PMID 4311 power problems

[ffgrizzley]

I have browsed through the forum and did a search but haven't seen anything like my problem. I bought mine back when they first came out at BL. Put a 32 gig card in and have used it for music and genealogy. I get over 4 hours listening to music with it and haven't had it run out using Ancestry.com app with all the photos and info. I love the little thing. Problem just started to show up within the last few weeks. It won't turn on. I thought that somehow it had run an app and run out of power, so I'd plug it in to charge. It seems to want to turn on on it's own schedule, not when I need it. I popped the case apart to peak inside and see if the USB port was loose and not connecting properly. Everything was solid and I got 4.0 volts off the battery with a tester. When I pull the cord off the unit or put it on it shows the battery screen and shows a small green bar that shows it's not fully charged. Strange to me since it showed 4 volts on a 3.7 battery. Now I found the actual (I think) small cord that came with it and it is showing a slightly higher charge after 20 minutes but still won't turn on.

Anyone else having this problem? Wondering if the on/off button has something to do with it. The micro cords that I had been using work with my phone so I know they work and they had worked before charging it. 4 volts on the battery still bothers me.

[ffgrizzley]

update

Seems the smaller cord worked and charged the unit up. But when it came alive it had an Android lying on it's back with a door open and a red triangle with an exclamation mark. Did some hunting around and found that it was having trouble with the sd card and thought that there was an update on it. So I removed it and held the buttons for another 10 seconds, but nothing seemed to happen. Started poking around using search and all of a sudden I noticed that it was restarting. After it came up, I put the card back in because I have my music on it. Seems to be working ok with wifi hooking up and what few apps I have working.

Anyone have any clue. I don't know much about computers.

Thanks for your time!

[dolorespark]

The only power problems I've had with the 4311 were purely mechanical. The power button can get stuck in so it's constantly pressing the switch it's connected to. This can leave it in an indeterminate state: on/off/sleeping/who knows. Trying to get it unstuck may cycle you through several of those states.

As to the external SD card: from what I've read, Allwinner systems will boot from the external card rather than the internal storage if they think something bootable is on the card. Corrupted formatting on that card may have mislead the bootloader and caused it to boot into ..uhh.. nothing.

[ffgrizzley]

I had noticed exactly the same thing a few times. Usually I plugged it in thinking that it had run out of battery. Probably was stuck in Never-Never land like you say. I have had it cycle a few times now and it seems to be working ok. The fact about the sd card makes sense. I wouldn't leave it in except that it has the Ancestry set up on it and all my music. Who ever invented that little card wasn't thinking about old people with arthritis and bad eyes.

Thanks for the reply. I'm going to stick with this one while I'm looking for an affordable larger one that runs windows.

[ffgrizzley]

Well, about a month later and having problems getting it started again. Love it when it works, but it's beyond frustrating when it doesn't. Screen pops on and shows that the unit has a full charge when I plug in or unplug the USB cord, but I can't get it to start at all. I can hear the power switch click so I don't think it's stuck. Maybe internally? I thought I read somewhere about a soft boot that would reset it. Can't find a link if I saved one. I have the SD card out of it because I thought I was back to that problem again.

Any ideas?

[Magister]

Sometimes my tablet goes in sleep mode but never gets out. I have to press and keep the power button for something like 30 seconds to reboot the tablet.

[ffgrizzley]

Sometimes my tablet goes in sleep mode but never gets out. I have to press and keep the power button for something like 30 seconds to reboot the tablet.

Thanks for the idea. Held it for over one minute and it still didn't kick in. If I plug in the USB cable it shows that the tablet is down in the 90% area of battery power.

I had thought that the last time that I had found a soft reboot description. Something like holding the + button and the power button for some time period to reset it, but can't find that link anymore.

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

[ffgrizzley]

YEE HAW!

I want to thank everyone for the ideas that they've posted first off. It's great to have support other than from the maker.

I have found the problem and Delores was on the money. I got real tired of it just sitting here so I opened it up to see what was inside. While I was pushing buttons, it started. Put it back together again and it wouldn't start. Back apart and removed the on/off button, snapped the case back together and everything works. The power button on the board is REAL small. Due to the fact that my 59 year old fingers aren't the most accurate in the world I had bought one of the soft point pens that has a real pen built in. (It's much more accurate on my useless TomTom also.) Using the real pen tip I can turn the tablet on anytime and it works great. I'm not a big poster but I do read a lot of the posts and now I can start exploring all the other things that this tablet can do.

Thanks again everyone and I hope this helps someone else fix theirs.

ffgrizzley

[cherylharrell1961]

Mine hung up a coupla times. What I did was I had to just let the power die down and then charge it back up and all was well. Whew.

[ffgrizzley]

Nice idea

I had tried that in a round-about way. It seemed that even though it wasn't usable, it was using battery power and draining it down within a day sometimes. Other times after a charge it would show a high charge for quite a while. I really think Delores hit it saying that the on/off button causes it to get stuck in limbo. It was on, but wasn't on in a form I could use.

Nice to know you've got yours fixed. Have fun with it.

ffgrizzley

[dolorespark]

I really think Delores hit it saying that the on/off button causes it to get stuck in limbo. It was on, but wasn't on in a form I could use.

Last month, after the power button got stuck and I couldn't tell what state the tablet was in, I very reluctantly opened mine up and found the problem.

The plastic power button is hollow except for two perpendicular crossbeams. Where they meet in the center is where they should press on the power switch's ..ummm.. plunger. However, often only one of the crossbeams actually presses on the plunger. Over time, this had caused the cheap plastic plunger to fracture, breaking off about a third of it. With the plunger only 2/3rds as wide as it should be, it's possible for the vertical crossbeam to slide down the broken side of the plunger and get stuck when you press the button. At that point, you can't tell if the power switch has been engaged or not, and whether the tablet is now off or just asleep.

I tried to fix it by attaching a piece of plastic to the back of the button so there'd be uniform pressure on what remains of the plunger. Unfortunately, the piece I used (cut from one of those tags used to keep bread wrappers closed) was too thick, so there's no play in the button. When I find something thinner but equally rigid, I'll try again.

[ffgrizzley]

Wonder if a piece of milk bottle would work ? ? ?I know up here the white Hood milk bottle is a little bit thicker than the semi-clear ones but not as thick as a bread tab. I found this out by using a side of the bottle as a bondo spreader for some body work on my jeep.