X96 mini s905w suddenly developed network issues

Help & Support Hardware
1

hi all,

I have a x96 mini s905w 2g which was working for the last few years with coreelec v9.2.8 from a 2gb microsd card (also had dual booting to atvexperience rom). I was using the internal storage as the coreelec “storage” partition and everything was fine.

last month I was suddenly getting disconnected from my network (it was a wired connection) so the box was unreachable via ssh, yatse app etc (though strangely sometimes some utils i had running on it like transmission were connectable via remote apps, but even this stopped working randomly) and it required a few reboots for it to start working ok. thinking it may have been due to a microsd card corruption I tried to re-flash it with rufus (same version 9.2.8).

at first I ran into an issue where it was not booting from the sd card and even booting into android didn’t work as it would get stuck at the loading screen. I tried it with 2 different sd cards but no go. finally I was somehow able to get it to boot into coreelec installation from twrp.

now after the fresh install it doesn’t connect at all to the wifi or to wired. it says “input/output error” and then reverts to “status:idle”, after reboot it keeps asking for the wifi password, when I enter it sometimes kodi just freezes up & then seems to reboot to main menu. I’ve tried this with 2 microsd cards and also now tried CoreELEC-Amlogic-ng.arm-19.5-Matrix-Generic.img but it is the same issue.

can it be some coincidence that both microsd cards (& earlier the internal storage) are all corrupted or does this look like a network adapter/hardware fault?

if I do have to buy another microsd card the ones available are only 64gb & up. will that be compatible?

should I try the team coreelec ceemmc tool to install CE to internal eMMC storage? I saw the guide but didn’t understand how do I use it & give the commands especially if I am not able to ssh into the box?

tia

2

Err NO?
Where are you? I can still get any size card from multiple sources.
I use 16 and 32 high speed cards .
Also maybe the box has developed hardware problems. It may be time to get a newer box.

3

I did another search and under 64gb microsd cards cost not much more than 32gb ones. does CE & these chinese android boxes support 64gb cards? because if it works then I could do more with the extra space going forward. though now I tried again and the mount error is still there with my 64gb flash drive and network issues with 2gb sd card so maybe it’s looking like 90% a hardware fault.

4

The box supports SDHC, not SDXC, AFAIK.

5

I use minimum 8gb card, normally 16/32
Cards CAN make a difference.
I have used 64 but to me they are a waste.

6

thanks, good to know. any idea about the max sd card size it supports?

7

thanks, good to know. so the 64 gb cards you tried worked ok with it? why did you think 64gb were a waste? any idea about the max sd card size it supports?

8

This old boxes mostly support max. 32Gb

9

ok thanks so i’ll look for 1 of that size.

though more i think about it i doubt the sd card is the issue here, because everything else seems to be working ok, it is just the network issues so looks like something wrong with the box’s network adapter.

i have a usb network adapter but it doesnt seem to get detected by the box.