Screen freeze issue on 2.4 firmware

klatch

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Canada
Dash Cam
SG9665GC v2, A119S, A118C
I have firmware v.2.4 on both my A119S devices and have been running them for months. Today I was surprised to see the screen which was problematic in the past where the left side of the screen is staticy and everything is frozen, despite multiple reboots. I had to take card out while powered off and was able to navigate at to the menu (still with issue on screen I believe) and factor reset and then it was fine again. I reformatted the card (lexar high endurance) to be safe(ish?). I thought this problem was supposed to be resolved with this, or perhaps a previous firmware... Anyone else experience this on 2.4? This camera actually never had the issue before, whereas my other A119S did have it on a previous firmware. And yes, I upgrade, reset to factory defaults, and then format the card in the camera when I upgrade firmware.

Edit: Sigh, seems I need to read threads and not just titles before posting and that others are having issues also (I wish titles would be more descriptive than people often make them but I know I can't fix that...)

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Today I was surprised to see the screen which was problematic in the past where the left side of the screen is staticy and everything is frozen, despite multiple reboots. I had to take card out while powered off and was able to navigate at to the menu (still with issue on screen I believe) and factor reset and then it was fine again.
When you say "factor reset" above, did you mean manually defaulting the settings using the "Default Setting" menu selection or did you mean pressing the reset (R) button in the body case next to the card slot? It's rare to get good feedback on the resolution of the freeze problem that did not result from reloading the firmware. Thanks for the feedback.
 
The firmware bug that was fixed was for the issue where the camera would freeze up and display a bunch of X’s in the lower left corner. It sometimes appeared with a screen issue like you had, however they are believed to be two separate issues. There is no definitive answer as to why some cameras experience this. Viofo has eluded that it could be related to the image sensor ribbon cable.
You are the second person I recall to have this happen on two different cameras. The other user had it happen on a A119 and a A119S. These two cameras were purchased over a year apart. Seems odd to me that both would have an issue with the ribbon cable, especially since the cable for the A119 and A119S are different and over a years time passed between the purchases. He had the issue with the A119 (after a year of it running fine), thought it was junk, then immediately replaced it with the A119S. The A119S experienced this issue within a month. The only thing that remained the same between the two setups was the power source and cable. He used the same setup he had been using on the A119. I forgot to ask him if he was using the same memory card for both, but I would bet he did. This makes me wonder if the issue could be related to a power supply/cable or memory card issue.
With your A119S that just experienced this issue, were you using any part of the setup from when your other A119S experienced the issue? Same power supply? Same cable? Same memory card? Same power source?
 
When you say "factor reset" above, did you mean manually defaulting the settings using the "Default Setting" menu selection or did you mean pressing the reset (R) button in the body case next to the card slot? It's rare to get good feedback on the resolution of the freeze problem that did not result from reloading the firmware. Thanks for the feedback.

I mean default settings in the menu. Has been working so far today. Have not reloaded firmware. Was the 2.4 firmware actually updated in April or did Viofo just update the site again?

The firmware bug that was fixed was for the issue where the camera would freeze up and display a bunch of X’s in the lower left corner. It sometimes appeared with a screen issue like you had, however they are believed to be two separate issues. There is no definitive answer as to why some cameras experience this. Viofo has eluded that it could be related to the image sensor ribbon cable.
You are the second person I recall to have this happen on two different cameras. The other user had it happen on a A119 and a A119S. These two cameras were purchased over a year apart. Seems odd to me that both would have an issue with the ribbon cable, especially since the cable for the A119 and A119S are different and over a years time passed between the purchases. He had the issue with the A119 (after a year of it running fine), thought it was junk, then immediately replaced it with the A119S. The A119S experienced this issue within a month. The only thing that remained the same between the two setups was the power source and cable. He used the same setup he had been using on the A119. I forgot to ask him if he was using the same memory card for both, but I would bet he did. This makes me wonder if the issue could be related to a power supply/cable or memory card issue.
With your A119S that just experienced this issue, were you using any part of the setup from when your other A119S experienced the issue? Same power supply? Same cable? Same memory card? Same power source?
I've had this problem on my two different 119S models, which are both in different vehicles. The first one was in my car on a firmware prior to 2.4, though maybe it was the XXXXX issue, I can't say certainly at this point as it has been a while. Since they are in different vehicles, they have different power supplies and cords (though the models of the power supplier and cords are likely the same). They were both ordered immediately after launch. Both are using the 64GB High Endurance Lexar cards.
 
