[JasonACT]

A couple of things...

Should anyone follow me on the Gauges path, post a note here and I'll update the thread with new QNX programs (I've made a few changes, mostly around the grey lines for speed, since they are really hard to see in sunlight - and I'll probably make some more, maybe bug fixes should I find them). Posting them as I go though is just noise on this thread.

With my "repaired" unit, and having freed up a lot of flash memory space, I'm now seeing (I think) how the units operate. I think they record flash block read problems somewhere, but nothing is done at the time they occur. When I reboot the unit however, I see it "Validating duplicate sequence" messages (see page 8 on this thread) when it first starts (mounts the flash memory device). You never see these again, and I now suspect that it is validating the duplication of bad blocks into new blocks... In the simplest of terms, that can most easily occur when the file-system isn't yet mounted, though I question the overall robustness.

What I make of this is, if you never disconnect the battery (or do a proper shutdown using Forscan etc.), the unit will not get a chance to fix what it knows is going bad. One day a reboot may occur (from a jumpstart or just letting the battery drain) and it'll be totally borked.

Someone said, they often disconnect the battery / jumpstart - I can't remember... But it may well be the case that doing these things often gives the unit a chance to repair itself before it gets too bad.

I can only say, the massive amount of messages from this bad unit (and the fact that my good units have really gotten better over time, while I test them) makes me think this is how they operate.