Hold Switch Doesn't Work?


ozzyfreakdude

Still Fresh
Joined
Feb 14, 2011
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92
Hello


I recently started noticing that when I store my Pandora in its case or in my pocket for any period of time, when I go back to it, it's almost invariably always on - at the boot menu that it goes into when you boot while holding "R".


I tried putting it in hold mode when turning it off, thinking that that would fix it. It still did the same thing. Then I realized that the hold switch doesn't work at all. As I understand it, you put the system in hold mode by sliding the power switch to the left, correct? That makes no difference - I can still type and use all of the controls as normal with the power button slid to the left.


Hopefully either there's some kind of software fix to this or I'm just doing it wrong? Has this not happened to anybody else? I thought it odd that I found no other topics about the hold switch....
 
It is my understanding that the "Hold" functionality has not yet been implemented. There's nothing wrong there. :)
 
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Ah. Then how are you supposed to store it in the case?


And it seems like if it's completely turned off, the L/R buttons being pushed shouldn't randomly turn it off. I could see if it was in sleep mode, but not if it's completely powered off.
 
Hello


I recently started noticing that when I store my Pandora in its case or in my pocket for any period of time, when I go back to it, it's almost invariably always on - at the boot menu that it goes into when you boot while holding "R".


I tried putting it in hold mode when turning it off, thinking that that would fix it. It still did the same thing. Then I realized that the hold switch doesn't work at all. As I understand it, you put the system in hold mode by sliding the power switch to the left, correct? That makes no difference - I can still type and use all of the controls as normal with the power button slid to the left.


Hopefully either there's some kind of software fix to this or I'm just doing it wrong? Has this not happened to anybody else? I thought it odd that I found no other topics about the hold switch....

I have a very similar issue. When I turn off the pandora (I really mean turn off, when I cik on shut down and all the LEDs are off), after 10 minutes or so the pandora powers on by itself. I tried to remove the battery and insert some folder papers behind it, because I thought that my battery was a little loose and when I move the pandora the device might think that I have just inserted the battery. However, I don't think that's the case because my Pandora never turns off when I move it or tap on the touch screen (which according to other posts the device turns off when the battery is a little loose and you tap the screen).


I believe the same thing might be happening to you, but in your case the R button is stuck.


I still couldn't figure a solution for the Pandora to shut down and never auto power on by itself, it seems that this occus randomly.
 
It may or may not be the same issue - I've noticed that it never does so within 10 minutes though. I can have it out in the open for hours and hours on end and it won't turn on it all. But then if it's in my pocket or in the case, such as throughout the school/work day, then around the end of the day it will have been on for a few hours, long enough to drain a significant amount of the battery.


Since it happens when I'm not paying attention to it and it's under some kind of pressure, I'm almost getting the impression that some button is getting pressed, having the effect of turning it on?
 
The Pandora can be powered on only if the "power on" button is pressed, or the battery is inserted, or any voltage difference is aplied to the mini USB or charger connectors. So you need to figure out what might be happening to your unit. One thing that also cross my mind is that the battery might be deffective, and thus it might oscilate the voltage at any random time so the unit "thinks" it was just inserted (not sure if this make sense).


Anyway, I'm going to leave a camera recording my unit when I turn off, because I have also noticed that my unit was on today and I got my eye on it for over one hour yesterday (and it was off).
 
So you push the power switch to the left, putting it into hold. When you notice that it has come on, is the switch still in hold? Even if it doesn't actually work yet, it should still help prevent the switch from accidentally getting nudged, which is the only way I can see this actually happening short of a hardware defect.
 
Same problem here, my Pandora also switches itself on after complete shutdown. It actually arrived being on (was sent with battery in place). It is definitely not related to being bumped or anything as I just leave it sit on the shelf and it will switch on after some time. I didn't check for how long it takes to come on though. Is this a battery-related problem or something else? My connectors don't seem to be blocked by any wrapping material as others have reported. I reseated the battery several times but to no avail and having the power switch in left or middle position doesn't make a difference. I really like my Pandora, it's the perfect retro-emulator, but the self-on-powering and thus extensive recharging is a bit annoying. I am currently ripping by battery out after use to prevent the battery from draining overnight, but this can't be a long-term solution. Also, is this a problem with newer Pandoras (ie past December), or has it been recognized before? Any helpful comments are appreciated.
 
