Topic: Seriously, this sucks

Support is non existent.  No one responds.   I have a C1 that's less than a year old and it's a paperweight now.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

I know you're right, but there's still some activity in these forums. Maybe if you describe the specific problem in one of the areas like Chumby the Device, etc, someone could help. There's still a couple of Chumbians who check in to these boards. They seem to be answering direct questions. Otherwise, there may be another user who had the same problem as you and figured it out. I've also had some luck searching the forums, and finding suggestions from the past. Sorry, but we're all stuck in the same boat. Good luck.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

I finally had enough of this thing today and it's now destined for the junk box.  The sound for the apps would constantly go out, the connection to the chumby server was always getting lost, it would stop playing mp3s whenever it felt like, etc, etc.  Add in the lack of customer support, and   there's no way I could recommend this or any chumby-related product to anyone.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

whatever wrote:

I finally had enough of this thing today and it's now destined for the junk box.

I'll give you $10 bucks for it, even without working sound or networking.  I doubt the junk box will give you such an offer.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

I have posted in other areas of the forum.  No results.  I've even tweeted to Derrick Oien.  Got a reply and a couple emails back and forth but he's dropped off the face of the earth too.   I'm just so mad and disappointed because I really LIKE my Chumby.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

Question: have you tried doing a factory reset?  I know it's not the best option, but it's better than a bricked Chumby.  Keep your finger pressed on the touchscreen as you turn on the Chumby, and you should get a message telling you to keep the screen pressed to load special options; it should then go to a "loading special options" screen (which mine sat at for a good minute or so before it got anywhere).  Choosing "Restore factory settings" should load the backup image from the Chumby's firmware, and once you re-enter your network information, hopefully it'll happily hop back online!  All your channels and such should subsequently get pulled from the Chumby servers, so you should be set in that regard.

Good luck, and let me know how it goes!

Re: Seriously, this sucks

AH I was so hoping that would work!  Alas, my C1 appears to still be in brick mode.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

you can always try my offline firmware.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

zurk wrote:

you can always try my offline firmware.

Tried that, and either I'm doing something wrong, or that didn't work either.   I do tech support for a large company (all Mac) so I'm not unfamiliar with what I should be doing.  I just don't see why it won't boot from the flash drive either.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

your SD card is probably toast then. im assuming you unzipped my firmware to the root of a USB drive, plugged it in and plugged power into the chumby ?
did you get the calibration screen ?
did it see an offline channel ?

11 (edited by SShayler 2012-03-09 04:42:08)

Re: Seriously, this sucks

zurk wrote:

your SD card is probably toast then. im assuming you unzipped my firmware to the root of a USB drive, plugged it in and plugged power into the chumby ?
did you get the calibration screen ?
did it see an offline channel ?

Yes unzipped to root, calibration came up but went no further from there.   I guess I'm gonna brick this one.  Bought a used C8 on ebay for $70 yesterday.   Hoping this one works.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

SShayler, if you're otherwise done with the Chumby, you can try taking it apart and reloading the MicroSD card from scratch.  It will take me a bit to hunt down the firmware link and instructions, but if you have a Mac handy, you should be able to use "dd" from the terminal to restore the default firmware image to the MicroSD card and see where that gets you.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

Here we go: http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=4338

That's got a link to the ROM image, as well as some instructions for using dd.  Since Mac is BSD-based (and even then a little different from BSD) you may want to start with "dd --help" and check the parameters, but i believe something along the lines of

dd bs=32M if=/path/to/rom/image of=/dev/sdX

should do the trick.

Of course, replace "/path/to/rom/image" with the actual absolute path of the ROM image (unzip it first!), and "/dev/sdX" with the appropriate device path to your SD card reader.  Make sure to specify just "sdc" (as an example) rather than "sdc1", because you want to write to the raw card, not the partitions within the card since the ROM image contains all the partition info.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

ya if it crashes in calibration i would try replacing the microsd card with a clean image.
if it doesnt work with a clean image the hardware has an issue and its a brick. FYI 3.5 inch infocasts are going for around $20 on fleabay.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

Yeah, that's more than I want to even get into.  I'll probably just throw it up on eBay for parts.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

My Chumby One appears to be a brick right now also. It is 50 weeks old. I posted this info in the hardware forum about the problem:

My finger must be on screen before powering up. Then this message comes next "continue to press this screen to load special options or release for normal startup". I tried both ways, only continuing to hold moves the process along. Then loading special options appears. Then the options to -restart to normal ---Install updates ----Restore factory settings

Everything I select gives me this screen eventually= "All personal settings will be restored to the default settings- are you sure you want to continue?"  ok or cancel  After this it is not responsive to my touch. I just stays frozen on that screen.

Can I try a firmware update via usb? If so where would I find an update?
You mention possibly taking it apart ( I take things apart and usually don't put them back together ) I like the idea of just plugging in an usb.

I very much appreciate the effort you are showing in trying to resolve my issue.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

Hmmm, this is inspiring me.  I should look into buying some cheap MicroSD cards, loading the Chumby One image onto them, and sell them on eBay as a means to possibly restore bricked Chumbies.  I can get the cards for about $5 apiece, and shipping would be another $3-5, so I could sell them for $10 each.

Of course if you bought it, you'd have to swap out your Chumby's MicroSD card yourself, but it's a simpler solution for some than trying to image their own cards, and also offers the benefit of replacing the MicroSD card with a known-good card (I'd test before shipping out) just in case the SD card itself is starting to fail.

bassman11lb, SShayler, would either of you be interested in such a thing?

Re: Seriously, this sucks

It sounds like a "shot in the dark."  I am hesitant to throw money into this thing with out guaranteed results. Thanks for the offer though. In a few days, if Chumby bigheads do not respond to my emails or calls I could use some step by step instructions to try and restore my SD card. Then I will post the results in order for you to decide if you want to continue your venture into restoring bricked Chumbys.

Thanks again for your effort. My son really enjoyed his Chumby while it lasted.( 50 Weeks )

Re: Seriously, this sucks

just get a new one on fleabay for 20 bux.
the infocast 3.5 is identical to the c1 except for the battery.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=ins … mp;_sop=15

Re: Seriously, this sucks

Thank you VERY much for this thread.  Fixed my Chumby One that has been dead for months.  Not that I've tried to fix it much.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

My chumby 8 has not been able to connect to my wireless network for a couple months.  I tried several times to contact customer support, but never get a response.

The Chumby boots up fine to the network configuration page.  I choose my network and enter the WEP code.  It tries to connect, but eventually gives me the message:  "Your wireless connection may be down or you may have typed in the wrong passpgras.  Please try configuring your network again."  None of my other wireless devices experience any problems connecting.

I would appreciate any help.  Thank you.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

try my offline firmware. at least with that you can do the networking after the device is fully up. plus you can ssh in with adhoc support.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

Got my new to me C8 today.  Hooked right up to my network and up and running.

Re: Seriously, this sucks

Same issue here,  my wireless connection quit connecting after it tried to install an update 2 weeks ago.  Have been able to reload firmware via USB and do factory reset.  No luck.  No response from support.  My Chumby 8 is only 6 months old.  Very disappointing.