Hi.. My empeg just started giving me the dreaded No Hard Disk found, contact support message, and I was wondering if someone could shed some light on the situation. I haven't had the oppurtunity to open 'er up and make sure that sometihng just isn't loose, but here is a capture from HyperTerminal. It looks like to me that my primary hard drive isn't being recognized, right? Or is something else going on here?

Note: I just opened it up and tried some things, my secondary drive seems to be working fine, on both ends of the ide cable. I could boot up fine with it set as primary. So that rules out the cable... I tried running the other hard drive (normal primary) on both of the ide connectors, and neither worked. I had this problem before, and I think it was software related, is there any way I can change the kernel of the hard drive that won't boot? :P (without just sticking it in my pc with a converter connector?)


If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
l.
Linux version 2.2.17-rmk5-np17-empeg52-hij
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!
.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Wed

e000 v1.04:19 EST 20
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...ocessor: Intel StrongAR
Uncompressing Linux..................................... done, booting the king Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c)
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11k init)
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.order 2, 16k)
Buffer cach
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 10101206)
Page cache hash table entries
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPSance testing by UNIFIX
Memory: 14996k/16M available (996k code, 20k reserved, 368k data, 4k init) upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
IrCOMM protocol (Da
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Starting kswa
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039on 4.27 with no serial options enabled
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
ttyS00 at 0xf801000
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)s a SA1100 UART
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)SA1100 UART
IrCOMM protocol (Dag Brattli)6972 'rio '
Starting kswapd v 1.5ay initialised.
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
empeg dsp mixer initialised
Signature is 206f6972 'rio ' d0004380).
empeg display initialised.
empeg RD
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg
empeg dsp mixer initialised (first boot)
empeg dsp initialised
RAM disk
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
Probing primary interface...
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012-0, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IC25N040ATCS04-0, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IC25N040ATCS04-0, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IC25N040ATCS04-0, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IC25N040ATCS04-0, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IC25N040ATCS04-0, ATA DISK drive
ide0: unexpected interrupt, status=0x80, count=1
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hdb: IC25N040ATCS04-0, 38154MB w/1768kB Cache, CHS=4864/255/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman (erik@vt.edu)

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:22:04:b
6
Partition check:
hdb: hdb1 < hdb5 hdb6 > hdb2 hdb3 hdb4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Cannot open root device 03:05
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:05

Right. Well, I take it all back. It appears as if the connection to my hard drive is a little bit "iffy" at best. While it was booting up, I decided to put a little more force behind the cable into the hard drive, and the hard drive booted up.. I don't think it is the cable though, as on my other laptop drive (they are both ibm travelstars) it was not neccesery for me to put force on the back of the cable in order for it to make a good connection... Any ideas?

I had this problem before, and I think it was software related, is there any way I can change the kernel of the hard drive that won't boot?

Only if the kernel was buggy, for instance, if you wrote it yourself. The factory kernel and Mark's kernels have not had any problems with the hard drives. It is highly unlikely that it's a software problem.

Most likely it's one of the hardware problems listed in the usual place. Did you read through that carefully?

From your description, my money is on the IDE header solder joints, or perhaps the drive itself being bad.

It is highly unlikely that it's a software problem.

/me re-reads the FAQ entry and beefs up the language on this point...

It looks as if the hard drive itself is bad, as when I plug the cable into the other hard drive it makes good contact, and boots up fine. But I have to actually put quite a bit of force on the back of the cable on the problematic hard drive in order for it to spin up properly. And as soon as I remove the pressure of my hand, the hard drive loses its connection and powers down. I tried with both connectors.. I guess I will call IBM tommorow and see if I can get a RMA in progress.

So.. did laptop drives come standard with 3 year warranties as well, like standard ones used to?

> But I have to actually put quite a bit of force on the back of the
> cable on the problematic hard drive in order for it to spin up properly

Even though it seems as though the drive is at fault, it still may be just the cable - the nature of the fault with the crimp on the middle connector means that even the slightest movement (even heat expansion) can cause the connection to fail. Something as simple as a slightly offset pin on the drive could cause a problem.

email support and ask for a replacement cable first - it's free of charge and is worth doing anyway.

Also, IBM consider these drives OEM units and will not issue an RMA to end users.

For the record these cables cost us £7 each and I have the feeling that many people are asking for them "just in case". We're happy to replace faulty cables, however I have asked Rob to request back the faulty ones when he sends out a replacement. If we don't receive a faulty cable within a month then we will charge £10 (to cover the new cable, postage and handling).

I don't mean to be too hardline, but neither do I want us to run out of replacement cables for people who genuinely need them.

This is not a comment on the particular case in this thread, just in general.

Rob

BTW: I wasn't implying that Hijack or the player software were at fault.. I had thought that maybe one of the user apps that I had installed had caused the problem some how.. Like I said, last time this happened, I was having random problems, and I decided to re-flash the kernel with the player software and put hijack back on; and she ran fine for about 4 months after that. It was probably just coincidence however.. Cause now its definitely the cable / connector on the HD.

I guess I will do that. I might just need to check the drive in my laptop and see if it gets recognized in BIOS to see if it could be the cable at fault. If it is the connectors on the hard drive end, since this drive is OEM, am I S.O.L.? :P It is only a 10gb drive, and I can easily fit all my music that I had on the rio on the other drive, but .. space is space..

It is only a 10gb drive, and I can easily fit all my music that I had on the rio on the other drive, but .. space is space..

If you like, you can copy all the FIDs from the "suspected bad" drive to the "suspected good" drive using the copy operation described in the Drive Upgrade Guide. Then remove the 10 and live with the player that way for a while as you wait for a replacement cable.

Did you also take a close look at the IDE header, as shown in the photo in the FAQ?

I think Tony is omniscient, he answered my question before I even decided to ask it! Thanks, copying my music over now..

I checked the IDE header and it looks fine.. A couple pins are a little crooked, but nothing is bent over or missing. It took me a little while to get it rigged where my hard drive would stay up without me holding it though. (Thank you rubber bands and duct tape!)

Rob is it possible to purchase a HDD cable directly from car support?

Yep, just email carsupport@sonicblue.com (or maybe support@empeg.com would be a safer bet right now).

Rob