Thinkware F770 wont turn on after firmware upgrade + SD card fell inside

howdy

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Hi everyone, I got this installed yesterday and everything was working perfectly. I plugged the SD card into my computer to view the footage and Dashcam Viewer said that a new firmware is available (v1.00.03, current version was v1.00.02) so I downloaded it and put it back into the dashcam. A voice came on saying the upgrade will start and then 1-2 minutes later it said something else but I don't recall what it was I was driving at the time.

When I arrived at my destination 10 minutes later I checked the camera and none of the lights were on. I tried pressing the power button a couple of times but nothing happened. I had to go so I turned the car off. When I got home I emailed support and they said to format the card and download the firmware and to try again. It didn't work however as the camera won't turn on at all.

So I tried checking the fuses with a multimeter and there is still power going through so I tried taking the SD card out but when I put it back in I didn't quite align it with the slot and the card fell inside! I heard it jiggling around so I tried shaking it out but that obviously didn't do anything and it must be wedged inside as I can't hear it anymore.

What do? Did I void the warranty by dropping the SD card inside?
 
Hey russ thanks for your reply.

I bought this from Ebay from a UK seller and I've sent him a message and now I'm just waiting for his reply.

In the meantime I contacted Thinkware Australia support and gave them the Ebay link and they said that units sold overseas must have firmware from their country of origin if they are a regional specific device, so I'm guessing that the Australian firmware bricked the camera. Though he also mentioned that the Ebay page didn't state that it was a regional specific device and that they are not able to warrant devices purchased overseas. So hopefully I can work things out with the Ebay seller.
 
Hey russ thanks for your reply.

I bought this from Ebay from a UK seller and I've sent him a message and now I'm just waiting for his reply.

In the meantime I contacted Thinkware Australia support and gave them the Ebay link and they said that units sold overseas must have firmware from their country of origin if they are a regional specific device, so I'm guessing that the Australian firmware bricked the camera. Though he also mentioned that the Ebay page didn't state that it was a regional specific device and that they are not able to warrant devices purchased overseas. So hopefully I can work things out with the Ebay seller.

Just wanted to clear things up so there is no confusions from howdy's post.

For All Future F770 Owners:
  • Thinkware F770's are region free (You can install firmware/Speed Cam Data from anywhere in the world as long as Thinkware provide it)
  • Do not use the provided Thinkware MicroSD card to update the firmware (THIS WILL BRICK YOUR DEVICE!!!)
Here is a thread about the Thinkware F750 but same thing for the F770 where "Schizophonic" had this exact issue:
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/f750-not-functioning-correctly.18750/

Schizophonic wrote:
"My unit has been shipped off and back to the support guys at Thinkware UK. After some long email discussions trying to recover the device they concluded that my device was indeed bricked due to a corrupt memory card (thinkware)."

I have tested updating firmware using a Samsung Evo 64GB MicroSD card and can confirm it works 100%.
I have had customers who have updated their firmware using the provided Thinkware MicroSD card and have bricked their device and says "Update Failed".
I have also had customers who updated their firmware successfully using their own non provided Thinkware MicroSD card.

So i can confirm what "Schizophonic" wrote is true and accurate.

Also, It doesn't matter where you buy your Thinware F770 from as this applies to all F770 owners worldwide.


Finally, I hope this clears up all the confusion and questions current and future Thinkware F770 owners have.
 
Last edited:
Just wanted to clear things up so there is no confusions from howdy's post.

For All Future F770 Owners:
  • Thinkware F770's are region free (You can install firmware/Speed Cam Data from anywhere in the world as long as Thinkware provide it)
  • Do not use the provided Thinkware MicroSD card to update the firmware (THIS WILL BRICK YOUR DEVICE!!!)
Finally, I hope this clears up all the confusion and questions current and future Thinkware F770 owners have.

I don't have Thinkware product but it is on my short list.. But this adds to my confusion.
Are you saying that to upgrade the firmware you must not use the SD card that came with the unit. That you must purchase a second SD card and use that when upgrading the periodic firmware upgrades. By implication you are saying that to upgrade you must use a new SD card for each firmware upgrade.. and using an active SD card means bricking your device.
:confused:
 
I'm glad I'm not the only one who has faced this issue - regarding the card falling inside the F770 unit. I've had this happen to me twice now and have reported it to Thinkware UK. In my opinion, this is a design flaw which Thinkware need to improve on.

In my case, and I'm quite sure it will be for many others too, I can't actually see the SD card slot because of the way the unit is positioned and installed in my car. I can feel the slot and then try inserting the SD card, but as I have mentioned above, on two occasions I have missed the slot altogether and the card has fallen inside the unit instead. The gap between the holder and the hole its placed in is wide enough to swallow the thin and tiny card quite easily. It is very easily done and you only realise this when you can't feel any resistance from the spring in the holder (and when it is too late, of course).

On one occasion I was lucky enough to retrieve my card with a pair of tweezers. On the other occasion, I had no choice other than to open up my unit in order to retrieve it.

A minor design flaw, on an otherwise decent camera unit, which needs to be addressed by Thinkware.

Apologies for being off topic, and for not being of any help.
 
