporting it in 2007, 10 years ago

I've heard too many horror stories of people bricking up their head units for me to attempt anything other than trying to get it back to normal

 

[old4570]

I just checked EBAY ...
And looks like people ( sellers ) are dropping WIN CE like a hot potato ...
Its all ANDROID , and Win CE units are CHEAP ... really really low prices ...
If your looking for a new Stereo GPS head unit ... Then check out Ebay ( NOW ) ... Win CE units are cheap , old androids ( ? ) not that cheap ..
They are selling Android 6 and did I see Android 7 ( ??? )
Even Xtrons has gone fully Android

 

[flip9]

@flip9 sounds like you’re on the right track about disconnecting the unit over night, reading from another post, the manufacturer/seller of one of these no name units mentions that if a deep rest is needed (as opposed to soft reset i.e. push paper clip in the small hole) then the unit needs to be disconnected from power for at lease 4 hours

When you plug it back in make sure theres no SD card or USB inserted.

 

[mollydog]

thank you for that bit of information flip9, I wouldn't of know better and would off kept the SD card in, whats the reason for this?

 

[flip9]

Having stuff plugged in when you boot it up can sometimes fail POST (Power on self test). Ive come across it many times on different systems.

 

[SawMaster]

I didn’t realise just how old WINCE 5 is, come to think of it so is WINC 6 I think they stopped supporting it in 2007, 10 years ago

You'd be surprised how many devices still run outdated OS's, often because the main system architecture they interface with runs it and updating them all would be hugely expensive. There's really nothing wrong with that as long as the system and it's peripherals aren't online, but only connected to each other where security isn't highly important. It ain't broke so nobody fixes it until they have to

 

[mollydog]

in the end I gave it 9 hours then 20 minutes ago I took out the SD card with the MP3’s, connected the battery, and after a few seconds of having my fingers crossed I switched on the unit

then for about five minutes messed about with the radio, bluetooth things like that, then inserted the card with the MP3’s in and selected “SD card” from the menu, sadly exactly the same as before, blank screen

also thats strange is that the mini USB on the face of the unit that one can plug in a memory stick with MP3’s or movie files for the unit to play, normally you plug in (with the adapter) a memory stick and the unit automatically detect something has been plugged in and starts reading from the memory stick

well connecting a memory stick to the mini USB the unit detect it and goes to read the stick but instead of showing the files on the stick, it goes blank (just like with the SD card)

but like I said, it either options of the memory stick or SD card (with the MP3’s) are selected when no card memory stick are connected it says so


for the USB memory stick

for the SD card

like was mentioned, these WINCE devices are now much cheaper on eBay, I remember getting one in 2010 and costing me £330 with a low res screen (not 800x480) and less features

it’s not so much spending another £150 - £200 for another WINCE head unit, its the fact that the thing still works fine bar the one thing I want from it (after GPS) and feel gutted to have to bin it when everything else still works just fine,

now I can only think it’s a software issue, maybe on the WINCE side of the OS but more than likely on the Chinese OS side of the head unit

I’m going to unplug the car battery later and keep it disconnected for20 - 24 hours and see what happens

if I do have to bin it then there’s nothing lost in seeing if the Chinese OS can be flushed with a new OS, I know more than likely I’ll brick it but at least then there is a reason for binning it

I'm going to see if I can make contact with Eirsin, if they do exist

 

[jokiin]

I'm going to see if I can make contact with Eirsin, if they do exist

https://www.erisin.com/

 

[flip9]

Bummer.. it would be a shame to throw the unit out.

Contactt Erisin, maybe they can show you a way to hard reset or reflash the unit.

 

[jokiin]

Contactt Erisin, maybe they can show you a way to hard reset or reflash the unit.

these things change a lot and a good chance that most of the staff won't know anything about an older model, staff turnover is generally pretty high in companies like this, certainly no harm in asking though

 

[mollydog]

I got to their web site and from there, I was able to mail them (max 1000 character, so kept it short and to the point):

++
I have the ES842D, my car battery went flat, following this the head unit works just fine with the exception of being able to read my SD card with my mp3 music on it, and the mini USB

all the other features on the unit work OK, just reading the SD card and from the mini USB

I have reformatted 4gig and 8gig cardsFAT32 but same thing, the screen goes grey and blank both when selecting SD card or the mini USB, if I take out the SD card the unit informs me I need to insert a card, it knows I have taken out the card but will not read the card

I am very pleased with this unit, is there anything I can do to make it read the SD card? is there a way of repairing the OS? everything works on it but reading the SD card and the mini USB

any help would be most welcome

regards
++

they say they have a 24/7 customer service, so will keep you posted,

one of the reasons i would like to keep this head unit working is that after the years I've had it I've got used to it and got round to liking how it works, as mentioned, for sure there now are now quit a few of these WINCE units out there going cheap, but would sooner get mine going if at all possible

 

[old4570]

Hmmmmm ...
Does it have an internal battery ?

 

[mollydog]

that's a good point old4570, to be honest can't say I know..I've read the manual a few times, it doesn't mention anything about an internal battery, maybe if/when Eirsin get back to me they might mention something

 

[old4570]

I was kind of wondering ... Why the unit would go funny just because the car battery went flat ...
( Getting old ) Then I remembered a lot of devices have internal batteries for maintaining certain settings should power be lost ..
And if those batteries go flat ( Fail ) , all sorts of bad ju ju can happen ..
But it really sounds like a possible software issue , and I looked on Youtube to see how hard and complicated it would be to flash new firmware ..
Depending on the Head unit ? It goes from bush league to quite involved ..
And as already mentioned , you don't want to flash in the wrong firmware / OS .
???

Is it as simple (?) as a battery , or something more terminal .. ( I know how frustrating this must be for you )
A definitive answer would be nice , all this guessing ?

 

[jokiin]

head units typically don't have any battery backup as they are three wire connection anyway, any memory settings are stored with power from the vehicle battery

 

[old4570]

Youtube is a little light weight .... on flashing head units ...

 

[mollydog]

I had an email back from Erisin.com (nothing from the guy I bought it from off eBay) who told me as it’s an old unit there’s no software updates and I should be contacting the seller

it’s more or less what I had expected to be honest. after all it’s an old unit, but was hoping they might have known a solution if there was one of flashing the Chinese part of the OS


I have come across this one off eBay

link here:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/361878180692
UK seller so a bit of guarantee, has anyone had any experience with this unit or come to think of it any Android head unit?

 

[kamkar]

Yeah i will be looking local and in EU when its time for me to update

 

[old4570]

Most head units are Android now ... ( New ones )
Win CE is = Down and out ! ( Android wins the double din battle )

So if you are in the Market , just make sure your buying Android , unless U really want Win CE ( for some reason ) .. ( Like it's so cheap you just can't say no )