7'' WM8505 300MHz Mini not booting anymore...

Greetings to you wonderful Experts,

Since whistling to music is one of my inherited missions... (hear me blowing up, here: http://www.live-styler.de/home/images/jjj-DEMO.wma) I thought buying a little WM8505 300MHz Mini Netbook for presentation of my artistic creativity. Yet, WinCE was slow aand so, I thought to load Android OS. It booted slower, but then everything seemed much better. A number of Apps were not working, such as:
1) Error: Hotmail = "Not trusted Authority"
2) Touch tablet didn't work; only mouse use availabel
3) YouTube and Skype not available
4) I said: DEMO Purpose ONLY"

I then tried another OS. It then loaded, but towards the end (at the "file system set up" it froze and now it's seems to be dead?
I mean it turns on and off OK (light on front, left visible), but it doesn't reload or show anything. I turned it on and then pressed the RESET PB switch on the bottom of the PC, but nothing changed. What else should I try?? I wished there would be a utility, which flashes the Nand memory and enables me to load suitable OS.

The problem with China stuff is that they don't offer service... such as in cases like this. I don't think it's something serious. Yet, if I don't find a solution... the only solution I'm left with is to throw it away and regret having wasted my money on this China made product.
Thanking you in advance for your kind responds and help. Regards, Joh from Chile

PS:/b Now I load the "script" via my Garmin GPS onto SD Card. Is there a way of transferring data onto the SD card from my Desktop PC?

Check out this site. It might help.

http://bento-linux.org/wiki/vt8505/wm8505

Thanking you for your good advice RTFM,

Now my WM8505 300MHz Mini Netbook is neither installing any script nor booting:

I tried to reload that Android OS (Demo) and towards the end (at the "file system set up" it froze and now it's seems to be dead?
I mean it turns on and off OK (light on the left visible), but it doesn't reload or show anything. I turned it on and then pressed the RESET PB switch on the bottom of the PC, but nothing changed. What else should I try?? I wished there would be a utility, which flashes the Nand memory.

The problem with China stuff is that they don't offer help... such as in cases like this. I don't think it's something serious. Yet, if I don't find a solution... the only other thing is to throw it away and regret having wasted my money on this China made product.
Thanking you in advance for your kind responds and help. Regards, Joh

i.have.the.same.problem.did.you.fix.your.minibook??-i-have.the.same.machine.too.please.help,.i.llike.this.minibook

Edited: Violation rule #10

The problem often lies in the bootloader, a small software application loaded onto the device that decompresses the OS image on the fly. When you install a new OS, such as Android or others, often the DRAM, what they manufacturers refer to as the HD, is often reformatted, hence the original bootloader is no longer available as the protected portion of the OS loader is no longer present.

A few of these netbooks have the bootloader embedded onto the device onto a seperate non-volitile memory chip. But others use only the DRAM partitioned method. When this is the case, and the DRAM is corrupted, it is often impossible to repair the damage using software methods.

Most of the WM8505 machines will look first at the SD card on bootup, and if the CE files are there, you can reflash everything back to CE and make the device functional again.

The reset button on the bottom of these netbooks only performs a soft-reset, clearing the active memory, but not affecting the DRAM partition at all, so will do nothing to correct a corrupt OS.

Have you tried reinstalling the CE OS using the SD card? If it doesn't recognize the script folder at the root level of the SD card and attempt to reinstall the CE operating system...you probably have a nice paperweight now.

There are a few threads on this topic on the site linked below:

http://devio.us/~nextvolume/via_arm/

You might need to go to onlynetbooks.com and get the CE6 netbook recovery files she sells. It's the only site I know of offering this reinstall.

Does anyone have any Windows CE 5.0 images for these devices? I can only find Windows CE 6.0 and Linux images.
Also, I noticed that at least a few of the Windows CE 6.0 images are strangely much faster than the stock Sylvania image mine came with. As soon as I flashed one of these images, it almost felt like a new machine. Then I noticed the clock speed reported in TCPMP. It seems some of the Windows CE images as well as Android images will increase your device's clock speed. I think the image that gave a huge speed increase was named "wince6-wm8505.tgz". I'll reflash it to double check, though.

Edited by TFGBD 2010-12-24 7:04 PM

I too was looking for a CE5 image for the 10" netbook...but no luck so far... The main reason is that on my old CE5 netbook, I could run all the versions of Opera and such, and on this one 10" CE6 thing...I can't.

It's easy first format the sd card fat32 then copy the folder script to the card..
Then insert the card and press F1 while turning on the laptop..
Your Mini Will boot Now..

By the way if you need cool firmware for this 7 inch -go to slatedroid.com and become a member..
then Hit Download and look for firmware for the Eken M001..it seems to run fine on this netbook..



Upthere you will find several Roms and i advise the one with Full Star Rating or the Uberdroid with new Skin..
O yea you will have Market and many programs installed..i just cannot promise all will work
but the essentials work fine..

I have aproblem with mine that's why i,m like trying al sorts of firmware..
everything goes fine but then suddenly it stuck's p and i have to hard reboot the thing..

It happens when i play music for more then 40 minutes DENG it get's STUCK..

I,m installing windows ce6 on it now to see if things get better..

Good Luck there

hi.....brother tell me if my os is windows ce6.......which vedio & audio player will work.......and tell me is their a way to change my ARM processer to one which has the capacity to take xp as a operating system.

Good maybe i can get some assistance here. Here is what i sent digital gadgets but i know they will never answer.

This thing is the biggest pos in the world...  I got this thing for my daughter this past christmas and worked fine until it froze up on the os logo say loading and never did.. Took you all over 6 weeks to respond and say to install update on the website.  Did that today. Everything installed sucessfully and go to reboot and all i get is a black screen.  Is this thing garbage????  


I installed it earlier it worked, then i tried to install android everything said succesful, went to reboot and nothing but black screen.... Same now with wince6.0...

Any help be great.

Edited by tommy012175 2011-08-23 3:38 AM

There are at least four different ROM images for the 7" WM8505 on the site I linked above. Just make sure you're using a freshly formatted (FAT32) SD card.

Its just weird i had the dang thang working fine with the update, then i tried to switch it to android and now all i get is black screen when boot up... Loads everything succesful..

Even after reinstalling ce6.0.

Guess this thing is waste..

Edited by tommy012175 2011-08-23 1:18 PM

To use Android on the netbooks, I believe it has to write to the nandflash in a different way than CE does. I looked around about Android, and I read that there's a possible chance of bricking the device (allegedly), so that's why I never messed with it--though I prefer CE 6 over Android 1.6, but just my opinion...