hello,

i have an empeg mk2 unit and i'm giving it a new hard drive. (in another post i mentioned this and someone was so very kind and pointed me to the rio car dot or FAQ on this procedure.)

i am taking out the old disk drive since i don't care about any of the music on it and plan to use the disk in another device. i have connected my new 40 GB disk (Hitachi Travelstar model IC25N040 ATCS04-0) and am attempting to use the upgrade tool to install a builder image.

unfortunately, the upgrade tool is failing to find the empeg unit. i know the serial port works and have no reason to believe that the cable is faulty (it's brand new... but from a local computer shop. i hope this isn't a silly question, but are all serial cables that have female 9-pin ends on both sides "null modem" cables? it's not like i could have a wrong type of cable is it?) but the empeg upgrade tool can't find the player. i also can't hyper terminal in. any other reasons that the unit would be failing like this?

when power is applied, the player's display panel lights up with the startup logos but no boot information appears on the screen. it just freezes with my "home" image on the display.

(it's brand new... but from a local computer shop. i hope this isn't a silly question, but are all serial cables that have female 9-pin ends on both sides "null modem" cables? it's not like i could have a wrong type of cable is it?)

It's very likely that you have the wrong type of cable.

See if you can get hyperterminal working, for both send and receive, with the old drive in place. If not, you've got serial port or cable problems which need to be solved before you can go any further.

You might have the wrong type of cable. You need to get something that will have "null modem" on the packaging. The ends really do not matter.

looks like this is my problem... HT doesn't respond under any type of circumstances. time to venture to CompUSA i guess and get raked over the coals on pricing of a new cable. i wish i could find the one that came with my unit originally.

first, let me state thank you to everyone yet again... your advice was spot-on. i did have a straight-through cable accidentally stored with my empeg instead of the original null modem cable. now, to vent and share a story that will hopefully give a few laughs let me summarize the encounter i just had at a local CompUSA...

me: hi. i can't seem to find your null modem cables. i'm looking for one that's 9-pin female on both ends. i don't see any at all, let alone ones that are that spec.
tech1: (like he didn't believe i knew what i wanted) what are you trying to do with it?
me: i'm trying to terminal connect to a unix shell on an embedded device that supports serial port connections from my computer.
tech1: you have a shell account and your modem isn't dialing? what?
me: no. not a shell account. i'm not talking about the internet. i have a piece of hardware that i want to connect to using a terminal application. in order to connect the device to my computer for this purpose i need a null modem cable, preferably one with DB9 female ports on each end since those are the size comm ports on both the device and the computer.
tech1: uhm, this cable here should do it for you. (hands me straight-through laplink cable with 9-pin female ends.)
me: no. that's not a null modem cable. that is a data transfer cable. (another tech starts to take notice of the situation) i have a cable like this and accidentally tried to use it for my purpose so i know that it's not going to work. what i need will say "null modem" on the packaging.
tech1: well, this has the ends you need. so this must be the cable... i don't think we have any cables here that are called null modem cables.
tech2: sure we do, they're right here.
me: *sigh of relief to have someone who knows what they're talking about*
tech2: (handing me a modem cable) here, see... it says right on it "modem cable."
me: (looking for someplace to bang my head) i don't know how to descibe the number of ways that this isn't what i need. first of all, this cable has one end male, the other end female. also, this cable has one end that's DB-9 and the other is DB-25. and also... this is a MODEM cable... not a NULL MODEM cable.
tech2: what's the difference between the two of them?
me: groan.
tech1: describe what you needed it for again?

i walked away and found a third tech who understood what i was talking about and confirmed that compusa didn't have any null modem cables at all in stock... or possibly doesn't even carry them in stores anymore. i ended up just buying a belkin null modem adapter (DB-25 on both ends) and using a modem cable in my house and a 25-pin to 9-pin converter that i had in a drawer to assemble the cable that i needed.

long story short, it did the job and the empeg is making a filesystem on my new hard disk as i type this. but now i'm wondering... how many times is hdstress.cpp supposed to test the hard disk? it's been going on and on and on for like five minutes now, just speed testing, seek testing, and so forth over and over.

how many times is hdstress.cpp supposed to test the hard disk? it's been going on and on and on for like five minutes now, just speed testing, seek testing, and so forth over and over.

Please read the text of the disk upgrade guide carefully. This is covered quite precisely in there.

/me kicks self.

i meant to edit out that last line in that post. i read in the guide about stress testing and saw that the loop was clearly described. thanks again for everything.

I don't know what his problem is. Please read this. Please read that. Please read the FAQ. I thought he was supposed to be our free tech support, and he's getting all uppity.

Next it'll be "please read War and Peace", I bet. The demands just keep getting more and more unrealistic.

the encounter i just had at a local CompUSA...



Pretty much in line with Patricks brilliant post about Tandy/Radio Shack...

select * from hiring_criteria;
no rows returned

/Michael

Next it'll be "please read War and Peace", I bet. The demands just keep getting more and more unrealistic.

Watch out, or I'll make you read the entire Clan of the Cave Bear series.