gre repair center

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tailspin2

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Is there any place to send these now ..I tried to update mine and now it appears to be in a update mode not letting me shut it off unless I pull the power.
 

fxdscon

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Is there any place to send these now ..I tried to update mine and now it appears to be in a update mode not letting me shut it off unless I pull the power.

What GRE scanner model do you have? What is showing on the screen when you power it up?

It's very doubtful it will need to be sent out for repair..



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tailspin2

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It's the 800 Model...... the screen says this below as soon as you put a battery in it without turning it on. I can't shut it off either

uP Boot Ver :F1.0
uP App Ver: NONE

CPU SW Upgrade:
Waiting for USB
 

fxdscon

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It's the 800 Model...... the screen says this below as soon as you put a battery in it without turning it on. I can't shut it off either

uP Boot Ver :F1.0
uP App Ver: NONE

CPU SW Upgrade:
Waiting for USB

That is a typical situation where the firmware update was applied incorrectly. It's still waiting for the update file.

This is from the update instructions that were included with the GRE download for the new firmware...

"There is no way you can render your scanner inoperable by performing the upgrade.".

Just go back to the instructions and perform the update again and follow them very, very carefully.

Read this thread, especially post # 10.

http://forums.radioreference.com/gre-scanners/217464-locked-up-psr-800-a.html



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tailspin2

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ok different comp = different results....I got back to being able to turn it on and off....then I had an error code of 3-01 put the old sd card back in reloaded the I'm back up and running guys thanks for the help and point in the right direction!
 

K2QI

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Even though the OP didn't need to send his scanner in for repair, his original question is still valid. Where would we send our units to in the event they require some sort of repair that we're unable to perform at home?

I've already had GRE replace the volume potentiometer and BNC jack on my PSR-500 several years ago under warranty. They were great to deal with; very quick turn around as well. It's truly a shame that they're no longer in business. So the question remains, who do we send these to now for repair work?
 

kruser

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This would be a good place to check into. I have used the repair service from this place and had good results.

Home Page

Yep, that's about your only option if something truly needs repaired on an actual GRE labeled radio.
Most problems are bad corruption of thr SD card and second would be incomplete firmware update attempts.
Those can both be user corrected.
I'd imagine there are some members that may had the equiment needed for some repairs as well but I don't know who they are.

One thing I've seen many times is SD card corruption caused by myself in all cases.
I've accidently yanked the USB cable during a card operation several times. One time it was the cat jumping up to see what I was doing.

But the worst and most common card corruption problem for myself has always been because I'll forget that I'm writing the card, in a reader or in the radio, and I'll either unplug or plugin another USB device.
That's the nature of how USB works especially if you have a laptop that may only have one USB g=hub when you look in device manager.
If you plug or unplug another usb device that use the same usb hub that your card is using, there is a short or bried period where all USB comms are interuppted. That is usually when your card or firnware corruption will occur.
I've seen the same interuption on desktops that have many internal USB root hubs. The scanners card can be on one but remove something as simple as a mouse or keyboard from a totally different USB root hub and it will still stop communcations with your SD card long enough for corruption to occur. Even when using a USB port on a four port PCI or PCIe bus card, I've had card corruption when removing or addiing a USB device into one of the motherboards built in ports.

Not much you can do about it as that is just the way the USB stack communicates.
Just try and remember to never add or remove any other USB device when writing the PSR-800's SD card.
This problem will happen regardless if you are writing the card in the radio or using a card reader.
Using a card reader does offer some help as it will write the card so much faster over doing it in the radio that you almost don't have time for adding or removing other USB devices.

I can pretty much reproduce what I describe 100% of the time.
I don't know how Uniden does it but they must have something in their software that can detect when card comms have been interupted. I've still seen Uniden Home Patrol models have card corruption just like the PSR-800 but it does not seem to be as susceptible as the GRE is. I can't speak of the new Uniden model not owing one yet.
I've also seen several posts where user always use the "safe to remove hardware" option before unplugging their 800's or removing the SD card from an external card reader.
For some reason, the card only seems to run at USB 1.1 (12 Mbps) speeds with its host controller when you write or read it while it is in the radio. That's why many recomend using card readers or a card slot for micro sd cards if you have one built in your computer. There is a very noticeable speed difference when using a card reader verse doing it with the card in the radio. I only worry about the radios card socket wearing out prematurly when using an external card reader/writer. I can't say I've read of many card socket problems though from those that do pull the card from the radio each time they write it with an external card reader.
I'd imagine it happens though like an type of removable connection. The connector or card socker will evetually fail but that is more off a mechanical issue. As mentioned, G&G Communications would be a good place to call and ask if they can help with your GRE branded scanners. I've only ever purchased parts from Gerry at G&G before but I know many people that have used him for repairs of about any scanner ever made.
He does good work from what others have told me or posted here at RR. Of course like anyone providing repair service, he cannot fix what he does not have parts for!
Usually on his homepage, he will have a section listing dead models that he can use to salvage parts from. I've not looked in a long time but I'd imagine he still welcomes truly bad radios that users may othewise toss in the trash.

Back on the topic, most GRE PSR-800 problems are card corruption or a bad firmware attempt. The firmware is not stored in the micro sd card either so firmware updates must be done with the radio attached to the computer. At least for the PSR-800. Unidens HP1 could have the FW fle placed onto its car in a certain folder and then inserted into the radio. Then you hooked up the cable and when you unplugged the cable, the HP would see a FW file in the special folder. When you unplug the USB cable, it would apply the FW even if it's an older version.

