Beelink M18 freezing and losing picture

[Jancales]

Opened the device and can't see anything strange, so I connected it again while it was open, with the same result of course.

And it is correct, what was previously suggested, the buzzing sound doesn't come from the box but through the tv speakers

[bluesmanuk]

OK well that is progress.

Try this and see if it works.

I have found that I can use a USB port on my laptop to deliver enough to fire up a box.

So try connecting your male A to male A usb cable from a USB port on your PC (USB 3 best) and then to one of the ports on the box (you may have to try them all) and see if it boots up.

Bypassing the AC source might point at power delivery being an issue, which would also then extend the scope of investigation to the power source in your home.

Extension leads can be the source of all manner of issues.

[Jancales]

OK well that is progress.

Try this and see if it works.

I have found that I can use a USB port on my laptop to deliver enough to fire up a box.

So try connecting your male A to male A usb cable from a USB port on your PC (USB 3 best) and then to one of the ports on the box (you may have to try them all) and see if it boots up.

Bypassing the AC source might point at power delivery being an issue, which would also then extend the scope of investigation to the power source in your home.

Extension leads can be the source of all manner of issues.

You got it right there mate.

It's now getting power from a USB port, and I've playing around with it for 7 minutes opening apps uninstalling apps, without a glitch.

Normally it would freeze within 2 minutes, ore as soon as I tried to open anything.

I'm sure the power adapter is not the cause, as I have tried at least 4 including a 3 Amp minix adapter, so what am I looking for now?

Thanks for your extended effort to try helping me out.

[bluesmanuk]

I'm guessing that as you have tried multiple power adapters and on the basis of probability, essentially rules that out, it is power side of things on the board, which may not have a solution.

So perhaps the way forward might be to consider powering up the box from a powered USB hub.

But looking further afield, it's also worth looking at your home power supply, especially if you are using an extension lead as these things can cause issues, especially if overloaded with lots of devices plugged in.

So trying the supply direct from the wall socket, if not already tried, or another location is worth investigation too.

[Jancales]

I never use extension cords for anything, so my power supply will not be the problem either.

I will take it to the local tv repair guy next week and see if he can find something on the board that points to the problem.

There are quite a few small electrical components right behind the power socket, so may be one of those has not the right value.

Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction, because I had considered it lost already.

[bluesmanuk]

Glad that you have at least got some way of making it functional.

Let us know how you get on with any form of resolution once the TV guy has seen it.

[Jancales]

Glad that you have at least got some way of making it functional.

Let us know how you get on with any form of resolution once the TV guy has seen it.

Sure I will, think he comes back from holiday this weekend, and if he can fix it which I'm almost sure he can it probably will cost me a whole dollar in labour.

That's the charm of living in Thailand lol.

Thanks a again mate, you saved the day for me, will keep you updated.

[Jancales]

I have playing around a bit more with the device, and however haven't been to the tv guy, thought I give an update.

With the USB feed from PC it will still freeze and lose picture when using an app that requires much CPU usage.

I then looked it up and it seems USB 2, which my pc has, delivers only 0.5 A, still it freezes less than with a power supply connected.

I then found I have a 2A USB charger, though a copy Samsung, and when I connect that one I can play around as long as I want and install and use whatever I want, without any issues.

The problem reappears as soon as I remove or attach something like a thumb drive or wireless dongle, from the second USB port.

At that point the screen will freeze up immediately and the box becomes unresponsive.

Even carefully trying to remove a thumb drive, while making sure I don't touch the power cable in the other USB port is enough to freeze up the device.

So clearly the whole issue is about not enough power delivered through the power connector on the back, but still bit confused why it freezes when I remove anything inserted in the second USB port.

[bluesmanuk]

Interesting.

Is the charger that you are using 5v/2a?

Probably is but just checking to be sure.

The other possibility is that whilst sufficient power is being delivered to the box, that the box itself is not processing the power correctly, so your TV guy may still be of use.

[Jancales]

Interesting.

Is the charger that you are using 5v/2a?

Probably is but just checking to be sure.

Yes it is 5V 2A, because every USB phone charger is 5V by default, but as I said it's a knock off Samsung charger so it may not deliver the full 2A.

Though if it wasn't full 2A I guess it would still freeze if I restore a full fetched build on Kodi and install and open 7 IPTV apps.

But it doesn't freeze at all, until I remove the thumb drive from the second USB port

[gefattern]

Hi jancales ,

try one with 5V/2500mah / max 3000mah , maybe this helps , and what about a USB Hub on the other Port ???

greetings

gefattern

[Jancales]

TV Guy repaired my box.

He couldn't find anything that was faulty, but as I had another M18 with faulty processor laying around, he switched a few of the small resistors from one box to the other.

He said he compared the measurements from the resistors between both devices, and could notice any difference, but he switched the most probably ones anyway.

He didn't charge me anything as he was of the impression that nothing was repaired, but I took it home and plugged it in, and it worked normal with the power adapter hat came with the box.

Guess he deserves a tip when I pick up the flat screen that's in his shop to repair.

On another note.

Since I tried the LibreElec and then switched back to Android it takes much longer to boot.

Normally I would get the Google TV image for 6 seconds, followed with the Android logo for 10 seconds.

Since I switched back to Android it shows the Google TV image for about 20 seconds, followed by the Android logo for another 10 seconds.

Is there anything I should remove in the system files?

I would keep the LiberElec firmware, wasn't it that I have Android apps linked in my Kodi build, and I understand that in LibreElec you can't install apps.

[bluesmanuk]

When you say that after switching, Android takes longer to boot, are you saying that you are using the same firmware as you did when it was booting much faster?

Kodi can show the Android apps that you have installed but of course Libreelec cannot do that because there are no apps installed as part of it's installation. It is simply an OS with just a Kodi front end, so no possibility of detecting something that is not there.

[Jancales]

Yes I use the same firmware as before, since I didn't remove it for booting LibreElec from sd card.

From what I read on the LibreElec forums is that you would need to press the button in the audio port each time you boot up LibreElec, but in my case that only had to be done the first boot, so I guess something was loaded in the recovery.

[bluesmanuk]

Id Libreelec is just booting from the SD card then, not touching an existing Android installation then I can't see how it can be responsible for the Android installation changing in any way.

Sounds like something must have changed in Android since it was used previously.