Ive been on the look- out for an empeg for over a year, now i finally got one and i cant use it at all. I get the screen message "Hard disk not found contact support".

I've read the FAQ (almost everything), opened the emeg as described, checked all connectors, everything seems fine, as the previous owner had no problems with it either, i can ony asume it got damaged by the transport or I'm doing something wrong.

I DLed the recommended emploder, the nessessary upgrade files, run XP SP 2 on my machines. I connected the empeg by USB and serial port, on 2 different PC's and a Laptop, nothing.
the empeg doesnt get recognized by the emploder or any other software for that matter.
Now as i had the empeg open and and had everything tightend down (pressing down the cables going to the 2 hard drives) it didnt give me the message for a while, but still as soon as I had it closed again, same thing over.

Like I said I've checked everything according to the FAQ for this case...

Both hard drives spin when the empeg is powered up!

Is there someting im missing?

Oops, forgot to mention: its a Mk2. I have no idea what software is on it (if at all) as I never got past the error message...

Greetings!

If it was working before shipment, I suspect that the hard drive cable pulled away from the header on the main board. You can post a boot log here, and we can see if the drives are being found (I doubt it based on your post).

Otherwise, open the player, remove the disk drive tray and carefully examine where the hard drive cable connects to the main board. Give it a push to make sure it is fully seated on the header. Also, you might want to take a photograph and post to verify if the header is lined up properly (not one pin off).

Rgr pgrzelak,
I'll try to take some pics that show something and post it along witha boot log.

Cheers!

Ok, no boot log as there is no connection established between emploder and the empeg.
The empeg does show up in the device manager as "rio car" in the USB connections, but i cant adress it.
I didnt post any pictures, as i dont have a camera with a high enough resolution (me noob thought the cell phone pics might do ).
On careful visual inspection and cross-checking with every FAQ topic remotely covering my problem i am just a clueless as before.

1. The PC recognizes the USB connection but doesnt show the radio as a device.
2. emplode cannot find the empeg by USB or Serial Cable. I skipped the ethernet cable here.
3.The cable conections between the 2 hard drives and the board is okay.

Can anyone make sense out of this?

The boot log would be visible via hypterterm. This would show what is going on - if the player is sensing the drives at all.

Did the seller say if they were wiping the drive before selling it? Perhaps the drive is not partitioned / formatted / loaded...

Horray!! I got some response from it!!

heres the log file from the Hyperterminal:


empeg-car bootstrap v1.00 20000601 (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 kerne
l.
Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg55 (peter@tatu) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315
(release)) #21 Tue Jul 6 15:37:11 BST 2004
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
Checking for extra DRAM:
c0c00000: wrote ffffffff, read 9afffff0
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 7, serial number 90000847)
Command line: mem=12m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 10968k/12M available (964k code, 20k reserved, 332k 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
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
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 d0004100).
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:d7:12:03:4
f
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...Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:05



And I ran a test as well:

If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them
or forever hold their peace...
0000 empeg-car board test version 0.04 <hugo@empeg.com>
0100 ram test starting
0110 testing ic 1 (0-3mb, low word)
0120 testing ic 2 (0-3mb, high word)
0130 testing ic 3 (4-7mb, low word)
0140 testing ic 4 (4-7mb, high word)
0150 testing ic 19 (8-11mb, low word)
0160 testing ic 32 (8-11mb, high word)
01f0 ram test done
0200 ide detect
0210 command issued
0220 drive id IG25N424ATDE04-4 $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
02f0 ide ok
0300 dsp/i2c test
03f0 dsp/i2c ok
0400 temperature detect
0410 temperature is 32
04f0 temperature ok
0500 usb detect
0510 usb rev 1012
05f0 usb ok
0600 ethernet detect
0610 ethernet rev 334b
06f0 ethernet ok
0700 cs4231 detect
0710 cs4231 rev a0
07f0 cs4231 ok
00f0 tests complete

Shallakazam!!
All of a sudden, I could flash him with the car2-consumer-v2.01-final.upgrade !! Dont ask me how, maybe i was doing something wrong when connecting to the COM port, but at least that worked. Ill pst if anything else developed out of this

Thanks a lot for your help, i really appreciate it!

UPDATE: Error "Bad pump response" occured during stage 0x25

Ill read up in the FAQ and check what that means...

Basically, you have serial / console connectivity. The bad news is:

empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
Probing primary interface...

Implies that the player is not finding the hard drives at all. Not even from the boot loader. So the pump will not work. This is usually a cable fault, disk fault or IDE header fault. Your best bet is to check everything listed in the FAQ about troubleshooting the drives. From the sound of it, you have already done so. But the fact that the disk (or disks) are not showing up at boot is the critical factor here...