For the GRE scanner made by GRE but sold at RadioShack, I don't know if they are offering repair service or not. I suspect they will but only if they have the parts. I'd imaging any radioshack branded models have very limited parts inventory. You could actually by a nice service manual for the radioshack version of the PSR500 and 600 models for just a few dollars. It came in PDF format on a CD. For the most part, those service manuals could be used to service a GRE branded radio. I don't recall if RS sold one for their version of the PSR800 though. If so, it may be worth the $6 bucks or so they got for the manuals. I forget the RS model for the PSR800 but I think it was like the Pro-17 or something close. The RS and GRE versions also had some hardware differences so their version of the manual may not help much for PSR800 owners. Although someone recently confirmed they both used the same CPU and DSP chips so the main difference may reside in firmware alone which would make the RS service manual valid for a PSR800. Now if someone could get the RS version to accept the GRE version of firmware, you may find that the RS version is also capable of P25 Phase II reception. That would be nice for those that bought the RS version at $80 bucks each recently at overstock.com!
I also don't recall if the RS version of the GRE made digital models service manuals contain any GRE part numbers but I guess that does not really matter now that GRE is gone.

At least the schematics were fairly accurate so many simpler repairs could be made on the GRE branded models using the RS service manuals.
Most differences between the actual GRE models and the RS clones were mostly cosmetic differences like the speaker placement betweem the PSR500 and the Pro106.

I guess our next hope will be that Whistler also acquired all remaining parts from GRE when they made the purchase and that Whistler will perform repairs on GRE branded radios and maybe supply radioshack with some parts so their service centers can still do repairs on the GRE clones they sold. Or, Whistler will also do repairs on the RS branded GRE's they sold.
That's probably asking for a lot but Whistler would be in the best position for servicing GRE radios being as they purchased all GRE's IP rights which could have included the tooling and all. I guess we won't know until Whistler actually starts selling Whistler branded products.
My guess, like most here, is that Whistler will just sell rebadged GRE units and maybe release the never released mobile version of the PSR800.
I would not have any high hopes that the unreleased version of the PSR900 will have any new featuress than the PSR800 had as they were the same model, just in a different package.
We can only hope that Whister does honor GRE branded repairs and also fixes the horrible front end problem that plaqued the PSR500 and higher models so they are useable in urbaan areas in the VHF band.
Of course we can also hope Whistler is innovative and actually produces new models that offer support for some of the most asked for modes that nobody supports now such as DMR or TRBO and NXDN for the railfans.
TRBO or DMR support is probably the next most asked for mode. Not sure if they could do actual TRBO being owned by Motorola but they should be able to do DMR which will bring in a lot of business users that are not using Motorola's proprietary TRBO line. Several manufacturers make DMR capable radios that will talk TRBO as long as the users have not enabled any of the Motorola proprietary features. I use DSD to monitor most TRBO type systems around my area. Amazingly, most do not even use basic privacy which I'm not certain but I think the feature called Basic Privacy may be a part of the open standards of DMR and not part of Motorola's proprietary. I'm not even sure that 'basic privacy' is even considered a form of encryption. If not, then the open standard of DMR should be a feature that Whistler could as as a new mode if they do actually produce new models and not simply rebadge the same old GRE models. And that new DMR mode could decode basic privacy legally as I thnk basic privacy is more of a term more closely related to PL our DPL tones or NAC codes in todays P25 radios. Motorola does add a proprietary encrytion feature in their TRBO models that would be considered encryption and therefor off limits to the scanner listener. I forget what they call it in their TRBO line as I think even Motorola's TRBO models all include basic privacy in addition to their proprietary encryption scheme. Maybe something simple like Privacy Plus. Basic privacy allows the Motorola's TRBO models to communicate with other manufacturers DMR models much as PL or DPL does for the analog world but if you own a Motorola TRBO DMR radio and enable the privacy plus feature, then you are restricted to talking with other Motorola TRBO radios only.

Wow, bcak on topic, let's hope that Whistler does offer repair for those that do own GRE branded radios.
I think that service would be in their best interest considering the amount of very loyal GRE owners out there. That is of course if they did in fact purchase all of GRE's old stock. Radioshack owners of rebadged GRE's could be the ones finding service problems if Whistler does not also hekp them out. I thought I'd read that Whistler was also going to be a scanner provider for radio shack and if that turns out true as well, then I'd kind of expect whistler also being a service provider for radioshack. Or at least a parts provider for radioshack as radioshack does maintain their own repair facilities for most of what they sell with one of the many trademarked names that radioshack markets under.

I guess time will tell if Whistler is going to provide repair services for GRE and hopefully GRE made radioshack products. If they don't, I thnk that will be something that many will remember and could really damage their name. Their only hope at that point is that they become creative and innovative and release something new that nobody else currently offers.

Edit: all that typing and the next post I had marked for reading is telling me that Whister has announced official new model numbers it seems!
I guess I should read my marked posts in reverse order it seems. Oh well I don't think they touched on repair yet though so maybe there is still some hope!
 
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gerrycaya

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had same problem over a year ago

my psr-800 stuck on ready to update but I couldn't get it going..same messages you described. ..removed battaries, tried everything

someone on the forum sent me two pieces of software to try and they worked unfroze my unit and I was

able to shut it off and turn it back on and using the easyscan software it accepted all the updates

if anyone knows where to get the two software pieces they are :

cpuupdater_psr-800_v1.2

GreCom psr-800 dsp updater 1.2

I'm no expert so find a buddy on here who may have these software available to send to you

Gerry of Philadelphia, Pa....
 

tampatracker

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G & G is your best option imhop I have sent a psr 800 to Jerry with a positive outcome and have also sent in a psr 500 for him to install a discriminator tap to use with the dsd program. Very nice guy, knowledgeable and so far honest. Home Page.
 
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