I've had this problem before, or rather almost this problem. Only this time I cant fix it.

It started a few days ago. I began to get odd audio artifacts (clicks, pops, squeals, etc.) on tracks I KNOW are good (because I checked my local copy). Now granted, it could be that they've become somehow corrupted on the player. But I'm also now getting the "No Hard Disk Found Please Contact Support" message.

At first I was able to do the "pull it out, re-seat it" trick and it would be good to go. Now however, it simnply won't work at all. I get the error every time.

I was able to effect a short term fix by reloading 2.0 / hijack, and everything seemed to be ok until I slotted it into the car, then back to "normal", meaning "No Hard Disk".

Boot Log Follows
------------------------------------------------------

empeg-car bootstrap v1.02 20001106 ([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!

e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux..................................... done, booting the kernel.

Linux version 2.2.17-rmk5-np17-empeg52-hijack-v413 ([email protected]) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Tue Aug 17 18:05:30 EDT 2004

Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11

Checking for extra DRAM:

c1000000: wrote ffffffff, read e91ba9f0

NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.

empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 40104034) 16MB DRAM

Command line: mem=16m

Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS

Memory: 15008k/16M available (984k code, 20k reserved, 368k 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 67706d65 'empg'

Found custom animation at offset 0x9877c

Tuner: loopback=0, ID=-1

Scheduling custom logo.

empeg display initialised.

empeg dsp audio initialised

empeg dsp mixer initialised

empeg dsp initialised

empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0

empeg remote control/panel button initialised.

empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012

empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0005a80).

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...

hdb: FUJITSU MHL2300AT, ATA DISK drive

hdb: FUJITSU MHL2300AT, ATA DISK drive

hdb: FUJITSU MHL2300AT, ATA DISK drive

hdb: FUJITSU MHL2300AT, ATA DISK drive

hdb: FUJITSU MHL2300AT, ATA DISK drive

hdb: FUJITSU MHL2300AT, ATA DISK drive

ide0: unexpected interrupt, status=0x58, count=1

ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6

hdb: FUJITSU MHL2300AT, 28615MB w/2048kB Cache, CHS=58140/16/63

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:d7:28:0f:c2

Partition check:

hdb: hdb1 < hdb5 hdb6 > hdb2 hdb3 hdb4

RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0

RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... |/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\done.

EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended

VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).

empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Cannot open root device 03:05

Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:05

----------------------------------------------------------------------
End Of Boot Log

I've done the following:

- Verified the crimp on my cable (the culprit the last time this happened to me)
- Searched for, and failed to find, dry solder joints on the IDE interface.
- Checked jumpers: I have no jumper on the secondary drive, nor did I find one lose in the unit. I don't remember there ever being one on the second drive

I see nothing physically wrong with the internals, nor is there any odd odor. The empeg tastes like a normal empeg.

I did notice that there is no reference to the CS4132A chip in the boot log. Is this a case of it not getting that far or does Tony need to fix the FAQ to read CS4231A? THAT ONE is in my boot log.

I found the following FAQ articles as probable appropriate reading/references:
I got an error message about 'e2fsck' at the shell prompt. What do I do to fix it?
Why does it say 'No hard disk found contact support'? (As well as all articles referenced from this one)

Any help / advice / info anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated...

Boot log looks good, except for not finding the first hard drive. IT did find the SECOND drive okay, though.

Is this actually only a SINGLE DRIVE player? If so, then something is wrong with the jumper (on the drive) or the cable.

If it is a dual-drive player, then the master drive is not working. Remove it and try it in a PC to make sure.

Everything else looks fine.

It's a dual drive player. I hate to admit it, but I'm confused as to how I would "try it in a PC"?

Basically, hda is failing to respond. The master drive would not have a jumper on it. I would guess that you either a) lost your master drive, b) lost connection to your master drive via a bad connector on the cable or c) wiped the master drive somehow. I would bet on "b" normally...

Well, new cable (INCLUDING 2" XTRA LENGTH!!! WOO!) on order.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Something is still wrong, though. Rereading, you said you do not have a jumper on either drive? That is really not possible (in a working configuration). More surprising - the empeg is finding drive hdb - normally the secondary (slave) drive that requires a jumper in most cases... Hmmm...

If you have a spare jumper handy, it might be worth while to put it on the secondary drive and test boot it.

If you swap the drives on the cable, does it find the "other" one? Sorry if you tried this already.

Good point. And, given that you had trouble with the cable before, swapping the cable does sound like your best long term approach.

Although I have not read through the rest of the thread yet, I spotted the red flag I was looking for in your log - it's a Fujitsu 30G drive. This is not good news if the disk is playing up: I am willing ot bet it's the disk that's dead. It seems to be only the 30G, the other models in the same range don't seem to go bad. When I was doing support, I had a rash of these die one after the other, replaced under warranty.

I think you should still be able to get a replacement in the US under the warranty.

I think you are going to be disappointed, sorry

Hahahahahaha!!! As long as it is the drive that is the issue. It would really be rather annoying to get your new drives only to find out there is something else wrong...

Well, knock on formica. It seems as if the cable was indeed the culprit. My deck is now playing happily. So it looks like no new drives quite yet.

As always, many thanks to everyone for all the advice / help, and thank you to Stu at Eutronix for the super fast shipping!