GoPro Giving me the Sh*ts!

[pdfarrell]

Having issues with my GoPro Hero 3+ Black...

Having trouble with it freezing on start up, not charging etc..
Have googled the issues and worked through numerous fixes, but still plays up.
Will spend another few hours on it tonight, but getting to the end of my tether.
Unfortunately its out of warranty.

Has anyone had freezing issues and found a solution?

Otherwise, can anyone recommend another brand of action camera to capture the moment when I throw the GoPro against a brick wall ?

Cheers,
PF

[BrettoQld]

Unfortunately its out of warranty.

Perhaps, but all is not lost.

Take a look at Section 54 of the Australian Consumer Law which deals with Guarantees as to acceptable quality.

The ACL requires that goods be fit for the purposes they are commonly used for, acceptable in appearance and finish, free from defects, safe and durable, all according to the standards of a reasonable consumer.

These guarantees can outlast the manufacturer's warranty.

Having regard to the nature and price of GoPro Cameras, they are designed and marketed as durable high quality products.

Generally, you would expect a high price product like a GoPro to last longer (depending on the user's treatment). If it is a defect rather than a user error, and depending on the length of time you've owned it, you may be able to get it fixed for nothing.

What I'm basically saying is that depending on what you buy, represented warranties don't mean a thing in Australia anymore.

[pdfarrell]

Perhaps, but all is not lost.

Yeah, not totally writing it off yet, its only 18 months old, and have read many stories online of GoPro replacing dud cams with new, even if when out of warranty.

From what I have read, their customer service (in Australia) is pretty good.

Going to try a few more things this week, but if I can't get anywhere, I will get in touch with GoPro and see what they can/will do.

Cheers,
PF

[Lazybugger]

Have you tried using a different brand of SD card. I remember the 3's had some issues with some brands (even well known ones) when they first came out.

I assume all your drivers are up to date too.

Personally I am not going to bother going back to a video camera until they can last 6 hours (a fishing session) and are in a totally waterproof case that can still record sound. The new gopro is on the track except for battery life.

[pdfarrell]

Have you tried using a different brand of SD card. I remember the 3's had some issues with some brands (even well known ones) when they first came out.

I assume all your drivers are up to date too.

Personally I am not going to bother going back to a video camera until they can last 6 hours (a fishing session) and are in a totally waterproof case that can still record sound. The new gopro is on the track except for battery life.

Yeah, tried different cards, and the one I normally use is on GoPro's recommended list.
All firmware is up to date, though I am going to try and force a new install.

Going to look at the way I charge it.. apparently the battery can lock up if using an under powered adaptor. Have it charging on my computer at home (I'm at work) as I type. Have also picked up a new battery to rule that out.

When it works, the GoPro is awesome. When it doesn't it's just so damn frustrating!

Cheers,
PF

[pdfarrell]

Have reformatted my memory card and it looks like it may have been the problem.
Has been behaving itself for an hour or so now.

Fingers crossed.

Cheers,
PF

[ScuLL&fIsHbOnEs]

Glad to see you got it fixed PF
GoPros are a pretty good unit and they have a strong market so would think like Hobie they would be protecting / backing their brand and reputation for good quality products/
I was going to buy one this week but ended up getting a Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-HX90V because I am doing a heap of travelling (NZ, Europe etc.) between now and next 1-2 years.
cheers
Bones

[pdfarrell]

Worked great last night, went to fire it up this morning and it has locked up again.
Have opened a Support request with GoPro, will post results if and when I get them.

Cheers,
PF

[ScuLL&fIsHbOnEs]

Worked great last night, went to fire it up this morning and it has locked up again.
Have opened a Support request with GoPro, will post results if and when I get them.

Cheers,
PF

Sorry to hear again, I hope it works out,
couple of times I considered buying a gopro and have 2 other types of sports cameras (slightly cheaper) but always saw GoPro as the market leader
would hate to think they are not as good as they say.... so will be watching your threads to see how it gets resolved.
Will be going to Coramandal NZ yak fishing in a couple of weeks so will be taking my camera, fingers crossed I actually catch something worth taking a photo of

[Troopy67]

Good luck with your dealings with Gopro. I rate them extremely low on the customer service scale which is why I ended up sending them a photo of mine with the axe through it. I swore I would not buy another but I now have the 4 model in the hope that I can't be that unlucky with them twice. Mine was the 3 silver and it was just out of warranty and the best they'd offer me was a 10% discount on a new one AND they wanted me to send it to Singapore or somewhere before they would honour the discount. I told them what they could do with their pathetic offer. From what I could gather, they do not repair them so if it's out of warranty you're screwed. Unless they want to do the right thing which in my case they did not.

[andrewm]

which is why I ended up sending them a photo of mine with the axe through it.

Really?!? what was their response to that? Hopefully more effective than me sending a pic of my members card cut up, to a large tackle store chains TV personalities Facebook page.......vowing never to shop there again after the poor customer service.



Hope you sort out the camera issues PF. I guess I've been lucky so far with my 3black. Apart from the corrosion on the remote charging points.

[Troopy67]

Andrew, they didn't say anything about it. Just repeated their woeful offer of a 10% discount.

[Tim399]

Good luck getting it fixed, I hope they come through for you.

To all the hero 3+ owners, a mate from work had one but didn't charge his battery after it's last use and let the camera sit for a few months (camera was about 6 months old), apparently some sort of internal battery (I'm not elec savvy) went completely empty which is irreversible and caused the camera to freeze and not do anything when he tried to turn it on.. Luckily his was still in warranty and after he sent it back and they had it for 9 months, they honoured the warranty although the new go pro had come out in the mean time so they sent him one of them. So it's a good idea to charge the battery and leave it in the camera after use I guess?

Tim

[Trap]

I had the same issue with my Hero Black 3, luckily it was within 12 months of purchasing it so I took it back and they just swapped it over. Good luck with getting yours sorted out.

One tip I remember reading with the Go Pro's was too never ever remove the memory card. Just use a USB cable to copy the files off directly to the computer. Don't take the card out and place it into a card reader and only use the format option on the Go Pro to wipe the memory card.

[yaqdoq]

One tip I remember reading with the Go Pro's was too never ever remove the memory card. Just use a USB cable to copy the files off directly to the computer. Don't take the card out and place it into a card reader and only use the format option on the Go Pro to wipe the memory card.

Guess I've been lucky . Never leave my card reader in the camera , format on the computer and use generic chargers . Never had a moments problem with any of the 4 GP's I've owned except for the GP3 White that sank and had fantastic footage of a whale snagging my line and turning me turtle

I confess to not liking their latest software as it hinders my editing process more than it accelerates it .
Tommo did have issues with one of his cameras freezing and I believe he managed to fix it - drop him a pm .