Author Topic: RG-300 hangs/crashes after dropping to the ground (Read 1090 times)

sonicboy · « **on:** March 09, 2020, 05:50:47 am »

Hi,
My RG300 dropped to the ground. Since then, it malfuntions to my dispair.
The first 2 minutes are fine, but after this it hangs or crashes and mostly it won't boot again until after i wait for 15 minutes or zo. It is as if a fuse is overheating sorta. I'm no expert in it but I opened it up and inspected the board and didn't see anything loose.

What could be the problem or can someone help me please?

iball · « **Reply #1 on:** March 09, 2020, 05:23:25 pm »

Quote from: sonicboy on March 09, 2020, 05:50:47 am

Hi,
My RG300 dropped to the ground. Since then, it malfuntions to my dispair.
The first 2 minutes are fine, but after this it hangs or crashes and mostly it won't boot again until after i wait for 15 minutes or zo. It is as if a fuse is overheating sorta. I'm no expert in it but I opened it up and inspected the board and didn't see anything loose.

What could be the problem or can someone help me please?

Re-seat the internal micro-sd card.

sonicboy · « **Reply #2 on:** March 09, 2020, 09:41:17 pm »

Thanx for your reply. How do I have to do this reseat of internal sd? Does it needs to be soldered?

iball · « **Reply #3 on:** March 09, 2020, 10:30:26 pm »

Quote from: sonicboy on March 09, 2020, 09:41:17 pm

Thanx for your reply. How do I have to do this reseat of internal sd? Does it needs to be soldered?

Pull the battery. Remove the micro-SD card, put it back in.

sonicboy · « **Reply #4 on:** March 10, 2020, 06:13:23 am »

Quote from: iball on March 09, 2020, 10:30:26 pm

Quote from: sonicboy on March 09, 2020, 09:41:17 pm
Thanx for your reply. How do I have to do this reseat of internal sd? Does it needs to be soldered?
Pull the battery. Remove the micro-SD card, put it back in.

That was also my first tought. I removed and plugged it in several times (also with another SD card) but to no avail.
It runs well for 2-3 minutes. Then the game quits or hangs (sometimes the screen turns blue). After a 'cool down' I can start it again but also for a couple of minutes.

Zereth · « **Reply #5 on:** March 12, 2020, 12:21:37 pm »

When matter warms up, it often expands. Maybe (just maybe) something shorts after warming up.

I'd open the RG300 and check if everything is ok or there are loose contacts; if so, re-solder them. Else, apply kapton tape behind the screen until no metal is exposed, then check if it keeps shutting down after a while. If it does, I'd check everywhere two PCBs lie on top of another and apply kapton there.

Hope it helps, keep us posted!

iball · « **Reply #6 on:** March 12, 2020, 04:44:02 pm »

Probably a cold solder joint. All these Chinesium handhelds have them because there's no QA/QC at the factory where they're made.

sonicboy · « **Reply #7 on:** March 12, 2020, 07:41:03 pm »

Thank you both for your replies, seems both possible causes for my problem.
@Zereth: What do you mean with kapton tape, is it the same as insulating tape?

I didn't have much time tonight as I'm going for a weekend. I opened it up and didn't saw any solder points which are broken (in fact, not much solder in total only the L+R button board seems to be hand soldered but I could be wrong). I'll take a thorough look next week.
Here are some pictures of the inside:

Backside:

Front with the ingenic soc notice the absent of black cover tape at the right side

back of the screen: notice that one spot is a bit shiny, it's on the opposite side of the soc maybe because of heat?

Zereth · « **Reply #8 on:** March 13, 2020, 11:57:10 am »

@sonicboy : Kapton tape, a random Amazon link to show what it is. It is insulating tape, it's also heat-resistant.

My RG300's internals looked a bit different. Way less padding in mine, and L&R buttons were seated differently. I'm checking the pictures, but they get blurry from 50% zoom upwards. I did notice the shiny spot on the back of the screen, also a different... specular reflection in the lower-middle part of that black part. Maybe you touched it right there, maybe it's like that because of the heat from the Ingenic chip. If it was me, I'd put a layer of kapton tape here:

I often do that, most screens have exposed metal there. Also, kapton won't help dissipating heat, but it will withstand it. Just in case, leave the cable on top of the tape

I am not noticing anything weird in your photos; again, they get blurry but it was a great idea posting them: well done. I really hope you can fix it and I'd be glad if I could give you a hand. Man, I wish I could grab it with my hands and get it fixed for you. Well, next best option: let's work together over the interwebs to sort it out.

sonicboy · « **Reply #9 on:** March 14, 2020, 11:20:54 am »

@Zereth
Thanks pal, I really appreciate your help. I'm confident together we'll figure it out

So I'll take a look at it beginning next week after my trip.
Yes maybe the heat from back screen is the cause.

In the meantime I've made some new pics with better Quality (hopefully): https://wouter.servebeer.com/s/niCSddmyRn4T6rJ

Kr

Zereth · « **Reply #10 on:** March 14, 2020, 06:14:31 pm »

@sonicboy
I'm checking the new photos, great job. I haven't finished checking but there seems to be a problem in both the screen cable and the screen connector. It's like the connector is broken and the cable might be damaged (marked in red, please check that out). Also, there are 2 grey... scratches, maybe? Inside the orange rectangle, those were not there before. Right?

I'll check the new photos more carefully when I get some more time, what a weekend mate...
Enjoy your trip!

