GameFrame won't boot

[The Tim]

When I came in this morning and turned on my GameFrame, it just flashed some random colors on the screen briefly, then nothing.

I checked the 5V coming from the power supply with a multimeter and it looks fine. There are no LEDs lit up on the back.

Here’s a video: http://youtu.be/AfWYiraCHZU

What’s the next troubleshooting step? I’m perfectly comfortable opening it up and probing about inside with the meter or even a scope, if necessary.

[Jeremy Williams]

what happens if you do the same thing with the microSD card removed?

[The Tim]

No change.

[The Tim]

Okay this is really strange… I left it just sitting there, with the switch turned on, and suddenly after a few minutes it just turned on.

Now when I turn it off and back on it seems to be working normally.

[Jeremy Williams]

Sounds like your control board is dead. Send me an email (jeremy at this domain) and we’ll get it sorted.

[Jeremy Williams]

Cool, that’s a new one. Your Game Frame is undead. Send me an email if it acts up again and we’ll figure out a replacement.

[The Tim]

Will do.

Maybe electrons can get clogged up in a circuit, like a blood clot, but with electrons. Yeah, that makes sense. I never learned about electron clots in my EE degree, but that was over a decade ago, so maybe I just forgot. 😉

[The Tim]

FYI – Update a few days later, I haven’t had the GameFrame repeat this issue. It’s turned on right away each morning without issue. So strange.

[The Tim]

It happened again this morning!

Same exact thing as in the video when I turned it on after getting into the office.

This time I took note of the time and just let it sit. About five minutes later it finally turned on and once again, seems to be just fine.

I seem to have an electron-slowing ghost in my GameFrame.

[The Tim]

It’s interesting to note that both times now when this issue has occurred it’s been on the first day back from a weekend. It seems like whatever is causing it, the problem only happens when the GameFrame sits without power for more than one night.

For context, I leave my GameFrame plugged in and turned on all the time, but the surge protector it’s plugged into is turned off whenever I leave the office each night, and turned back on each morning.

[Jeremy Williams]

Sounds like it has a case of the Mondays. Send me that email and we’ll get you a replacement.

[The Tim]

Huh, sure enough this morning when I came in and turned it on, it happened again. Almost eight minutes between when I turned it on and when it started running.

Looks like the replacement control PCB is out for delivery today. I’ll swap it in there today or tomorrow, but we probably won’t know whether or not it worked until next Monday.

[The Tim]

Hmm, I thought I posted this on Monday but it seems to have disappeared.

Just an update to note that after swapping in the new PCB last week the GameFrame worked great when I came in this Monday morning. No more strange post-weekend startup delay.

Thanks!

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