VS1 shuts down immediately on boot

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sabertr

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Hey everyone,
I've had my VS1 for about 3 months now, purchased from the official VIOFO AliExpress store. It was working perfectly until recently when it was exposed to direct sunlight for about an hour while parked.
Since then the camera plays the startup sound and immediately shuts down. It doesn't restart in a loop — it just shuts off completely until I power cycle it, then the same thing happens again.
Here's everything I've already tried:
Multiple power sources (hardwired HK5, Samsung charger, official Viofo cigarette lighter adapter)
With and without SD card
Different SD cards
Hard reset
Firmware reflash with latest VS1 firmware on a freshly formatted card
Nothing has worked so far.
Interestingly the behavior is not always identical — sometimes the shutdown takes slightly longer than other times, which makes me think something is partially initializing before failing.
I'm located in Tunisia and international return shipping would cost roughly the same as the camera itself, making the standard warranty process practically impossible.
Has anyone experienced something similar with the VS1 or other VIOFO models? And has anyone successfully opened a VS1 without damaging it?
@viofo @VIOFO-Support — is there any solution available for customers in regions where return shipping is not economically viable?
Thanks in advance
 
Welcome to the club @sabertr

1.) Are you using VIOFO Brand SD Card?
2.) Can you long press “lock” button for 5 seconds to turn on Wi-Fi?
3.) Can you connect with APP to perform factory reset / default setting using APP?

4.) How did you perform hard reset VS1?
Did you use the procedure listed in User Manual?
Short press Mic button 5 times?
See attached screenshot.

5.) Does VS1 respond to Voice Commands?
- Take Photo
- Video Start
- Lock the Video
- Turn On Audio
- Turn Off Audio
- Turn On WiFi
- Turn Off WiFi

Since the camera is only 3 Months old, and still under warranty I would still SUBMIT A TICKET directly to Viofo requesting support / warranty service.
I downloaded your video, and uploaded to YouTube just in case the link goes down.
-Chuck

 

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I wonder if it works if you take it down and bring it in the house?

Also, was it running in Parking Mode during that one hour sun thing? You wouldn't think that'd knock it out-it's sunny in a lot of places and they're designed to stick on a windshield.

Interesting that you could do a firmware update too.

(Not an expert, just a VS1 owner.)
 
Last edited:
sabertr said:
Hey everyone,
I've had my VS1 for about 3 months now, purchased from the official VIOFO AliExpress store. It was working perfectly until recently when it was exposed to direct sunlight for about an hour while parked.
Since then the camera plays the startup sound and immediately shuts down. It doesn't restart in a loop — it just shuts off completely until I power cycle it, then the same thing happens again.
Here's everything I've already tried:
Multiple power sources (hardwired HK5, Samsung charger, official Viofo cigarette lighter adapter)
With and without SD card
Different SD cards
Hard reset
Firmware reflash with latest VS1 firmware on a freshly formatted card
Nothing has worked so far.
Interestingly the behavior is not always identical — sometimes the shutdown takes slightly longer than other times, which makes me think something is partially initializing before failing.
I'm located in Tunisia and international return shipping would cost roughly the same as the camera itself, making the standard warranty process practically impossible.
Has anyone experienced something similar with the VS1 or other VIOFO models? And has anyone successfully opened a VS1 without damaging it?
@viofo @VIOFO-Support — is there any solution available for customers in regions where return shipping is not economically viable?
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Please submit a ticket here to claim a warranty with us: https://support.viofo.com/support/tickets/new?
 
Thanks for the reply!. it didn't actually update. The camera just did its usual boot-then-shutdown cycle when I inserted the SD card, so I mistakenly thought it was flashing. It never actually completed.


And yes, it was running in parking mode during that hour in the sun, so it was generating heat on top of the external temperature — probably made things much worse.


As for the outcome — I submitted a warranty ticket to VIOFO and they were genuinely great about it. Since return shipping from Tunisia to China would cost nearly as much as the camera, they agreed to send a replacement with only a small shipping contribution from my side. Really appreciated how they handled it.
 
Chuck McCoy said:
Welcome to the club @sabertr

1.) Are you using VIOFO Brand SD Card?
2.) Can you long press “lock” button for 5 seconds to turn on Wi-Fi?
3.) Can you connect with APP to perform factory reset / default setting using APP?

4.) How did you perform hard reset VS1?
Did you use the procedure listed in User Manual?
Short press Mic button 5 times?
See attached screenshot.

5.) Does VS1 respond to Voice Commands?
- Take Photo
- Video Start
- Lock the Video
- Turn On Audio
- Turn Off Audio
- Turn On WiFi
- Turn Off WiFi

Since the camera is only 3 Months old, and still under warranty I would still SUBMIT A TICKET directly to Viofo requesting support / warranty service.
I downloaded your video, and uploaded to YouTube just in case the link goes down.
-Chuck

Click to expand...
To answer each point:

  1. Yes, using the official VIOFO 32GB card that came in the box
  2. No — the camera shuts down immediately after startup, not enough time to long press anything
  3. Same issue — shuts down before I can connect via app
  4. Yes, followed the manual procedure, short pressed mic button 5 times — no difference
  5. No response to voice commands — again, shuts down too fast

Basically the camera doesn't stay on long enough to perform any of these steps. The issue was resolved though — VIOFO support agreed to send a replacement. 👍
 
@sabertr
Congrats on your successful warranty claim.
I think your first post played a big role in getting "good" warranty service because you explained malfunction, and all the troubleshooting you performed.

Now that you have a replacement coming would you mind disassembling the defective unit, and posting photos of the inside?
Maybe we can see the component that failed.
-Chuck
 
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