My PBP starts up like a 1977 Chevy Nova
03-13-2022, 06:47 PM
So to wrap this up (finally).
Replacement mainboards for the pbp finally became available and I ordered one. I replaced the mainboard, and (surprise!) everything now works the way it's supposed to. My pbp sees inserted SD cards, and boots alternative OS images off the SD card. The machine no longer crashes randomly. Basically I feel vindicated that my instinct that there was some major hardware problem with my unit was correct.
I now have a working pbp -- almost precisely 1 year after my machine arrived. I have to say this has been a pretty frustrating experience. I mean, in my gut I _knew_ it was a hardware problem, but I followed the PIne64 support's advice and went back to the forum to try and troubleshoot software problems. I diligently tried (every) other OS. I bought an emmc reader. I got a replacement brand new high quality SD card. And none of this worked. And, you know, I have like a day job, so this all took a while (it takes a month just to get an emmc reader shipped from Hong Kong!). By the time I went back to the Pine64 support with my now unimpeachable evidence that they had sold me a lemon of a unit, they told me it was out of the 30 day warranty.
I support the idea of hobbyist hardware, and I support the idea of testing and fixing stuff yourself, and I support Pine64 running tight margins. But that shouldn't come at the expense of just writing off the unavoidably certain percentage of bad units as the customer's problem, and cutting out of responsibility for those by citing the technicality of a 30 day warranty.
Hobbyists should be hobbyists all the way: if you made a huge effort to make sure your machine has bad hardware before asking for technical support, Pine64 should be _eager_ to help you get a replacement mainboard as a way to incentivize customers to try working through their own issues first.
Instead I feel kinda screwed by Pine64. (Basically: screwed for the $100 the replacement mainboard cost. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I'm an open-source guy! I have an over-developed sense of what's right!) Now a lot of my goodwill towards Pine64 is burned off.
Still love my pinephone keyboard though.
And a final thanks to those who offered suggestions on this thread!
Replacement mainboards for the pbp finally became available and I ordered one. I replaced the mainboard, and (surprise!) everything now works the way it's supposed to. My pbp sees inserted SD cards, and boots alternative OS images off the SD card. The machine no longer crashes randomly. Basically I feel vindicated that my instinct that there was some major hardware problem with my unit was correct.
I now have a working pbp -- almost precisely 1 year after my machine arrived. I have to say this has been a pretty frustrating experience. I mean, in my gut I _knew_ it was a hardware problem, but I followed the PIne64 support's advice and went back to the forum to try and troubleshoot software problems. I diligently tried (every) other OS. I bought an emmc reader. I got a replacement brand new high quality SD card. And none of this worked. And, you know, I have like a day job, so this all took a while (it takes a month just to get an emmc reader shipped from Hong Kong!). By the time I went back to the Pine64 support with my now unimpeachable evidence that they had sold me a lemon of a unit, they told me it was out of the 30 day warranty.
I support the idea of hobbyist hardware, and I support the idea of testing and fixing stuff yourself, and I support Pine64 running tight margins. But that shouldn't come at the expense of just writing off the unavoidably certain percentage of bad units as the customer's problem, and cutting out of responsibility for those by citing the technicality of a 30 day warranty.
Hobbyists should be hobbyists all the way: if you made a huge effort to make sure your machine has bad hardware before asking for technical support, Pine64 should be _eager_ to help you get a replacement mainboard as a way to incentivize customers to try working through their own issues first.
Instead I feel kinda screwed by Pine64. (Basically: screwed for the $100 the replacement mainboard cost. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I'm an open-source guy! I have an over-developed sense of what's right!) Now a lot of my goodwill towards Pine64 is burned off.
Still love my pinephone keyboard though.
And a final thanks to those who offered suggestions on this thread!