Help!

Received my empeg today. Everything was going great, until it stopped working properly! Whenever I try to sync now, it does weird things... reboots, doesn't recognize emplode, etc. Help!

Can anyone that thinks they can help either give me their number or call me?

My number is 415-647-6006, but I'll be happy to call you... just send me your number... [email protected]

Been emailing Rob, but think he's prolly busy/working/sleeping...

- Thanx
- Jon

Whenever I try to sync now, it does weird things...

Can you describe what's happening?
First thing that comes to mind is that you might be another victim of the loose cable saga.
Have you been through the "General/Help Please?" area on this BBS where this has been discussed?

If you have a chance, monitor the boot-up sequence and compare this with this post


Henno
mk2 6 nr 6

Here's a dump. Note that I get a different symptom each time I boot the empeg...

Here's the dump...

empeg-car bootstrap v1.00 20000601 ([email protected])
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux.................................... done, booting the kernel
.
Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg35 ([email protected]) (gcc vers
ion 2.95.2 19991024 (release)) #19 Fri Aug 4 15:58:47 BST 2000
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 7, serial number 80000289)
Command line: mem=12m temp=48
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 11000k/12M available (968k code, 20k reserved, 292k data, 8k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
empeg display initialised.
empeg dspaudio driver initialized
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg infra-red support initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0004800).
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hdb: IBM-DARA-218000, ATA DISK drive
hda: IBM-DARA-218000, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IBM-DARA-218000, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: IBM-DARA-218000, 17301MB w/418kB Cache, CHS=35152/16/63
hdb: IBM-DARA-218000, 17301MB w/418kB Cache, CHS=35152/16/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman ([email protected])

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:10:01:2
1
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
hdb: hdb1 < hdb5 hdb6 > hdb2 hdb3 hdb4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
change_root: old root has d_count=1
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 8k initempeg-car 1.0.
player: memory violation at pc=0x020568c0, lr=0x0006f8cb (bad address=0x000545d8
, code 2)
pc : [<020568c0>] lr : [<0006f8cb>]
sp : be5ff8d4 ip : fffa3d34 fp : be5ffd48
r10: be5ffd00 r9 : 0006f800 r8 : 32ebc601
r7 : fffff2ab r6 : fffee865 r5 : be5ff9d0 r4 : 000517ac
r3 : 0005b39c r2 : 0009dc15 r1 : 0007b428 r0 : 000545df
Flags: nZCv IRQs on FIQs on Mode USER_32 Segment user
Control: D039517D Table: D039517D DAC: 00000015
Function entered at [<02044e58>] from [<020492c8>]
r10 = BFFFFF64 r9 = 0210D798 r8 = 020FD948 r7 = 0000280B
r6 = 0210D7B0 r5 = 0210D798 r4 = 00000000
Function entered at [<020492ac>] from [<0200a124>]
r4 = BE5FFD64
Function entered at [<0200a074>] from [<020632e0>]
r5 = 0000000B r4 = BE5FFE40
Function entered at [<02063220>] from [<0209a05c>]
r4 = 00000000
Function entered at [<02099060>] from [<02063064>]
r8 = 0210A7D4 r7 = 0210A7C0 r6 = 0200A074 r5 = 00000003
r4 = 00000001
Function entered at [<02062fb4>] from [<0209a05c>]
r5 = 00000000 r4 = 00000000
Function entered at [] from []
ððempeg-car 1.0.
Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address c0c00000
memmap = 00401FB1, pgd = ea0000bb
*pgd = 00ffff2a, *pmd = 50ffffe3, *pte = ef9f0000, *ppte = 000f0002
Internal error: Oops: 0
CPU: 0
pc : [] lr : []
sp : c0bfffd8 ip : 60000093 fp : c0ff1cf0
r10: 00000000 r9 : c0961da8 r8 : 00000000
r7 : 00000008 r6 : 00000001 r5 : c0112688 r4 : c0685140
r3 : 00000004 r2 : 00000002 r1 : c0685158 r0 : 00000002
Flags: nZCv IRQs off FIQs on Mode SVC_32 Segment user
Control: D039517D Table: D039517D DAC: 00000015
Process (pid: 0, stackpage=c0bff000)
Stack:
c0bfffc0: c00338e8 c000ad44 60000093 ffffffff 00000002 c06851
58
c0bfffe0: 00000002 00000004 c0685140 c0112688 00000001 00000008 00000000 c0961d
a8
Backtrace: invalid frame pointer c0ff1cf0
Code: 00000000 e24dd048 (e88d1fff) e59f2138 e28d0048
Aiee, killing interrupt handler
Kernel panic: Attempted to kill the idle task!
In interrupt handler - not syncing

On the phone with Tony now and he's trying to help - but thanks everyone for trying! Any help is welcome!

- Jon

On the phone with Tony now and he's trying to help

It seems to be finding your disks OK
You're lucky with Tony around the corner. I bet that reloading software is going to be the next step.
Good luck / Bon courage

Henno
mk2 6 nr 6

He's trying to reload the software now, it's locked at the part where it's trying to pump the hard disk. My read is that it's the same old hard disk connector problem, just that it's loose instead of completely undone...

He's going to try to get a hold of Rob now.



___________
Tony Fabris

it's locked at the part where it's trying to pump the hard disk.

I've had pumping problems a few times when upgrading software.
In all of these cases the process got stuck with the 'repump partition' message when changing the player's software without resetting the player, when asked for (just letting it run). Abiding by the instructions / restarting the player when instructed allowed the pumping to progress as intended.

The Mk2 or the latest software seem more critical than when I still had the Mk1 . . .

Good luck

Henno
mk2 6 nr 6

Maybe you have a bad ram chip on the board?

Sean

Maybe you have a bad ram chip on the board?

