Unit completely useless 15 seconds after switching it on, how many faults can one item have at once

[rfhead]

Hi all
Thanks for the pleasure of joining the forum
I purchased a 522gw way way way back in June 2019 it was on offer and i had the rear cam too, £145 for both on offer at Halfords. Absolute bargain, but I ended up with an illness and then we had lockdown and I lost my business and so on, so in the end I have only just installed the thing believe it or not after 3 years
I fitted just the front unit with a next base hard wire kit and used a nextbase sd card 128gb from a friend, I wanted to try it first before purchasing one at their extortionate rates, I also purchased a new Samsung 128gb evo plus u3 a2 v30 sd card, switched it on set it up linked my phone then it all went downhill, phone kept loosing live view, when it does connect it lasts for around 3 seconds and drops the live view and then just sits there trying to reconnect, I have to reset the dash cam to enable the phone to connect to live view again and when it does connect again it lasts a few seconds and then disconnects and I have to do the same again. It randomly freezes and I have to do a reset to get it working again, when it does start up and automatically starts recording which is occasionally because most of the time it locks up, it sits there showing 1 second on the display and locks up and sometimes stays locked up and needs a reset or after about 30 seconds it will jump to 30 seconds and start recording and then as usual it will randomly lock up or stop recording and show the settings and play icon as if you have touched the screen, you can sometimes get into the settings and navigate through but also at times it will just freeze. but the one it always does when recording is loose gps signal and crash and stop recording after around 15 seconds and the rare occasion after around 15 minutes, but it always looses gps after around 15 to 45 seconds even if still recording.
It does this on both sd cards and doesn't seem to make any difference whichever card I'm using. the longest it has lasted without locking up completely is around 15 min.
Its always dropping the Bluetooth connection and WIFI connection, it always locks up and always freezes regardless of what I do and I haven't even tried to connect the rear cam yet.
Also I have park mode turned off and have auto shutdown enabled and the screensaver enabled and I have it hard wired to a permanent supply, the unit stays switched on and the screen stays lit up for hours and doesn't go off or shut down unless I remove the unit, is it supposed to stay on like this ?
I just wish it hadn't taken 3 years to install it as I'm now stuck with a paper weight as its completely useless and does nothing its supposed to do, it doesn't even last 10 min without doing something wrong.
What a complete waste of money and its only good for the dust bin.
Now I have to spend again to buy another dashcam which will NOT be a nextbase.
NEVER AGAIN NEVER NEVER NEVER.
I have had around 15 seconds of correct usage out of the box and that's it.
After coming to the forums to try and get some advice to see if it was maybe user error I can say it definitely looks like its a firmware issue as it happens with both cards, nextbase must have a group of chimps writing their code for them as I cannot believe how many issues one item can have at one time within 2 days of usage , completely unacceptable nextbase should be ashamed and stop trying to blame user error especially with the customers who have spent the money and purchased one of their recommended sdcards,
I wish I had tried it before updating the firmware to the newest version as I can imagine it was running quite an old version, I also saw a few posts about version 16 I think it was ? that was quite stable, why don't nextbase make that available for everyone to download and use while they sort this firmware out and get a fixed update pushed at least we could use these things as intended.

 

[Kremmen]

I think the problem will more than likely be the 3 year inactivity.

I've had other products with internal lithium batteries that have obviously been sat around and once the lithium battery goes completely flat, that they tend to do in under a year sometimes, that's it. They will not retain a charge.

 

[rfhead]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply, the battery is holding up well it seems to be holding charge with no issues thankfully.
But it’s also hardwired anyway so I would expect it to work ok whilst on the hardwired kit.
But as I said the battery does seem to be holding out ok at the moment.

 

[Kremmen]

In that case, dig out one of Millie's reset procedure posts here, and, test the card with 'h2testw' to make sure it's genuine. Fakes often have the header capacity much larger than the actual capacity and that can cause a shutdown.

