I know this has been done many times, but:
On the third day of a 18 day motorcycle trip, my karma stopped playing as it has been doing occasionally. I used a paperclip to shut it off (as it wasn't responding) and stowed it away for a while. Ever since it hasn't booted up though. It starts booting, shows the splash, and when it should start the progress bar it shuts off. I put it in recovery mode and it shows unhappy karma and:
rom v0.26
hwrev 00000004
hdd: hitachi_dk14fa-20

After plugging in the USB and attempting to load firmware v1.68, I get 'Error 0xc004a006'
Any suggestions?

Assuming the hard drive has failed, the thing to do is to give it "a good whack on the backside" to attempt to get the head off of the platter. Or at least that's what I've heard.

Matthew

Rumour has it from what I have seen on Riovolution that it may need a firm 'whacking' but those fellas will 'whack' anything...


Sean in NC

drakino has had trouble with the Karma on motorcycles, also
not sure how long his lasted

Hey now is a good time to cram a 40GB in there

Give it a good whack on the back. Mine has done that twice now (both times when walking with it in my trouser pocket) and a good whack sorted it out.

An action that was even endorsed (and recommended) by Rio Support when I phoned them up.

I've given up on using my Karma on my motorcycle. I'll see how it does on the BMW in Germany, and if it still fails, hold out for a batch of Karmas that has a bump in the hard drive model or something. Glad I got the Best Buy warranty on it, makes replacing them much easier.

You just need someone to make a 20GB flash player

I tried a few thwaps to no avail. I tried to run the upgrader again, wiping the contents, but I got something to the effect of 'Data error (redundancy check)' and now if I try the upgrader again, it doesn't find the karma. So I guess it's back to no music while riding and those old-fashined CDs for home and work.