Backup battery discharged -> GTA01 and GTA02 dead

[Rod Whitby]

Andy Green wrote:
> Somebody in the thread at some point said:
> 
> |> The reason I would do it the VB_SYS "trap" behaviour this seems
> |> reminiscent of comes if the battery is unable to smooth out the dip at
> |> startup for whatever reason, but usually the Host PC can provide 1A or
> |> whatever for a few ms that are needed.
> |
> | Would using the official Openmoko charger be safer here, since it can
> | provide 1A continuously?
> 
> Probably, the ones I got are even rated for 2A... good idea.
> 
> | Interestingly, with the can cover popped, this device booted twice in
> | succession for the first time ever since it stopped working reliably.  I
> | didn't try a third time, cause I was able to get into the NOR boot menu
> | on the second boot.
> 
> Hmmm could the can have made contact with the top part of the rework
> cap?  I noticed on my ones they had placed clear sticky plastic
> insulator to stop that happening.

The sticky plastic sheet is in place on mine, so that's not it.

So I was able to flash the latest u-boot you sent me, and a kernel and 
rootfs to match.

Now I can sometimes get it to boot twice in a row, but it's still about 
a 1 in 20 shot for a single boot.

Hmm - on this last boot, the screen did nothing, but I suddenly got the 
startup sound.  So maybe the thing is booting but the screen is just not 
showing it.  Since I first got this device, on each successful boot, I 
always see a "ghost" of the screen as it was before reboot.  Whenever 
I've run the ASU image on it before it stopped working, I never got nice 
pictures on the home display, and when running Qtopia, I never got 
colours - just black and white half-icons.

-- Rod