A few days ago, after having my player for about a month, I got the "no hard disk" found error when starting my car. I went to work thinking my player was screwed and I read how it is probably needing a new hard drive cable, as there were problems with some that went out.

When I left work, the player was working again and all was good for a few days. Yesterday, the same error came back when I started the car to go to work. Yet again, when I left work the player was fine and booted up.

Why is it that it suddenly starts working again? I didn't remove it or anything. It was in the same position the whole day. I don't have a problem replacing the hard drive cable, but is it really the cable if the player was not moved between not working and working?

I contacted Dave at customer support and he is sending me a new cable. I guess I will go ahead and change it, but it that really the cause of all this?

Any light on the subject is appreciated.

p.s. I upgraded to 2.0 beta 11 before all of this started happenin, but it ran for a couple weeks fine on the beta version.

I have a similar problem... I got a new cable, installed it and I thought everything was fine, but last night it locked up again... Now I have to contact them again

I have the same problem, with 2HD. cable replaced, changed the disks, jumper, cable position... but still the same: When I start my car before going to work, Tux always tell me the same thing with its x-eyes... and after 5 mins I can reboot it.
Maybe a temperature problem? disks have to warm up?
It's very anoying :-(

This has happened to me twice since replacing my cable.

The first time, I had not securely connected the cable to the board (I triple checked the connections on the drives, but somehow didn't check the board connection)

The second time, I had left the player in my car overnight and it was COLD. After warming up the car a bit, it booted fine. I heard the Fuji drives are more temperature sensitive (to cold) than the IBM's. I really shouldn't have left the thing in the car overnight anyway. (as a theft deterant too)

[Conspiracy Theory]
What brand drive is in all of your players? I am going to bet all of them are Fujitsu. I had the same problems with my 60GB Fujitsu player. I replaced the Fujitsus with IBMs (same cable) and haven't had this problem since.
[/Conspiracy Theory]

Lucky for me, I was able to use the Fujitsu drives in other things. So, replacing them wasn't a total loss.

seams fujitsu are too sensitive to cold...
My rio didn't boot at 10°C this morning.
In official empeg docs, this shouldn't happen.
But my empeg with 2 IBM 60 gigs never failed, either in winter with -10°C.
But will support replace them???

Ditto here.. the only unit (of the five I've handled) that ever showed a glitch was the only one with a Fujitsu (30GB) drive installed.

How about.. is it all Fujitsu's here?

Rob, you sold one of the Fujis to me you bastard!

um, i'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but when I first got my rio, I immediately opened it and plugged it in only to get no HD found. And almost every morning I also plug the rio in to the same screen. Yet I have found this does not have to do with the HD cable. It's too cold. Let it heat up a bit. I now leave my rio plugged in overnight in my room to keep it going and warmed up so in the morning it's ready to go when I plug it in. Works every time.

unless it gets below 41 degrees in your room... that shouldn't happen...

Indeed mine is too!

Had a very similar problem: usually a morning thing - get in the car and it fails to work for a little bit. It's never something that doesn't go away after a while.

Any word on support's stance on replacing these? Sounds like they are not working to spec?

Rob, you sold one of the Fujis to me you bastard!

I sold you a Fujitsu I bought from the Computer Geeks, not one that came from Empeg. The reason I sold it to you was not to unload it on some poor sap. Rather, it was because I had just acquired a 60GB RioCar and no longer had a need for that drive. The drive I sold you never displayed these problems. If you would like me to refund it, I will. As long as you don't get the Fujitus too cold, they seem to be fine.

Currently, the two drives I swaped out of the RioCar are at Fujitsu USA being RMA'd just to be sure I have working drives.

Rob, I was just kidding, but if you want to send me a 60GB drive, I'll do it!

The drive has been flawless. As I stated, I shouldn't be leaving the player in my car anyway, so it not starting up in the sub-zero temps of Detroit winter didn't upset me.