 

[rfhead]

I checked my new Samsung card with that program last night and that seemed to return no errors so seems genuine. I didn’t check the next base card though.

 

[Paul Iddon]

Why didn't you contact Nextbase and politely ask if they could help.

Asking for a friend....

 

[Decking]

“Also I have park mode turned off and have auto shutdown enabled and the screensaver enabled and I have it hard wired to a permanent supply, the unit stays switched on and the screen stays lit up for hours and doesn't go off or shut down unless I remove the unit, is it supposed to stay on like this ?”
No is the short answer. With park mode turned off, there is no need to have it wired to a permanent live. If this was swapped to an ignition activated live, the unit would close down the minute you turned off the key + a few seconds.
Even with a permanent connection, the unit should go into a sleep mode after 5 mins if no movement or activity is detected.
Screensaver will simply turn the camera view off after a set amount of time, ie speed shown, blank screen. Although you will still be recording.

 

[rfhead]

From the response in the forum I really do feel support are passing the buck a little, I agree there are probably a few members who haven’t used the correct card or don’t realise they have a fake card but there’s plenty of users that are having problems and have proved they are not card related.
And still support blame their card.
Also as the unit is 3 years past the purchase date it’s not covered anymore under warranty and based on how much I paid for it the unit wouldn’t be cost effective to repair.
Also I have seen lots of members have repairs done and still have the same issues when they have had the units back.
I originally came to the forum to see if the issues I was experiencing where common and if a fix had been found, and to be fair it seems to be firmware related and nextbase do not feel the need to look into this.
So I just decided to share my experience of my product so other people who may come to the forums for advice can use that information to make a choice about what to buy.

 

[Paul Iddon]

@rfhead How did you contact support?

There is a contact on this forum who will see this - try asking Millie when she reads your info.

 

[rfhead]

“Also I have park mode turned off and have auto shutdown enabled and the screensaver enabled and I have it hard wired to a permanent supply, the unit stays switched on and the screen stays lit up for hours and doesn't go off or shut down unless I remove the unit, is it supposed to stay on like this ?”
No is the short answer. With park mode turned off, there is no need to have it wired to a permanent live. If this was swapped to an ignition activated live, the unit would close down the minute you turned off the key + a few seconds.
Even with a permanent connection, the unit should go into a sleep mode after 5 mins if no movement or activity is detected.
Screensaver will simply turn the camera view off after a set amount of time, ie speed shown, blank screen. Although you will still be recording.

Hi
Thanks for your response,
I did intend to have park mode active I was just setting it up with just limited basic functions first to try it out and then I would have added the other options after I could see it was working as it should be.
I also wanted to test my new card out too just to make sure it was coping ok.

 

[rfhead]

@rfhead How did you contact support?

There is a contact on this forum who will see this - try asking Millie when she reads your info.

I didn’t contact support I looked at the responses from Millie for example and decided not to go that route due to disagreements with forums users regarding firmware.
I don’t want to get into a name calling or blaming stance I feel that’s not gentlemanly.
I feel from certain posts and responses from users having direct contact with support that support are not being completely transparent with what’s going on with the units firmware.
I’m also not willing to throw more money at it based again on what other users have experienced with support.
I will simply buy a different dashcam and decided to leave my honest opinion of my experience with my unit.
It would have been nice to have found a post stating an updated firmware had been pushed fixing the errors but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
Such a shame as I really do like the look and feel of this product, and love the quick connect gps mount.

 

[Paul Iddon]

It is a good product, mine is still in the car from years ago, but every manufacturer will always have a problem here and there.

Hope you find a suitable alternative if that is what you ultimately do.

Paul.

 

[rfhead]

It is a good product, mine is still in the car from years ago, but every manufacturer will always have a problem here and there.

Hope you find a suitable alternative if that is what you ultimately do.

Paul.

I have considered going back to blackview, but it’s been a few years since using them so I would need to read some reviews.

