RG351MP is working (as far as I can tell) with the stock firmware, but when I try with firmware for 351Elec or ArkOS the device will not complete the boot process. I have tried multiple sandisk SD cards (and verified these work when the stock firmware i flashed to them). Is this likely to be a issue with the unit I received or just something the third party apps have not accounted for in all units.
351Elec not booting
- Thread starter MikeDarb
- Start date
There's two things we can advise here:
1) Ensure you're using the right version of the CFW. Because the RG351MP has a different combination of screen size and control layout to the other models, it requires unique builds.
2) Try using different software to flash the firmware. For some weird reason, certain flashing tools don't play nice with certain firmware. Our favourites are Win32 Disk Imager and Rufus. I think there's one or two firmware out there that only play nice with balenaEtcher too.
1) Ensure you're using the right version of the CFW. Because the RG351MP has a different combination of screen size and control layout to the other models, it requires unique builds.
2) Try using different software to flash the firmware. For some weird reason, certain flashing tools don't play nice with certain firmware. Our favourites are Win32 Disk Imager and Rufus. I think there's one or two firmware out there that only play nice with balenaEtcher too.
I have tried burning with both Win32 Disk imager and baenaEtcher - same result. I have made sure I have the MP versions downloaded and I have extracted the .img file from the compressed downloads. I have also treid some of the earlier 351ELEC beta and pre-release images with the same result. I get the same with ArkOS it never boots.
We've had customers return them to us in the past because of similar reasons. The first thing we do is grab some random CFW, and it works absolutely fine 99% of the time (the only times it doesn't are if the device miraculously develops a hardware fault during transit because it got bumped around 
).
Forgive me if I assume that there must be some kind of error being made at some step.
Other things that have come to mind:
1) Is it being inserted in the correct slot? IIRC, for the RG351MP, the INT card slot (the one on the left) is the one used for the firmware.
2) Do you have any other card readers you can try using to perform the burning operation? Maybe the one you're using might be messing things up in some weird, esoteric way.
3) Tripl- no, quadruple check you're following the installation process correctly.
For every firmware currently available for the RG351 family, the process is broadly this, no exceptions:
-Download and extract the image file for the custom firmware
-Insert your microSD card into your computer.
-Use a flashing tool to burn the image into the card
-Put the card into your device (in the correct slot) and boot
Make sure you don't have any programs running that might be "automatically cleaning the SD card" or something like that during any step of this process.
You can also always go hop onto the CFW teams' discords to see if they have any more information to bring to light.
And on the chance you're really doing everything correctly and that ONLY the stock firmware is working on the card (especially because you've tried flashing the stock on other cards without issue), we'd advise contacting the seller to see what potential options there are.
).Forgive me if I assume that there must be some kind of error being made at some step.
Other things that have come to mind:
1) Is it being inserted in the correct slot? IIRC, for the RG351MP, the INT card slot (the one on the left) is the one used for the firmware.
2) Do you have any other card readers you can try using to perform the burning operation? Maybe the one you're using might be messing things up in some weird, esoteric way.
3) Tripl- no, quadruple check you're following the installation process correctly.
For every firmware currently available for the RG351 family, the process is broadly this, no exceptions:
-Download and extract the image file for the custom firmware
-Insert your microSD card into your computer.
-Use a flashing tool to burn the image into the card
-Put the card into your device (in the correct slot) and boot
Make sure you don't have any programs running that might be "automatically cleaning the SD card" or something like that during any step of this process.
You can also always go hop onto the CFW teams' discords to see if they have any more information to bring to light.
And on the chance you're really doing everything correctly and that ONLY the stock firmware is working on the card (especially because you've tried flashing the stock on other cards without issue), we'd advise contacting the seller to see what potential options there are.
Definitely inserting in the correct slot, and the card goes through some expansion of the image to resize the partition, it then reboots and that is where it is sticking (it either shows the logo or a scrolling trace that eventually freezes). Have been through the same process with a copy of the stock firmware and that boots ok (in the same slot).We've had customers return them to us in the past because of similar reasons. The first thing we do is grab some random CFW, and it works absolutely fine 99% of the time (the only times it doesn't are if the device miraculously develops a hardware fault during transit because it got bumped around
Forgive me if I assume that there must be some kind of error being made at some step.
Other things that have come to mind:
1) Is it being inserted in the correct slot? IIRC, for the RG351MP, the INT card slot (the one on the left) is the one used for the firmware.
