[Bug] A-210 loading screen then goes black

[xon]

Hi all,

My 1.5 year old A210 does not display anything except the loading splash
screen then it goes black.

I last left it downloading files via torrent (about 14
hours).
It was not responding to the remote so I powered it down via the remote. On powering it up the loading screen appeared but then goes black.

I tried removing the internal HDD but this did not help.
I jumpered uart0 and tried the firmware recovery but there is no activity on the usb thumb drive when I tried this and it is still requesting usb insertion.

If i try to boot without the jumper in place there is activity on the inserted usb thumb drive, but again the display goes black. So it recognizes the usb drive during normal boot but not during the firmware recovery process.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Pain]

When you get as far as the screen has gone black, try changing video mode with the remote.

1. Press the "video mode" button, and release it.
2. Press "0" (=zero), and release.

If you get picture then, go into settings and change the video mode to something your TV support. Start with 720p for instance, just to see that it works. Then set it at the best your TV supports. Don't set it to "Auto".

[xon]

(09-12-2012 07:58 PM)Pain Wrote:  When you get as far as the screen has gone black, try changing video mode with the remote.

1. Press the "video mode" button, and release it.
2. Press "0" (=zero), and release.

If you get picture then, go into settings and change the video mode to something your TV support. Start with 720p for instance, just to see that it works. Then set it at the best your TV supports. Don't set it to "Auto".

Thank you for your reply.
I didn't have it set to auto before this happened. I have already tried that however, as well as all the other video modes (1 to 9).

I don't believe that it is a video setting issue. I cannot "see" the box on my network so i don't believe it has booted successfully. If it was a video issue I think that I should have been able to do a firmware recovery, but it will not read the usb drive. I tried formatting to fat32 and ntfs.

[Pain]

Ok, could you try the composite video out instead of HDMI?

It's a good thing to not have any HDD installed until you get it to boot correctly

About the firmware recovery, are you sure you do it right? The recovery image must be unzipped. In the root of the USB stick.
Are you following this guide? http://www.networkedmediatank.com/wiki/i...very_A-200
Try another USB port/USB stick if you haven't already.
Since your player show the loading screen it's probably not completely broken, and in that case the firmware recovery should work.

[xon]

I tried all this with no HDD installed and using a composite connection, following the same procedure you are refering to, with the recovery-image unzipped.
I tried using another usb stick and the firmware recovery was successful however it still goes black after the initial boot screen.

I then tried to load the firmware released on May 27 2011 by renaming it to recovery-image.bin. Again the recovery reported success, however there was no change when i booted up the system. It still goes black even after trying auto video mode (tv mode then 0).

[Martien]

If you see the loading screen this is 720p60 so try that setting (TV mode then 7)

[Martien]

I'm sorry Werners asian scriptkiddies changed it again in last fw.
Now the splash screen is 1080i/60 again. TV mode then 8.

[xon]

Thank you all for your help, but it seems that there may be something other than the screen resolution causing the problem.

[reejem]

hi I do seem to have this same issue... My A-210 just goes to black after the loading screen. It just started happening yesterday after a year of use (bought it last April 2011)... One thing I noticed is that my screen actually flickers every couple of minutes.

I tried doing the following:
** disconnecting the ethernet
** removing the internal hdd
** using a different HDMI cable
** connect via component cable -- here, there seems to be some signal but it it some sort of static. There seems to be an output but very unreadable. Tried twitching the cables but no use (sorry for the term, I am really no expert, I live in the DVI and HDMI era)
** played with the remote's TV mode, trying to set it to failsafe but to no avail
** booted it back with the ethernet to check the network mapping -- LAN does not show the device
** tried using the a210/a200 recovery file (not using the jumper) -- loaded it for 30m, again since it is a blank screen I really do not know what is happening

What I could not do so far:
** verify the power supply voltage / amps
** use a different TV
** use other video ourput

I am using the 2011 model of Samsung 46" LED TV (UAC6900)

Perhaps right now what I wanted to know is whether my device is already bricked or a hardware failure or if there by any means to salvage it again. I am thinking if there is a way to actually reset to manufacturer's configuration or some sort without during this scenarios.

[accident]

If it's a hardware problem, that's something support will need to do the next troubleshooting steps with. It could be. Open a ticket with the support website and paste everything you just put in this last message so they know what you tried already.

the only other thought I have, is to try to do a recovery firmware install. that will reformat the nand storage and if the nand has a couple bad sectors that just happens to be on the driver for output then it could be a simple recover and your good to go. Also recover might error out and then you know it's a nand problem which needs replacement/repair that support will help you with.

open the support ticket first, it can take them a couple days to respond and you'll want to be as close to the front of everyone this weekend that messaged them before the batch that shipped arrives and your in a huge swamp of people with more delays.