It all started last night. This Mk2a was in my Trooper working happily. I then uninstalled the audio in that car and fitted the Trooper with a CD-MP3 player. I put the empeg in its case and layed it on the floor in the back. I then drove about 150 miles. Upon plugging it back into my SVX, I noticed something was wrong.

This unit was running 3a7 and Hijack 374. The standby LED constantly pulses like it's in standby. However, it seems to not fully dim. It seems to pulse between 50% and 100% brightness. The VFD does not come up at all anymore. For a while, the empeg would function normally (aside from the VFD being dead). I was able to advance tracks, switch the tuner on, and all that. Then, I decided to put it into standby by holding down the top button. The music stopped, and I pulled the empeg out of the sled. From this point on, the empeg now did nothing but pulse. I cannot get it to wake up or make any sound. Even on boot the LED pulses constantly.

I just opened the face to inspect the VFD. It seems fine. Nipple is present and looks normal. No cracks in the glass either. 2.00 Final is on the unit now. That didn't help. So, here's my boot log. I don't know how to read this, but it looks pretty standard to me. So, any ideas on what to attempt now?

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-empeg52 (rob@aphex) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #11 Tue Apr 1 18:49:59 BST 2003

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 40103772)

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 67706d65 'empg'

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 d0005000).

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...

hda: IC25T060ATCS05-0, ATA DISK drive

hda: IC25T060ATCS05-0, ATA DISK drive

hda: IC25T060ATCS05-0, ATA DISK drive

hda: IC25T060ATCS05-0, ATA DISK drive

hda: IC25T060ATCS05-0, ATA DISK drive

hda: IC25T060ATCS05-0, ATA DISK drive

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

hda: IC25T060ATCS05-0, 57231MB w/1768kB Cache, CHS=7296/255/63

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:d7:28:0e:bc

Partition check:

 hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4

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: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.

change_root: old root has d_count=1

Trying to unmount old root ... okay

Freeing unused kernel memory: 4k initempeg init 0.8

I see this is a developer image!

Mounting proc

Mounting first music partition

Tried to mount /dev/hda4 as reiserfs but got error 19

Mounting second music partition

Tried to mount /dev/hdc4 but got error 6

Error mounting partitions (possibly already mounted)

Remounting first music partition read-only

Remounting second music partition read-only

No secondary hard disk

Press 'q' now to go into development mode. You Have Zero Seconds To Comply...

Starting player

  player.cpp        : 385:empeg-car 2.00 2003/04/01.

Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Mar 26 2003

Vcb: 0x4086d000

I would double-check all cable connections, especially the display cable. It may have jarred loose from the mainboard during the ride.

OK, I'm about to take the drive out. I just took a pic of the nipple and thought I'd share.

It looks fine. But if the VFD was bad, it would not explain the control problems. Perhaps (if the header is on the main board properly) you might want to check the display surface mount fuses on the mainboard.

Visual inspection of the cable and components on the main board and display board seems OK. I am going to find another display board...

Did you try pushing down on the display board header? This kind of thing has cropped up before, and the header was loose but looked attached.

just did that. No go.

Hmmm... Worth a shot.

Is it possible to remote control the player through hijack or another VNC / web type interface?

The VFD is confirmed good. I just hooked the display board from the broken unit to one of the backups. It works.

So, it seems there is something wrong with the mainboard?

Greetings!

So it would seem, but I am not sure what else it could be off hand.

Thanks for the help Paul, but I am going to transfer the drive from the dead empeg to a backup (flashing to 2.0 now). I will get this one looked at by someone (Rob S. maybe) in the future. It's not a big deal considering how many spares I have.

Blown fuse on the mainboard. One of the three SMT fuses adjacent to the displayboard connector, most likely the one of those three nearest the docking connector. Not visibly blown, requires an ohm-metre to verify.

I've got a ton of them on hand here, and can mail you one if you have soldering capability.

Cheers

and can mail you one if you have soldering capability.

It would be great to get one. I wouldn't trust myselt to take a hot iron to an empeg, so someone else will have to do it. But, I think I may be able to find someone to do the job. Thanks!

Before you start assuming a hardware problem, will it take a squirt of the 2.0 developer image?

Edit: Just re-read the post. Had missed the line where you said 2.0 final went on successfully...

Greetings!

Still kind of puzzled what could do this. I can see a fuse, but it seems to have been triggered more from vibration, riding in the case in back. That is why I was thinking display connector...

Well, transplanting the drives is a good way to get back online quickly, so good call. Is there any way you can check the fuses to verify them?

I am sending the unit in question to Mark to get worked on.

When the empeg was being taken out of the trooper, we left it in the dash while disconnecting the amp from the battery. I am not sure what this could have done since the main battery lead was constantly connected. That's the best I can think of (other than some crazy vibration).

(other than some crazy vibration).

Come on, be honest. This is really why you are selling the trooper, isn't it?