I can't seem to sync my empeg, I think that something might be wrong with one of my drives, but I wanted to see what you guys think first. My player is playing fine, and in emplode it will read the contents fine, but when I try to sync, it stalls out while checking disk integrity. I'm syncing over Ethernet. This is what I see on the serial port:

e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/
hda4 is mounted.
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/
hdc4 is mounted.
hdb: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
ide0: reset: success
hdb: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
ide0: reset: success
hdb: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:44 (hdb), sector 24903941
hda: lost interrupt
hda: lost interrupt

Is something wrong with my drives? It looks like errors on both discs.

The "hda: lost interrupt" will repeat over and over again. I've left it running for over three hours. I also tried running fsck on /dev/hdc4 but I basically get the same errors.

Any ideas?

This is a Mark II running the latest dev build.

Did you install the second disk yourself?

Check for a loose cable or a loose slave jumper.

___________
Tony Fabris

I did install the drive myself. I'll check those items when I get home, but I don't think that could be the problem since the player plays fine. Including tracks that I know for a fact are on the second disc. It just seems to refuse to fsck, and I'm now at that point that emplode wants to fsck before the sync (what is it every 50 syncs or so?)

I imagine that it's never ran a fsck since I installed the drive. Does anyone know if there is a way to reset that counter so that it won't run fsck? I know that's a bad idea and would just temporally cover a problem that could worsen, but I would like to add a couple more albums to the ol' empeg, and if the drive does crash, it's no big lose, my computer's hard drive mirrors that of the empeg.

Hmmm. When you installed the second disk, did you use Empeg's disk formatter upgrade file to initialize it? Or did you try to partition it yourself? If the latter, then that could be the reason. It's possible there's something it doesn't like about the way you hand-formatted the drive.

Also, are you running the latest player/emplode software (1.02 at this writing)? Certain earlier builds were reported to have problems during synch that would cause them to take too long to do a disk check.

___________
Tony Fabris

I am running the latest build, and I did partition the drive myself. I suppose it's possible that I screwed it up, but I did partition my first empeg the same way, and I'm very comfortaible that I did do it correctly. It's not very dificult to fdisk a drive and mkfs it, but then again, when it doesn't work, it doesn't work!

The thought did occur to me that I should probably just redo it using empeg's tool and that's probably what I'll end up doing. I can't think of anything else to try. Plus that way, the fsck flag will be reset so even if it doesn't really correct the problem, it will still give me a month or so before I'll have to worry about it again.

Okay, now knowing everything, I would go through the following steps:

1) Make absolutely sure that you're not dealing with a loose cable or jumper before going any farther. This is really worth double and triple-checking. Make sure to check both ends of the cable.

2) Make sure you've got your MP3s backed up somewhere. If you've got room, copy the fids from the secondary to the primary drive.

3) Use the disk formatter upgrade to wipe the drive. Remember that: (a) it'll wipe both drives plugged into the empeg so only plug in the drive(s) you want to wipe, (b) it'll require an "enter" key on the serial port since it'll notice the existing partitions and give you a chance to stop the process, and (c) after it's done, you need to leave the freshly-formatted disk in place and install a regular upgrade file again so that the empeg doesn't re-wipe the disks every time you turn it on. See the FAQ for more info.



___________
Tony Fabris

Oh, and one more thing...

I suppose it's possible that I screwed it up, but I did partition my first empeg the same way, and I'm very comfortaible that I did do it correctly.

If your first empeg was a Mk1, then that might be the problem. As I recall, the Mk2 does something unusual with mounting the second drive to make it more compatible with the Mk1. I forget exactly what it was. Maybe this unusual thing is only in the init, or maybe it's in the partitioning itself, I don't know. But if you have your MP3s safely backed up, it can't hurt to try the official formatter utility to rule out any possible partitioning errors.

___________
Tony Fabris

The IRQ timeout message is most often from a damaged cable - it's quite easy to damage the cable by pushing it onto the drive too far, which results in the ribbon cable being pushed out of the IDC connectors.

Remove the cable and squeeze the connectors onto the cable again (or put them in a vice to do the same - not too tight!) then re-fit the cable to the unit and sync again.

Hugo

Remove the cable and squeeze the connectors onto the cable again (or put them in a vice to do the same - not too tight!) then re-fit the cable to the unit and sync again.

Okay, I took the cable out and it looks like that might be the problem, one of the ends is a little loose. I squeezed the cable end with all of my might and it didn't seem to help. It's the end on the first drive, which is the one complaining about the lost interrupt. I think I'm just going to have to order a new cable.

Does anyone know of an online store that I could purchase one from?

One thing to note though, it always starts giving me the time errors at the same spot in the sync (see attached picture). I don't know if that is significant or not.

I can't quite remember where I got mine, somewhere in New Jersey. Here's a link from yahoo:
Laptop IDE cables
Good Luck!

_~= Dearing =~_
"WAY too happy about having #99."

Well, here's the latest: I got the new IDE cable and am still getting the same error. While I was waiting on the cable, I followed Tony's advice and wiped the drives clean using the builder image and reloaded the unit, so the problem wasn't with the way that I partioned the discs. I'm hoping that the problem is with one of the hard drives, so now I'm going to run the util on one disc and load music on it and see how it works, then I'll try the other. My Fujitsu drive is really loud, so I'm hopping that there's something wrong with it.

Well, you've done all the major diagnostic/repair steps.

Some things left to check:

- Make sure that the tape insulation on the drive cradle isn't pressing against the bottom of the disk drives.

- Do a RAM test and make sure the unit doesn't have bad RAM.

- When you did the builder image on the disks, did you let the stress test run? Did it show any errors?

- Are you sure you're running the latest version of both the player software and Emplode?

___________
Tony Fabris

Another thought - try only connecting one disk at a time. See if it works with only one disk, and if it works with a specific disk. This will pinpoint a bad hard drive (assuming one is bad) or a problem running two disks at the same time (if it works with either one connected, but not both). Granted, it means mussing around with jumpers a bit, but it should be worth it.

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB Green)

- Make sure that the tape insulation on the drive cradle isn't pressing against the bottom of the disk drives.

I'm okay there.

- Do a RAM test and make sure the unit doesn't have bad RAM.

Will do tommorow after the uint it through syncing

- When you did the builder image on the disks, did you let the stress test run? Did it show any errors?

Yup, for quite some time (3 or 4 hours), but it seemed to only be checking the first drive, and not the second and there were no errors.

- Are you sure you're running the latest version of both the player software and Emplode?

When the problem first came up I was a version behind, first thing I did was upgrade to the latest version.

Another thought - try only connecting one disk at a time. See if it works with only one disk, and if it works with a specific disk.

That's what I'm trying now, right now it's uploading tunes on the drive I added, after it's done I'll run it like this for a full day, then I'll try the same on the other disc.

The mystery has been solved! Something is wrong with my new HD. It will fail after a couple of days on either IDE connector working as either slave, master or single.

I have been running on the original drive again for a little over a week now with no problems. Looks like I'm going to have to get another hard drive again!