Beelink M18 freezing and losing picture

[Jancales]

I have a Beelink M18 with latest firmware and it starts up fine ( most of the time at least ) then after a few minutes it will completely freeze up and lose picture. This happens without any app open.

During that time the power light remains blue, but the box can not be switched off, either with the remote or manually with the power button.

Only way to power off is unplug.

When it is frozen up the box sometimes makes a buzzing sound, which stops if I unplug the HDMI cable.

I have done factory restore and flashed a new 108L1 firmware, but nothing changes.

Any suggestions to a solution please?

[bluesmanuk]

Check the AC power supply to see if it is supplying power at a consistent level.

[Jancales]

Check the AC power supply to see if it is supplying power at a consistent level.

No problem with the power supply, because I use it with other boxes, and have already switched with other power supplies.

I also found another topic, where this was caused when connected through wifi, but my box is hardwired.

[Jancales]

Does my problem sound like a hardware or firmware issue ?

I will say, when the box freezes it doesn't always lose the picture, but I definitely can not close it down without unplugging.

If it sounds as a firmware issue, would side load openelec or so fix it?

I have no experience with these so would like to hear a verdict before start playing with those options

[bluesmanuk]

Not entirely sure myself.

The buzzing doesn't sound good although part of the freeze could just be the sound getting stuck too.

But if you are happy to flash a firmware to try then at least you can prove or eliminate one possibility.

[Jancales]

Not entirely sure myself.

The buzzing doesn't sound good although part of the freeze could just be the sound getting stuck too.

But if you are happy to flash a firmware to try then at least you can prove or eliminate one possibility.

No app open when I lose screen, so there is not supposed to be any sound at that time. The buzzing also more sounds like an electrical connection that isn't good.

Only happens in case of screen loss, not when the screen freezes, and stops when I unplug the HDMI.

Do you have any suggestions about which firmware I should flash?

Like I said I already flashed a Beelink firmware for this box, but that didn't change anything.

[bluesmanuk]

I have an idea that might be worth investigating.

There is a way to run Libbrelec from an SD card that is explained in this thread.

http://freaktab.com/forum/tv-player-support/amlogic-based-tv-players/s905/tronsmart-ac/firmware-roms-tools-at/564159-libreelec-openelec-for-tronsmart-vega-s95

There is also more general information on Libreelec on S905 here

https://forum.libreelec.tv/board/38-amlogic/

My thinking is that if it can be run on your box from an SD card and therefore not affecting your Android installation that if this too resulted in lockups, it could point more to a hardware issue.

Might even be worth opening the box to see if there is any discernible damage to anything on the board.

[Jancales]

That Openelec and Librelec goes straight over my head mate.

Don't even know where to start.

Can you give me some hand please.

Do I just download the image to an sd card and start up the box?

[RISCy Dude]

To your original problem, have you tried another HDMI cable?

[Jancales]

To your original problem, have you tried another HDMI cable?

Of course tried about everything possible. Other HDMI cable, other power adapter and even other tv, but I also don't think that a faulty HDMI cable would cause a tv box to become unresponsive.

Take note when the system freezes, not every time picture is lost, but the power light stays blue and regardless how many time press the power button nothing happens.

[bluesmanuk]

That Openelec and Librelec goes straight over my head mate.

Don't even know where to start.

Can you give me some hand please.

Do I just download the image to an sd card and start up the box?

It's a case of reading through the instructions on each thread.

Looks daunting at first but just follow each step and you will get there.

[Jancales]

It's a case of reading through the instructions on each thread.

Looks daunting at first but just follow each step and you will get there.

So to start with, which one would you recommend. LibereElec or OpenElec, or Armbian or is the latter another name for OpenElec?

Do I first have to install Linux, or is Linux included in the image file, or already present on my box?

[bluesmanuk]

Personally I would try Libreelec but as long as you can get one to work, that is key in order to try and establish box stability.

Armbian in Linux, so it depends which path you prefer to take but Openelec/Librelec will probably be the easiest and quickest route.

The gurus in those threads will be in a better place to advise as you go along as it's a long time since I did it but it did work well.

[Jancales]

Personally I would try Libreelec but as long as you can get one to work, that is key in order to try and establish box stability.

Armbian in Linux, so it depends which path you prefer to take but Openelec/Librelec will probably be the easiest and quickest route.

The gurus in those threads will be in a better place to advise as you go along as it's a long time since I did it but it did work well.

I have read up on instructions and it seems to be less confusing than I actually thought.

I found that I have to use the Rufus tool to created the bootable sd.

I also understand that I have to add a device tree to the bootable sd, and have downloaded the appropriate one already.

The only confusing I still have is which image file I should download from the list below. I'll use Windows to create the bootable sd, if that makes any difference in which image to select.


Edit : got that far that I realise I need the img.gz image, only still confused if the one at the top wit C2 or the one lower in the list without the C2

Edit 2 : Never mind, got it already. Will report back in an hour or so how it worked out.

[Jancales]

LibreElec was actually a walk in the park to install, but the outcome is negative.

Booted from LibreElec and when starting the initial setup the device freezes already.

Unplug and reboot, with similar result.

Next step open up the box