Yesterday, I noticed that the temp wasn't working on my primary player so I broke out the backup. When I got it, I did the boot test and it was fine so I've just left it in the box and never messed with it. Well, last night was the first time its really gotten any use.

First, I verified that the temp sensor works fine in it. Then I thought I'd use this one and keep my original for a backup so I put 2.0b11 on it and let it copy my music overnight. This morning is where I noticed the wierdness with the dimmer.

The dimmer is very eratic. It will start out at 100 and then get dimmer at 90, 80, turn OFF at 70 (black screen), come on a little brighter at 60, full bright at 50, etc. Also, if I set it to 100 and keep turning the knob to the right, the display will change brightness while all the while saying 100%.

I thought maybe it is a bad connection because it's my old sled but a new player but when I brought it into my office, I used Hijack to force it to car mode while on AC power and I can reproduce the problem. Is this a hardware problem or a software bug? My other player never did this.

I've seen the exact same thing happen with my backup unit. I've only ever ran it on AC power though. I just chalked it up to beta software, after all, beta means beta. :-)

BTW: The temp sensor quit working on my main unit also...

I've put 1.03 back on the player and the problem is still there. The dimmer is unusalbe. I'll have to send it in for repair. Does anyone know the procedures for this? I called sonic blue and the message says to email carsupport@riohome.com. I guess I'll try this first.

I have very similar symptoms on my Empeg. I just sent them an E-mail as well. The dimmer seems to have a mind of its own, focused on making the display hard to read in the car!

Lynn

Exactly the same with my MK2a. I don't think its a software thing as both units were running b7 and the Mk2 was fine.

I think it may be a hardware thing that only affects the RIOs. Whether its ALL Rios or just a batch/few etc. I don't know.

Anyone else??

It's not specific to the Mk.2A (the dimmer circuitry is identical to the Mk.2) and we've only heard of three cases. No need to panic.

Rob

Panic mode off (as instructed)

Is it a repair job?

Probably, if you have the specific fault that David told me about (something up with the power supply on the display board).

Rob

I will contact David. Thanks.

Mine does the exact same thing. I thought it was the beta 7 software though. I also noticed that sometimes when I start my truck, the display is very bright and sometime when I start it the display is very dim. If I cycle the power to my headlights a few times, this usually clears it up.

Well, I heard back from support. This is what they told me:



Hi,

I've come across this a couple of times before - I believe it was an issue with the power supply circuit on the display board. I'll book your player in for service.

We'll pay for FedEx express shipping to and from the UK. Turnaround is usually within a week.

Let me know your address, telephone number plus a fax number that I can send a customs invoice and shipping instructions to.

Mine is doing the same thing. I thought it was software related until I got my second unit and it doesn't exhibit the problem regardless of what version of code I'm running. I'm currently running v2.0b11 and Hijack v200 on both.

I've emailed support and they have responded and it looks like I'll be sending in my unit for repair. What I'm amazed at is how quick support repsonded and that they pay for shipping BOTH WAYS. You guys are great!

I wish all other customer support was just as repsonsive.

I've only used mine on AC and sometimes it boots up dim, and sometimes it boots up bright. I don't know if I'll be able to survive a whole week without it....

Yes I hear ya on the week deal Im thinkin I might find some time when I wont be using it for a while then send it in.

I just updated to 2.0 beta 11. I used the hi-jack kernal to "force dc power" while I have it inside and plugged into AC. So far, inside on ac power, its not having problems with the dimmer setting (the dimmer adjustment is even working correctly). I can't wait to go try it in my truck!!!

I got 2.0b11 loaded,
Am I supposed to have a dimmer setting on AC power in the settings menu? Cause I don't!!
Ok own up who stole it!?...

cheers,
Jaidev

nope. Dimmer is DC only.

Since I have installed 2.0 Beta 11. My dimmer is now 100% functional! I DON'T KNOW IF IT WAS JUST BECAUSE I INSTALLED BETA 11 OR IF IT WAS BECAUSE OF THE STEPS I FOLLOWED. For those interested, here is what I did.

1. Installed 2.0 beta 11.
2. Installed Hi-Jack beta 11 release with Tony Fabris logo edit software (very very cool).
3. Used hijack kernal to "force dc power mode upon reboot".
4. Went into dimmer setting while connected to AC power, and reset dimmer to 100%.
5. Used hijack-kernal to return boot select to auto (not force dc power up).
6. Installed player back into my truck.
7. No more problems with the Dimmer setting at all!!! I would go as far as saying, this is the best my display has ever looked!

JaBZ,

You can use the Hijack kernal to "force player to boot to DC power" while you have it in the house connected to AC. That will allow you access to the dimmer menu...

Good luck!

Ohhhhhh, yea thats right, DUH...
sorry for my momentary brain lapse

Jaidev

Rez, I'm not clear on one thing here.

Are you saying that the dimmer did not work properly and did not go to 100 percent even when in the car? Even if you had it in the car and played with the dimmer settings there in the car?

But the act of adjusting the dimmer when on AC power (forcing it), then putting it back in the car, fixed the bug?

I am astounded by this if it's the case. I don't see why the dimmer would malfunction in the car, but function in the home when forced. And why that would correct a problem when it was put back into the car, I would think whatever problem it had in the car would simply come back.