That was my first thought as well. However, note that the first memory access violation occurs in the player software- which is loaded from the hard disk. So it could be either.

___________
Tony Fabris

In all of these cases the process got stuck with the 'repump partition' message when changing the player's software without resetting the player, when asked for (just letting it run).

I was on the phone with him at the time, and he did perform the upgrade by rebooting the player when it prompted him to. In fact, the upgrade wouldn't work at all unless he did it since the player was locked up.

___________
Tony Fabris

Rob will deal with this directly, but we've had one mk2 with a bad ram chip; the RAM is a different brand to the stuff in the Mk1, but this shouldn't be a problem.

To perform a ram test, wait until the unit falls over (the other unit had a heat-related fault in the chip) then power cycle it and press Ctrl-T at the bootup prompt - it then goes through a basic hardware test. Do this a few times and note any errors.

Hugo

Well. My empeg is definitely hosed. I think it is heat related.

I tried to get the hardware test working, but no dice. Control-T has no effect during boot...

Looking forward to speaking with someone from empeg soon.

- Jon

To perform a ram test, wait until the unit falls over (the other unit had a heat-related fault in the chip) then power cycle it and press Ctrl-T at the bootup prompt - it then goes through a basic hardware test.

Neat feature. Is that Mark2 only? I couldn't get my Mark1 to do anything with Ctrl-T.

By the way, Jon's problem could very likely be the RAM thing. His unit worked fine for a while (enough to upload a few albums), and it only went wonky on him after it had been powered up for a few hours. So if it was heat-related, that would make sense.

Also, it's not loose cables on his unit. Since the upgrade attempts were failing on the partition pump, it sure sounded like a disk problem. But Rob had just gone home for the night (it was about 9 or 10 o'clock UK time), and Jon wanted to know for sure if it was just a loose cable.

So he asked me to talk him through the lid removal, which I did. I hope you guys don't mind- I was confident that he knew what he was doing (and he did, he was very careful with it). I figured that even if the cables were fine, you would have at least wanted him to rule that out before going to the trouble of shipping it back. And I hated to see a new owner so distressed over his new toy malfunctioning.

He looked inside and noted that the hard disk cables were both properly connected (he has a dual-disk unit). So it's not the cables. He didn't remove the disk cradle at all, he just opened the lid and looked at the connectors.

After putting the lid and the face back on, he was able to install the 1.0 upgrade flawlessly and was able to use Emplode just fine again (as he had been able to do when he first got the unit). So I'm guessing it'll run for another couple of hours before going south on him again.

Too bad about the RAM chips...

___________
Tony Fabris

Here's what happens when I try to run emplode...