Edit: Is that the flex cable clip/retainer? The piece that's broken, I mean. If so, you could take the clip out (carefully) and keep the cable in place with tape. Not fancy, but the broken piece wouldn't hurt the cable any more. If the cable has been seriously damaged, you'll need another screen. I've located one for under 8eur, let me know how it's going.

sonicboy · « **Reply #11 on:** March 17, 2020, 07:52:27 pm »

I'll try to take a look at it tommorow. Thanks for your excellent feedback.
Regarding the 2 gray scratches (orange rectangle) I think these are caused by me when I snapped by opening the cable conector.

Regarding the clip retainer: you could be right the marks on the cable were already present, possible caused by the clip retainer.

I'll keep you informed..

Nice evening and good health!

sonicboy · « **Reply #12 on:** March 18, 2020, 09:54:37 pm »

@Zereth
Good news: it seems like my RG300 has been repaired!
I've done as you told in your first post and put some tape at the back of the screen (and some on the cpu as well) and now i was able to play a demo of quake for 2 hours whereas before after 2 minutes it would crash!
Thanks for your excellent help!

Wouter

Zereth · « **Reply #13 on:** March 19, 2020, 09:17:25 am »

I wouldn't cover the CPU, that heat should go away from it as soon as possible. Not into the screen but not back to the CPU either.

What about the clip? Did you remove it and use tape with the cable?
Anyway, if it's working maybe it'll be better not opening it again...

I hope it keeps working nicely for a long-long time!

sonicboy · « **Reply #14 on:** March 20, 2020, 05:52:04 pm »

Hi,
Guess i was a bit too early. Running a demo went fine even for some hours. But today I tried to play some games, but then it started to crash again. Opened it up, deconnected the screen cable, hooked it up together only to find out that is was even more bad. The quake demo halted after a minut.
Repeated these steps some more and now it runs demo well only, for how long.

For easier understanding I used your picture and put some numbers on it.

I guess it has something to do with the damage ont the screen cable (n? 1). Do you have a link for a new screen? For 8? it's definitely worth trying maybe it's even a better screen (mine is non-ips)

For the other things: I did not remove the clip (n?3). On photo it seems more badly as in real life. You barely feel it as you touch it with your finger.
For n?2: this turned out to be some pencil eraser (my girlfriend uses our desk to draw :-)). Nothing harmful so

kr and have a nice weekend!

Zereth · « **Reply #15 on:** March 20, 2020, 08:54:13 pm »

Sorry to hear that.

Screen: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32827223919.html

You'll need RetroFW Type 2B instead of the regular RG300 IPS version.

sonicboy · « **Reply #16 on:** March 21, 2020, 07:54:48 am »

Hi thanks

Is it not possible to upgrade te screen to IPS or is the screen controller on the motherboard different?

Kr

Zereth · « **Reply #17 on:** March 21, 2020, 08:34:12 am »

That's the only screen I've found which I'm sure is compatible. I'm waiting for other screens to arrive and I've ran into other problems when ordering a new RG300 for testing. The one I previosuly owned had dead pixels, I had it returned and refunded. Without one, I'd be unable to point you to several other screens, so I went for it... and ran out of budget after that purchase, can't have it returned/refunded until it arrives and that will take time. Being honest, I overspent 10eur for a screen, for an unrelated project (40 pin ILI9481, that one's got native linux support). Next payday is in 10 days and my next month is already tight before it's even started. If anything else fails I'll have to resort to Amazon; worse prices, better delivery time, they have a real return/refund policy.

Just in case, you can look at snakewa's videos. In this video, the screen I've linked is the top one. You can notice it's not IPS viewing angles, but color and brightness look ok.

I can't do much more right now, sorry. I'll need more time, money or both

sonicboy · « **Reply #18 on:** March 21, 2020, 06:07:33 pm »

Hi,
no worries, you've been very helpful so far, thanks a lot! I'll order a screen like that one.
I cannot figure out what else would be the problem. Now it's capable of running demos without problem, but when I start to play after some minute or so it crashes or hangs again. As the video cable connector is the only visible damage, It won't hurt to replace it after all who knows..
When the odroid advance starts to be available again in may, I'll order one of these as is seems very capable and running Ubuntu it receives a lot of support (I already have an Odroid SBC for my NAS system and very happy with it).

Have a nice weeknd!

Zereth · « **Reply #19 on:** March 26, 2020, 10:18:51 am »

@sonicboy I've recently been asked to repair another device which had issues after a drop. Different stuff but it might be related to your case and I haven't heard back from you, so I thought I'd better share.

So I fix this one, leave the demo loop on, it seems ok. I try playing Cave Story, all ok. Street Fighter, crashes. I'm like "WTF!?". Again, demo loop and Cave Story work ok. I launch Street Fighter, no issues until I start launching hadoukens. Paying more attention, I realize when I press the d-pad and move it around there's some extra play, it feels kind of "wiggly". I shake the device and there's some rattling, tiny but it's there and it's not the buttons. So I take it apart and play with the naked system, without the shell, and there are no problems. Puzzling. I put it back, try again. Then I notice: Hadoukens with Ryu to the left = crash. Ryu to the right, no problem. And I realize: when I press and move the d-pad, the motherboard has some play, some give, and the battery contacts are fixed to it... and cease to make contact with the battery. I've pulled the loops outwards, reinforced the motherboard supports (found cracks in two of them, bingo!) and it's working as it should. But it made me wonder if maybe, just maybe, it could be related to your case: the screen is fixed to the shell, the motherboard could have some play and when you play, that flex cable could fail. It may have nothing to do but, well, what if...?

Kind regards, hope you're doing great!

Author Topic: RG-300 hangs/crashes after dropping to the ground (Read 1090 times)

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