...what would be the correct email address for technical support for Empegs? I spoke to Rob via email about a month ago, but now that address isn't generating any reply.

This is all in an attempt to get a new drive cable, as well as a backup cable if possible. My poor player fell prey to the "No Hard Disk" error. Below is a copy of the current boot log in case I'm barking up the wrong tree...


empeg-car bootstrap v1.02 20001106 (hugo@empeg.com)
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 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg49 (mac@aphex.internal.empeg.com) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #130 Mon Oct 22 18:52:07 BST 2001

Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11

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

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

Command line: mem=16m

Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS

Memory: 15024k/16M available (964k code, 20k reserved, 372k 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)

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

Signature is 206f6972 'rio '

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 d0004900).

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 0x3349

smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman (erik@vt.edu)


SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:28:0f:c2

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: Cannot open root device 03:05

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



Just to clarify, I have read the FAQ, and can't find evidence of a dry solder point or other issues. The cable looks ok, but nothing else seems to be wrong, so....

That would be carsupport@xs4all.nl

Thanks much for the fast reply!!! Hopefully I can get the poor thing up and running again quickly now!

In time for the Colorado meet at the very least...

This is all in an attempt to get a new drive cable, as well as a backup cable if possible. My poor player fell prey to the "No Hard Disk" error.

There are instructions and pictures here of how to take care of this problem yourself, without needing a new cable from support, if you'd like to try it.

Ok, to paraphrase Stan from South Park....

I've learned something today. It doesn't matter how many times you check Tony's FAQ, or read it. You always need to go back, because there's sure to be something new in there, something that can help. Heck, I'm just one kid in this crazy messed up world, but now I'm a kid who once again has a working Empeg.

Tony, seriously, thank you so much for pointing that out to me. I (stupidly) forgot that the FAQ is constantly evolving, and didn't think to check if you'd added more info on the "No Hard Disk Found" issue.

I'll still wanna get another cable, just in case this one get's worse, but right now everything is A-OK!

Thanks to all for the help!

Hey, no problem. Glad you're up and working again.

I think that particular FAQ entry is the one that's gone through the most revisions, historically, along with the drive upgrade guide.