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:10:01:2
1
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
hdb: hdb1 < hdb5 hdb6 > hdb2 hdb3 hdb4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
change_root: old root has d_count=1
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 8k initempeg-car 1.0.
iput: device 03:44 inode 1034 still has aliases!
Adding Swap: 16596k swap-space (priority -1)
e2fsck 1.17, 26-Oct-1999 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/
hda4 is mounted.
Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 00be0004
memmap = C8110000, pgd = c0510000
*pgd = 00000000, *pmd = 00000000
Internal error: Oops: 2
CPU: 0
pc : [] lr : [<0079404d>]
sp : c0525cc0 ip : 00003fff fp : c0525cd4
r10: 0079404d r9 : 010d10a8 r8 : 00000304
r7 : 00000400 r6 : c0525e5c r5 : 00000400 r4 : 00000304
r3 : 0059c04c r2 : 00be0000 r1 : c0150000 r0 : 00be0000
Flags: nzCv IRQs on FIQs on Mode SVC_32 Segment user
Control: C811117D Table: C811117D DAC: 00000015
Process fsck.ext2 (pid: 21, stackpage=c0525000)
Stack:
c0525ca0: 0079404d c0032c1c 20000013 ffffff
ff
c0525cc0: 00000400 00000005 c0525ce4 c0525cd8 c0032c70 c0032bbc c0525d14 c0525c
e8
c0525ce0: c0032ff4 c0032c64 00000000 00000000 00000005 c0525e5c 00000400 c0525e
5c
c0525d00: 010d10a8 00000000 c0525f84 c0525d18 c0037134 c0032fd0 00000400 000000
00
c0525d20: 00000003 00000008 00000000 00000304 c0525e70 00002000 00000002 000000
0a
c0525d40: 00000400 00000000 00000000 0079404e c0bbbb14 0205c670 c0bbbb00 c0b9ff
80
c0525d60: c0b9ff20 c042a680 c042a620 c042a5c0 c0b9fda0 c042a500 c042a4a0 000000
06
c0525d80: 000000c0 c0109b00 00000000 c0525dc4 c0525d9c c000bad8 c000b940 fa0500
00
c0525da0: c0525e10 00000001 c00137e0 20000013 ffffffff c0008560 c00fdfb4 c0525d
c8
c0525dc0: c000adc0 c000b9dc c00fc000 df002000 df000cc0 00000000 c8110000 000000
15
c0525de0: c00fc000 c00fc000 c00ff760 4401a11b c0008560 c00fdfb4 80000013 c0525e
10
c0525e00: c00160ec c00137e0 20000013 ffffffff 80000013 c0524000 c08e6000 c00fc0
00
c0525e20: c00fc000 c00ff760 c0524000 00000000 c0525e58 c00160ec 00000000 c013ab
b8
c0525e40: c0524000 c0107124 c0525e5c c0525e88 c0525e5c c0025bf8 c0015f5c c0b9ff
80
c0525e60: c0b9ff20 c042a680 c042a620 c042a5c0 c0b9fda0 c042a500 c042a4a0 c0525e
b0
c0525e80: c0525e8c c002e158 60000013 000c9400 000c9400 00000000 c0342cb0 000c94
00
c0525ea0: 000c9400 c0525ed4 c0525eb4 c002e248 c002e498 000c9400 00000000 c0bb39
20
c0525ec0: 000c9400 00000001 00000001 c0525ef0 c0525edc c00d5068 c00c9438 c01227
40
c0525ee0: c0525efc c0525ef0 c0015b1c c0015a28 c0525f18 c0525f00 c00162c4 c0015a
bc
c0525f00: c0118124 00000000 c01197c8 c0525f28 c0525f1c c0015b1c c0015a28 c0525f
44
c0525f20: c0525f2c c00162c4 c0015abc 0000000b c0aa3320 00000001 c0525f80 c0525f
48
c0525f40: 00000001 00000000 c0bbbb00 c0525f80 c0525f5c c0030e64 c0032120 c0bbbb
00
c0525f60: ffffffea 00000001 00002000 0205c670 00002000 400ff128 c0525fb0 c0525f
88
c0525f80: c0030f94 c0036e6c 00000000 c0525fb8 0205c608 c000b1a8 00000003 c05240
00
c0525fa0: c0525ff4 00000000 c0525fb4 c000b000 c0030e80 0205c608 00000003 0205c6
70
c0525fc0: 00002000 bffffbfc 0205c608 00000001 02024b40 00000000 02024ad8 000020
00
c0525fe0: 400ff128 bffffc80 02024584 bffffc3c 02015034 400acea4 60000010 000000
03
Backtrace:
Function entered at [] from []
r5 = 00000005 r4 = 00000400
Function entered at [] from []
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = 00000000 r9 = 010D10A8 r8 = C0525E5C r7 = 00000400
r6 = C0525E5C r5 = 00000005 r4 = 00000000
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = 400FF128 r9 = 00002000 r8 = 0205C670 r7 = 00002000
r6 = 00000001 r5 = FFFFFFEA r4 = C0BBBB00
Function entered at [] from []
r8 = C0525FF4 r7 = C0524000 r6 = 00000003 r5 = C000B1A8
r4 = 0205C608
Code: e1a02000 0a00000a (e5923004) e5900000 e153000e
Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 80a48000
memmap = D0394000, pgd = c0b94000
*pgd = 00000000, *pmd = 00000000
Internal error: Oops: 2
CPU: 0
pc : [] lr : []
sp : c08e7f68 ip : c08e7f68 fp : c08e7f7c
r10: 00000001 r9 : c08e7f80 r8 : 00000015
r7 : 00000000 r6 : be3fb5f0 r5 : c0524000 r4 : c0524000
r3 : 00000000 r2 : c08e6000 r1 : c0854000 r0 : c0524000
Flags: Nzcv IRQs on FIQs on Mode SVC_32 Segment user
Control: D039517D Table: D039517D DAC: 00000015
Process player (pid: 19, stackpage=c08e7000)
Stack:
c08e7f40: c000c804 c000c8
04
c08e7f60: 80000013 ffffffff c0524000 00000015 c08e7fb0 c08e7f80 c001e2a8 c001d1
dc
c08e7f80: c08e6000 c08e608c 00000015 c000b1a8 00000072 c08e6000 c08e7ff4 be3fb5
f0
c08e7fa0: 00000015 00000000 c08e7fb4 c000b000 c001df4c 00000015 00000015 be3fb5
f0
c08e7fc0: 00000001 00000000 00000015 be3fb5f0 00000001 00000001 00000000 be3fb5
f0
c08e7fe0: 00000015 be3fb58c be3fb590 be3fb580 02097be8 02097bf4 60000010 000000
15
Backtrace:
Function entered at [] from []
r5 = 00000015 r4 = C0524000
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = 00000015 r9 = BE3FB5F0 r8 = C08E7FF4 r7 = C08E6000
r6 = 00000072 r5 = C000B1A8 r4 = 00000015
Code: 00000000 eb001b3a (e7953004) e1a05000 e3130020
Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 811cc000
memmap = D0394000, pgd = c0b94000
*pgd = 00000000, *pmd = 00000000
Internal error: Oops: 2
CPU: 0
pc : [] lr : []
sp : c0ac7f68 ip : c0ac7f68 fp : c0ac7f7c
r10: 80000001 r9 : c0ac7f80 r8 : ffffffff
r7 : 00000000 r6 : 0210d200 r5 : c08e6000 r4 : c08e6000
r3 : 00000000 r2 : c0854000 r1 : c08f0000 r0 : c08e6000
Flags: Nzcv IRQs on FIQs on Mode SVC_32 Segment user
Control: D039517D Table: D039517D DAC: 00000015
Process player (pid: 8, stackpage=c0ac7000)
Stack:
c0ac7f40: c000c804 c000c8
04
c0ac7f60: 80000013 ffffffff c08e6000 00000013 c0ac7fb0 c0ac7f80 c001e2a8 c001d1
dc
c0ac7f80: c0ac6000 c0ac608c ffffffff c000b1a8 00000072 c0ac6000 c0ac7ff4 000000
00
c0ac7fa0: bfffff64 00000000 c0ac7fb4 c000b000 c001df4c ffffffff ffffffff 0210d2
00
c0ac7fc0: 80000001 00000000 ffffffff 00000003 0200a074 0210a7c0 0210a7d4 000000
00
c0ac7fe0: bfffff64 0210d1fc 0210d200 0210d1f0 02097be8 02097bf4 20000010 ffffff
ff
Backtrace:
Function entered at [] from []
r5 = 00000013 r4 = C08E6000
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = BFFFFF64 r9 = 00000000 r8 = C0AC7FF4 r7 = C0AC6000
r6 = 00000072 r5 = C000B1A8 r4 = FFFFFFFF
Code: 00000000 eb001b3a (e7953004) e1a05000 e3130020

I dunno.

