The Archos is dead
Archos, Gadgets Posted by Darren January 7th, 2008I don’t believe I’m writing this. Less than two weeks after unwrapping my Christmas present it’s knackered. I set it up to record off Sky Plus, and a little later noticed that it wasn’t recording. I took it off the DVR Station and tried to turn it on - nothing. After a few more attempts at holding down the power button the boot-up screen appeared - “Archos - entertainment your way” - and then I saw “Recovery code 102 - system is damaged”. The device felt warmer than usual, an ominous sign.
I was provided with three options for recovering the system - ‘no’, ‘repair’ and ‘format disk’. Ah, clearly ‘repair’ was the best option. Unfortunately this just seemed to turn the device off, back on again and land me at the same screen. I tried it again… and again, and again. I pressed the reset thingy. I tried ‘repair’ again. I left it switched off to cool down. I tried again.
I then started searching the Archos forum and found (ominously) that several other people had suffered this problem but (ominously, there’s that word again) it seemed no-one had a solution. Someone suggested connecting to the computer via USB and doing a checkdisk, but unfortunately Windows wouldn’t even recognise it as a connected device (hardly suprising, during normal operation it asks you if you’d like to enable USB).
So, the last resort before I face the reality of sending it back or starting the battle to get a replacement - ‘format disk’. Obviously this was a last resort as it would render many hours worth of transferring content to the device pointless. But I took the plunge and pressed it… and… nothing. I just came back to the same three options.
As I’m typing I’m holding on to play.com’s customer service line - all of their agents are currently busy (but my call will be answered shortly… mind you, they said that 25 minutes ago).
What really annoys me is that I’ve invested in stuff to go with the Archos… a case, a screen protector, additional software, the DVR Station. I was going to take it to Lotusphere with me, and that’s now looking unlikely.
January 7th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Hi Darren, aw, shame, I’ve been following your Archos experience with interest, having just got an iPod Touch from Mrs Santa Claus. I love the iTouch, but I’m always after a new nadger. I guess I’ll let you iron out the Archos bugs first of all !! regards, Dave
January 7th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Right this moment I wish I’d got an iPod touch. When I consider that I’ve had a 4th generation iPod for 3 years and it’s done thousands of miles of travelling with me, the wife has had a Mini and Video iPod which have been very well used (in and out of the docked speakers), and the kid has had a nano … that’s over 7 years of service from iPods without a problem. Two weeks with the Archos and it goes kaput. Pretty poor really.
January 7th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Buy French, buy twice I guess. Bad news dude.
January 8th, 2008 at 1:39 am
Bad luck fella! It ia always a wrench when something that seems to have everything falls down on something as stupid as reliability . But perhaps it was a Friday Afternoon model - you should get the replacement before the ‘fear. (at 2 weeks old - don’t accept a repair - replace or money back time).
January 8th, 2008 at 11:33 am
play.com have said they’ll replace it and will get it picked up, and can send a replacement as soon as they can track it coming back. That’s pretty good service.
January 8th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Bad luck with the Archos but good news that you’ve had good service from Play. Having drooled over Port’s iTouch I’d love to have a look when it’s all back up and running
January 8th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
When I do get a replacement I don’t want you drooling over it, I don’t think a load of saliva will do it any good
Obvious plus points for the iPod touch are it’s slimness, user interface, no moving parts (therefore less to go wrong) and the fact they tend to work for more than 2 weeks.
Plus points for a working Archos are the capacity, bigger hi-res screen, and recording from t.v. / Sky Plus / DVD player.
I guess it depends on your priority… if it’s music then I’d say iPod (I’m keeping my iPod for music, the Archos was for video).
January 8th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Good news… play.com were prepared to replace it, no questions asked. Bad news… they’re out of stock. Good news… they’ll give me a refund… and then I can go and buy another.
Bad news… that top-quality screen protector I fitted the other day had to come off and may not be re-usable.
More bad news… Currys are saying that the 30 gb model has been discontinued. Huh?
January 9th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
The new one has arrived (20 hours from time of order, well done Amazon). It’s charged and it’s now recording from Sky Plus. Question is, how paranoid am I now?
January 10th, 2008 at 12:58 am
Just got mine yesterday and it started up couple times and now the error code 102 show up. Try all options multiple times and the device just paused at the splash screen doing nothing. Quite curious what happen to your replacement. If it happens to you again, I am just going to send mine back.
January 10th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Han, if you just got it yesterday and you have that code and you can’t rescue it, I would send it back now.
First though go to here … http://forum.archosfans.com/viewforum.php?f=25 and search on code 102 and 108, see if any of the fixes work. It will depend on why you’re getting the error. With mine the hard disk was dead so it wouldn’t be recognised via USB, so there was nothing I could do.
January 24th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
hey, it happened to me too. ERROR 102.
but, I answered NO about 4 or 5 times, and it just continued as normal.
next reboot the error was gone.
lucky me.
January 24th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Sorry to hear your bad luck. I have been using archos products for a while and have to say i have never had any problems. Their customer service has always been great for me and products seem to last. Just got a 605 and its more than what I expected. This new TV+ looks promising as well. Hopefully everything works out.
Side note, I didn’t care for the iPod Touch.
Cheers
January 25th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Had the same problem (error 102)with my Archos 605 after just half an hour. Downloaded and installed the latest firmware from Archos website, followed the instructions to install… All works fine now.
March 18th, 2008 at 1:42 am
I faced the same problem Error code 108 / 102 and i resolved it on my own. The problem occurs if the OS got corroupted,
Follow the steps.
First download the lastest Firmware ( OS-(firmware_a605.aos)) from the ARCHOS website.
Plug your device to your PC
Power down the unit completely, While off hold down the Power and TV/LCD button. This will bring up again the screen with 3 options.
1) No
2) Repair
3) Formate Disk
choose the Repair option, wait for 5 mins then you can see your device detected in the PC.
copy the OS .aos file downloaded from ARCHOS website to the root of the device not in any folders.
In your device now choose the option done. It will update the new OS and it will restart autoatically.
Try it if its not working come bak to me,
All the Best.
April 8th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
I purchased a 704wifi in Gibralter Sept07 I dont seem to be able to copy sat. tv programmes. I set up scheduler but it does not record. Instructions are not very precise. Can any one advise please