A very pretty paperweight!

[hahanimal]

Hi all,

I bought what I strongly suspect to be a gome flytouch from some guy on facebook (no box but perfect working order I was assured) alas after getting it home and using it for a while the battery was running low so I plugged it in and turned it off. I went to turn it on later and it crashed at the boot screen, like the display was covered in horizontal white lines flickering. Since then I have found that the thing crashes if you try to boot it up while on charge, if you start it up without the charger then plug the charger in you get about 30 mins before it crashes or you can not plug the cable in while using it and it will eventually run out of battery.
Needless to say the jerk from facebook is claiming it was fine when he gave it to me and that the power supply has a little switch on it to change voltages and that if that had been changed it could have damaged it and that it's not his problem. SO I am stuck with an expensive and pretty paperweight for the moment.

Any suggestions on what might be wrong and if it's fixable/worth fixing or should i just put it in the bin and accept I've been robbed?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Carbira1]

It's not worth fixing. sorry! You could get a used Nook Color for $100-150. Why would you buy anything off of Facebook? There is no protection from things like this? How much did you pay for it?

 

[hahanimal]

Well the guy I bought it from runs a facebook group group for people near us to buy and sell stuff, I've got several friends who use it and as I was dealing with the owner of the thing I thought it should be alright, especially since I picked it up from his house so I have his address. Turns out I was as wrong as wrong can be. Paid £50 for it.

 

[Carbira1]

I would continue to try to get your money back but not stress over it too much.

 

[hahanimal]

Oh I'm pretty sure he's not gonna give me my money back, I've pretty much given up on that, thankfully it's only £50. So there is no hope for this thing? if I even knew how to get it open safely I would try and replace the battery or something but I have no idea whatsoever about tablets.

 

[hahanimal]

well, i've lost my pc to the little one for the day so i've retreated to the kitchen with the laptop and the paperweight, the paperweight has been on charge for a while so i unplugged it and it is booted up fine, i plugged the charger in and it didn't crash, unplugged the charger and still hasn't crashed, got it connected to the wifi, web browser works (youtube videos don't though) i suppose as long as i keep it charged enough to get through boot without the charger it can then be turned on and used for at least long enough to check facebook on the toilet

would still like to try and get it fully functional if anyone has any ideas.

 

[hahanimal]

There is a new development! I left it turned on and charging while I poppe dout, when i got back no power light on the paperweight or on the charger plug...could it be something as simple as a dodgy charger?

Haahahaha yet another development!

The wife wisely pointed out that we have a similarly ended charger for a media box, upon checking the connector it was in fact a perfect fit (the one i was given hung out slightly) and it is now charging and booted while charging! will update this as I find out what the deal is

 

[kristeltips66]

You have learnt a valuable lesson, NEVER BUY FROM FACEBOOK. You could have gone to Ebay or Amazon, at least you would have got your money back.

 

[hahanimal]

TBH I knew that before I bought it, I could have gotten one for only a few quid more on ebay but I wanted a shiny new toy now not in a week's time... I'm a big kid.


Latest update.

Works perfectly as long as it's plugged into the media box charger but the battery doesn't seem to be holding a charge. Is replacing the battery a viable option?

 

[MommaJane]

at first glance i thought you were talking about the nook...

 

[hahanimal]

Update! charger I got with it now no longer charges it at all, think it's busted, the media box charger cable will power it up and run on it but the battery doesn't charge. Taking it to a local computer hardware guy tomorrow and see if he has a charger i can try and see if the battery can be changed.

 

[hahanimal]

Bought a multicharger from argos for a tenner, works like a charm, battery seems to be holding a charge, no more hardware issues to report!

Can't get the youtube app to work though