I mean default settings in the menu. Has been working so far today. Have not reloaded firmware. Was the 2.4 firmware actually updated in April or did Viofo just update the site again?
Thanks for the clarification. This seems to confirm the shortcut method to get an A119 or A119S back operational after a freeze-up without reloading firmware. The problem happens infrequently enough that it is difficult to repeat so as to make observations about it, so good feedback from those who encounter and solve the problem is important. I personally have experienced this problem on my A119S (first reported here: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/a119s-firmware-v2-1.30638/page-3#post-366854), and used this method to restore it to operation, although the procedure was not clear cut to me at the time. After the first go around, the problem has not repeated on my A119S, nor has it ever occurred on the my A119.

I don't know the answer to your firmware question about version 2.4 being updated.
 
Thanks for the clarification. This seems to confirm the shortcut method to get an A119 or A119S back operational after a freeze-up without reloading firmware. The problem happens infrequently enough that it is difficult to repeat so as to make observations about it, so good feedback from those who encounter and solve the problem is important. I personally have experienced this problem on my A119S (first reported here: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/a119s-firmware-v2-1.30638/page-3#post-366854), and used this method to restore it to operation, although the procedure was not clear cut to me at the time. After the first go around, the problem has not repeated on my A119S, nor has it ever occurred on the my A119.

I don't know the answer to your firmware question about version 2.4 being updated.
Do you recall what memory card you were using when it happened to you?
 
Do you recall what memory card you were using when it happened to you?
I don't recall, but it would have been one of these three cards I used then and still use now - two Transcend High Endurance cards (a 32GByte & a 64GByte) and an ADATA 32GByte.
 
I have the same issue since I bought it when A119S rolled out. It happens every 2-6 months. I have updated firmware so many times from 1.0 to 2.4 and changed SD cards. It is funny some reviewers likes A119s because it warns you when not recording. But there's no warning when it freezes. I have a cheap A118C without this issue (the ignitor plug is loose sometimes though). I have lost faith and patience on A119s. It takes much more maintenance/time than my cars.
 
Just to note that this screen freeze (snow on left third of screen) happened to me twice in the last week. I upgraded to FW2.4 shortly after it was released, and it worked fine until now.

Last week, FW2.4 got stuck on June 20: the last file on the cam showed me parking at work in the morning. It was a hot day (25*C, and I park in the full sun; my daughter's crayons melted in her cupholder). I noticed a couple days later that it was stuck (I wanted to save a near-miss, but the camera wasn't recording), and restored FW2.4 on Friday, June 22.

Well, this morning I noticed again that the camera is stuck. Last file was June 25, when I parked my car at home (underground parkade) at the end of the day. I noticed this morning, when I witnessed a crazy driver, and again when I had a near miss (somebody tried to merge into me)

3 days between freezes is pretty pathetic.
 
Just to note that this screen freeze (snow on left third of screen) happened to me twice in the last week. I upgraded to FW2.4 shortly after it was released, and it worked fine until now.

Last week, FW2.4 got stuck on June 20: the last file on the cam showed me parking at work in the morning. It was a hot day (25*C, and I park in the full sun; my daughter's crayons melted in her cupholder). I noticed a couple days later that it was stuck (I wanted to save a near-miss, but the camera wasn't recording), and restored FW2.4 on Friday, June 22.

Well, this morning I noticed again that the camera is stuck. Last file was June 25, when I parked my car at home (underground parkade) at the end of the day. I noticed this morning, when I witnessed a crazy driver, and again when I had a near miss (somebody tried to merge into me)

3 days between freezes is pretty pathetic.
What memory card are you using?
 
I'm using a Sandisk high endurance 64GB. Sold & shipped by Amazon, bought it in ~Oct/Nov 2017.

Worth noting: I made a change to the settings when I reset the cam on Saturday: I set it to 1080P30, rather than 1080P60. Before making this change, I re-set all settings to the defaults.
 
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Just to note that this screen freeze (snow on left third of screen) happened to me twice in the last week. I upgraded to FW2.4 shortly after it was released, and it worked fine until now.
The fix for the X-boxes evidently did not fix the freeze problem. There seems to be some yet undiscovered trigger for this problem.

Try this shortcut fix if the freeze problem re-occurs: With the camera powered down, remove the microSD card and power up the camera. Go to the menu and manually default your settings using the "Default Setting" menu selection. Exit the menu, power down, insert card, and power up again and see if the problem is resolved. If initially {Edit: in the previous step} the buttons don't respond correctly, randomly press different buttons until the menu comes up. Then use the arrow keys to maneuver to manually default your settings as above. I know of at least a couple of cases where this worked.
 