- Jon

...and the subsequent reboot...

empeg-car bootstrap v1.00 20000601 ([email protected])
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux.................................... done, booting the kernel
.
Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg35 ([email protected]) (gcc vers
ion 2.95.2 19991024 (release)) #19 Fri Aug 4 15:58:47 BST 2000
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 7, serial number 80000289)
Command line: mem=12m temp=48
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 11000k/12M available (968k code, 20k reserved, 292k data, 8k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
empeg display initialised.
empeg dspaudio driver initialized
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg infra-red support initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0004e80).
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hda: IBM-DARA-218000, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IBM-DARA-218000, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: IBM-DARA-218000, 17301MB w/418kB Cache, CHS=35152/16/63
hdb: IBM-DARA-218000, 17301MB w/418kB Cache, CHS=35152/16/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman ([email protected])

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:10:01:2
1
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
hdb: hdb1 < hdb5 hdb6 > hdb2 hdb3 hdb4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
change_root: old root has d_count=1
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 8k initempeg-car 1.0.
iput: device 03:44 inode 1034 still has aliases!
kmem_free: Bad obj addr (objp=c094a0a0, name=dentry_cache)
Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000000
memmap = D0394000, pgd = c0b94000
*pgd = d0380001, *pmd = d0380001, *pte = c000000b, *ppte = c000000a
Internal error: Oops: 0
CPU: 0
pc : [] lr : []
sp : c08f7de0 ip : c08f7d8c fp : c08f7dfc
r10: c0102228 r9 : ffffffff r8 : 00000006
r7 : 00000000 r6 : c0145620 r5 : c094a0a0 r4 : c094a09c
r3 : 60000013 r2 : 00000000 r1 : 00000001 r0 : 0000003e
Flags: nZCv IRQs on FIQs on Mode SVC_32 Segment user
Control: D039517D Table: D039517D DAC: 00000015
Process player (pid: 16, stackpage=c08f7000)
Stack:
c08f7dc0: c001a390 c002b30c 60000013 ffffff
ff
c08f7de0: c094a0a0 c0aa4540 00000000 ffffffc9 c08f7e28 c08f7e00 c003fea0 c002b1
24
c08f7e00: 00000020 00000013 00000002 c08f6000 c05a1ef8 c08f6000 00000000 c08f7e
38
c08f7e20: c08f7e2c c00402b8 c003fd68 c08f7e54 c08f7e3c c002c64c c004028c 000000
01
c08f7e40: 00000013 c0bb33e0 c08f7e6c c08f7e58 c002c7c8 c002c5c8 c012301f 000000
13
c08f7e60: c08f7e9c c08f7e70 c002d39c c002c7a4 00000000 c012301f 00000001 c0bb33
e0
c08f7e80: c08f6000 c05a1ef8 c08f6000 c05a1ef8 c08f7ec0 c08f7ea0 c0023754 c002d3
18
c08f7ea0: c08f6000 c05a1ef8 c0bb33e0 00000001 c0b95008 c08f7eec c08f7ec4 c00238
20
c08f7ec0: c0023718 402be000 00000000 c05a1ef8 c0bb33e0 402be000 c0b95008 000000
be
c08f7ee0: c08f7f24 c08f7ef0 c0023a38 c00237d8 c05a1ef8 00000000 00000001 402be0
00
c08f7f00: c0bb33e0 402c2000 00000001 00008000 00002073 402ba000 c08f7f44 c08f7f
28
c08f7f20: c0023b84 c0023910 fffffff4 c0bb3720 00000000 c0bb80e0 c08f7f74 c08f7f
48
c08f7f40: c0024258 c0023b38 00000003 00000000 00000000 fffffff2 c08f6000 c08f7f
f4
c08f7f60: 00008001 00000056 c08f7fb0 c08f7f78 c000f890 c0023de0 00000032 000000
00
c08f7f80: 402ba000 00008000 00000003 00000032 ffffffff 00000000 402ba000 c000b1
a8
c08f7fa0: 0000005a 00000000 c08f7fb4 c000b000 c000f79c 402ba000 be9ffbe4 000080
00
c08f7fc0: 00000003 00000032 402ba000 02148940 00001c38 00003f00 000000c0 000080
01
c08f7fe0: 00000056 be9ffc3c be9ffb84 be9ffbe4 0200c6f0 02099d1c 60000010 be9ffb
e4
Backtrace:
Function entered at [] from []
r7 = FFFFFFC9 r6 = 00000000 r5 = C0AA4540 r4 = C094A0A0
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = 00000000 r9 = C08F6000 r8 = C05A1EF8 r7 = C08F6000
r6 = 00000002 r5 = 00000013 r4 = 00000020
Function entered at [] from []
Function entered at [] from []
r6 = C0BB33E0 r5 = 00000013 r4 = 00000001
Function entered at [] from []
r5 = 00000013 r4 = C012301F
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = C05A1EF8 r9 = C08F6000 r8 = C05A1EF8 r7 = C08F6000
r6 = C0BB33E0 r5 = 00000001 r4 = C012301F
Function entered at [] from []
r8 = C0B95008 r7 = 00000001 r6 = C0BB33E0 r5 = C05A1EF8
r4 = C08F6000
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = 000000BE r8 = C0B95008 r7 = 402BE000 r6 = C0BB33E0
r5 = C05A1EF8 r4 = 00000000
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = 402BA000 r9 = 00002073 r8 = 00008000 r7 = 00000001
r6 = 402C2000 r5 = C0BB33E0 r4 = 402BE000
Function entered at [] from []
r7 = C0BB80E0 r6 = 00000000 r5 = C0BB3720 r4 = FFFFFFF4
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = 00000056 r9 = 00008001 r8 = C08F7FF4 r7 = C08F6000
r6 = FFFFFFF2 r5 = 00000000 r4 = 00000000
Function entered at [] from []
r6 = 0000005A r5 = C000B1A8 r4 = 402BA000
Code: e129f003 e3a02000 (e5822000) e91ba8f0 e1a01005
øüqNUnable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 3b910033
memmap = D03B4000, pgd = c0bb4000
*pgd = 00000000, *pmd = 00000000
Internal error: Oops: 2
CPU: 0
pc : [] lr : []
sp : c0003e88 ip : 3b90ffff fp : c0003ea4
r10: 00000000 r9 : 0202ed94 r8 : 00000001
r7 : c0102228 r6 : c019ca00 r5 : c019ca00 r4 : ffffffea
r3 : 3b90ffff r2 : c0942228 r1 : c094a240 r0 : 3b90ffff
Flags: nzcv IRQs on FIQs on Mode SVC_32 Segment user
Control: D03B517D Table: D03B517D DAC: 00000015
Process init (pid: 1, stackpage=c0003000)
Stack:
c0003e60: c0102228 c003ff
0c
c0003e80: 00000013 ffffffff ffffffea c019ca00 c0bc06e0 c0b92000 c0003ec8 c0003e
a8
c0003ea0: c003611c c003feec 00000000 00000000 00000000 c0ed0021 0202ed94 c0003f
60
c0003ec0: c0003ecc c0036354 c00360d0 bffffd4c c0003f28 00000000 0202eda0 c0b920
00
c0003ee0: 00000500 00000005 00001cb2 00008a3b 7f1c0300 01000415 c0003f3c c0003f
08
c0003f00: c00239f8 c00134fc bffffd4c bffffd4c 00000000 c0bb8078 c0bb30a0 c0003f
98
c0003f20: c0002000 0203d374 c0bb8060 00000002 c0003f70 c0003f40 00000000 e59d40
04
c0003f40: 0202eda8 c0ed0021 0202ed94 00000000 0202eda0 c0003f8c c0003f64 c000fe
94
c0003f60: c00362a8 0202edb0 0202edb0 c0003f98 c000b000 c0002000 c0003fd4 0203d3
74
c0003f80: 00000000 c0003f90 c000b608 c000fe00 0202edb0 c0003f98 0202ed94 0202ed
a0
c0003fa0: 0202eda8 c0ed0021 0202edb0 0202edb0 0203d374 00000000 0202e940 000000
00
c0003fc0: 0203d374 bffffd9c bffffda0 bffffd7c 02000a88 0200764c 60000010 0202ed
94
c0003fe0: c000aaf8 c0121f70 c00fe75c c00fe760 c00fdfd8 c0004000 c000c650 c000ab
04
Backtrace:
Function entered at [] from []
r7 = C0B92000 r6 = C0BC06E0 r5 = C019CA00 r4 = FFFFFFEA
Function entered at [] from []
r8 = 0202ED94 r7 = C0ED0021 r6 = 00000000 r5 = 00000000
r4 = 00000000
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = 0202EDA0 r9 = 00000000 r8 = 0202ED94 r7 = C0ED0021
r6 = 0202EDA8 r5 = E59D4004 r4 = 00000000
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = 0203D374 r8 = C0003FD4 r7 = C0002000 r6 = C000B000
r5 = C0003F98 r4 = 0202EDB0
Code: e1a0e007 e1a0000c (e5903034) e59cc000 e1530006