2) Do you have any other card readers you can try using to perform the burning operation? Maybe the one you're using might be messing things up in some weird, esoteric way.
3) Tripl- no, quadruple check you're following the installation process correctly.
For every firmware currently available for the RG351 family, the process is broadly this, no exceptions:
-Download and extract the image file for the custom firmware
-Insert your microSD card into your computer.
-Use a flashing tool to burn the image into the card
-Put the card into your device (in the correct slot) and boot
Make sure you don't have any programs running that might be "automatically cleaning the SD card" or something like that during any step of this process.
You can also always go hop onto the CFW teams' discords to see if they have any more information to bring to light.
And on the chance you're really doing everything correctly and that ONLY the stock firmware is working on the card (especially because you've tried flashing the stock on other cards without issue), we'd advise contacting the seller to see what potential options there are.
I have now tried with 6 different SD cards (all SanDisk) of 32Gb and 64Gb sizes some are SanDisk Ultra, others SanDisk Extreme. The burn is working ok according to BalenaEtcher as it does a verify following the burn to ensure they match the original image. The process I am following is as above (and worked ok for the copy of the stock OS I burned). I have tried 351Elec (three different releases, latest, beta and pre-release) and ArkOS
I am very used to flashing images to SD cards as I do it regularly for a Rasperry Pi.
One other strange oddity, after the boot froze (screen showing a trace that eventually freezes) I did a few resets and after about the 10th reset (and a lot of trace scrolling up the screen) it actually loaded the UI, I was hoping that was it and it had sorted itself out - however after turning off and on again it is back to square one (ie gets stuck in the boot process). Droix are actually the supplier and I have only had the machine for 2 days now.
I did try connecting with the 351Elec team via the Discord chat but didnt really get anything that was of help (other than the boot process should take about 1-2 minutes)
In this case then I'd advise sending it back to us. Seems like you've gotten a freak unit. I've got an RG351MP right next to me running the latest 351ELEC build (the Pinapple Forrest one) just fine.
Email us at [email protected] w/ your order number and a member of our team can have a look at it ASAP. Mention you've tried the stock FW on other SD cards and link this thread to expedite things (otherwise you'll probably be put through the standard troubleshooting stuff first).
Email us at [email protected] w/ your order number and a member of our team can have a look at it ASAP. Mention you've tried the stock FW on other SD cards and link this thread to expedite things (otherwise you'll probably be put through the standard troubleshooting stuff first
).I have not been able to reproduce the one occurrence of the UI actually appearing (after many resets). The scrolling trace shows lots of errors ranging from an "Internal Error" to stack exceptions and "Unable to handle kernal requests" (although most of it scrolls past pretty quickly). I am concerned that there is some hardware issue that is "hidden" when using the stock OS and will cause future issues. Not sure where I go from here - do I need to contact someone direct at DroidX to resolve this.
Yeah, I'd say so.
Email us at [email protected] w/ your order number and a member of our team can have a look at it ASAP. Mention you've tried the stock FW on other SD cards and link this thread to expedite things (otherwise you'll probably be put through the standard troubleshooting stuff first
Thanks, I have emailed the support address above and included a link to this thread. Hope this can be resolved quickly as I think it is a lovely little device (other than this issue)
Hi MikeDarb,
What happening with your device is happening to me... I could Have written the exact same post.
Only EmuElec work flawlessly
351Elec crashed all the time booting and reseting 10x might maybe work 1 time only.
Arkos crashed same thing. BOB img Arkos too...
IHave you find the problem? What is happening with our RG351mp?
What happening with your device is happening to me... I could Have written the exact same post.
Only EmuElec work flawlessly
351Elec crashed all the time booting and reseting 10x might maybe work 1 time only.
Arkos crashed same thing. BOB img Arkos too...
IHave you find the problem? What is happening with our RG351mp?
Oh... It really seems an harware issue. When I communicate with Anbernic, the answers was that it work with their custom firmware. Don't use the other ones.
I'm happy with the unit itself with EmuElec. It's just desapointing that it work for everybody else than us. :-(
What do you think about the RG552? I was thinking about an 351V or P but the 552 seems nice.
The 552 is nice and may in fact be easier for your average person to use. Android is already pretty saturated with "optimized" emulators and has a pretty user-friendly interface, so we actually don't die-hard-advocate on it as much as we do for the 351 generation.