Pandigital SuperNova Wi-Fi Stopped Working

[onykage]

Pandigital gave me a link to an update which I download to the minisd and installed and and it worked until I added music and pics to the minisd then the MAC address is lost again. Seems when ever I put pics or music on it loses the wi-fi. Spoke to a rep on Friday 01/13 and he is having it escalated so we will see what happens. Otherwise if I dont have an answer next week it will be returned. FYI I have the Supernova from QVC R80B400 with Barnes Noble NOT the dlx version.

If you will root it, and install the system tools i mentioned previously then the problem will most likely go away. Since i did that i have had zero issues. This goes without saying i worked flawlessly for 3 solid weeks before it did it the first time. And I rarely every shut it down.

Best of luck with your research.

 

[sheka11]

Thank you Robang13 for this info. It actually works. HOWEVER. there is additional steps
- steps 11- 13, Pandigital didnt mention. I troubleshooted and found.

During step 10 - The Android little man comes on the screen it will not install itself.

STEP 11- That leads to tap and release the power and volume up button together. A menu screen comes up
STEP 12 - Select install from sd card. It will start installing at the bottom of screen
STEP 13 - Once the download is finished it will go back to the menu screen. Select Reboot device
(It wiil explain how to navigate and select inthe menu)

Once device rebooted it connected to wifi with no problems!!!!

NOTE: The update doesnt have the barnes and nobles its now amazon app. So some things might be gone and replaced with new apps

This was my experience of what happen, but others might of followed steps 1-10 and was successful.

I HAD done what you suggested BEFORE I sent mine back and I am getting another one because I was told the new batch might not have the same issue. I in fact received a call from Pandigital a few minutes ago with the actual fix. I would not have posted the original post if I had not thought it would work and had worked for others. I try not to pass on bad info. I'm not a kid and have a pretty good knowledge of computers. Here is their answer:

Thank you for contacting Pandigital Customer Support regarding an issue connecting to your wireless network. To correct this issue we recommend re-installing the firmware for your SuperNova Deluxe from the micro SD card. Please follow the steps below to download the firmware file and re-install it to the device:


1. Downloading FW from Pandigital’s hosted Internet server
User can download FW file using the link:
http://data1.pandigital.net:8080/Support/FW/Tablets/R80B455/IR80_S_AZ_W_A_A_01022012.zip

2. Copy the FW update file onto a microSD card

3. After the file has completely downloaded, remove the memory card from the card reader

4. Turn your Pandigital device off

5. Charge your eReader to 100% or FW update will not be successful

6. Insert the memory card into your Pandigital device

7. Press and hold the power button and the volume up key at the same time

8. Once the Pandigial logo appears and the home now button lights up blue, then release only the POWER Button while still continuing to hold the volume up button

9. Once the FW automation progression status bar appears, release the Volume up button

10. The FW update is performed and the device restarts automatically


During the update process, you should see the Android robot and update performance status on the screen. If the device started without displaying these turn the device off and repeat step 4 again.

If you still cannot connect to Wi-Fi after the firmware update is complete, perform a factory reset through Settings>Privacy>Factory data reset, NOTE; After a factory reset you will need to re-set up your personalized data, account login information, and re-download media files.

My question to you which may sound stupid, I am supposed to open the zip right? then just transfer the whole folder onto the sd card? Oh and I actually bought mine before the tv broadcast. Almost wish I never did!! I am waiting for my new one to come, so If you do this can you let me know if it actually works? Thanks!

 

[lyndaferg]

I'm on hold with Pandigital support, FYI they disconnect you after 24 minutes... CALL THEM BACK.. This is my 4rd cycle for calling them back.
After doing the umtineth time of a factory reset, I now get an error with connecting to the wifi, instead of just scanning & disconnecting.
I am now starting to post to several blogs about my experience with this tablet and company... DO NOT BUY IT...
DO NOT BUY A PANDIGITAL eReader. Pandigital Support is not there. SAVE YOUR MONEY!!

 

[viewoflife]

Update to this firmware:
IR80_S_AZ_W_A_A_01022012.zip


START Download here:
http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...01022012.zip&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13270961257422


This fixed my just-about-bricked supernova. Now I am a happy camper again!

