PANIC!

I've finally gotten my Empeg car! I all worked great... but the first time I dismounted it from my car the player seamed to be locked...On the PC the Empeg booted, went to the radio source and then freezed.
The only cure was re-building the disk and add the tunes.

Back at the car it played great! But again, when i dismounted the player from the car and hung it on the PC it freezed (this time after the boot it seams to go to standby (right bottom light burns).

Does anyone have an idear what the problem can be? The FAQ and BB does not offer a solution.

PLEASE HELP!

Vince

What does the boot log say?

/Michael

please see attachments

Greetings!

Disclaimer: I have never worked on a Mark1 before.

Hmm... The boot log looks okay so far. Is it able to respond to any keyboard command through hyperterminal or from button input? What kind of symptoms are you seeing?

No ctrl+A and the buttons on the empeg does not work...

After booting, I do not get an prompt in hyperterminal

When you rebuilt the unit, did you use the Mark1 developer version and Mark1 version of hijack? Version mismatch is usually the first thing to check.

Yes, I did.

It looks like I have to rebuild it again... After the first rebuild the player worked perfect (again). Untill I 'undocked' the player from the car... then It freezes. Now it just boots but goed to standby after i see the message 'Loading visuals' on the player.

It played very well in the car... perhaps there is something wrong with the wires?

Vince

I am not certain what is wrong with it.

From your description, it played fine in the car, but you cannot get the player to respond when in AC mode. The player appears to boot fine in AC, but after the boot you cannot get to shell or get the buttons / remote to respond.

When you reflash or upgrade the kernel, this should in no way touch the music partitions. When you said you had to reload your music, was your music gone??? If so, that implies something is wrong with the disk or that there are some other problems.

Can you reload the Mark1 developer image, and let me kjnow if that helps? Do not load hijack yet, just the image. This should not change your music or playlists...

Well, it doesn't play in the car anymore. Just one time after coming of the PC to the car-dock. After that dead.

I have put back the consumer 2.0 image. Still the samen problem.

The fist time we have tried about everything. Nothing worked. When we rebuilded the hdd and then put the image back, it worked. It will probable work again, but just one time (after putting it in the car (thats where the rpoblems start (i guess))).

Vince

Greetings!

Please load the developer image. The consumer image will not allow you to drop to a shell prompt to assist in debugging. Thanks.

OK, it's on there.

Still the same problem. The bootlog looks the same. I cant enter empeg (no prompt after Vcb: 0x4028d000

Vince

Now it just boots but goed to standby after i see the message 'Loading visuals' on the player.

You haven't tried altering the visuals files, have you?

Can you connect with Emplode? Also, try removing the config.ini file.

Also check to see if it's this problem.

What version of the software are you using?

Are you using any third party applications (HiJack, etc.)?

Have you recently opened the unit/added new disks, etc.?

For the unit to run though a boot sequence and then start winking the LED seems to me to say that the unit is sleeping. Have you tried a button press to wake it (this is normal behaviour)?

Why on Earth are you rebuilding the disks? Totally uneccessary.

This sounds to me like the player is hanging up due to lack of memory. Are using some application on the player?

OK, have you got the correct terminal settings (115k, 8N1, No Handshaking)?

Or is it just a stuck top button?

Yep, good catch - you should try pressing each button to see that they release and "click" out again. If they don't, then you should undo the fascia screws on the button side by one quarter turn and check them again - repeat until they all click in, and click out again.

Hmm. I never knew the Mark1 had that problem. I always thought it was based on the fascia design of the Mark2 that cause the buttons to bind.

No, it can happen on them both. Not so often reported these days - but Hugo posted about this very early on in the lifetime of the BBS.

It may also be this problem, which is also in the FAQ. However, he has not reported whether or not the drives are spinning, or the case is getting hot.

He also needs to check the harness fuse.

Also, make sure you're trying to DROP to a command prompt. One just won't show up by itself. CTRL-C will kill the player, and actually pull up the prompt. (Hey. I have a 'technical support' job. I look for the obvious..)

Me.

Schofiel,

I'm using the developer image 2. Hijack was on there the second time it happened. The first time it was totally clean.

AFter the second freeze (after the rebuild) I have checked inside to see if there where any components not in their sockets (but all was good). So the original disk is still in there.

The buttons or the remote does not trigger a response.

Vince

No, the buttons still click normal.

Vince

It's not socketed components you have to worry about, read Robs post on regulators shorting themselves out on the chassis.

the disk spinns and the case doesn't get hot at all.

The red connector is not that tight on the case, but i can't (without using abnomal power) tightnen the crews.

Vince

The power issue you refered to: I stilll have the light flickering... And the first time the screen just freezed with the message: Source: Radio

Vince

No I haven't tried to alter the visual files.

I can not connect to the player through HT. (I do get all the boot results, but after Vcb: it freezes) The player is not recognized by emplode...

The disk runs so my guess would not be the ' serial srews' .

Vince

Hmmm.... I'm seriously starting to doubt my abilities

But after "Vcb:" the cursor comes up, i press ctrl+c.... nothing happens...