I think it's dead.

- Jon

Jon, I think that's enough logs for now. Rob will likely be in touch with you tomorrow (and possibly me too, so he can cut me a new orifice for telling you how to open the player).

___________
Tony Fabris

You have to hit Ctrl-T the *instant* you get the first message from the empeg (the bit that ends "peace..." and pauses for maybe 3/4 of a second). If you miss this, it won't enter the test.

The randomness does look like a ram fault, though.

Hugo

Hugo wrote:
"You have to hit Ctrl-T the *instant* you get the first message from the empeg (the bit that ends "peace..." and pauses for maybe 3/4 of a second). If you miss this, it won't enter the test."

Mine doesn't even pause for a split second...

Here's one of the weird boots...

empeg-car bootstrap v1.00 20000601 ([email protected])
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux.................................... done, booting the kernel
.
Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg35 ([email protected]) (gcc vers
ion 2.95.2 19991024 (release)) #19 Fri Aug 4 15:58:47 BST 2000
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 7, serial number 80000289)
Command line: mem=12m temp=47
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 11000k/12M available (968k code, 20k reserved, 292k data, 8k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
empeg display initialised.
empeg dspaudio driver initialized
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg infra-red support initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0005100).
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hda: IBM-DARA-218000, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IBM-DARA-218000, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: IBM-DARA-218000, 17301MB w/418kB Cache, CHS=35152/16/63
hdb: IBM-DARA-218000, 17301MB w/418kB Cache, CHS=35152/16/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman ([email protected])

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:10:01:2
1
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
hdb: hdb1 < hdb5 hdb6 > hdb2 hdb3 hdb4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
change_root: old root has d_count=1
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 8k initempeg-car 1.0.
iput: device 03:44 inode 1034 still has aliases!

empeg-car bootstrap v1.00 20000601 ([email protected])
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux.................................... done, booting the kernel
.
Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg35 ([email protected]) (gcc vers
ion 2.95.2 19991024 (release)) #19 Fri Aug 4 15:58:47 BST 2000
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 7, serial number 80000289)
Command line: mem=12m temp=47
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 11000k/12M available (968k code, 20k reserved, 292k data, 8k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
empeg display initialised.
empeg dspaudio driver initialized
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg infra-red support initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0005180).
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hda: IBM-DARA-218000, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IBM-DARA-218000, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: IBM-DARA-218000, 17301MB w/418kB Cache, CHS=35152/16/63
hdb: IBM-DARA-218000, 17301MB w/418kB Cache, CHS=35152/16/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman ([email protected])

