New Gp2x F-200 Screen Problems


Malak

Still Fresh
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Jan 1, 2008
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I just received my GP2X F-200 from Dynamism today and put brand new fully charged 2500 mah NiMH batteries in it that had been charging all night and the unit worked fine and the screen was very vibrant for about the first two minutes and then the screen got very dim and then soon after got so dim and blurry that i could hardly read or make out much that was being displayed. I then inserted another fully charged and brand new pair of 2500 mah NiMH batteries and it worked fine for another minute or two and then became dim and blurry. I inserted yet two other pairs of fully charged 2100 mah batteries and the same thing occurred. It happens somewhere between 1-5 minutes after turning it on with fully charged batteries. The unit is brand new and is running firmware version 4.0. I tried going to the settings menu and selecting LCD to see if there were any options to change and all that comes up is a single message in the center of the screen that is in Korean. I was so happy to get this but now since it doesn't seem to be working properly I'm rather bummed. PLEASE HELP.
 
Are those 2500mah batteries brand new? Sometimes new batteries won't take a charge very well until they've been cycled a few times. Also check the battery contacts themselves, both in the unit and on your batteries, make sure there's no residue or anything. Might try cleaning with alcohol and a swab.

Sorry to hear your GP2X is acting up. If it were me I'd try getting a good new set of batteries like Annsman, or even Energizer 2650mah's. Try those out instead before sending it back. I recently thought my F100 was acting up, it would fail to power up. I have a quality charger and batteries that are less than 100 cycles old (maha's).

Unfortunately, it turns out those batteries are all pretty useless now for powering the GP2X after so little time, even after reconditioning them one by one (running them down with a small fan and recharging sefveral times). New Annsman 2850mah did the trick!

I also just ordered an F-200 from dynamism, too (only folks that have it in stock). Wish me luck
 
Yes the 2500mah are NiMH Energizer rechargeables and are brand new. Thanks for responding back :) . I also emailed Dynamism so I should be getting a response from them maybe tomorrow. I think I'm going to try to use the console until then and try to figure this out. One thing that is real weird is that the LCD settings screen only has a single Korean message in the center of the screen and has no configurable options. Too bad I don't know Korean...
I hope your GP2X F-200 from Dynamism is good. Please let me know if yours works well when you get it. Thanks

P.S. I think I'll also try cleaning the battery contacts like you suggested.
 
the lcd screen is just for calibration, it roughly translates to PREEEZE CARIBRATE ZERGRUSH >^^<

try clickin the white square
 
So you say that your gp2x only works with freshly loaded batteries?

Try to reload your batteries. Most of the time they become warm because of recharging, so wait until they're cool. Then put the batteries in your gp2x and see if they are becoming hot during the few minutes your gp2x is working. If so, there must be a short circuit in your GP2x.
 
Malak said:
Yes the 2500mah are NiMH Energizer rechargeables and are brand new. Thanks for responding back :) . I also emailed Dynamism so I should be getting a response from them maybe tomorrow. I think I'm going to try to use the console until then and try to figure this out. One thing that is real weird is that the LCD settings screen only has a single Korean message in the center of the screen and has no configurable options. Too bad I don't know Korean...
I hope your GP2X F-200 from Dynamism is good. Please let me know if yours works well when you get it. Thanks

P.S. I think I'll also try cleaning the battery contacts like you suggested.
There was a known problem with Energizer 2500mah batteries (in fact, a LOT of 2500mah batteries from all different manufacturers had problems with extremely high self-discharge rate after a while). My enegerizer 2500mah burned up in my charger one day.

I'd recommend trying some new 2650's if you can find them locally (or order some Annsman online). I get mine in the US from thomas distributing:

http://thomasdistributing.com/shop/ansmann...b1sv1qrf29f5ca6
 
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Malak said:
Yes the 2500mah are NiMH Energizer rechargeables and are brand new. Thanks for responding back :) . I also emailed Dynamism so I should be getting a response from them maybe tomorrow. I think I'm going to try to use the console until then and try to figure this out. One thing that is real weird is that the LCD settings screen only has a single Korean message in the center of the screen and has no configurable options. Too bad I don't know Korean...
I hope your GP2X F-200 from Dynamism is good. Please let me know if yours works well when you get it. Thanks

P.S. I think I'll also try cleaning the battery contacts like you suggested.
Do you have a 3V AC adaptor to try (make sure polarity is correct) ? If you have one or get one you can test it for sure that way. If is does the same thing on AC then the unit is defective.
 
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I have tried cleaning the contacts. I also felt the batteries after even running it for over two hours and the batteries were not noticeably warm. The units LCD screen will start off real bright and then get real dim and then get blurry to where I can hardly read text even and have to look at it at a weird angle and strain my eyes to read it. I've tried 2100 mah batteries in it that are Hybrids and are made by Rayovac, 2500 mah NiMH by Energizer and some Energizer 1.5v Alkaline batteries just to see what happens. The unit in all 3 cases will display 3 battery bars on screen meaning the batteries are fully charged but the LCD screen in somewhere between 1-10 minutes will get extremely dim and blurry but continue to display 3 battery bars. Sometimes right after running it I have quickly swapped out the batteries with another pair of 2500 mah or 2100 mah and instead of it taking a minute or two etc. to have the problem it will have the problem from the start of the unit. I do not have an AC pack yet. I haven't ran the unit dead yet on batteries but I have ran it for over 2 hours but the screen is so bad that all it is realistically good for is playing MP3s. I don't have any batteries over 2500 mah but http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/Batteries has some interesting results from people who have used the unit with batteries ranging from 2000 mah to 3000 mah. The Energizer 2500 mah's on the list don't have a note from what I can see about this particular problem or any other batteries on there for that matter. Also the Energizer NiMH batteries I have say they are made for high energy devices. I installed GMenu2X and set it to clock the CPU up to 50 MHZ when in the menu and the problem persists there too. I emailed Dynamism with no response back yet but today was New Years so maybe that is why. I'm going to call their toll free support number in the morning and see if they can resolve this situation one way or another.

*EDITED*
I called Dynamism's support number and told them about this problem and I'm sending the unit back and they are sending me a replacement unit. From the sound of the problem they think there is probably an excessive power drain in the GP2X F-200 I received.

Thank you everyone for your help :) . Hopefully I won't receive a replacement unit that is broken too :unsure: .
I'll let you know how it turns out.

*LATEST NEWS*
Alright Dynamism sent me a replacement GP2X F-200 and this one works great. It has no screen problems like the last one and I have ran it so far on the same set of batteries for about 3.5 hours and they still aren't dead. :)
 
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