About six months ago, the hard drive that came with my RioCar went out (it was one of the IBM 10GB drives that seem to have been flaky) and was replaced under warranty. My player's out of warranty now and the replacement drive (another IBM Travelstar 10GB) died last night and I'm wondering if I was abusing it or if the drive was just bad.

I'd been having problems with the player the past few weeks when the weather was warm (the player would skip and/or stutter). I don't leave the player in the car, ever (I don't see how lots of docking and undocking could be harmful, but I'm willing to learn). A few weeks ago I added a second hard drive (IBM Travelstar 18GB) and it's been working fine. I do a lot of writing to and erasing from the players' hard drive(s): I drive a lot and like audio books, though, being a hard drive, I didn't think that this would be an issue.

I'm sure that the 10GB drive's problem was a hardware failure (drive clicking loudly on boot, disc not found), but I'm wondering if the problem was due to the drive being bad from the get-go, or if I've unwittingly abused it. Any input would be welcomed. Thanks,

Bob

The FAQ or Drive Upgrade mentions that one of the original IBM drive models has a problem with its spindle getting compressed on the mouting plate. It suggests using washers to set it off a little. Did you do this to your new drive (or, for that matter, the old one)?

Greetings!

If it was replaced under warranty, I would think the washers would be there. I am wondering if it is really the disk drive itself, or maybe the cable or IDE header / dry solder joint.

Either way, type of audio would not be abusing the player at all. Perhaps if you mounted the empeg upside down or outside the angle that is recommended (and there is a bit of tolerance there as well), I could see that. But I doubt it is abuse on your part.

Do you have any wild temperature swings or ranges, and leave the player in your vehicle? Extreme heat or cold may change the life of the hard drive.

Yeah, washers are on there (for both hard drives).

I wasn't worried about the type of audio, but thought that there was an outside chance that a lot of deleting and writing might have had an adverse effect (though I don't see this as very likely).

In the car, it's almost flat, maybe a 10-15 degree angle.

No real temperature swings, and I don't leave it in the car, though I did notice problems with it on hot days.

You may want to check for a dry solder joint. Examine the spot where the IDE header is soldered to the main board. Use a magnifying glass. Does it look at all like the photos in the FAQ?

OK, we're into terms I don' know now (and it didn't take very long, either). What's a dry solder joint ? And should I be looking at the top or the underside of the mainboard for it ? Would it be able to ruin a hard drive (I maynot be an electician, but I do work on PC and laptops and I'm pretty sure that this drive is pretty well toasted).

If you are certain it is the drive, the best way to repair would be to install another. The dry solder joint should not destroy a drive, unless something is seriously shorting it out. On a standard install, without something metallic loose on the motherboard, I cannot see this happening. It could just be coincidence.

Thanks for the link ! I'll check it out tonight when I get home and see what I can see.
I've got another drive in the player and it seems to be working fine. I was hoping that I had just gotten another bad drive and that it was unusual (lucky me!). I just don't want to be putting drives into it every six months, especially if it's my fault.

No. It sounds like you were just unlucky enough to get another bad drive.

I'd been having problems with the player the past few weeks when the weather was warm (the player would skip and/or stutter).

If the player stutters in hot weather, it might mean it's too hot for the hard drives.

Do you leave the player in car, parked in the sun, on hot days?

Nope; I never leave the player in the car, hot out or not. But the car does get pretty warm (I don't know if that would be enough to overheat the drive(s) before the AC cooled things off). I do know that last year, when I didn't have a working AC, I didn't have any problems with it stuttering, no matter how hot it was out, but I'm thinking that even on a 95-degree day, the car will cool back to 95 faster with the windows down than it will with the AC on YMMV).

You might want to try looking at the Hijack "vital signs" screen when it's really hot in the car and the player has been playing for a while.

I had similar luck last year. I started with a 10GB empeg. I then added a 20GB hitachi. After about a month, the hitachi quit working on me. So i got a new 20GB travelstar. After about 2 months with that, the original 10GB went bad. I almost never leave it in the car, and it hasn't been tossed around or anything so its not because of any misuse to it. I think it was just bad luck. It worked fine for about a year on the original 10GB and now its been working fine for about a year on the 20GB travelstar.