USB Charge problem with H340

[mat_mirabella]

Hi all.

I am having problems with charging my Iriver H340 via USB. Sorry for the length of this but I want to give all the details. I am using a Jan 19 2007 rockbox build at the moment with patched Iriver firmware v1.30, and the charge via USB option in the Iriver firmware is set to “on". Charging works fine with the power supply, but USB has problems. I have asked about this on the rockbox archives with no response. I don't think it has much to do with rockbox - it may have to do with the boot loader... The problem is set out below. I also think this problem happened even when using a non-patched Iriver standard firmware without rockbox.

When the unit just dies due to low battery when in use, it used to be able to charge via USB as soon as it was plugged into USB. Now, the unit keeps cycling through boot and shutdown with low battery warnings, and does not seem to get into charge mode. This is the case even when holding down REC when starting. The sequence is this:

1. Plug device into USB
2. Device begins to power up and you see the rockbox boot loader screen.
3. Device begins to go into rockbox
4. Before the rockbox logo etc, there is a "low battery" warning
5. The device shuts down.

This takes about 3 seconds or so, and all steps repeat over and over. It stops if I remove the device from USB.

If I hold down REC at any time during the start-up sequence, or even hold REC before plugging the unit in, the device does the following:
1. Plug device into USB while holding REC or hold REC just after plugging in.
2. Device begins to power up and you see the rockbox boot loader screen.
3. Device screen flashes off and on to indicate that it is going to go into the Iriver firmware
4. Device goes into the Iriver firmware and sits for a bit as it decides whether to go into connect mode or charge mode
5. The device shuts down, first showing the iriver firmware shutdown screen.

This takes about 8 seconds or so, and all steps repeat over and over. It stops if I remove the device from USB. The same happens no matter how long I hold REC.

Normally, you would expect the device to go into charge mode after booting into the Iriver firmware. This does not happen when the unit has a low battery. When the unit has good charge but I just want to top it up on USB, I can sometimes repeat these steps and it will go into USB charge mode ok. This shows it is mainly a problem when the battery is low. But other times, I find it moves into the normal iriver firmware playing screen - not the USB charge screen.

Also, sometimes I can hear a high pitched sound coming out of the body of the unit when I have the USB cable plugged in. This is like the high pitched TV tube sound you can sometimes hear coming from TV sets. It does not happen all the time, is most common when the unit is in the state I am describing here - that is, has a low battery and won't charge via USB. It happened today when it looked like it was trying to move into iriver firmware playing mode, failing due to a low battery and shutting down without trying USB charge mode. I am worried this all may be damaging my player and/or battery.

I wonder if this has anything to do with a USB boot loader issue mentioned on the rockbox tracker at: http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/4753 But this seems to be subtly different to my problem - but it might be related. My problem has been happening on and off for quite a few months. I wonder if there had been any changes to the rockbox Iriver boot loader some time in 2006 - something that I did not get any information on from the rockbox list, nor could I find anything on the website. But I recall USB charging worked a bit better in early 2006 and I know I re flashed at some time late last year.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mat.

[Gasolgrill]

I have the exact same problem with my H320, also with a recent rockbox build. The strange thing is that this happens even when I connect to USB in Iriver mode.
Does anyone know if it is the same circuitry handling the USB and adaptor charging? If they are different it could be a hardware problem.

[DiverGirl71]

I'm having the same problem, however, my H340 does not appear to be "rockboxed"?

[monkey_boy]

I also have this problem, the "pin" for the power jack is broken, but there is not enough charge in the battery to boot up, so i cant get it into usb charge mode