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:10:01:2
1
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
hdb: hdb1 < hdb5 hdb6 > hdb2 hdb3 hdb4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
change_root: old root has d_count=1
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 8k initempeg-car 1.0.
iput: device 03:44 inode 1034 still has aliases!
kmem_free: Bad obj addr (objp=c094a8a0, name=dentry_cache)
Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000000
memmap = D0394000, pgd = c0b94000
*pgd = d0380001, *pmd = d0380001, *pte = c000000b, *ppte = c000000a
Internal error: Oops: 0
CPU: 0
pc : [] lr : []
sp : c08f5e2c ip : c08f5dd8 fp : c08f5e48
r10: c0102228 r9 : ffffffff r8 : 00000003
r7 : 00000000 r6 : c0145620 r5 : c094a8a0 r4 : c094a89c
r3 : 60000013 r2 : 00000000 r1 : 00000001 r0 : 0000003e
Flags: nZCv IRQs on FIQs on Mode SVC_32 Segment user
Control: D039517D Table: D039517D DAC: 00000015
Process player (pid: 16, stackpage=c08f5000)
Stack:
c08f5e00: c001a3
90
c08f5e20: c002b30c 60000013 ffffffff c094a8a0 c0aa4540 00000000 fffffffa c08f5e
74
c08f5e40: c08f5e4c c003fea0 c002b124 00000007 00000013 00000006 00320000 000000
00
c08f5e60: c0bbb980 00000000 c08f5e84 c08f5e78 c00402b8 c003fd68 c08f5ea0 c08f5e
88
c08f5e80: c002c64c c004028c 00000001 00000013 c090f430 c08f5eb8 c08f5ea4 c002c7
c8
c08f5ea0: c002c5c8 0031d000 00000013 c08f5ee8 c08f5ebc c002d39c c002c7a4 000000
00
c08f5ec0: 0031d000 c0138610 c090f430 00320000 00000000 c0bbb980 c090f430 c08f5f
14
c08f5ee0: c08f5eec c0025988 c002d318 0031d000 c0138610 c0bbb980 00003000 000080
00
c08f5f00: 00000000 c090f430 c08f5f5c c08f5f18 c0025f5c c0025960 0001f000 000000
00
c08f5f20: 00000000 0031d000 c00262f8 c08f5f60 c0bbb994 c0bbb994 c0bbb980 000000
00
c08f5f40: 00008000 4043a000 be9ffce0 4043a000 c08f5f84 c08f5f60 c00263d8 c0025c
5c
c08f5f60: 00005000 00003000 4043f000 00000000 c0bbb980 ffffffea c08f5fb0 c08f5f
88
c08f5f80: c0030f94 c002636c c08f5fb0 c08f5f98 00000016 c000b1a8 00000003 c08f40
00
c08f5fa0: c08f5ff4 00000000 c08f5fb4 c000b000 c0030e80 00000016 00000016 4043a0
00
c08f5fc0: 00008000 00000000 00000016 4043a000 00008000 00008000 00000016 be9ffc
e0
c08f5fe0: 4043a000 be9ffacc be9ffab0 be9ffab0 02067084 02098824 60000010 000000
16
Backtrace:
Function entered at [] from []
r7 = FFFFFFFA r6 = 00000000 r5 = C0AA4540 r4 = C094A8A0
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = 00000000 r9 = C0BBB980 r8 = 00000000 r7 = 00320000
r6 = 00000006 r5 = 00000013 r4 = 00000007
Function entered at [] from []
Function entered at [] from []
r6 = C090F430 r5 = 00000013 r4 = 00000001
Function entered at [] from []
r5 = 00000013 r4 = 0031D000
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = C090F430 r9 = C0BBB980 r8 = 00000000 r7 = 00320000
r6 = C090F430 r5 = C0138610 r4 = 0031D000
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = C090F430 r9 = 00000000 r8 = 00008000 r7 = 00003000
r6 = C0BBB980 r5 = C0138610 r4 = 0031D000
Function entered at [] from []
r10 = 4043A000 r9 = BE9FFCE0 r8 = 4043A000 r7 = 00008000
r6 = 00000000 r5 = C0BBB980 r4 = C0BBB994
Function entered at [] from []
r5 = FFFFFFEA r4 = C0BBB980
Function entered at [] from []
r8 = C08F5FF4 r7 = C08F4000 r6 = 00000003 r5 = C000B1A8
r4 = 00000016
Code: e129f003 e3a02000 (e5822000) e91ba8f0 e1a01005

Frozen at this point...

- Jon

Hmm, maybe your terminal software isn't quite keeping up. It definitely does pause, and the initial boot (plus the ram test, obviously!) uses no RAM at all so shouldn't be affected by any problems. Is flow control turned off in the terminal program?

Hugo

Yes, flow control is on, and it looks like the term prog is keeping up... It scrolls by so fast. I can't see any pause at all... maybe that's part of the problem?

- Jon

Hmm. Actually, I'm a bit worried about this line in the boot:

iput: device 03:44 inode 1034 still has aliases!

This is referring to hdb4 I think, and a possible filesystem corruption. It's possible that this is triggering a bug in the linux kernel and getting everything very upset. You *should* be able to hit ctrl-c repeatedly during bootup and get the empeg to a shell prompt - if you can, try doing "e2fsck /dev/hda4" and "e2fsck /dev/hdc4" (c4 is the secondary on a mk2's single bus).

As you've opened the unit under tfabis's guidance, you could try disconnecting the second drive (which is where it appears to have the problem) - this is the lefthand one when looking at the empeg with the display facing you. Leave the first one connected and see if it's happier - if so, it could well be ext2 has got itself incredibly confused. We've not seen this before, though, on any linux box!

Hugo

Ok, I'll try your disconnection problem. Control C tries to force the empeg to go into a shell prompt, but it has no shell...

