PSR 600 ERASED IT'S OWN MEMORY?

[oblivius]

YOU HEARD IT RIGHT...The scanner is about 3-4 years old and today, when I unplugged it to bring it on the road, the startup was like it had never been programmed with anything ever....Nothing Enabled it said after a few startup prompts....So weird !! Has anything like that happened to anyone out there??!!! I still works cuz I've started to re-program it but SheeeSh !!!
Dave

[zzdiesel]

My Pro-197 which is the 600's brother has been doing the same lately. I bought it in late 2009. I'm thinking about replacing it with a 600.

[oblivius]

Well it's (was) a very reliable scanner...I simply do not know what happened...I know things like this can happen to computer chips etc. but damn....I had so many counties programmed into that scanner and now I'll either have to manually redo it or buy the software and save myself tons of time and button pushing...ARRRGGGG......

[Jay911]

You don't need to buy software. Get the free Win500 software from Starrsoft (http//www.starrsoft.com). It will work for the PRO-197/PRO-106 as well as PSR-600/PSR-500.

[fxdscon]

Originally Posted by oblivius

Well it's (was) a very reliable scanner...I simply do not know what happened...I know things like this can happen to computer chips etc. but damn....I had so many counties programmed into that scanner and now I'll either have to manually redo it or buy the software and save myself tons of time and button pushing...ARRRGGGG......

You must purchase a license for all of the three popular programming packages for the PSR600...

Win500
ARC500
PSREdit500

They all have 30 day free trial periods, but after that you must pay for the license.

.

[gewecke]

Originally Posted by fxdscon

You must purchase a license for all of the three popular programming packages for the PSR600...

Win500
ARC500
PSREdit500

They all have 30 day free trial periods, but after that you must pay for the license.

.

OR rather than spending $$ on programming you can become more proficient with the radio by keypad programming it.
No license needed for that.

73,
n9zas

[oilmillcharlie]

Originally Posted by oblivius

Well it's (was) a very reliable scanner...I simply do not know what happened...I know things like this can happen to computer chips etc. but damn....I had so many counties programmed into that scanner and now I'll either have to manually redo it or buy the software and save myself tons of time and button pushing...ARRRGGGG......

I would hope you saved your configuration to a V Folder after doing all that programing.

[oblivius]

Ha ! yaaa ....Backup?! You would think so.......Here's the good news. As per some advice I'm going to re scheme one of my 500's (by hand) and clone the other two GRE scanners finally...I've had them programmed just a bit differently than each other for long time so about time I'm forced to get it right :-) And yes...hours of hand programming does get you intimate with the units functions etc....Peace
Thx everyone !
Dave

[zzdiesel]

My 197 has went nuts losing the programming everyday now. I guess I'll have to replace it.

[Halfpint]

Originally Posted by zzdiesel

My 197 has went nuts losing the programming everyday now. I guess I'll have to replace it.

HUH!? Are you constantly plugging and uplugging the power, either by moving from `base' use to `mobile' use and back again, or are you leaving it `mobile' and cycling the power by leaving it on and basically using the ignition switch as your off/on switch?

While I *will* `admit' that I very seldom move my 600 between the `shack' and one of my vehicles, instead I prefer to use a 500 or 800 mobile these days, I still occasionally will lug one of my 600s out to one of the vehicles when I figure I am going to be needing more than a couple scanners. When that is the case I always *try* to make certain that I have the power switched off at the scanner before I shut the vehicle down *and* wait to turn the scanner back on after I've got the vehicle started. (The handhelds are usually always on their own built-in power *unless* I know that I am going to be `on the road' for a fairly long time without any stop offs and even then I always make sure that they are off before shutting down the vehicle. [I even make certain that I also turn off the `regular' radio, too. *Especially* if there is a CD in it!])

Part of *my* reasoning about doing so comes from experience from back in the days when I ran a repair shop and we saw a fair number of `add on' electronics that had gotten `zapped' whilst being left on with the ignition switch off and then when the vehicle was re-started were hit by a surge spike. These days even with all the supposed `protections' that *might* be installed in the newer vehicles depending upon just where the add on electronics might be wired in *I* still worry about `start up surges' and try my best to avoid them. *Especially* with how `intense?' the assorted `goodies' that everyone tries running off of automotive power. (Our LR3, supposedly, has both a `total' shut off and a `delay' for the various `power jack's' turn on but, I've checked and while the outlets do shut off completely when the ignition is off as soon as the key is turned to `ACCS' and `RUN' they power up. Unfortunately, when the key is turned to start whilst they do shut off they come back up as soon as the key returns to `RUN' and there is neither any noticiable delay and I've seen way to many surges. I've complained about it and have been told that it shouldn't happen that way and there's nothing they can do about it. I've also checked several other people's newer vehicles and the majority of them experience a similar condition.) I'd seriously wonder about anything *wired* in.

[zzdiesel]

No. My Pro-197 is mounted in it's bracket on my desk. It is never moved. It has ran nonstop since I got it Christmas 2008. It has gotten so bad now that it loses it's programming about every 30 minutes after I reload it with Win500. Sometimes it gets heap errors when I push a button.

[Jay911]

"Heap errors" make me think a software update might help. It's been so long since I did a firmware push on a GRE radio, so I don't know if this is possible, but can you try flashing it with the most recent firmware (even if that's what it currently has) and DSP/etc?

The earlier mention of losing settings on power-off made me think an internal battery is shot, but if yours is having these issues while still powered on, I'm thinking either (a) there's a software problem which may or may not be remedied by trying to re-write the firmware; or (2) there's a hardware problem (worse than a bad battery) and, if GRE is as hard-up as it seems right now, you may be SOL.

[zzdiesel]

I did re-install the latest firmware a couple of days ago. It seemed to helped for a couple of hours but it was right back at it again. I'm thinking the flash memory is going bad.

[fxdscon]

Originally Posted by zzdiesel

I did re-install the latest firmware a couple of days ago. It seemed to helped for a couple of hours but it was right back at it again. I'm thinking the flash memory is going bad.

Might be interesting to perform that eeprom memory test now that it's doing it fairly regularly.

At the Welcome screen, quickly press zero then 5.

Do it quite a few times to see if an error shows up.

[zzdiesel]

Ok. It shows EEPROM ERROR. Looks like it is bad.

[fxdscon]

Originally Posted by zzdiesel

Ok. It shows EEPROM ERROR. Looks like it is bad.

Sorry to hear that, but at least it confirms the problem.

[Jay911]

That, to use the technical term, sucks. But if you want a replacement, you might want to work fast. As of this moment, Scanner Master appears to show the 600 "in stock", but as of lately that has meant very little, it seems (not just with Scanner Master but everywhere).

[zzdiesel]

Can the EEPROM be replaced easily?

[nd5y]

Originally Posted by zzdiesel

Can the EEPROM be replaced easily?

EEPROM and flash memory failure is a common problem. I saw that happen a lot when I worked for a cellphone manufacturer and an avionics manufacturer.
Sometimes just reloading the firmware or software fixes it.
Sometimes only temporarily then it happens again and you have to replace the chip.
Unless you are experience in SMT soldering you can't replace it yourself. Assuming you can get one in the first place.

If you have to replace the chip depending on the chip package you may need an extemely expensive SMT rework station to replace it. There may be special firnware that has to be loaded into it before the field upgradeable firmware. I don't know if any of that is the case with this particular scanner. If it is then you can't do it yourself.

[zzdiesel]

Thanks, and I'd never attempt it.