I have a 50 gig Empeg Mark II that is currently giving me a "failed to unmask IDE" message. I read the FAQs and dont feel comfortable getting into the repairs.

Is anyone interested in trading me a fully functioning empeg with less or equal HD space plus some cash?

If anyone is a wiz at repairs, and would be interested in this offer - let me know.

I have the original box, remote, etc. I would however like to keep the sled so I can just put the new empeg into my car.
Serial # 080000085

Please email any questions or inquiries to will@lebowskifest.com.

Thanks!

OT, but are you one of the founders of the Lebowski Fest?

We should have an empeg meet at Lebowski Fest. I think I need to go to that.

Yeah, drink some caucasians, listen to some Creedence on the Empeg. But no Eagles, man, I hate the fucking Eagles!

Give me the time and place and i'm SO there.

Yes, Lebowski Fest is my baby (and Scott's)

how did you hear about it?

how did you hear about it?

Your email address in this post kinda gives it away.

I've been aware since just after the 1st LebowskiFest, probably from Fark.com or Yahoo news. Great movie, cool meet concept, hope to be there someday! I saw your e-mail address, remembered your name from the website. You meet the nicest people with an Empeg, eh?

Oh wow! The Lebowski Fest guy is an empeg guy! So sweet. I remember reading about it on Fark.

<-- can you tell i like the movie a tad?

Oh my god. My friends and I are the biggest fans of the movie. What a great idea for a meet.

We are going for sure. The dude abides.

- Jon

If it's official that other empeggers will be there, I will be in attendance. Vegas Ownz.

how much do you want for it, i am interested

i want to get enough to almost pay for another one. it is 50 gigs which i guess would be worth about 600 in perfect working condition.

make me an offer

ok, well, not knowing what is really wrong with it, how about $400?

Not to blow the sale... but isn't there anyone close to you who'd be willing to fix it for ya? It's generally one of three things... bad drive, bad cable or bad header connection, all of which are pretty easy to diagnose and fix.

to sell or not to sell. i may have a friend who can help. he is currently fixing my pc that died - he's a good man, and thorough.

i am considering the offers i've gotten.

the empeg has a new 30 gig HD and a new cable (within the last year)

So then it simply needs to have the IDE header on the mainboard resoldered. 15-minutes start to finish for most techie types -- most of that time spent in disassembly / reassembly of the empeg.

Cheers

Yeah, I'd say Mark's right on this one. I've done the IDE resoldering to 5 empegs so far and none of them have had the IDE failures return. If you've replaced the cable and you're sure it's not the drive, that'd be the next step. It's pretty easy for anyone with soldering skills and the right tools.

thanks guys - i'll give it a shot

i had my friend check the connectors where the cable attaches and they were all good. he suspected the cable (which is about a year old) where can i get a new one?

Resolder the connector regardless -- you said you've already tried a new cable. The connector faults generally require a magnifying glass to see -- connections are there sometimes, depending on temperature, so just doing a continuity test isn't enough to spec it.

Cheers

he used an electronic doo-hickey that beeped for each one (i assume meaning the connection is good)

he used an electronic doo-hickey that beeped for each one (i assume meaning the connection is good)

Right. That's what's called a continuity tester. And like Mark said...

connections are there sometimes, depending on temperature, so just doing a continuity test isn't enough to spec it.

he used an electronic doo-hickey that beeped for each one

All that means is that the connection was good when he tested it.

If there is a bad solder joint on the IDE header, the very act of testing it (pressing the probe against the header pin) could well have completed the connection, causing it to test good.

Mark is right -- you need to re-melt each and every one of those IDE header connections to be sure that they are reliable.

tanstaafl.

Nope, not good enough. Just resolder the pins regardless.

Cheers

i dont know anyone that can resolder the pins and i think i'm just going to give up and sell it as is.

as far as that goes, i will leave it for sale for a week and see what offers i get. i want at least $400 for the 50 gig mk2.

if anyone has a 30 gig mk2 that they would like to trade me plus some cash that would be ideal.

what other options are out there for mp3 players - do any have an interface that can rival the empeg in terms of ease of browsing and playback options? i would like to find something for 4-500 dollars that will be new. any ideas?

There basically are none. There are a couple out from big-name manufacturers. (It seems like it's Pioneer and someone else.) But they seem to require you to rip all your CDs in your car. There's the PhatBox, but it replaces a CD changer, IIRC, and doesn't begin to have the interface of the empeg.

You'd probably be better off sending to someone to fix. It'd be cheaper and you'd get a better solution. That's not to say the empeg is perfect -- it's not -- but it's still the best that exists right now.

Send it to me. I'll resolder and return it to you via post.

If you declare the customs value (I'm in Canada) as CAD$50 then it will cost about CAD$20 for me to import it, and another CAD$25 to send it back to you via 3-5 day post. No import fees on the reverse trip.

Soldering will cost ya $10, so we're looking at around CAD$55.

If you want to do this, email me for shipping address.

Cheers

That's not to say the empeg is perfect -- it's not

Heresy!

Quick, somebody gather the pitchforks while I light the torches.



tanstaafl.

That's not to say the empeg is perfect -- it's not

Of course it's perfect - it has exactly the right number of quirks to make it interesting and give us all something to talk about!

Rob

Uh oh -- I've opened a can of worms.

Actually, the one thing that makes it not perfect to me is the VFD. There are much better display technologies for in-car. And that's not at all interesting to discuss. I suppose USB2 or Firewire or 100BaseTX would be nice, but they would mostly be perks. Nothing much wrong with what's there now.

**moving a reply to the "better in-car display technology" post over to General**