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I don't have Thinkware product but it is on my short list.. But this adds to my confusion.
Are you saying that to upgrade the firmware you must not use the SD card that came with the unit. That you must purchase a second SD card and use that when upgrading the periodic firmware upgrades. By implication you are saying that to upgrade you must use a new SD card for each firmware upgrade.. and using an active SD card means bricking your device.
:confused:


Sorry if I have confused you Ralph2, not my intention at all.

To answer your questions:
Yes, you must not use the MicroSD card to update the firmware that is provided by Thinkware in the box when you purchased the dash cam as it will brick your device.

  • You must not use the Thinkware MicroSD card to update firmware.
  • You must purchase another MicroSD card and use that to update the firmware.
  • You do not need to use a new MicroSD card each time you update firmware.

Eg. You've purchase another MicroSD card, you can use it to record your videos, use it to update your firmware. Just don't use the Thinkware MicroSD card to update the firmware otherwise it will brick your device.

I do recommend to purchase a bigger capacity MicroSD card as 16GB, 32Gb is too small, 64Gb is ok but I would go for 128GB as it's less than double the price of the 64GB but double the capacity.

Hope this answers all your questions.
 
Just wanted to clear things up so there is no confusions from howdy's post.

For All Future F770 Owners:
  • Thinkware F770's are region free (You can install firmware/Speed Cam Data from anywhere in the world as long as Thinkware provide it)
  • Do not use the provided Thinkware MicroSD card to update the firmware (THIS WILL BRICK YOUR DEVICE!!!)
Here is a thread about the Thinkware F750 but same thing for the F770 where "Schizophonic" had this exact issue:
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/f750-not-functioning-correctly.18750/

Schizophonic wrote:
"My unit has been shipped off and back to the support guys at Thinkware UK. After some long email discussions trying to recover the device they concluded that my device was indeed bricked due to a corrupt memory card (thinkware)."

I have tested updating firmware using a Samsung Evo 64GB MicroSD card and can confirm it works 100%.
I have had customers who have updated their firmware using the provided Thinkware MicroSD card and have bricked their device and says "Update Failed".
I have also had customers who updated their firmware successfully using their own non provided Thinkware MicroSD card.

So i can confirm what "Schizophonic" wrote is true and accurate.

Also, It doesn't matter where you buy your Thinware F770 from as this applies to all F770 owners worldwide.


Finally, I hope this clears up all the confusion and questions current and future Thinkware F770 owners have.

Hey mate,

Thanks for your great advise. I have just has my F770 installed running on UK firmware as was bought from ebay UK seller. I really wanted to upgrade it to the AUS firmware with red light camera but put the thought on side thinking that it might brick my camera if I do go ahead. Just need to confirm from you that you have indeed installed the AUS firmware on the UK one and it did go ahead as planned. Of course I wont be using the thinkware provided memory card as advised by you but I have Samsung EVo 64gb card which I can use for the same.

Please advise. Thanks
 
Hey mate,

Thanks for your great advise. I have just has my F770 installed running on UK firmware as was bought from ebay UK seller. I really wanted to upgrade it to the AUS firmware with red light camera but put the thought on side thinking that it might brick my camera if I do go ahead. Just need to confirm from you that you have indeed installed the AUS firmware on the UK one and it did go ahead as planned. Of course I wont be using the thinkware provided memory card as advised by you but I have Samsung EVo 64gb card which I can use for the same.

Please advise. Thanks

Yes that's correct.
 
Yes that's correct.

Great. Thanks heaps for the prompt confirmation. I will now update the firmware as planned and see how it goes. Is there any difference in between the UK and AU firmware apart from red light camera locations. How are you finding it running with AU firmware :)
 
Great. Thanks heaps for the prompt confirmation. I will now update the firmware as planned and see how it goes. Are there any difference in between the UK and AUS firmware apart from red light camera locations. How are you finding it running with AUS firmware :)

You do not need to upgrade the firmware to get Australian speed camera data.

All you need is to download the AUS Speed Cam Data from Thinkware and put it in the correct directory on the MicroSD card.
 
You do not need to upgrade the firmware to get Australian speed camera data.

All you need is to download the AUS Speed Cam Data from Thinkware and put it in the correct directory on the MicroSD card.

Thanks mate. I am doing an update of both firmware and red light camera. Just downloaded the firmware and now installing it on F770. Hope everything goes well.
 
Hi everyone, I have successfully updated the firmware with the Samsung evo 64gb card but now it says "memory card error, system restarting " whenever I switch on the vehicle and then the F770 restarts and connects again. I have formatted the card in the cam itself and via app but its still doing the same thing once when I start the vehicle.

Any advise what it could be ? Thanks.
 
I just bought ANOTHER SD card, this time a Sony UHS1 Class 10 90mb/s and still get this cursed "memory card error, system restarting" - How many cards do I have to go through to get this damn thing to accept a non-Thinkware card? I've tried the Samsung and that was an immediate fail, at least with the Sony it gives me hope that it will work, but after 5 seconds it's the same message anyway.

Your helps guys would be appreciated to alleviate this stressful issue.
 
Like $130 from Autobarn - what a joke! I got the Sony for $55, the Samsung for $40 and some other brand for $25 - But I'm not giving in purely because I don't support monopolisation :D
 
that is a bit steep, pricing in the USA is a lot fairer on these, current pricing on memory for good quality cards is currently over $1 per GB
 
Everything in Australia is expensive! and on top of that, everything fun is illegal :D
 
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