Starting bash.
no søShell exit
empeg-car 1.0.

Should I be running the developers version or something?

- Jon

Flow control (hardware *and* software) should be off - the empeg doesn't do it atm. This is probably stopping you from sending the ctrl-T.

Hugo

Ah yes, you need developer on there. Sorry, I'm so used to running developer (so I can break my unit more easily) that I forget about it... you've tried applying upgrades and it's not happy, yes? In which case, the only option is the second HDD disconnection attempt...

Hugo

Ok, am installing the developers version now...

- Jon

Ok, I'm at the root... can't seem to find the e2fsck program...

Where is it?

- Jon

I will indeed be in touch tomorrow. In general I don't think the BBS is the right place to provide this kind of in-depth support, but since our VPN server is down I guess Hugo found this the easiest place to respond to the issue.

It certainly sounds like a bad RAM chip, which we can swap quickly.

Rob

But we're making progress!!! ARGH!

Can we chat or try to fix this with any other method? AOL Instant Messenger? Fax? Cans and string? email? telephone?

- Jon

If Hugo's still awake and willing, you're welcome to discuss it all night with him. Personally, I'm going to bed - I don't have any technical input to offer anyway!

If I have an email waiting in the morning saying that it's fixed, then I'll be very happy - but if not, I'll make it my business to get your player fixed in the fastest time possible.

Rob

Hugo and I just hung up after he figured out that it was a corrupted partition. Looks like (so far) that everything is running smoothly now...

THANK YOU HUGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Jon

Hugo and I just hung up after he figured out that it was a corrupted partition. Looks like (so far) that everything is running smoothly now...

Wow, past midnight (in England) on a Monday night, and Hugo calls Jon (overseas) from home to tell him how to fix a corrupted partition.

I don't care what anyone says about features, bugs, price, capacity, sound quality, whatever. There is nothing, nothing that beats this kind of customer service and dedication. You can't put a price tag on that.

___________
Tony Fabris

I can't guarantee I'll always do this, plus it makes me look like a deeply sad geek, with nothing better to do at almost 1am than help a gadget freak in pain :)

Hang on, maybe I am... ;)

Hugo

TFabris said:

"I don't care what anyone says about features, bugs, price, capacity, sound quality, whatever. There is nothing, nothing that beats this kind of customer service and dedication. You can't put a price tag on that."

I agree wholeheartedly.

You guys at empeg are wonderful!

That said, Rob -- is my warranty still intact?

;-)

- Jon

Empeg is also lucky to have a Tony Fabris out there as well. Kudos.

Calvin

Empeg is also lucky to have a Tony Fabris out there as well. Kudos.

Aw, shucks.
(He says as his head grows even bigger.)

For what it's worth, it's my fault for giving out my phone number to another BBSer. I should have known better. And from the looks of it, I gave him incorrect guidance anyway- it wasn't a loose cable so it was a waste of time to have him open the player.

___________
Tony Fabris

Tony,

Hehe... ok, I will dispose of your number... or use email in the future...

Next time you are in the Bay area, I owe you lunch/dinner/a place to stay/etc.

- Thanx again!
- Jon

Hehe... ok, I will dispose of your number... or use email in the future...

No, no, I was just joking. I didn't mind the call and I was glad to help, such as it was.

Next time you are in the Bay area, I owe you lunch/dinner/a place to stay/etc.

Watch out, I'll take you up on that. Will you babysit our 6-year-old while my wife and I head off to Cobb's?

___________
Tony Fabris

"No, no, I was just joking. I didn't mind the call and I was glad to help, such as it was."

Ok, I'm keeping the number! ;-)

"Watch out, I'll take you up on that. Will you babysit our 6-year-old while my wife and I head off to Cobb's?"

Actually, sure! I'd love to. Seriously.

Call me when you are planning it. There's a cool ice cream parlor in my hood that she'd love.

- Jon

Hm. Looks as though I may have a memory proble after all...

Here's the result of my Control-T test. (I think this only works with the developers code loaded...)

empeg-car bootstrap v1.00 20000601 ([email protected])
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...
0000 empeg-car board test version 0.04
0100 ram test starting
0110 testing ic 1 (0-3mb, low word)
0120 testing ic 2 (0-3mb, high word)
0130 testing ic 3 (4-7mb, low word)
0140 testing ic 4 (4-7mb, high word)
0150 testing ic 19 (8-11mb, low word)
0160 testing ic 32 (8-11mb, high word)
0101 memory error at d01408c0 (00000000!=00000000)
01f0 ram test done
0200 ide detect
0210 command issued
0220 drive id IBM-DARA-218000
02f0 ide ok
0300 dsp/i2c test
03f0 dsp/i2c ok
0400 temperature detect
0410 temperature is 46
04f0 temperature ok
0500 usb detect
0510 usb rev 1012
05f0 usb ok
0600 ethernet detect
0610 ethernet rev 334b
06f0 ethernet ok
0700 cs4231 detect
0710 cs4231 rev a0
07f0 cs4231 ok
00f0 tests complete

- Jon

Hehe, while your up, can you do anything to get mine shipped out and through customs a little quicker ;-)

Seriously, great support job guys!

-Mike

0101 memory error at d01408c0 (00000000!=00000000)

A certain anonymous BBS user ICQ'd me to suggest that the partition corruption may have been caused by faulty RAM, and that time would tell. If desired, he may now chime in here with an "I told you so".

___________
Tony Fabris

Actually, the other dead RAM victim was me, and yes, it trashed all sorts of things.

Partitions wouldn't pump, weird chirps in the audio, interesting corruptions of filesystems, you name it.

Rest assured, Jon, that these guys will turn around the repair fast.

I even got the dead chip back taped to a note from Hugo.



-Zandr
Mk.I #150
Mk.II #39

I was thinking the same thing. I've had memory go bad before and corupt all kinds of fun things in windows.