It is actually a fairly quiet drive. Besides, it is full, so I'm yanking it out soon anyway.

Anyone selling a used 40 or 48gb drive?

The drives are no doubt just fine, but perhaps slightly fussier (than the IBMs) about something like maybe the duration of the reset pulse, perhaps. This could be figured out with a logic analyser plugged onto the IDE cable.

-ml

I've done the decent (warranty-valid) thing and contacted the guys in Cambridge to take a look. I have never even heard of reset pulses and logic analysers, so I think it's probably over my head

*runs to google to look these terms up*

Yep Mine is a Fujitsu as well. When I first opened up the Empeg and saw that it had a Fujitsu in it I immediately started hearing that Edgar Allen Poe music by Alan Parsons in the back of my head as I have never had good luck with Fuji Hard Drives. It seems to me that this should be a supported issue as long as the unit is being operated within published specs. Given the great service that I have received so far I have no reason to think otherwise.

I find that my drives outlive their capacities before they outlive their mechanical life!

I am in the Bay Area though, we don't have such a thing as extreme weather. Would just having the emeg in my car in my underground garage all night be the reason for it getting too cold. MY garage can't be THAT cold. But when it is in the sun all day it works fine, so maybe that is a cause.

This morning I got "Failed to Unmask IDE" when I started my car. Pulled the empeg out and back in and all was fine. This is very odd to me.

I've been getting a bunch of "failed to unmask IDE" errors since replacing the cable... I think I might have a loose cable in there
:\

I had the cable replaced recently and it worked fine until tonite.It wasnt that cold but i figured it didnt work because of that so I blasted it with the heater for a bit and then it booted just fine.I also have the infamous fujitsu 30gb drive.

Has anyone checked whether these Fujitsu drives need a firmware upgrade?

A lot of smart HDDs employ a timer against some initialisation parameters that are sometimes over optimistic that a little patience in software would overcome.

If this is true, it's nothing that a new Emplode couldn't handle I'm sure.

Rue

Another "me too" here. The drive that I have that almost always does "contact support" or "failed to unmask ide" when the temp is below about 10°C is also a 30Gb Fujitsu. Restarting always fixes the problem, so in my case it is not that it won't work at that temp, just that the drive takes longer to spin the first time than normal at that temp.

You can add me to the long list. My Empeg started freaking out after the first 2.0 beta. I got intermitent No Hard Disk Found all the time. Swapped the cable and still no luck. Put in a BRAND NEW IBM travelstar (the drive that was already installed was also an IBM) that I bought at Fry's and the problem still exists. Finally I just started using one of the units I purchased as a spare.

so where does the problem come from???
fujitsu drives?
mk2a?
2b11(+hijack)?

Hi,

Just to note that i've had this too. 3 times now on both AC and DC. Running 2.0b11 and Hijack 226 (soon to be updated to latest Hijack).

Haven't contacted Support as i'm awaiting the outcome of this thread and have plenty of warranty left. Haven't opened the Empeg yet so don't know Fuji or IBM ?

HURRAH ! Notably though I've had NO Lockups since installing Hijack that included the fixes. WELL DONE MLORD !

If you use HTTP to surf to /proc/ide/hda/model on your player, it will tell you the brand/model of hard drive.

Cheers

FUJITSU MHM2200AT

So i'm added to the dodgy Fuji theory then !

Mine is an IBM Travelstar drive. And, once I replaced the cable (single drive model), everthing has been great.

I have the same problem. I have 2 48GB IBM drives. It only started happening after I went from 1.03 to 2.0BXX. I have not backreved yet as it has not happened in a few days. It is interesting that it was warm the last 7 days and it has not happened. I do not think it is a cable as I have left the unit untouched in the dash and it went from working to not working and vice versa.

Steve

untouched?
but you said you upgraded?
so you had to have taken it out to do that...
and with the cable issue, being in your dash as you drive could be enough for it to go bad and the it could be fine after settling...