I figured the 'e2fsck' error message in my bootlog isnt too good either, so i read up on it.
I tried to run the command lines recommended here about the 'e2fsck' error message, but I dont know how to get the Hyperterminal to transfer it to the empeg, as the described way doesnt work for some reason.

Do not worry about the e2fsck errors just yet. Some are normal. But I would expect you to see them, given that the hard drives are not being recognized at all.

You said they are spinning up. A good sign.

Can you take some photos of the cables as they are connected to the drive (or drives) and connected to the main board? Right now, it sounds like it is most likely a connectivity issue. I know you checked the cables, but maybe something is a pin off somewhere, misaligned or some other minor mechanical problem.

Another thought - where are you located? Perhaps another empeg user is nearby that might be able to take a look in person.

Im living in Germany, Neuwied to be specific, that is at the Rhine near Koblenz.
Im also in constant contact with the seller, a very nice person who is in Germany as well.

The cable:
Sorry, i dont have a camera that could take good enough pictures to post. The cable has been bent to fold into the empeg, but there are no sharp bents indicating a broken line. Otherwise the cable looks good and is crimped correctly.

Should i try swapping the hard drives?

It made sense...

Hmmm... At this stage, it might be a good idea for someone local to have a look, or for you to send it for repair.

Is this a single drive player? If so, you might want to move the drive from one connector to the other and do a test boot. If it is a dual drive player, disconnect each drive (in turn) and do a test boot on each. By test boot, capture the console log from hyperterminal and watch that scanning IDE area - see if a drive is discovered or not. Perhaps you have one bad drive (or bad connector) that is "taking them both out"...

I tried them both with Jumper to "Device 0" (that should be correct right?), but sadly no better outcome. I think i will have to send it in for repairs...

EDIT: I tried all kind of variations with the disks and the Jumper settings, still no reaction. Judging by that I would have to asume both drives are damaged or the cable actually is damaged.

The seller read the thread and had some useful tips, one of them is to let the disc builder run once more, as it could be that he had it running too short and the discs arent properly "initialized" or "formatted" or whatever that nifty gadget does

The disc builder is running atm, ill post if anything new comes out of it

EDIT: Same error as before.

Actually, there should be a jumper on only one of the drives - the "slave" drive. The disk builder will not work unless the hard drive (or drives) appear in the boot log on console. Do not even worry about that step for now. Getting the drives recognized is the first step.

Did you try only having one drive connected at a time (no jumper) and seeing the resulting log file?

Does it matter which drive is the slave drive? First in line or second?
And just to make sure: Device 0 is the master and device 1 is the slave?

Typically, yes, for thenumbering scheme. The order should not matter if I remember correctly.

The drive at the end of the cable should be "Master (0)".

But it will still work wrong way around.

Cheers

I'm confused. If the empeg works fine either way, what is the potential drawback of doing it backwards? Is there something that could go wrong or work incorrectly?

I ask this, knowing you're the IDE expert around here.

I did want to make it clear, for the person having trouble in this thread, that he should be able to put the drives at either spot in the cable and it won't change which is the master and which is the slave. Only the jumper can do that.

Hi to everyone trying to help, i apreciate it very much!

I connected each drive individually one after another to both connectors, the disks seem to respond with a whirling sound like its reading something (the "clack clack" of the writer head can be heard), but none of them is being recognized.

I will be off into holidays for 2 weeks starting Friday, sadly without my empeg on the road, but thats alright, at least i now have one.
Until then I'll try to get my hands on another IDE cable and maybe have someone else look at the connector and the board, maybe he can make something out i didnt.

If all fails, Holland isnt too far away from me...

I'll keep you posted as soon as i have anything new.
Thanks a lot again, I learned so much about the empeg the last days, it almost feels worth the damage...

EDIT: I went through the FAQ once more and followed each step carefully and im sure to say that i checked everything mentioned there and found nothing.

Did you capture a boot log when each of the drives were individually connected? I would not have expected the player to start normally, but the log would have showed if a drive was found.

Now as i had the empeg open and and had everything tightend down (pressing down the cables going to the 2 hard drives) it didnt give me the message for a while, but still as soon as I had it closed again, same thing over.

Isn't that sort of a "smoking gun" pointing towards header/cable/connector issues?

tanstaafl.

Ok, back to the problem... I had a few days off and tried something else to solve the problem.
I got me another Laptop HD and connected that one. It spun up, but it "stuttered" at some moment as it slipped a little lying on the empeg casing (obviously didnt install it just connected it). This seems to indicate that it actually IS a cable or connector problem, as the disc was definetly actuated but it wasnt recognized while empeg powered up.

Thats going to be next on my list of "to do" things, I'll keep you guys informed