Hello all;

I was wondering if any one has had a +/- similar issue to comment on:

I think I am going crazy. I've been trying to get my empeg Mkii to work properly for the past 3 days.

I used the builder, then loaded developer. Then proceeded to load about 4 gigs of MP3s. The unit was open, because I was not sure about the connections on the disk.

Then, I closed the unit, went on to use it.

After that, adding as little as 10 megs of files seems to be a problem (freeze, strange messages in hyperterminal, restart, etc.)

Then I wanted to add another 5 gigs this morning and it could not get through the 1st track.

I used the builder again, which worked. Then, when you hit ENTER to build the HD it started to output ROWS AND ROWS of junk (like hexadecimal data).

I openet the unit, sat the HD chassis on the frame of the unit (instead of harnesting it with the screws). Now it seems to work fine...........

??? bad ata cable???

What size drive do you have? Hugo talked about a problem on certain IBM 20gb drives here that might help you.

The drive inside is the "IBM DARA 218000".

I have pinpointed the problem to this:

- Drive bay inside the EMPEG (with the 4 screws), with cover on -> Uploads to unit (via USB) will crash after 2 to 4 minutes.

- Drive bay sitting on the frame of the EMPEG box, cover off -> I can upload to the unit without any errors or whatsoever. Everything works perfectly.

Ideas?

I even tried to put little patches of electric tape to the side of the drive bay, with tiny holes for the screws, so that there is no friction with the EMPEG case.

Did not help.......

I do not know if this helps, but everytime I start the drive (power up), I get a bit of garbage in Hyperterm at "Starting":

example:
------
No secondary hard disk
Press 'q' now to go into development mode. You Have Zero Seconds To Comðÿþÿ÷œ?ûæ
ïæç(ûî! ÃÀ@€`` Starting player
empeg-car 1.02.
---------

But again, if the drive is not harnested with the 4 little screws (and just sits on top of the frame), it works flawlessly.

Greetings!

Hmm... I remember a post a while back about people having trouble with certain drives being sensitive to pressure on the spindle. Is it possible that screwing the drive in place is causing enough pressure to distort or slow the movement of the drive? One way to test is to put washers in place... This might explain the intermittent behavior.

I *think* this is in the FAQ, but I am not certain.

Hmm... OK. That concept has already been covered. This still does not explain why you would be seeing that kind of junk in hyperterminal, though. As far as I know, that process is completely independent of the disks. The only differences I can see with screwing the drives in place are:

a) physical pressure on the drives because of them being held in place
b) an electrical issue?

Either way, you should not be seeing problems in hyperterm like that. If the drive was to blame, I would still think that hyperterminal would be clear. Could the screws, drive or cable be making an electrical contact with something it shouldn't be???

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

Edited by pgrzelak on 01/10/01 01:48 AM.

that, or maybe the bottom of the drive's circuitry are contacting the metal sled? Try insulating the sled from the drive with electrical tape as well if you haven't. dunno if it'll help but it's an idea.


|| loren.cox ||

Good catch. I was in the middle of the edit!!!

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

I'm not sure if by "sled" you mean the drive bay (as I refer to it): I am talking about the metal sheet on which the drive is screwed. Well when I rest it on the top of the EMPEG, the drive is still screwed onto the drive bay..... it's just that the drive bay is not screwed inside the EMPEG anymore. Works outside, does not work inside! I will try tests with the drive inside the EMPEG, but without the cover... maybe this would give a better idea of the problem? Could it be magnetic resonance of some kind? As for the few characters of garble in hyperterm when the unit starts up, it's not much (5 or 6 characters in 1/100th of a second at the end of startup sequence) and I remember it was not always there. Could it be related?

you should also try with the drives not screwed into the sled at all.


|| loren.cox ||

Dude, send it to empeg support. If you break it yourself you'll be screwed and it's pretty risky messing around in the inside of the player. Besides, they'll probably find and fix the problem better and faster than you could yourself.

/Pepijn