So you push the power switch to the left, putting it into hold. When you notice that it has come on, is the switch still in hold? Even if it doesn't actually work yet, it should still help prevent the switch from accidentally getting nudged, which is the only way I can see this actually happening short of a hardware defect.
Yes, the pandora turns on even with the switch on hold position. And the unit turns on after a random time.


Actually, when I first got the Pandora, after I open the box, the led (and the Pandora) was on with 11% battery left.


I will try to look deep into it and see what might be causing this.
 
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Same problem here, my Pandora also switches itself on after complete shutdown. It actually arrived being on (was sent with battery in place). It is definitely not related to being bumped or anything as I just leave it sit on the shelf and it will switch on after some time. I didn't check for how long it takes to come on though. Is this a battery-related problem or something else? My connectors don't seem to be blocked by any wrapping material as others have reported. I reseated the battery several times but to no avail and having the power switch in left or middle position doesn't make a difference. I really like my Pandora, it's the perfect retro-emulator, but the self-on-powering and thus extensive recharging is a bit annoying. I am currently ripping by battery out after use to prevent the battery from draining overnight, but this can't be a long-term solution. Also, is this a problem with newer Pandoras (ie past December), or has it been recognized before? Any helpful comments are appreciated.
After you shut down the Pandor twice (or 3 times - It happened to me only once) the unit will power off for good. I don´t know if this is happening with newer Pandoras, however I just received mine last wekk (Premium one). This weekend when I get home I´ll measure the battery voltage/current, I think it might be oscilating and the unit is thinking that the battery was just connected.


We´ll see...
 
Same problem here, my Pandora also switches itself on after complete shutdown. It actually arrived being on (was sent with battery in place). It is definitely not related to being bumped or anything as I just leave it sit on the shelf and it will switch on after some time. I didn't check for how long it takes to come on though. Is this a battery-related problem or something else? My connectors don't seem to be blocked by any wrapping material as others have reported. I reseated the battery several times but to no avail and having the power switch in left or middle position doesn't make a difference. I really like my Pandora, it's the perfect retro-emulator, but the self-on-powering and thus extensive recharging is a bit annoying. I am currently ripping by battery out after use to prevent the battery from draining overnight, but this can't be a long-term solution. Also, is this a problem with newer Pandoras (ie past December), or has it been recognized before? Any helpful comments are appreciated.
After you shut down the Pandor twice (or 3 times - It happened to me only once) the unit will power off for good. I don´t know if this is happening with newer Pandoras, however I just received mine last wekk (Premium one). This weekend when I get home I´ll measure the battery voltage/current, I think it might be oscilating and the unit is thinking that the battery was just connected.


We´ll see...

Thanks for the suggestion. Seems a bit excessive, but I can give the multiple shut down approach a go. Considering your idea with the unsteady voltage/current turns out to be true, do you reckon there might be a fix for that (other than getting a new battery)?
 
I put a slightly folded piece of paper in behind the battery to keep it in, and I haven't noticed it doing it anymore. That might have been my problem. However I can't say for sure yet, because it usually happened in my bag throughout the day, and I haven't had it in my bag throughout the day since I put the paper in.


I also realized that my clock had frequently been resetting itself to strange times (making me think the time is kept by the battery) beforehand, but then when I put the paper in to secure the battery better, it stopped resetting itself - leading me to think that the battery might have just been in loosely.
 
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I spoke too soon - I had my pandora charging last night, and I woke up to find that it was no longer charging and wouldn't even power on - reinserting the battery made it boot, and it had drained to 64% before turning off as it did.


seems to me like it is indeed a problem with the battery, and that either inserting a folded piece of paper behind the battery is no longer adequately fixing the problem or I'm doing it wrong.


Also, assuming that the paper for the battery WAS a fix, it seems to be bulging my pandora's battery cover (the thin piece of plastic holding the battery in) outwards. It seems like this would wear out the battery cover eventually - is there a way that one could order replacement battery covers for anticipation of this happening? anybody know if they have any extra, for RMAs or such?
 
Also, assuming that the paper for the battery WAS a fix, it seems to be bulging my pandora's battery cover (the thin piece of plastic holding the battery in) outwards. It seems like this would wear out the battery cover eventually - is there a way that one could order replacement battery covers for anticipation of this happening? anybody know if they have any extra, for RMAs or such?