 

[Decking]

Quote”I feel from certain posts and responses from users having direct contact with support that support are not being completely transparent with what’s going on with the units firmware”.
I feel comments like this are quite harmful to the forum, (conspiracy under tones) I doubt any user has direct contact with moderators or Nextbase support staff, other than within the forum and our own experiences.
I’m sorry you have had a bad experience, it is a cracking piece of kit, but like a Rolls Royce, occasionally they do throw out a bad one.

 

[rfhead]

I don’t feel all the complaints on the forum are conspiracies there are plenty of them.
If I buy an item and it’s having lots of problems I shouldn’t have to feel guilty or feel bad about sharing my experience, and the statement like a rolls Royce occasionally they do throw out a bad one, according to the forum they throw out quite a few.
But yes I get it you only get all the moaners on the forums because it’s somewhere to complain and there’s probably thousands who are extremely happy with theirs but it doesn’t make up for me throwing my money into the wind, sorry but it’s just the truth no matter how polite it is said.

 

[Kremmen]

If you have the Nextbase HWK neatly installed I'd consider another dashcam that can use the mini USB connector.

That's what I did.

 

[rfhead]

I have considered putting my mio back in but I really did want to upgrade to something a little better, the mio was ok but it had occasional issues with memory cards. The unit would stop recording and come up with sd card needs formatting error, it was rare but annoying. This happened even after several new cards and regular formatting, formatting twice a week. I think I might go back to blackview I did like my old blackview unit I had it over 4 years with no issues at all, it used to get red hot but always chugged along.

 

[Mark R S]

Have the same issue of it lasting 15 seconds before it dies , I have been in direct touch with Nextbase and followed all their advice about what SD card etc, it’s obviously a battery issue but all they are saying is return it at my expense so they can tell me what I know it’s the battery and charge me for a new one which will probably do the same , considering it’s only 16 months old it’s a shocking product

 

[rfhead]

I have had all sorts of problems and I have only been using it around a week so far,
Constant restarting, freezing, white screen disconnecting from phone, refusing to connect to phone full stop, missing recordings, huge gaps in recording files, just lots of issues as the unit seems to have a mind of its own. I really wanted to like this unit as I do think if they got the firmware issues sorted it would be a Fantastic product but they need to stop passing the blame and blaming the memory cards on all the issues, even with their recommended own branded cards these issues still persist so there’s no excuse, sort the firmware out and this will be a brilliant product, Carry on the way they are and their name will be dirt and people will move elsewhere as I will be doing soon if there’s no firmware update fixing these issues. There’s no excuse, nextbase stop being lazy stop passing the blame and sort the buggy firmware out.

 

[u-schon]

Hello,

The problem, which almost all dashcams have, is actually quite simple.
The housings are simply too small for sufficient ventilation.
The only remedy for this is larger ventilation holes.

I myself bought a used three-year-old Nextbase 522GW not too long ago. It showed the phenomenon that it stopped recording after exactly 15 seconds and the camera froze.
I also tried original Nextbase SD cards.

After I had dismantled it and removed everything from the camera, I did the following things:
I removed the spacer and the piece of fabric that was supposed to keep the battery away from the electronics of the lens, as well as another piece of fabric inside the camera.
Only the manufacturer knows what these are for.
Then I drilled out all (!) ventilation holes and gave the camera additional ventilation holes! One should be extremely careful when doing this.

After this procedure, really remove all impurities in the camera and carefully reassemble it. It's no trick at all, as the cameras are quite simple.

After reassembly, I installed the latest firmware 21.5.

Now it works excellently and the waste heat can escape from the housing and no longer heats up the electronics so much. It still gets warm, but it doesn't boil like it did before.
I use it with Samsung or Sandisk 128GB cards. Without any problems!

Oh yes, the battery is of course no longer the best in its third year, but this was not responsible for the above. I'm thinking about getting supercapacitors for the camera.

By the way, I did the same thing with a Nextbase 322 GW and a Viofo A119 V3. These also get very warm, but still did their job before the modernisation.