new PBP issues

[jpjnh]

Got the new PBP this week. The first couple of hours went well getting setup. Have had the following issues:

1. random humming for a few seconds followed by a popping sound coming from speakers.
   
2. Then did not plug in before battery drained and next time I tried to boot after charging for a few hours, got the green power-on light but nothing on the display. I know the battery is charged so I suspect something on the software side has gone amiss. I ordered the emmc-usb adapter in order to flash new os. Will try that once I get it
   
3. Today while booting off the Fedora32 image on an SD card, I got the popping sounds again and the keyboard dies.
   

Is this a defective laptop or are there things I can try to fix these issues? (Willing to try if there are options)

[LivingLinux]

1. There is a known issue with the power management of the audio system.
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...7#pid91697

2. Drained battery is a known issue.
Perhaps there is a way to let the PBP shut down at a higher battery percentage, to avoid this issue.

3. When you only have this problem with Fedora 32, I'm guessing it's not a hardware issue.

[jpjnh]

1. There is a known issue with the power management of the audio system.
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...7#pid91697

2. Drained battery is a known issue.
Perhaps there is a way to let the PBP shut down at a higher battery percentage, to avoid this issue.

3. When you only have this problem with Fedora 32, I'm guessing it's not a hardware issue.

Thank you for your suggestions.

Work around in #1 seemed to stop the popping

In trying to flash a new copy of the OS using dd, I did indeed "destroy disk". So now I cannot even boot to SD. Ordered emmc-usb module writer from china so hopefully that will get it up and running again.

Attached is the output displayed when trying to boot from SD with no emmc installed.

[Stickman]

Doing the "workaround" of having noise constantly in the background worked to reduce the popping for me; however, I still have the high pitched noise that would happen before the pop, and it now lasts the entire time.

I'm wondering if it's a separate/related issue, or if it's at a high enough frequency where not everyone can hear it, and therefor this is "fixed" in a lot of peoples eyes (ears).

EDIT: This high pitched noise appears to only happen when my screen brightness is between 50 and 95, weirdly enough. Screen brightness 45 and lower, and screen brightness 100 are both fine.

[cypresstwist]

EDIT: This high pitched noise appears to only happen when my screen brightness is between 50 and 95, weirdly enough. Screen brightness 45 and lower, and screen brightness 100 are both fine.

I think it might have something to do with power consumption. I noticed a high-pitched sound when I plugged the PBP into an alternative power source (5.2V if I remember correctly). This would explain why in your case it starts if the brightness of the screen is higher: the brighter the screen, the more power the PBP needs to consume.
If I were you I would try different other power sources of different amperage to see if this happens again.

[LivingLinux]

Doing the "workaround" of having noise constantly in the background worked to reduce the popping for me; however, I still have the high pitched noise that would happen before the pop, and it now lasts the entire time.

I'm wondering if it's a separate/related issue, or if it's at a high enough frequency where not everyone can hear it, and therefor this is "fixed" in a lot of peoples eyes (ears).

EDIT: This high pitched noise appears to only happen when my screen brightness is between 50 and 95, weirdly enough. Screen brightness 45 and lower, and screen brightness 100 are both fine.

Probably coil whine.
So far I haven't seen that they identified the component.
Sometimes it's possible to use something like glue or epoxy to get rid of the whine.

[jpjnh]

OK - running brightness all the way up seems to prevent the popping - YAY!

Big problem now is only being able to boot from SD - not EMMC. I can boot from several distros on SD but none of them see the emmc disk when using fdisk or lsblk.

I am able to flash a new distro onto the EMMC using the emmc-usb card. So I suspect that there is something bigger wrong with the hardware.

Any thoughts???

[KC9UDX]

You didn't change the state of the eMMC disable switch, did you?

[jpjnh]

You didn't change the state of the eMMC disable switch, did you?

Hah! yes I thought ot that - I even cycled it off then back on.

The emmc DID work the first couple hours after I got the PBP. But it ran out of battery while running and has never booted off the emmc since, although for a while I was able to see it in fdisk. Now no longer visible. Could the on-off switch be failing???

UPDATE:
I was incorrect - I was not reading the markings on the on-off switch correctly. Thought I was seeing "on" on the left side, but I think that was really "0". Noticed that the other side was a "1". So NOW I get the uboot and starts to go to the emmc, but then power light alternates flashing red and green.

[wdt]

Can I suggest an experiment?
You have a usb->emmc adapter so it should be 'easy'
On emmc, save mbr, save 1st 16M, write /dev/zero to 1st 16M, restore mbr
(using dd,, bs-1M count=16 OR dd,,, bs=512 count=1 OR 34 if gpt)
This forces use of uboot on SD, maybe will get past flashing lights
Since uboot priority is SD, rename boot.scr to boot.scr.bak OR extlinux.conf to extlinux.conf.bak (on SD)
If it boots, check with lsblk to see what is /, emmc or SD
But it probably won't,,, this implies that distro is not good and uboot not at fault