Here is a copy of my boot log:
empeg-car bootstrap v1.02 20001106 (hugo@empeg.com)
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux..................................... done, booting the kerne
l.
Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg52 (rob@aphex) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315
(release)) #12 Tue Apr 1 18:51:41 BST 2003
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 10101299)
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15024k/16M available (964k code, 20k reserved, 372k data, 4k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 206f6972 'rio '
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select
I2C write failed (fff, d223)
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0005300).
empeg RDS driver initialised
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hda: IBM-DARA-212000, ATA DISK drive
hda: IBM-DARA-212000, ATA DISK drive
hda: IBM-DARA-212000, ATA DISK drive
hda: IBM-DARA-212000, ATA DISK drive
hda: IBM-DARA-212000, ATA DISK drive
hda: IBM-DARA-212000, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: IBM-DARA-212000, 11513MB w/418kB Cache, CHS=23392/16/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Eri

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:22:05:1
3
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
change_root: old root has d_count=1
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 4k init player.cpp : 385:
03/04/01.
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
I2C write failed (927, 0)
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
I2C write failed (8f9, 90d)
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: address select failed
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Mar 26 2003
Vcb: 0x4086d000
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed
i2c: Failed to receive ACK for data!
i2c_write: device select failed

Can anyone tell me what all the i2c errors are??? Is this related to the hard disks?

Do these i2c errors indicate some sort of hardware malfuntion? From doing some searching on the forums, it may be my 74LVX04 chip that is the culprit?

Do these i2c errors indicate some sort of hardware malfuntion?

Well, they certainly don't indicate that everything's peachy keen...

I haven't done a search for other instances of the error, but if you have, and if the search results turn up someone else with the same error, then I'd say that you've probably got the same problem he had (whatever that was).

Well, I've found this old forum topic that deals with a similar problem....

Yep, from the looks of your error message, it's the same problem ClemsonJeep had. I don't know who in Cambridge fixed ClemsonJeep's problem, but if it was Hugo, then he could definitively answer if it was really a bad DSP or not.

In any case, it's a serious issue, it's one of the main pieces of digital circuitry that's failing. It's not something simple like a loose wire or a bad solder joint, we're talking about one of the main chips going bad here. The required repair is the empeg equivalent of open-heart-surgery.

Everyone send flowers and get well cards.

So when you say a bad DSP you are talking about the CS4231A chip, right? Forgive my ignorance here, but I'm not too familiar with all the chips and whatnot on the Rio's mainboard. I have been in contact with Stuart from Eutronix and he seems to think that the CS4231A needs to be replaced.....sorry about all the posts, but I just want to make sure I've got the problem isolated and get my poor Rio working again!

mine toasted a 4231 last year. one day it was just dead.

dbrashear, what were your symptoms? Were you having any problems with the Rio prior to your 4231 failing?

Nil. Worked fine. The next morning my wife came in from the car: "it's dead". Sure enough, it was dead.

Bumpity Bump.

According to the kernel sources, only the main DSP (SAA77H05) appears to use the i2c bus - the CS4231A uses an ISA interface.

It looks like either your DSP or its clock circuitry is fubar.