442 won't turn on - intermittantly

[bperron(at)comcast.net]

I'm so confused.

I charged my 442 fully. The power on button blinks.
I believe it stops blinking when fully charged.

I go to use the unit and sometimes it won't turn on.
Now I have to admitt I'm not sure if I locked the unit.
I went to use the unit. It would not power on.
I plugged the unit into it's power supply and the power on button was  continously lit but no screen. Pressing the TV/lock button did nothing. Disconnecting the power supply and the power button light was off.

I read the instructions and faqs and tried pressing the lock button for two seconds, then pressing the power on button, while using the power supply. It started to work. When I disconnect the power supply the unit shut down due to low battery supply. The unit only had 30 minutes of run time.

I am so confused.....
A few more days of this and I have to get a RMA.


I few things I noticed:
The plugs are flakey too.
They definitely need "cleaning", pushing the jacks in and out a few times, when the unit was new.
I got tricked by the no video only audio until I read the forums. Press the TV button dummy.
The record feature made a bad audio track, lots of hum.
Also I see frame skipping after playing the recording made from a vhs movie.

I lost that rubber thingy on the 2nd day of usage. I hope I can find it.

Has anybody come up with an external battery supply? 5 hours is not enough to go cross country on a plane flight.

Oh well, this is my 2nd neuros product and I would not reccomend them to my non-techie friends

[Derek]

wow, that is one big list of things....I hope I can help.

I have the same problem with my 442, every so often the unit will just refuse to start.  There is some small bug with the way it charges that somehow confuses the unit (or at least it seems that way).  The first thing you should try is pressing the reset button and then try turning it back on. (sometimes this works and sometimes it does not).  the second thing you should try is plugging in the charger and seeing what the unit does.  sometimes i have plugged in the unit and it will show a solid light (like it was fully charged) but would not start.  What i did was kept trying to start the unit with the charger on and off and eventually the unit would somehow change and start.  I was going to report this as a bug, but i could not effectively recreate the situation on demand.  It was intermitten, and i had never heard of anyone else speak of it.  but, try the reset button first, that might be a quicker fix, if it does not try plugging in the charger and tyring to turn it on with it on and off, and then it may change to blinking and turn on....this is confusing, i know....

the unit may have had short run time because of what i talked about above (a little bug).  or it might be that the connector was not making good contact because it may not be broken in (which i have had with other devices as well).

a bad audio track with hum could be tons of things: interference from tv or some device, bad cable, bad connection, mono and stereo plugs switched...

I cant see why people keep losing that rubber thing, i have never taken it off and i love having it there so no dirt gets in the plugs, i must be a minority.

you can create an external power supply as long as the power you supply is power that is specified on the power adapter.  if the adapter were to say 10mv at .5amps, then you just need to go to radio shack and buy a proper connector tip (same as the charger), and then find some batteries that you can chain togeather that will give you same output as your wall charger.  I did this with the neuros 2 and it worked very well. Added about 8-10 hours of operation.

i am sorry that you feel so confused with neuros products.  I am not going to vouch for the older products, but the newer stuff is a big improvement.  The 442 is still in beta and has kinks that need to be fixed.

If you need any more help or instruction please feel free to ask,

Derek

When I was a kid my mom used to tell me that curiosity killed the cat...What she forgot to tell me was that it also discovered the cat, invented the lightbulb, and forged the Neuros

[Ex-Navy]

Derek is right.
The connector for charging may not be making a good connection.
I have repaired issues of what is called "cold solder joints" on printed circuit cards for 20 years. Alot of our repairs on portable units are dirt getting into the connector because the rubber boot is gone, battery does not charge because of poor internal connectors(connections). Switches don't work because the carbon film is gone inside the switch.
Alot of problems are also the switches.
We build custom projects using portable digital video recorders.

All of us tend to report "software bugs" easier then hardware bugs.
Hardware bugs are easier to find then software. The user usually does not know if the problem is software or hardware.

We are also working on an OEM external battery for both the 442 and the recorder. At the moment we offer external AC adaptors for both.

www.wildlifeperimeters.com



Ex-Navy

[Gunderstorm]

quote:Originally posted by Derek

The first thing you should try is pressing the reset button and then try turning it back on. (sometimes this works and sometimes it does not).

The reset button is my best friend.  I don't go anywhere with my 442 without a paperclip.

quote:I cant see why people keep losing that rubber thing, i have never taken it off and i love having it there so no dirt gets in the plugs, i must be a minority.

I don't get it either.  How have so many people been able to yank this thing off in casual use?

[game_writer]

quote:Originally posted by Gunderstorm

quote:Originally posted by Derek

I cant see why people keep losing that rubber thing, i have never taken it off and i love having it there so no dirt gets in the plugs, i must be a minority.

I don't get it either.  How have so many people been able to yank this thing off in casual use?

Mine ripped off within ten minutes of receiving my unit. I was just trying to get a look at the plugs underneath during my initial examination and the little rubber cover ripped right off very easily. I probably pulled on the wrong side first.


Game_Writer

[bperron(at)comcast.net]

Thanks for the reply.

The power problem seems to have gone away after I plugged the charger in and gave the unit a good wack. Sucker started to charge, the light started to blink. It has been working ever since.

The audio quality doesn't seem to be as good as the MP3 player.
I having troubles with some file codecs, no sound or doesn't play.
XVID and DX5 files

The rubber thingy comes off easy so I don't understand why you don't understand?

Tried deleting a file but it would not delete.

[Derek]

Xvid can come in many forms.  some forms include Qpel and other advancements, some of these do not work with the 442.  I am not sure why your DX5 files do not work...

When I was a kid my mom used to tell me that curiosity killed the cat...What she forgot to tell me was that it also discovered the cat, invented the lightbulb, and forged the Neuros

[ice.skillz]

open the file in gspot and see if anything that neuros doesnt like. I had a file with ac3 audio, which didnt play sound.

like my sig