• Registered: 2010-07-18
  • Posts: 62

Topic: Chumby One suddenly rebooting with USB ethernet dongle

Greetings. My trusty Chumby One has been working great, always connected by ethernet usb dongle. I also use it as a Wi-Fi hotspot after the appropriate software mods.

Quite suddenly, it started rebooting randomly. Currently, it virtually always reboots either at the colored dots stage or the waving Octo stage -- IF an ethernet dongle (I've tried two) is plugged in.

If I boot without anything in the USB port and connect via Wi-Fi it seems OK, but I haven't left it that way long enough to know if it would suddenly boot at random times under that circumstance also.

I discovered that if I let the Chumby boot with the USB port empty, to the point of asking which connection I want, and then plug in the usb ethernet dongle, it will usually reboot at that point, though a couple of times it went a bit further to the initial data statistics confirmation page before suddenly rebooting. One time it did come up with the ethernet usb connected, but started rebooting again about 24 hours later if I left the usb ethernet connected.

Any suggestions on keeping this baby running would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all! Take care.

2 Reply by steelpaw (edited by steelpaw 2015-09-29 01:05:36)

  • From: Australia
  • Registered: 2009-03-19
  • Posts: 503

Re: Chumby One suddenly rebooting with USB ethernet dongle

The weakest part of the Chumby One is the external power supply, and its failure produces many unusual symptoms (and what it doesn't produce is the plain old "Chumby totally not working" that you'd expect).
Your Chumby's dongle problems might be power supply related - it is possible that the small extra current draw from the USB port when the dongle is attached is enough to tip an ailing power supply over the edge.
The other thing about the Chumby One power supply problem is that it only manifests under load - if you just put a multimeter across the output, the voltage will look OK.
In short, it looks like pretty much every original Chumby One power supply will fail due to a particular faulty capacitor. If you have problems with a Chumby One, and you are still using the original power supply, then I think there is a lot to be said for repairing or replacing the power supply before trying any other solution.
If you search these forums, you will find discussion of the various solutions to the power supply repair/replacement issue, including instructions for the repair.

  • Registered: 2010-07-18
  • Posts: 62

Re: Chumby One suddenly rebooting with USB ethernet dongle

Thanks much for your reply. In my case, I've long been on a third-party supply, since the original supply failed quite some time back. This is not to suggest that *this* supply may not be failing also -- its rated adequately but not generously for the Chumby as I recall. I suspect last night the Chumby was rebooting continuously all night long. But I'll see if I can come up with another adequate power supply to test (I don't think I have one around at the moment) and I'll try switch to another ethernet dongle if I can locate it, perhaps with a bit less current draw. In the meantime, any other suggestions also greatly appreciated. Thanks again!