Pardon me if this information is as detailed as it's going to get in the FAQ, but...

I'm having a problem where it cannot find the hard disks first thing in the morning. This has only started when the player stays out in the cold overnight.

Anyway, the thing tries to boot and displays the "hard disk not found, contact support" message. Looking at the vitals display on hijack, it shows the internal temperature to be cold (33F) and it also shows the 30GB drive (which is the slave) but not the master 20GB drive.

Over the course of my drive in, I periodically reset the unit to see if it will pick the drive up again, and it fails. By the time I get to work, the internal temperature is something like 55F.

When I get to work and plug the unit into the wall, it magically works again like nothing was wrong. The temperature quickly climbs to 90F or so, and all is right with the world.

There's no clicking with the drive, and nothing to suggest that it's pissed off for any reason. Is the master drive dying a slow death?

Please see this FAQ entry.

You should not expect the drives to operate at 33ºf. The lowest temperature they should be operated at is 41ºf, and that's only on the bleeding edge, risking damage to the drives.

Also, low temperatures will tend to make a loose connection (such as a dodgy cable as described in this FAQ entry) act up more. Cold makes things shrink, and two metal conductors that are supposed to touch might not be touching any more when they are cold. So if your player has a problem with its cable crimps, you would expect it to fail more often in low temperatures.

Moral of the story: Do not leave your player out in the car overnight.

I was concerned that these temps would be worse than a regular head unit.
Interestingly, this temperature range is similar to that of other head units such as those from Kenwood etc. 41F - 140F.
Below 41F Kenwood say the LCD will be 'difficult' to read and that the CD will die over 140F.
hmmm.

Just a note that in the real world my Mk2/2a have been well below these temps mentioned in the previous posts and have had absolutely no problems or unit act any different than at 60-70* range.

My unit was below freezing on the weekend. But (a big but) I didn't power it on until it sat in the house acclimating for a while. I don't normally leave it in the car, but I had forgotten it on Satuday while I was doing some cleanup and by the time I remembered I didn't feel like going back out to get it.

When parking at home, i don't see much reason for having to leave it in the car. If you have to part somewhere for a few hours, such as for shopping, restaurant, club, etc. then it's a different story. Not always convenient to carry the player around (in our out of a case for some people).

I'm not willing to gamble on the drives' survival when I can easily avoid it.

Bruno

Its been my experience that when you have a connection comprised of a copper wire and an aluminum connector that the connection is more likely to fail as the temperature increases. As the coeffiecient of expansion of aluminum is higher than that of copper. It will expand more as the temp rises and loosens the termination. In electrical power applications this is a major concern since as it heats up it
loosens the connection so it heats up more etc. A cool connection is a good connection.

... I didn't feel like going back out to get it

Heck, you must live in a really crime free area to conciously leave a precious empeg alone in the car overnight, did you sleep much that night?!

I live in a relatively crime free village but even so I'd never leave my baby alone in the car overnight

Rue

Neutrino,

I'm guessing slightly on the metallurgy here but I don't think the hard drive (IDC) connector crimp pins are made from aluminium at all, they are made from gold or tin (cheap) plated low/medium-carbon steel and not aluminium? Aluminium would not have the required hardness to pierce the PVC cable sheath and bite into the inner conductor(s) during assembly?

I wholly agree with you on the co-efficient of linear expansion thing btw but I really don't think it's applicable here. I guess this could be proved with a magnet, if i can find a suitable one in the next few mins I'll come back and edit this post.

Rue

I'm way up in the sticks right now. I'm also at the end of a 100 ft driveway. Parked in a garage (one of 3) with two additional cars in plain site outside the garages. After getting into my garage (side door unlocked) the first thing someone would be fascinated by would more than likely be my SeaDoo.

Yeah, it's safe. There are enough estates around here that would make much better break-in targets.

Bruno

You know, I think your right. When I responded to Mr. T's post I was not thinking of the actual barbs in the ribbon cable or the pin and socket affair that makes up a cable termination. I would think that the pin and socket are probably made of similiar materials. BTW Tin and aluminum have very similiar coefficients. You and Tony are right though. Heating and cooling could cause bad things to happen. Another good reason not to leave my Empeg in the car!

Curiously enough, when I insert the car into the sled first thing in the morning, the problem resumes, HOWEVER, when I firmly seat the player in place and fiddle with it a bit, there's no problem.

It contributes a lot to the "connection shrinkage" theory, with the player and the docking sled playing a part.