Battery troubles

[craigl281]

I'm having problems with my Cowon A3 where no matter how many times I push the power button, it never turns on.

Is it because I accidently left it connected to the PC via USB for too long? s/n kb0801...
if i plug it into the wall it "charges" but when i unplug it it still won't turn on
if i leave it plugged in it'll turn on but only while its plugged as i unplug it i get a completely white screen and it "pops" off

I tried the wsod theory, ive used the reset button, and left it on the charger for over 24hrs. yet no dice. any ideas?

[WAI]

could be a Firmware issue if it never turns on. does your Computer detect it?

[craigl281]

its not firmware ive been using 1.24p since it came out
while its plugged into the wall my computer recognizes it and i can transfer..
once i unplug from the wall, even with it hooked up to the computer it shuts off instantly.

[nivlacbot]

First time I've heard about this - seems like a hardware issue to me. Seems like the charging area has broken down - just runs straight off the juice.

Things you may try (Not sure if any would work but what the heck... if it does yay!)
- formatting your a3 and putting a stable older f/w release - I would prefer a clean dump - quatermass has kindly uploaded one on his site. recent post.
- eliminate the socket or power plug point as a reason for this strange behavior. Try different plug-points.
- let it be for a week or so. (The last option to try)

[craigl281]

ok i tried putting the bottom button to hold and charging it through usb. no light ever came on so after 20 min i unplugged it and took it off hold and replugged everything up. Still no dice no lights.

Im going to search for the clean format now.

[WAI]

try the following:

-Drain the Battery Completely
-Recharge by USB or AC Adapter
-Format HDD using Windows (What Format is the HDD? FAT32 i suppose?)
-Reinstall Firmware (either 1.23 or 1.24)

[craigl281]

yea i don't know how much juice is in the battery, im thinking since it won't turn on none.. the ac adapter regardless of wall socket its on always shows the red light, even after 24hrs of not touching it i still can't turn it on without the adapter plugged in.

The usb i tried chargin with it. but it never lights up once even after 20 min, i even used diff usb ports. and i know the ports work cause i can put my 500gb hard drives on them. the usb connection works as long as my player is plugged into a wall :(

I found the firmware so im copying a few of my movies over to my hard drive then ill format it then put the 1.1 korean version :D

[craigl281]

OK i formatted the hard drive and this is what i got

C:\>fat32format f:
Warning!!! ALL data on drive 'f' will be lost irretrievably
Are you sure(y/n) : y

Size : 60GB, 117210177 Sectors
512 Bytes Per Sector, Cluster size 32768 bytes
32 Reserved Sectors, 14306 Sectors per FAT, 2 fats
1830961 Total Clusters
1830960 Free Clusters

Formatting drive f:...

Wrote 14698496 bytes in 1.40601 seconds, 10454012.804230 bytes/sec
Failed to set parition info

[WAI]

o.. no that's not good. when in properties what does it show? any space in the Drive at all? can you access the A3?

[nivlacbot]

OK i formatted the hard drive and this is what i got

C:\>fat32format f:

Wrote 14698496 bytes in 1.40601 seconds, 10454012.804230 bytes/sec
Failed to set parition info

What utility is this? Did you try a normal Windows format?

[craigl281]

in properties it shows 55.8gb free space
so it shows up normal
and it lets me access it, and add/remove things

[craigl281]

it was quatermass's fat32 format program

[WAI]

you were suppose to use Windows standard but o well. try to reinstall the Firmware

[craigl281]

ive read a couple of places through the forums not to use windows format that it messes your players up

[WAI]

o sorry.

[quatermass]

it was quatermass's fat32 format program

No it's not. It is Cowons....

[quatermass]

ive read a couple of places through the forums not to use windows format that it messes your players up

I examined my A3 drives format and it appears to be formatted to a Windows formatted drive.

There is a posting about this on the parent forum.


Regarding the 'not turning on' problem.
I would have tried first temporarily removed the battery connector from the board from the A3 for 2 mins and then reinserting it.

This provides a 'hard reset' to the entire electronics rather than than a 'soft reset' that pressing a piece of wire into the tiny reset hole does.