I am trying to add a new 60gb drive I bought however I am having some problems.

I have 2 empegs and cannot get emplode to detect either empeg when hooked up to the serial port. I have tried 2 different serial cables. Also I have went into device manager in winxp and it says my serial i/o is working fine.

I have v2 beta 13 loaded on one empeg and I have beta 13 emplode installed.

Anyone have similar problems before? I have tried using the builder image as well and still no detection.

TIA

cblake

Have you checked that no other software is tying up your serial port?

It's unlikely that 2 empegs or 2 serial cables both have the same problem.

I know its very unlikely. I will reboot to make sure but I am almost 100% positive that no other software is tying it up. Emplode is the only program open.

Thanks.

Greetings!

Are you using emplode to try and sync over serial? Are you using hyperterm to connect to the player?

Hi.

Yes I am using emplode to try and sunc over serial but the flashlight just keeps moving about. Never finds either player of mine. I also tired the builder tool to just format the HD but it also has no luck finding either player. Really confusing me. I never had no problems like this before.

Greetings!

A few things to check:

a) Dumb question - is the serial option for syncing on by default in emplode? Just checking - make sure the checkbox is set.

b) Is anything else using your serial connection? Is anything else open on the serial port?

c) Try connecting with hyperterm as per the FAQ. Sometimes, I do this before any serial stuff just to force my ports to the right settings.

Hi again.

I have the box checked for serial in emplode when I try connecting to my player that way.

I just tried using hyperterminal and I looked the FAQ over to make sure I was doing it right. Said "connected" in hyperterm but showed nothing when my player booted up like it should.

Could the wrong cable have been shipped with my player? I have another 9pin cable I have tried using but I don't think it is null modem.

You can do a quick test to confirm that your PC is really openning the serial port and that your cable is good.

Plug the cable into your PC's serial port and leave other end sitting on your desk. Take a small piece of wire (e.g. a twist-tie) and strip both ends. If you look close, the end of the serial cable, you can see a number next to each hole. Put the two ends of your small wire into holes 2 & 3. Now run Hyperterm and tell it to connect to COM1 (or whichever port you're using). Any baud rate will work, just disable all flow control.

When you type stuff in Hyperterm, you should see it on screen. Pull the wire out and you won't see what you type.

This tells you that your PC's serial port works and isn't busy. It also tells you that your cable works.

It does *NOT* tell you if your serial cable has a null modem twist in it or not.

Hi Amigo,

Thanks for the info. I just got done trying that with a twisty tie but it didn't really work out.

I put it in holes 2 and 3 like you said and disabled flow control, etc. But when I am connected in hyperterm if shows what I am typing no matter what. Even if I have the twisty tie wires in or not. When I pull the wires out.. It still shows everything.

Any other tricks?

Sounds like it has local echo on.

I normally use CRT (free trial). Just now, I installed HyperTerminal to give it a try. HyperTerm doesn't work like that for me, but CRT does... when I tried just now with HT, it doesn't echo my text. Strange. prolly checking for a Carrier Detect or something.

Well, if you wanna download CRT and give it a try (it's really an excellent telnet program and just has serial as an extra)... it's not going to fix your problem, but it will help narrow down where the problem is. :/

Thanx for your help Amigo. Such a fitting name. I'm off to download CRT now. I suspect maybe the serial is dead on this mobo.

Amigo -

I downloaded CRT and ran it. It acted the same way as HT did for me. Showed what I typed no matter what. I also double check to make sure answer back and local echo was turned off. However if I open a session in CRT and then try to open a session in HT it won't let me. Says the port is not open. Does that mean my serial port is working?

Only one application can open a given serial port at a time.

With local echo off and no wire shorting pins 2 & 3, you shouldn't see what you're typing (as is the default in both programs). Something is definitely odd. Maybe it's a short in the cable... if you unplug the cable from your PC does it still act the same? I suppose it could be a short on the mobo... I've never seen that happen before, but theory says its possible.

Do you have a COM2? Does it exhibit the same behavior?

To turn off local echo in Hyperterminal do this:
File->Properties
Settings tab
ASCII Setup button
Clear the check against Echo typed characters locally

Well I feel like an idiot. Both serial ports turned out to be disabled in the bios. I just got this comp. and never knew anyone had disabled them.

Thanks for all the help guys.