If what I'm interpreting here is true, the empeg guys need to hear about it, because that description makes it sound like some kind of extremely odd software bug.

I get a little confusing when I post things on here.

I got my 60 gig player brand new from Sonic Blue. Before I ever put it in my truck, I put 2.0 Beta 7 on it. I installed it into my truck and noticed the dimmer varied basically every time I started my truck. When I would go in to the dimmer setting while my headlights were off, adjusting the dimmer setting up or down basically made the dimmer vary all sorts of different brightnesses. Even if you turned it to 100% and kept pushing the right arrow button, it would keep changing to all different brightness levels from 100% to basically off even though it still stated it was at 100%. If I would turn my headlights on, it would sometimes dim the display and sometimes make it brighter. The dimmer just did whatever the heck it wanted.

I installed 2.0 Beta 11 at work and the beta 11 hi-jack kernal.

I don't know if just updating to 2.0 Beta 11 fixed my player or if forcing the player into DC mode while pluged in the wall and readjusting it to 100% brightness fixed the problem. It was probly the firmware update, but I just wanted to list what I did in case it wasn't the firmware update and other people wanted to try to reproduce what I did on mine. I think there were a few people having the same problem as me. I am just happy that my dimmer is working and was hoping that I could help some other people out. Sorry if it caused any confusion.

Can anyone else who was having dimmer problems duplicate this behavior, or narrow down whether it was simply fixed in Beta11 or if this unusual procedure is needed to correct it?

I've got 2 units, and both have the dimmer problem. I've tried as suggested above with forcing power mode using hijack, but it did not fix it for me. I've also tried removing hijack so we can rule that out. In fact, I've tried everything!

I emailed support, and David Moss is arranging collection for a look (again he suggested the power supply on the display) but this is before I found out my backup unit had the problem. Maybe he will want both.

I just can't see how it's a hardware fault as it's not as if the dimmer can't achieve 100% brightness, it just seems confused If somebody can give an explanation of the fault on the power supply, that would help us understand.

I have seen it in Beta 11 on my unit, and Beta 3/7 on my old Mark 2. I ran the Mark 2 with 1.02/3 from when I bought it in March 2000, to when Beta 3 came out and never saw the problem.

Once I get my 10 gb unit, I am going to upgrade it to the beta and see if I can get the problem. If I do, I'll back it down to 1.03 and see if I get it there.

Last time it happened, I posted a detailed post on it in the bugs fourm. I'll have to check and see if anyone followed up on it.

I'm sorry what I did doesn't seem to be working for anyone else. The ONLY other thing that might be different is when I put 2.0 beta 7 on I was using windows XP and when I put 2.0 beta 11 on, I was using windows nt 4.0. I hope it isn't an XP bug!!!!

I can't see how it's a hardware fault either because it went away on my unit after I upgraded to beta 11 and messed with the dimmer settings while on ac power. I really hope someone figures out what is going on. I am worried about updating my 10 gig player to the 2.0 beta software. I still have 1.02 on my 10 gig player.

Does anyone know if the 2.0 versions of clone software will be able to clone players independant of serial number? As of 2.0 beta 7 I think you could only clone your players from lower to higher serial.

Well I’m more confused than ever…
I thought I would try and narrow down the problem, so here is what I’ve tried:

I have 3 players (2 are mine, 1 a friends) to test this with, lets call them player A, B and C, and 2 cars to test with. All players are Rio Car versions.

Player A: Dated 15.05.01 on the inspected sticker. SN 030102882
Player B: Dated 15.05.01 on the inspected sticker. SN 030102939
Player C: Dated 26.03.01 on the inspected sticker. SN 010101885

Player C does not suffer from the dimmer problem with ANY version of the player software. We also tried it in 2 cars. Works great, never seen the problem.

Player A and B both have suffered with the dimmer problem running any beta 2 version, so I flashed player A back to v1.03. It seemed to fix it! (Keep reading) Great I thought (even if it was a bit odd that player C seemed happy with any version software)

Thinking that was that, and that it must be a combination of hardware and software(?), I went back out to my car a couple of hours later to see if player A with 1.03 was still happy. Aaaaagh! Nope, it was playing up again. I restarted it a few times with no luck. The only thing I can think of is that it was either a coincidence or that the problem is temperature related as it had been outside a while (When it worked it had just come from indoors, but then again player B came from indoors with b11 and showed the fault!)

Other points: I’ve seen the fault with and without hijack installed, so we can rule that out. We got the same results in either car (Thought it could be voltage related or something), and finally Player A and B both have working temp sensors, but player C’s does not work (hijack reads 4 deg c permanently)

Hope this helps track it down….

Well, so much for my magical dimmer fix...

I just went out to my truck (at 6 PM) and noticed my display was a bit dim. I tried re-adjusting the display brightness and NOW ITS DOING THE SAME FRIGGIN' THING IT WAS DOING LAST WEEK. I thought it was fixed, but now it right back to the way it was... maybe it had a Gremlin in it and it went on vacation for a week...

I hope someone finds out what the problem is so I can see if I have to send my empeg in for service....

Oh well, we thought we had something.