 

[onykage]

I'm on hold with Pandigital support, FYI they disconnect you after 24 minutes... CALL THEM BACK.. This is my 4rd cycle for calling them back.
After doing the umtineth time of a factory reset, I now get an error with connecting to the wifi, instead of just scanning & disconnecting.
I am now starting to post to several blogs about my experience with this tablet and company... DO NOT BUY IT...
DO NOT BUY A PANDIGITAL eReader. Pandigital Support is not there. SAVE YOUR MONEY!!

Umm... if your that unhappy and you dont feel comfortable flashing the firmware or rooting the device, then call QVC were you purchased the item anyway and they will give you a refund or send you another one.

And no pun intended but you saved over 150 bux buying the pandigital in the first place.

No need to throw PD under the bus about it.

Sent from my PD SuperNova DLX

 

[k7mx]

My Supernova has been working great for about a month...pretty nice device for $179, but I just experienced the "won't connect to wifi" problem so many have had. I managed to get through to Pandigital's tech support and they advised me it's a MAC address problem with my router. Sure enough when I looked up the Supernova's MAC address and then went into my router's setting to give it permission to accept (not filter) that MAC address, my Supernova connected immediately and has been working fine ever since. I don't know why it worked for the first month then stopped, but this seems to have cured my problem for now. By the way, when I tried to update the firmware by the links listed above, I can never connect to those servers...anybody else been successful getting into them??

 

[robang13]

My Supernova has been working great for about a month...pretty nice device for $179, but I just experienced the "won't connect to wifi" problem so many have had. I managed to get through to Pandigital's tech support and they advised me it's a MAC address problem with my router. Sure enough when I looked up the Supernova's MAC address and then went into my router's setting to give it permission to accept (not filter) that MAC address, my Supernova connected immediately and has been working fine ever since. I don't know why it worked for the first month then stopped, but this seems to have cured my problem for now. By the way, when I tried to update the firmware by the links listed above, I can never connect to those servers...anybody else been successful getting into them??

Not to sound too dumb, but how do you get into your routers settings? I never did it, so I have no clue how to.
Angela

 

[robang13]

Thank you Robang13 for this info. It actually works. HOWEVER. there is additional steps
- steps 11- 13, Pandigital didnt mention. I troubleshooted and found.

During step 10 - The Android little man comes on the screen it will not install itself.

STEP 11- That leads to tap and release the power and volume up button together. A menu screen comes up
STEP 12 - Select install from sd card. It will start installing at the bottom of screen
STEP 13 - Once the download is finished it will go back to the menu screen. Select Reboot device
(It wiil explain how to navigate and select inthe menu)

Once device rebooted it connected to wifi with no problems!!!!

NOTE: The update doesnt have the barnes and nobles its now amazon app. So some things might be gone and replaced with new apps

This was my experience of what happen, but others might of followed steps 1-10 and was successful.

I found what you did and then realized I had copied it wrong to my card. I originally downloaded to the computer, clicked it open then copied and pasted. I went back and downloaded it again and just dragged it to the card instead. This caused it to be copied in it's zipped form and it then worked the way it was supposed to.

 

[onykage]

Not to sound too dumb, but how do you get into your routers settings? I never did it, so I have no clue how to.
Angela

Not dumd at all. Alot of wireless owners dont know how to manually configure their routers. Its fairly easy to do.

First from command on your machine type

ipconfig

Next, in your favorite browser, enter the ipaddress of your gateway thats listed in ipconfig. A user/pass window should appear. Google your router make to find the default user/pass.

Ex. Linksys/cysco routers are 192.168.1.1 with blank for user and 'admin' for the password. Dlink usualy is 192.168.0.1 blank on both by default. Netgear is usually 192.168.1.1 admin//password by default.

Once into your router read through the provided help section for information on how the web based ui works. Once you get the hang of it, its really easy to customize your local network the way you would a computer.

Macaddrrss setings is usually either in the advanced section of the router ui or under the setup tab.

Hope that sheds some light on routers for you.