Sean

> That said, Rob -- is my warranty still intact?

That depends what kind of state your player is in when we get it back

Rob

(In other words, yes, if you didn't do anything horrible to it!)

weird chirps in the audio

That was my first symptom of bad RAM on my old computer... I thought it was my sound card, my ripper program, my encoder... I went nuts.... then about a week latter my NT partition went bye-bye and I figured out it was bad RAM.

I'll tell this tale so others can be forewarned.

I have a Slot-1 board and a Celeron - naturally I got a slocket board. The plan was that someday I'd get a Pentium III or similar that requires a Slot-1, but with the FP-PGA architecture who knows what's happening. Aaaaannyway,

After about three months performance had gradually degraded to the point where I was having to reboot once a day, often having it not POST afterward and requiring a complete power cycle. I sent it back, argued with the store, and eventually they replaced the motherboard and everything was fine again. Except the problems kept coming back. Over three months hangs would become more frequent, and though I'd reinstalled everything and done all sorts of crazy stuff to try and isolate the problem program nothing made sense. I sent it back again, had a larger hassle with them this time (of course, it never seems to show any problems for them...) and eventually got the motherboard replaced again.

Then a couple of chance conversations and little snippets gradually put the pieces in place. The slocket board contacts are tin, and the motherboard's are gold. This causes a electrical difference similar to the way a battery works, and causes the tin to oxidise. Oxidised contacts, bad electrical connection, signal failures and hangs. When they replaced the motherboard the slocket board was reseated and scraped away some of the oxidisation. Since then I've used a pencil eraser to scour the oxidisation off the tin and it's worked fine again.

So either don't get a slocket board or make sure the contacts are the same metal.

Paul

Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.

Yah. Cheap Slotket=Bad voodoo. Burned once...ended up replacing MB too. Owch. There are some with gold contacts, which is what I have now & it's been running fine.

#335 18GB Green YUMMMMM......

Well, I sent my memory error ridden unit back to empeg for a look at it. Hugo thought that perhaps there was a problem with the "speed & timings of when certain ram access lines are asserted." So he made these changes. Got the unit back this morning, but once it got hot again, it started acting in the same manner. ARGH!

Now, I can't run emplode (it bombs every time it tries to check the drive integrity (and sends the player into a state where it dumps an indefinite stream of memory locations or something...)

Hoping to replace this unit next week with another one without this pesky problem...

Sigh... I will say that Rob and Hugo have been very good through this turbulent time. I'm sure that I have been a pest with a thousand emails... They have had the patience of saints...

- Jon

Im having the same problem you are. Did they test your player on their test rig of theirs at their manufacturer?

Sean

All players are tested on those rigs before dispatch. We don't usually test repaired players on them because the manufacturer is 150 miles away - in Jon's case, he very much wanted to get the player back for a trip at the weekend, and we had only 45 minutes to test it before our FedEx collection. Although it worked fine for that time, it wasn't long enough to properly determine whether the problem was fixed. We took a gamble on Jon's behalf to get the player back to him, with the agreement that we would send a replacement next week if this one still wasn't fixed.

I'm dissapointed that it didn't do the trick, but I think Hugo was on the right lines. He sent the software fix to another client with a similar problem, and although it didn't cure it, there was a great improvement. Hopefully it will just be a case of tweaking the timings a little more, so that the few players with a particularly unforgiving RAM chip will fall back into line.

Rob

The problem with your player is that whilst jbauer's fails the ramtest (well, we couldn't get it to fail in-house, but he's sent logs with a fail) yours doesn't; I'm working on a more thorough, looping ramtest that I can run for at least 8 hours. Out of the several hundred units, we've had 3 failed ram chips (out of 3000) identified at functional test stage (no problem), and what looks like 3 faulty units that have got to customers (big problem).

Unfortunately, it's a bit hard to soak test the units in production for 8 hours as this doesn't work with the production flow (they get a couple of hours testing) :(

Hugo

So... I was hoping to hear what your plans were for replacing my player.

I am hoping to get a bug free player this week, but I haven't gotten confirmation that this is the plan. Will someone at empeg please tell me that I will be taken care of? I've requested this a few times now, and have gotten no response.

I feel like a red-headed-stepchild when in fact, I have paid top dollar for a toy that DOES NOT WORK.

Can you guys confirm that I will get a new player this week?

I hate to have to resort to making this a public request, but have gotten no response privately, while you guys all continue to post notes publicly...

- Thanx
- Jon

Rob has already said he will ship you an advance replacement player (2 hours before your post I'm replying to!); this will go out the instant Fedex do their next pickup, which is Tuesday (ie, you should have it wednesday - monday is a public holiday in the UK).

Remember that we only heard confirmation from you that the software fix (which tested fine on your player when it was with us) didn't work for you after business hours yesterday - we can't work faster than that I'm afraid. I suspect you havn't had replies to emails as it's the weekend, and both myself & rob are on the bbs from home. Due to the VPN not being happy at the moment, we can't get to our empeg mailboxes from home.

Hugo

Thanx for responding Hugo. I asked for a response from someone as to the plan, and didn't hear anything back - either by direct email or on the BBS. This made me feel as if I wasn't being addressed.

Thank you for responding.

I look forward to getting a player that will work properly. I'm tired of these reboots. I've sat through hours of watching this player reboot uncontrollably, and it's gotten me very upset. I hope you can understand.

Ok, deep breath. Looking forward to Wednesday.

- Jon

Sorry for the problems; unfortunately, chips can be faulty and be hard to detect in production so we can't always catch everything. We'll get you a brand new player as soon as we can, and sorry for you being the slight "guinea pig" with the possible ram timings fix - but it's very hard to find problems when you can't replicate them in-house with all the necessary test gear at hand.

Hugo