Stuck on "Welcome" Screen

[GaryC]

I bought 2 of these from the same seller. One is functioning fine after a day. However, after showing no issues yesterday, one is now stuck on the "Welcome" screen. Nothing I do gets it to change. I've even updated the firmware, still no changes. Is there some 'hard reset' button combination that I can press to reset the device back to factory?

 

[jokiin]

there's a reset button on the side (opposite side to the memory card)

 

[GaryC]

I know that. I've pressed it many times, still no go.

 

[jokiin]

wait until the battery goes flat then try powering up with no memory card in, see what happens then

 

[GaryC]

Ok, I'll try that. Maybe that will clear whatever's in the RAM.

 

[jokiin]

what card are you using?

got a link to what you bought?

 

[GaryC]

I'm using the Patriot LX 16Gb Class 10

 

[jokiin]

got any other card you can try, have you run any test on the cards to make sure they're ok?

there's a file system check that happens at boot which is a possible culprit, worth trying anyway

 

[GaryC]

But I'm using the another exact same card in another exact same dash cam, and it's fine. I even formatted it with the same computer (not that it matters)

 

[jokiin]

But I'm using the another exact same card in another exact same dash cam, and it's fine. I even formatted it with the same computer (not that it matters)

swapped the cards over?

you probably just got a dud but no harm in running through the basics and see if something else

where did you buy from?

 

[GaryC]

Swapped the SD cards, still nope. The camera that works still works with the swapped SD card. So it's a device issue.

I bought it from jingjiniao20070922 on eBay.

 

[jokiin]

Swapped the SD cards, still nope. The camera that works still works with the swapped SD card. So it's a device issue.

I bought it from jingjiniao20070922 on eBay.

probably just a dud, to be honest the factory that makes these doesn't supply the Chinese online sellers so I don't know how they get hold of these or what the standard is, they're all using the same images etc so someone has found the stock as a backdoor deal or whatever and is supplying them, they're selling very cheap but I guess that's part of the risk that things might not work out

did you contact the seller about warranty?

 

[GaryC]

I did. They're telling me to try charging it first for 3 hours when it's off and then trying again.

 

[jokiin]

See how you go once you've finished running through whatever tests they're going to have you do, don't expect the battery charging will do much though

 

[Sahist1971]

Hi guys, I am new here. I had the same problem with my camera( don't know what type it is, bought it in Bangkok, shoots 4k, wifi...). What I discovered is that if I remove the battery and then connect power cable to camera it immediately starts working, then I put battery in again and tried with the battery and it's working, for now. If it freezes again I will try the same thing. Just wanted to let you guys know of this solution, might help somebody.

 

[Gibson99]

Hi guys, I am new here. I had the same problem with my camera( don't know what type it is, bought it in Bangkok, shoots 4k, wifi...). What I discovered is that if I remove the battery and then connect power cable to camera it immediately starts working, then I put battery in again and tried with the battery and it's working, for now. If it freezes again I will try the same thing. Just wanted to let you guys know of this solution, might help somebody.

if it has wifi and claims to record in 4k then it's not an a118. the a118 does not have wifi, and it tops out at 1080p.

 

[jokiin]

some photos of the camera might help, sounds more like an action camera

 

[DashcamDPR]

@Sahist1971 stated it wasn't the same cam, just saying their cam was showing similar issues. Which unfortunately means it wont be the same "fix" to cure it

 

[Don Stewart]

I have another popular cheap dash-cam from china which had the exact same problem as the original post, getting stuck on the startup picture with no switches working except the 'Reset' button which switched it off.
I tried most of the things suggested in the posts above including fully charging it, trying different cards and flattening the battery as far as you can but without any success.
This particular camera has a built in LiPo battery which cannot normally be changed by the user so I couldn't try swapping the battery.
Realising I probably wouldn't get much help from the supplier I took the camera apart myself and desoldered one wire from the battery and then re-soldered it back on.
This did the trick and the camera is now working normally so whatever causes this problem seems to be cured by a complete reset.
I hope this helps others with the same problem, although I realise some people might not be comfortable with or competent enough to take a camera like this to pieces and put it back together again without damaging it.
Don Stewart.

P.S. Now I have the camera working there are other major problems with the video resolution, it looks as though all the modes are interpolated up to whatever resolution is selected from the menus from a very low number of pixels in the imaging chip itself.
The results look even lower resolution than the 640 x 480 lowest selectable mode, I would guess the chip is actually a quarter VGA 320 x 240 or slightly better.
Number plates cannot be read and even the details of peoples faces are so blurry the recordings would be useless in an accident.
There is no way this is a Full HD or even 720p camera and I will have to decide whether it's worth arguing with the supplier about this to try to get a refund, since because I had to take it apart to get it working I suspect they will not honour the guarantee.
I have attached an image from the eBay page of this camera, to help anyone thinking of buying one of these, I hope this is not against the rules.

 

[jokiin]

this model is a public tooling product which means the housing is available to pretty much anyone to put whatever they like inside it and there are multiple versions of this same looking product, so your version may differ from others, that said though none of the variants are decent spec and it's a model that is better off avoided regardless