Problems with Mini 801, need help

[USP40]

I purchased a Mini 801 w/gps & internal storage from E-Prance in early 2014. It ran fine for about 2.5 months, after which it started have problems. I noticed that occasionally it would turn itself off, or it would fail to turn on when the car starts. It is connected to the cigarette lighter adapter shipped with the unit. I also noticed that the unit would sometimes not mount to my computer when connected.

The frequency of these issues have seemed to be getting slowly worse.

As of today, I cannot get the unit to power on at all. The red charging light comes on, but then goes off after a few minutes. Same wether it is plugged into the GPS base or direct to the power cord.

I have contacted E-Prance (Nancy & Charles) and they want me to update the firmware, but I haven't been able to do it due to the above issues.

FYI it is running firmware: 20130903

Any ideas on how I can get this functioning to get the firmware on it?

 

[Tobi@s]

RED means external power (as far as I know). Seems like a hardware fault. MAybe a bad soldered battery?

 

[USP40]

I was suspecting the battery myself actually.

E-Prance has indicated I'd have to pay for shipping, and it would take upwards of a month if I send it to them. Thats a long time with no cam in the car.

 

[Tobi@s]

If you don't want to ship it back to them you could just open the dashcam and check that by yourself.

 

[USP40]

Is there a write-up somewhere on how to do that?

 

[USP40]

So I had the unit unplugged all day yesterday. When I got in my car for the trip the unit powered up and worked fine for the trip home. This morning, the unit powered up, dean for a while, then the screen went black but the blue light remained on. It would not respond to the power button at all.

 

[yippy]

I had a problem with mine a few months back where it wouldn't turn on the blue light just stayed on. I thought it was the battery so disconnected it and still had the same problem. I found that when the battery was running low
and the unit wasn't connected to power it would sometimes turn on and I had to quickly connect the power cable to keep it on. In the end I flashed it to the latest firmware and it fixed the issue, the hardest bit was getting the
damn thing to turn on so I could do the firmware flash.

 

[USP40]

Yes exactly my problem. Hopefully I can get it to turn on and update..

 

[yippy]

Yes exactly my problem. Hopefully I can get it to turn on and update..

The way I got it to turn on was to have it unplugged, turn it on so the blue light is on wait until the blue light starts fading, the press the power button and sometimes it would turn on but the screen will start to fade due to lack of battery power. You then have to quickly plug the power cable in and it should stay on, just make sure that you have the firmware file on the microsd before you do it.