I've had this on and off for a half year or so, and pulling the player out and back in has always solved it. I blamed it on cold weather, etc. each time. I've kept the player out of the car almost all winter (it gets 0 and below here) and finally dragged it back out of hiding a few weeks ago.

I can't get anything to happen except for the player to give me this error message. I've gone through the FAQ and tried a few steps - I ordered a new cable from Eutronix and replaced it, a pretty simple matter really (I build PC's). Well, that didn't work. I checked the solder on the section shown in the FAQ pictures and everything appeared to be attached. I tried running it through the serial port and Hyperterminal, and can't seem to connect. I noticed emplode can no longer find the player either, and I don't think I've changed anything since the last time it worked. I'm not sure what version of hijack or anything I'm on, but it's a year old or so.

At this point I'm stumped. I've got so much going on right now that if I try troubleshooting it any more it won't get looked at for the next 6 months. Right now I'd like to know:

1) Who do I send it to that can fix it?
2) Roughly what's the cost? (Knowing that can change depending on what's found)

Thanks -

I can (most likely) fix it.

Cost will depend very much on effort, but even the worst jobs thus far have been cheap (for the owner). Minimum is US$50 to poke at it, and that's usually enough to fix it. Max is more like US$100, which I don't think I've had to charge yet.

As you can see, I don't make much for the effort put in, as my motivation is simply to help keep these nice machines purring along.

Cheers

1) Who do I send it to that can fix it?

Probably the same guys that sold you the cable. I think the cost is around 20 buck or so, really fair IMO.

You really will need to figure out the serial connection first. We need to see the output from the player immediately after power-on. On AC-power, this will be 115200bps 8N1 settings.

-ml

115200bps 8N1 settings

...with no flow control.

I did the hyperterminal per the FAQ instructions, including the no flow bit. As I mentioned, I also noticed that emplode doesn't see it anymore. I don't think I changed anything on my computer to prevent it, and I know the serial ports, etc. are turned on in the BIOS.

I'll bring it in to work or somewhere else and try out a different PC, it's possible (likely even) that I have hosed up my ability to use my serial port on my PC at home. I tend to "try out" a lot of different mods, programs, etc. on it and who knows what effects they have sometimes.

I'll do that and reply back. Perhaps we can nail this down. Busy or not, I want to get it working, so I'll find the time to do it!

Thanks all, hopefully I'll have an answer tonight or in the morning.

It's worth it to triple-check that you are using a null-modem cable. Of course, I don't know any way to conveniently do that unless it happens to be stamped on the cable itself.

I'm using the cable that came with the empeg when I bought it...

It's possible that the cable has gone bad. I've had two serial cables go bad on me (fraying).

No other programs stealing the COM port?

Nothing I know of.

No update yet, I was set to attach it to a PC I was building for a friend, and they took it away too quickly! I'd hook it up on my own second PC, but I stole the CPU out of it for the machine I built for my friend, and the replacement from Newegg isn't here yet. My laptop doesn't have a serial connection!

Anyhow I'll bring it in to work tomorrow and give an update (I hope). Thanks again for the info so far, i'll try my best to get hyperterminal to pull some info. I know why it's important, just can't seem to accomplish it yet.

Alright, the serial issue is solved. "Something" is up with my HTPC, but my powerhouse is back up and running, and those COM ports work fine.

I'll attach what I saw, but before I do I want to make an observation: There's NO sound at all from the pleyer when it tries to boot up. IIRC, I could normally hear the hard drives spin. Today, nothing. They do get power through the cable, right? I believe so but just to check...

Here's what came through hyperterminal (And I'm seeing the "CS4231A" thing, which looks familiar):



ÿIf 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!

e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux..................................... done, booting the kerne
l.
Linux version 2.2.17-rmk5-np17-empeg52-hijack-v347 (root@ibbm) (gcc version 2.95
.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Sun Nov 23 12:29:03 EST 2003
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c)
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 40103953)
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15016k/16M available (980k code, 20k reserved, 364k data, 4k 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)
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
Signature is 636f6972 'rioc'
Tuner: loopback=0, ID=-1
Scheduling custom logo.
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
Could not find CS4231A (version=01)
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 0000
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0005080).
empeg RDS driver initialised
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
Probing primary interface...
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x0001
smc_init couldn't find card
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...Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:05

Looks like nothing on the peripheral bus is responding.

Any suggestions? If it's something I can tackle, let me know. Mind you I'm a hardware kind of guy, with big things - ie: Diesel engines, not soldering. I don't mind shipping it out if you know what's needed to be done, let me know your fee and an expected return shipping cost. Eutronix works for me too, if they can handle whatever repair is needed - I'd been wanting to do the lighting kit for the last year and it may be time to kill two birds with one stone...

Somebody needs to trace the signals and see which line is stuck -- looks like the same job I did for somebody else recently, too!

I would normally encourage you to mail it here for troubleshooting, but I'm already VERY busy, and bigger things are looming, so.. if you get totally out of options, I'll troubleshoot it for ya for a modest sum.

But it could be a while..

Cheers

I've emailed Eutronix through their web site, hopefully I'll get a reply affirming that they can work on it. I'll see how that goes, maybe it'll be more convenient for everyone. If not, I'll have to take you up on your services, and just be patient for the player's return.

I'm open to other suggestions as well on it. I could probably stand looking over someone's shoulder and get the gist of how to repair it, but it's beyond my abilities right now.

Rats, now suddenly the backup player idea makes sense... wish they were free.

Well, I think tracer dodged the bullet on this one.

I had my first look at his unit here today, and the IDE header had the classic appearance of one in the process of being torn off the mainboard by the too-short IDE cable. It is now reattached firmly, but to prevent messier future repairs I think some cable slack is needed.

If this is a one-drive unit, then just plug the drive onto the END of the ribbon cable rather than in the (factory) middle location -- best way to achieve this is to move the drive to the left hand bay before reassembly.

If it's a two drive unit, then a longer IDE cable is needed.

Cheers

Glad it was an easy fix. We were a bit too busy at the time to take his player for repair. Glad it worked out.

Stu

Well, one never knows.. this one looked bad in the log that was posted, but dodgy chip/drive select signals on the IDE header can cause all kinds of weird effects.

I suppose this here may be a good diagnosis tip for us all:

If the CS4231A chip is reporting as failed, then unplug the hard drive cable and try again. If it then reports as okay, we know it's (most likely) an IDE header issue.

The idea being that with the hard drives connected, they can respond when they shouldn't due to bad select signals on the header.

Cheers!

Hi Mark,
A colleague of mine, now resident in California has reported similar intermittent [mostly now it won't even boot] hard disk not found problems with his empeg.

I said I'd find out who can take a look at it for him.
I don't think he'll have any problem with shelling out up to $100US to get his empeg fixed.

Can you confirm that:
(a) you are able to look at it sometime if he sends it to you
(b) what the [postal] address he should use to send it to you,
and
(c) whats the best way for him to pay you?

I realise the summers coming up your way, so it may take some time to get fixed [possibly until late autumn if the weathers good right?]. But I guess he can wait as its not as is the empeg is working now and I think he has it in the closet somewhere.

If you can reply here or PM me and I'll pass the details on to him and he can email you direct once he's sent it and can sort out all the other details.

I suspect his unit either has either badly crimped IDE cable or IDE header on main board is not soldered properly.

Thanks

Sure, I can have a look at it, if he can ship me *only* the mainboard. This saves me tons of time, and saves him tons of risk (hard drives, display) through the mail.

Email me.

-ml