Sent from my PD SuperNova DLX

 

[onykage]

If anyone has that IR80_S_AZ_W_A_A_01022012 firmware saved on their SD card or computer some where please send me a pm and DO NOT DELETE THAT FILE. The link is dead now. If someone how has it will contact me I will put the file back up on my personal file server for people to access until PD pulls there head out of their butt.

 

[kentsylv]

I have the Supernova from QVC R80B400 with Barnes Noble NOT the dlx version. PD has a newer update that so far is working for me but it has only been 2 days IR80_S_BN_W_A_A_11152011 , the other update IR80_S_BN_W_A_A_11022011 worked for a few weeks and stopped so we will see.

 

[onykage]

can you post a link to that firmware version or toss a link to where you got it from?

 

[mrm5102]

Hey All,

I decided to throw my 2 cents into this because I'm totally frustrated with this issue. How Pandigital can still NOT have a fix for this problem is beyond me.

Also, I wanted to mention that I bought mine from Walmat and not QVC... So you QVC purchasers are NOT alone on this..!
Bought it this past December.

For a while I would turn on my tablet and turn on the WiFi and it would just cycle through "Scanning..... Connecting.... Disconnected.... Scanning...... OVER AND OVER until I would turn the WiFi off. Ocassinally I would turn the tablet off and back on again and sometimes it would magically work..! Which is strange now that I know the problem is with a missing MAC Address! But now in the past few weeks I get nothing at all!!!

How a tablet/device can LOSE its MAC Address is totally ridiculous. I thought they Hard-Coded that thing in there to make it impossible to change/lose... That's a new one in my book as an IT Systems Admin.

I'm thinking I'm going to exercise my 1 Year Warranty because I'm just totally fed-up. I did the "Factory Reset" and still no MAC Address...?

-Matt

 

[azspecialk]

I called Pandigital today and they sent me the firmware update. I thought I would save everyone some time and a phone call and post a copy of it here. I have the Supernova Deluxe, so this may be specific to that particular model.

"Thank you for contacting Pandigital Customer Support regarding an issue connecting to your wireless network. To correct this issue we recommend re-installing the firmware for your SuperNova Deluxe from the micro SD card. Please follow the steps below to download the firmware file and re-install it to the device:


1 Download the firmware file, which can is found at the URL on your browser here: http://c279827.r27.cf1.rackcdn.com/IR80_S_AZ_W_A_A_01022012.zip

2. Copy the firmware update file onto a micro SD card.
3. After the file has completely downloaded, remove the memory card from the card reader
4. Turn your Pandigital device off
5. Charge your eReader to 100% or FW update will not be successful
6. Insert the memory card into your Pandigital device
7. Press and hold the power button and the volume up key at the same time
8. Once the Pandigial logo appears and the home now button lights up blue, then release only the POWER Button while still continuing to hold the volume up button
9. Once the FW automation progression status bar appears, release the Volume up button
10. The FW update is performed and the device restarts automatically

During the update process, you should see the Android robot and update performance status on the screen. If the device started without displaying these turn the device off and repeat step 4 again.

If you still cannot connect to Wi-Fi after the firmware update is complete, perform a factory reset through Settings>Privacy>Factory data reset, NOTE; After a factory reset you will need to re-set up your personalized data, account login information, and re-download media files.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. If the problem persists, or if you have any other questions or concerns please feel free to call our support line at 1-800-715-5354. Our support hours are Monday - Friday 9:00am - 6:00pm Central Time and Saturday 9:00am - 3:00pm Central Time."

 

[Stringrazor]

Just had the constant WiFi scanning/disconnect/scanning problem on my vtab1008 over the Independence Day holiday. After substantial frustration, I found a quick and easy solution, for my vtab at least but maybe it'll work for others too: Clear system cache with ES Task Manager app. Apparently, settings in cache are getting screwed up and something is making Android (GB in my case) only read the wifi settings, or at least some part of them, from cache even if you "forget" them and reenter. I was getting "wrong password" and constantly scanning/disconnect even after router restarts and temporarily taking security off wireless access. Once I cleared cache in ES Task, I was able to immediately connect to any wireless access point in the house (I have several). Note that power cycling (shutdown/restart) DID NOT clear the cache or help when the WiFi problems started.