Archos AV400 on the blink!

Basq

Haven't used my Archos for a while (a month or so anyways) and now it's completely screwed.

By "screwed" i mean:

Sometimes when you hold on the "Power On / Operate" button (the one in the center) of the 4 way keypad. The on button lights up but nothing comes on screen and it switches off as soon as you let go on the on button. Clicking it on and off repeatedly like this will sometimes switch it on.

Updated the firmware last night (though i was on the latest version - 3.1.10 or something like that) and it worked seamlessly for an hour though then switched off while in the charger. And pressing it to go on again either results in:

(a) the power on problem as stated above.
(b) freezes at the Archos AV400 logo
(c) a completely garbled AV400 logo and freezes at it.

Probably not much i can do at this point.. why it would switch off even when in the charger is beyond me?!

Any feedback or suggestions on my situation!

TheBazman

It usually takes quite a while to start when it hasnt been used in a while

but I had a problem similar to yours recently on the PMA400 and what I did was to restart Qtopia which is the operating system for this

Basq

Cheers for the reply Bazman but the unexplainable shutting down suddenly is all a bit odd.

After i updated the firmware, i thought it was fine. Got through 25 minutes of an episode of 'House' while it was both fully charged (and sitting in the charger) before it shut down.

Should i bite the bullet and invest in a cheap battery on EBay? That's the only reason i can think of. Don't know of a way to restart the OS on the AV400, though will look into it.

TheBazman

No worries - that is a bit odd - I must admit I dont use it that much now as I have an ipod video - It may mean biting the bullet on a new battery

ambro25

A dead battery shouldn't make any difference if/when you're plugged in the mains, I always take mine out if the AV is going to be "cradled-up" for a while.

As for 'restarting the OS', you can have the AV format the HDD itself (safer than Windows/OSX - piloted ) and then reinstall the firmware.

Might your HDD be screwed / show signs of impending screwage ?

I've had an AV400 for at least of couple of years now (and it was bought 2nd hand from eBay) and had most of the above problems (except self-switch off) just before Xmas, before it eventually stuck consistently on the ARCHOS splashscreen every time I'd switch it on, with regular-as-clockwork tick-tock noise coming from the HDD, the hallmark of a HDD head crash.

Bought a replacement HDD from the US, which just got delivered this morning, so I guess I'll see if it does the trick tonight

BTW - if it is the HDD and you're out-of-warranty
(i) ARCHOS after sales service is the worst I've experienced in years
(ii) beware the ARCHOS model, check and double-check, as not all AV4-xx series (AV420/440/480/PAM430) have the same physical size of HDD (the AV400/AV420 is a right f*cking pain in the neck - Hitachi Travelstar only, 7mm IDE 1,8" :eek: )

Basq

E-mailed technical support and they told me my unit sounds like it's needs a repair and to ring technical support who'll assist in diagnosing the problem and also provide more detail on returning the product to be fixed.

But it's over a year outta warranty now so not much point. Let me know if the HDD works and i'll look into it!

Don't wanna give up on it yet.. i mainly used my XBOX (and XBMC) for my media needs but for the price it was, i'm not willing to give up on it yet.

ambro25

basquille wrote:

E-mailed technical support and they told me my unit sounds like it's needs a repair and to ring technical support who'll assist in diagnosing the problem and also provide more detail on returning the product to be fixed.

As I posted, no point turning to ARCHOS for out-of-warranty. Tried that one as well as phone (still based in UK for IE), got exactly the same as above. :mad:

phone - i.e.
[passes on all of the palava to actually talk to someone]
me: it's stuck on splashscreen when I switch it on & HDD "sounds stuck", makes me think it's HDD head crash.
they: you tried [method #01]?
me: yes
they: you tried [method #02]?
me: yes
...
they: you tried [method #n]?
me: yes
they: well, it could be the HDD but we'll not know for sure until we get the unit back
me: well, OK then, send me a quote by email and we'll take it from there.

up to this point, seemed OK-ish...then email - i.e.
[passes on palava of having to register on Archos.com, with unit serial no. and whatnot and find the right email to get quote].
they: send us your AV and we'll fix it.
me: hang a sec'... how much?
they: cannot compute, what is your RMA reference?
me: not got one, not sent it yet, still awaiting your quote.
they: send us your AV and we'll fix it.
me: can I have a f*cking quote then?
they: cannot compute, what is your RMA reference?
etc, etc. :rolleyes:
[Oh... and I've left out the several auto-emails asking me how good do I think their after sales is :eek: :rolleyes: ]

Useless shower of [beeeeep].

basquille wrote:

Let me know if the HDD works and i'll look into it!

Thankfully, just found a tutorial here
[shudder]will attempt tonight, will post results 'morrow [/shudder]

I'm looking at wireless/WiFi solutions atm (e.g. Streamium-style) to watch DivX/Xvid of PC on bedroom TV, as that's what I mainly use the Archos for, but I'd still never give up on the thing (especially with a young one and a lot of miles in car every now and then), as it's just too damn practical, especially re. the ease of file transfer, the range of formats played, the screen size (well, yeah, OK it's not an AV700, but still...) and the lack of inbuilt DRM.

ambro25

(i) Followed the tutorial
(ii) Changed the HDD
(iii) Formatted as the AV400 was asking me to
(iv) Downloaded latest firmware and updated

...and now it's working like a charm, I've just started watching Heroes received from my American cousin

So there ya have it.