Tronsmart TV Box Ara X5 in August with Cherry Trail Z8300 Windows 10

[vinaduro]

Hi everyone.
I just got my Ara X5 today, and I've been playing around a bit with getting Kodi set up. I have been running Openelec on a Raspberry Pi 2 for a while now, but was looking for something that can handle 4K, so I got the Ara.
The problem I have right now, is that the Ara doesn't seem to support HDMI-cec out of the box. I was wondering if anyone here might know how to get it working? I've become accustomed to using only one remote, and would really like to maintain that functionality if possible.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[bluesmanuk]

Hi everyone.
I just got my Ara X5 today, and I've been playing around a bit with getting Kodi set up. I have been running Openelec on a Raspberry Pi 2 for a while now, but was looking for something that can handle 4K, so I got the Ara.
The problem I have right now, is that the Ara doesn't seem to support HDMI-cec out of the box. I was wondering if anyone here might know how to get it working? I've become accustomed to using only one remote, and would really like to maintain that functionality if possible.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

No it doesn't support HDMI-CEC but my understanding is that this fault lies with Intel as for whatever reason, they have chosen not to implement it.

[vinaduro]

Thanks a lot for your response bluesmanuk.
I have seen CEC implemented on other Intel Cherry Trail Z8300 devices, such as the one listed here: http://www.quantatw.com/Quanta/engli...lcomputer.aspx
So I was hoping it may be a driver issue.

I guess I'll have to get a PulseEight then, but shipping to South Africa costs almost the same as the device. I hate living in a third world country. lol

[Eclecticon]

Have it for months now. No issues yet.
The only thing I got is some pulsar multilanguage errors on the right bottom corner sometimes. I ignore them because they don't make sense to me anyway.

Genesis is faster than pulsar lately with new episodes.
I still hate browsing sources. The trial and error routine.
No idea how to recognize a good source.

[GeekBuying_Rep]

Have it for months now. No issues yet.
The only thing I got is some pulsar multilanguage errors on the right bottom corner sometimes. I ignore them because they don't make sense to me anyway.

Genesis is faster than pulsar lately with new episodes.
I still hate browsing sources. The trial and error routine.
No idea how to recognize a good source.

Hello friend,

Can you take some pictures to show us?

We will try our best to help you about it.

Or you can send email to [email protected]

Good day

Cammy

[Rugalo]

Got my Ara X5 from Geekbuying yesterday, I'm dissappointed. I have been reading also on the Tronsmart Forum, there were some people reporting problems with WIFI, I thought there was nothing behind it.

So to the Problems which are real:
-WIFI 2.4G is broken (Ethernet works) there is no driver Update or windows update that can fix this. 3M away from my Router and either no connection or 20 kb/s.
Alot of people reported this.
-Input lags: there are videos which show this on YouTube, i can confirm this. This issue is making games unplayable, tested: TF2, lol, ppsspp (Emu)
-Game lags: every few minutes a game hangs for 30 sec or more resulting in a disconnect, you can forget gaming on this device

I tried it with the orginal out of the box drivers and with updated Drivers and updated Win 10.
I paid 164€ with tax and im dissappointed, I thought Tronsmart stands for quality..

If you want to play games and use WIFI 2.4 G do not buy this box, I will complain to Geekbuying and Tronsmart about this issue

[bluesmanuk]

Got my Ara X5 from Geekbuying yesterday, I'm dissappointed. I have been reading also on the Tronsmart Forum, there were some people reporting problems with WIFI, I thought there was nothing behind it.

So to the Problems which are real:
-WIFI 2.4G is broken (Ethernet works) there is no driver Update or windows update that can fix this. 3M away from my Router and either no connection or 20 kb/s.
Alot of people reported this.
-Input lags: there are videos which show this on YouTube, i can confirm this. This issue is making games unplayable, tested: TF2, lol, ppsspp (Emu)
-Game lags: every few minutes a game hangs for 30 sec or more resulting in a disconnect, you can forget gaming on this device

I tried it with the orginal out of the box drivers and with updated Drivers and updated Win 10.
I paid 164€ with tax and im dissappointed, I thought Tronsmart stands for quality..

If you want to play games and use WIFI 2.4 G do not buy this box, I will complain to Geekbuying and Tronsmart about this issue

What WiFi driver version are you using and are you able to connect on the 5Ghz channel?

[Rugalo]

What WiFi driver version are you using and are you able to connect on the 5Ghz channel?

My Router doesnt support 5Ghz, the newest driver i will check the version number later im at work.

[bluesmanuk]

Sandisk Ultra 64Gb MicroSDXC UHS 1

X5 recognises that a card has been inserted but nothing shows up in file explorer or anywhere as a partition device.

Device manager adds a SD Storage Class Controller but it fails with a Code 10 cannot start device.

After formatting the card in my laptop to both NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT the same issue occurs, only changing the status after a reboot to Code 10 STATUS_DEVICE_POWER_FAILURE.

Attempts to update the SD Storage Class Controller are met with the 'your driver is already the best' kind of message.

So at the moment I would class this as incompatible.

Also noted that if you leave the card in the X5 when shutting down, the LED light stays active.

So if this is on your shopping list for the X5, count it as being incompatible.

[clarkss12]

Interesting, I purchased this 64GB microsd card and it works fine. I even shared it, so I can see everything on it from my desktop computer. I purchased it from B&H Photo for $21.98 shipped. PNY Technologies 64GB Turbo Performance High Speed UHS-I microSD Memory Card (U3, Class 10)

[blinkone]

My 64GB SanDisk Extreme Micro SD Card 90MB/s UHS-I U3 Class 10 works just fine in mine & I use it in lots of other devices too never had a problem

[bluesmanuk]

This is the Ultra model.

I know that devices can be picky about some Sandisk cards and I'm guessing this is one of those instances.

There is a thread over on the Tronsmart forums about compatibility with users posting their results, so I thought I'd post my results over here too.

http://forum.tronsmart.com/forum/tronsmart-ara-x5/1397-micro-sd-card-compatibility-thread

[Rugalo]

What WiFi driver version are you using and are you able to connect on the 5Ghz channel?

The driver version is 5.93.103.25

[vinaduro]

It turns out my X5 is just dead today. It was working fine yesterday, but today the light comes one, but no display whatsoever. This is getting a little frustrating.

[bluesmanuk]

I decided to carry out some WiFi/Lan speed tests to see exactly what my own X5 performance is.

So I headed over to this site to use a test 1Gb file to time the download on each option.

www.thinkbroadband.com/download/

Results as follows based upon my broadband providers speed of 38mb/s max:

2.4Ghz - 6m 21s
5Ghz - 4m 46s
Ethernet (Auto negotiation) - 4m 03s
Ethernet (100/Full) - 3m 51s

So within the parameters specified by the test site, speeds are very good across the board.

Now that Tronsmart have identified the hardware manufacturing issue for the few devices that are having issues with WiFi, especially over the 2,4Ghz band, this should give some indication of how a fully working box can perform.