Vince

Yes, I use these settings... I can read the bootlog... but I can't imput...

Vince

Yeah, but have you installed a new disk or some such recently?

Well... all other thing did not work. So the first time we turned to this last resort... And it worked (the player worked great again).
But the second time this happened we have not rebuild the disk yet...

I have loaded the development image... I do not run any other programms... Or can't Mark1 handle v2?

Vince


Vince

You are not supposed to tighten it, it is designed to be loose.

So it hangs when you switch to the radio: I am going to go check this on my own player to see if this is a problem with V2 as I have not tried the radio since upgrading.

Hang on - you say it doesn't respond to the remote. Which remote are you using, the Kenwood or the Rio? I have found an issue with the Kenwood relating to the Radio.

OK, I will take a closer look at this post. (my English and technical skills are not that good )

Vince

p.s. I have not changed any disk owse

Since it sounds like a memory issue, I would say you should try and revert to V2 consumer. If that still hangs it, then go back one further to 2B13 consumer, then report your findings.

Sounds like you may still have some form of handshaking enabled. Make sure you have NO handshaking set in your term s/w

What size (capacity) are the hard drive(s) ?

I have a Toshiba 6495MB hdd

When it worked, the remote worked too...

The situation is that I get the boot logo on the display, then a message of loading stuff... and then it goed to standby (light flickers)...
I can still hear the disk spinning... but it does not power on (besides the light)... not from the buttons not from the remote.

Emplode on XP can not find the player (on USB and Serial). But before the crash/freeze that was no problem...

I can upgrade also hyperT (but there i get no prompt)...

I have done the things that you sugested to the pins on the mb.

Vince


I use the Kenwood remote.

with MTTTY I CAN get in...

I will try all the stuff mentioned and update you guys soon!

Vince

hmmmm....

Since the player is not recognized bij emplode... I can't do anything on the config file, right?

Enclosed the bootlog after ctrl+c

Vince

Are you sure you didn't set the handshaking on hyperterminal?

I'm in

[shuff
deduplicate=1


I am not sure that the missing square bracket is good, but I doubt that this would hang up the player. You obviously don't have the "massive CONFIG.INI" problem caused by the bug in 2B11, so it's not that either.

Hmmm....

how can I add the bracjet (I'm not a linux man).

Vince

Hmm. I could see how a missing close-bracket might theoretically screw up the ini-file-reading routine if it wasn't bullet-proofed against that sort of thing. Don't bother with adding the close bracket, just delete the ini file completely and see if that solves the problem.

Just in case, here is the FAQ with the commands you need to type for deleting the config.ini file.

Unfortunately this doesn't help either...

Hello All,

I still have the problem

This morning I have rebuild the disk, put the developer v2 software back and added the tunes.
Back in the car: it worked great... after playing in the car and haning the player on my XP pc... DEAD.
It boots untill the "Loading Visuals" message... and then nothing on the display and just the burning light in the bottom right corner.
I can re-boot what ever I want or press whatever button I want... the player does not respond (the disk is running!!!)
Hyperterminal has access to the player and lets me mount the drive.
The player does not pop up in the select player dialogue screen of emplode (not on USB not on serial)...

The only thing that I can come up with is that the player gets corrupted in my car... 'cause after playing in the car, undocking it from the car and haning it on my pc... the problem first shows herself...
Does anyone have the correct wiring? (it think I have it right, because it plays in the car....)

I have posted the config.ini and the bootlog earlier... I have shortened the pins on the MB. I have checked all connectors... The player does play, but only one session in the car (so this is not a memory problem, right). Basically I have done all I could do (stuff in the FAQ and your tips in these posts).

HELP!

Vince

I have tested it again (re-build the disk and added the developer v2 and some tunes)...

Went to my car, docked it, turned on the egnition, player starten and played pefect. Shut down the juice, started again... PLAYER DEAD!!!!

So undocking is not the problem... the power (or something else) in the car is... Can somebody point out what I did wrong?

Vince

At this point, I really do not know what to add. It might be a good idea to contact support and have them look at the unit. I cannot (personally) think of anything to add at this point.

He's coming round for coffee and a diagnostic on Thursday ....

Excellent!!!

Problem solved. VInce has ben here and it turned out that the audio daughterboard was loose. It's been glued back in, and he's gone away with a handful of stickers and a big smile.

Yet another satisified customer!!!

A loose audio daughterboard? That is a new one. Should that go in the FAQ, or is it too obscure?

No, I think it's a candidate - it's the second Mk 1 I've seen with "weird" behaviour, but had a seriously loose daughterboard. In this case, I did the same as the advice I gave for securing it as before - remove the original silicone bead from the connector header for the board, then make sure it's correctly positioned, and finally coat the connector area and board with lots of semi-rigid hot glue to make sure it doesn't move. I also put big blobs at the opposite side to fix the board to two capacitors sticking up, to make sure it was supported on more than just one side.

It seems to have fixed it: we spend about half an hour turning it on and off, rebooting, all the rest and it came up perfectly every time.

I added a note to the other Mk1-power-loss FAQ entry about the loose daughterboard.