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Try this shortcut fix
I'll keep that in mind for the next time. Hopefully it won't happen anytime soon, but if it is that easy to get the camera functioning again, it might be a useful fix.

Have you tried the "R" reset button? I haven't yet tried it-- but perhaps for this issue it would work?
 
I'll keep that in mind for the next time. Hopefully it won't happen anytime soon, but if it is that easy to get the camera functioning again, it might be a useful fix.

Have you tried the "R" reset button? I haven't yet tried it-- but perhaps for this issue it would work?
Reset button won't work for this error.
 
I'm using a Sandisk high endurance 64GB. Sold & shipped by Amazon, bought it in ~Oct/Nov 2017.

Worth noting: I made a change to the settings when I reset the cam on Saturday: I set it to 1080P30, rather than 1080P60. Before making this change, I re-set all settings to the defaults.
I ask, because I have been noting what cards users with this issue have been using and funny enough, most (if not all) have been when using a High Endurance card. There was one user who said they were using a Transcend (or maybe they said SanDisk) HC card. I did not ask for clarification on the exact card type though, as this could have still been a High Endurance card. This was the only user who didn't specifically say they were using a HE card. Now, I don't really think it's HE cards causing the issue, but I do find it interesting.
There was one user on Reddit who said they had this issue with an A119 and they assumed it was junk, so they replaced it with a A119S. The A119 didn't encounter this issue for almost a year, but he said it happened within a month of owning the A119S. The similarities between the two cameras issues, was that he had reused the 12V car adapter and USB cable, since they are the same between the A119 and A119S and that was using the same High Endurance memory card. I find it interesting that he had it happen on two different model cameras within a month of each other. Maybe he just had some really bad luck.
 
he had reused the 12V car adapter and USB cable
My last cam was an A118C. For that cam, I reused the power adapter and cable from my prior Seezeus cam, and it worked fine. I eventually replaced the A118C when it started having shutdown corruption issues.

I replaced it with an A119S, and after a month or so, the cam would "beep" on rare occasions while I was driving. Those rare occasions became more frequent, and I was losing about 10 seconds of footage each time. I replaced the SD card (it passed tests, but I suspected perhaps it was having trouble with the 1080p60 data rate-- I had reason to suspect damage to the card after RTC clock issues on my previous A118C), and the cam went back to only having very rare beeps. After a month the beeps became frequent (multiple times a day), and then I had an XXXXXX lockup, so I replaced the power supply and cable with the A119S' proper power supply, and the beeping problem went away entirely. Early this year, the FW locked up again, so I upgraded to FW2.4, and it was fine until last week.

If the FW locks up in short order, I'll swap for a different card and see what happens. Hoping Viofo comes out with a new FW to catch the one-third-snow lockup.
 
If the FW locks up in short order, I'll swap for a different card and see what happens. Hoping Viofo comes out with a new FW to catch the one-third-snow lockup.
It is important that you (or anyone) continue report any new occurrences of this problem along with surrounding issues. Resolving the problem has been made difficult by the lack of repeatability. Those few individuals for which the problem does repeat have a unique opportunity to contribute to a solution. Hopefully, @viofo is watching and still concerned about solving this problem. I have to wonder if this problem might show up at some point on the A119S descendant, the A129.
 
I have the same issue since I bought it when A119S rolled out. It happens every 2-6 months. I have updated firmware so many times from 1.0 to 2.4 and changed SD cards. It is funny some reviewers likes A119s because it warns you when not recording. But there's no warning when it freezes. I have a cheap A118C without this issue (the ignitor plug is loose sometimes though). I have lost faith and patience on A119s. It takes much more maintenance/time than my cars.


So much this. Resetting the unit to default settings does not prevent this. Every couple of months my camera freezes and looks exactly likes OPs picture. I think I paid about 120 bucks for my A119S and it's less reliable than 40 dollar cams. I wanted to like this thing but it's going to get replaced by something less janky.

If this is as rare as Viofo thinks, then the only solution would be for Viofo to have our units so they can see for themselves. Any word on Viofo replacing our wonky cameras and having us return the bad ones to them?
 
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So much this. Resetting the unit to default settings does not prevent this. Every couple of months my camera freezes and looks exactly likes OPs picture. I think I paid about 120 bucks for my A119S and it's less reliable than 40 dollar cams. I wanted to like this thing but it's going to get replaced by something less janky.

If this is as rare as Viofo thinks, then the only solution would be for Viofo to have our units so they can see for themselves. Any word on Viofo replacing our wonky cameras and having us return the bad ones to them?
What memory card are you using?
 
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