My battery cover is slightly warped, and makes a creaking sound when any pressure is applied to it, which means that the action and shoulder buttons can't easily be pressed without the cover creaking. I sent an email offering to buy a new cover, but I got an email the next day saying that OP are sending me one free of charge. I think they have enough to spare, don't worry.
 
My battery cover is slightly warped, and makes a creaking sound when any pressure is applied to it, which means that the action and shoulder buttons can't easily be pressed without the cover creaking. I sent an email offering to buy a new cover, but I got an email the next day saying that OP are sending me one free of charge. I think they have enough to spare, don't worry.

thats cool, thanks.


I should add that for the first time today, the battery lost connection while i was using it. i had to reseat the battery before it would turn back on. I think it's getting worse. is this happening during use for anybody else?
 
My battery cover is slightly warped, and makes a creaking sound when any pressure is applied to it, which means that the action and shoulder buttons can't easily be pressed without the cover creaking. I sent an email offering to buy a new cover, but I got an email the next day saying that OP are sending me one free of charge. I think they have enough to spare, don't worry.

thats cool, thanks.


I should add that for the first time today, the battery lost connection while i was using it. i had to reseat the battery before it would turn back on. I think it's getting worse. is this happening during use for anybody else?
I measure the battery for 4 hours and the battery is ok. Probably the battery might be a little loose.


It never lost battery connection while Pandora was on. I push the nattery connector a little bit, and it seems that my problem disappear.


It is working for 2 days in a row now.
 
I had the self-powering on thingy on my replacement unit. It didn't happen on the original. I also had a problem where it wouldn't boot from SD on the first powerup, but would if it started booting from NAND, then I reset it after inserting the SD card... So I sent it back!
 
I suspect three things:


1) Given the ever ongoing timespan of two months of batch 1 production, the Pandora´s have evolved and are now sentient, self aware and in a bad mood and are desperately saying "Hellolo, didnt you wait over two years to get me? In which case what am I doing on your shelf/in your bag not being used? Talkie Toaster style.


2) The batteries are all miffed at being in cold storage for six months due to the nub issue. Or they´re storage has been inadequate and they are somehow messed up. Has anyone bought a spare recently that causes such behaviour for example?


3) Given that only new Pandorai are suffering this, and given that all prior boards from CC were faultless but that this recent batch had to be halted/slowed due to microswitch errors...is it possible CC have borked something else up that´s shorting and causing this?


I hope it´s 1 personally :)


Spare covers would be included in spare cases available for purchase aswell for those wishing to perhaps experiment with paint finishes etc.
 
My battery cover is slightly warped, and makes a creaking sound when any pressure is applied to it, which means that the action and shoulder buttons can't easily be pressed without the cover creaking. I sent an email offering to buy a new cover, but I got an email the next day saying that OP are sending me one free of charge. I think they have enough to spare, don't worry.

thats cool, thanks.


I should add that for the first time today, the battery lost connection while i was using it. i had to reseat the battery before it would turn back on. I think it's getting worse. is this happening during use for anybody else?
I measure the battery for 4 hours and the battery is ok. Probably the battery might be a little loose.


It never lost battery connection while Pandora was on. I push the nattery connector a little bit, and it seems that my problem disappear.


It is working for 2 days in a row now.
Well, it didnt last too long. My unit is auto powering up again. This is definitely not related to battery loose because the clock is ok.


Is there a way to create acript to turn off down the unit after "x" minutes of inactivity (just like we have for the LCD display). It should solve this problem at least for awhile.
 
I think that my battery was loose after all and I had been putting the paper in wrong.


When my problems were continuing, I had been putting my piece of paper directly opposite the side of the battery contacts (on the outside/bottom of the case, facing away from the system), thinking that that would be the best way to keep it pushed in.


On a whim, I tried putting it facing the inside of the system on the opposite side of the battery, for more of a see-saw effect of pushing the end of the battery with no contacts out such that the end of the battery with contacts would be pushed in - much like pushing up on one side of a see-saw will push the other end down.


To my surprise, doing it this way has been working for about 2-3 days now without resetting the battery or having any other issues since. If this is the problem, it seems like the battery might be moving back on the contact-less side, thus causing a periodic loss of connection on the side with the contacts.


I just hope that telling you all this doesn't jinx it and make it happen again.
 
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