Ive been having some errors and timeouts recently and I think I need a new drive.
I looked at the drive upgrade FAQ and it looks too involved for me
If I purchase a drive would some kind soul set it up for me,
or even maybe purchase the drive themselves ,format it and send it too me.
I'll paypal or however to pay you.

Like you, I was a bit scared of the drive upgrade but I went ahead and found it really easy. It helps if you print the guide and have a read before you start and just follow the steps with guidance here if you get stuck.

If you still feel unsure I'm sure someone here will help you. (I'm a bit far away )

Ok thanks,The reason I think its the drive is when I add new songs I get an error on the display that says disc error read_intr. I havent changed anything just trying to add new songs.

What Mark said. You might not need a new disk.

More specifically, you might be having this problem or this problem.

If the diagnostic procedures from those links seem too involved, then definitely send it in for repairs. If you are in the US, Stu at Eutronix should be able to help you. If it turns out you really do need a new disk, he can help with that, too.

The header and cable were repaired by support a couple years ago(maybe 3 or 4)They also replaced the hardrdive.
I'll try some of the diagnostic tests and see if that helps.Thanks

And it's also possible the cable has just worked loose. Definitely check for that, since it's so easy to fix.

There's also the chance hard disk has genuinely gone bad. That happens, too, especially if the player has been exposed to extreme temperatures or if its install doesn't allow it to ventilate into the dash cavity.

Well I took the cover off and inspected things.The cable to the hardrive connection is glued in place.I didn't disconnect the cable to the header just pressed to make sure it was connected.
The player is located where it could be subject to excessive heat when I have the heater running.During the day the player is subject to whatever the outside temperature is,currently winter here so anywhere from 0F to 30F.

Another thing I noticed is if I try and load more than 1 song at a time I get errors but 1 song and it works fine.

Here is the log from fsck.
Looks like there were problems that were fixed?

I tried the cat /dev/hda > /dev/null method and this is what I got.(i did it 3 times it only took about 3 minutes)
Starting bash.
empeg:/empeg/bin# cat /dev/hda > /dev/null
hda: read_intr: status=0x59
hda: read_intr: error=0x40
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:00 (hda), sector 133080
cat: /dev/hda: Input/output error
empeg:/empeg/bin# cat /dev/hda > /dev/null
hda: read_intr: status=0x59
hda: read_intr: error=0x40
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:00 (hda), sector 133080
cat: /dev/hda: Input/output error
empeg:/empeg/bin# cat /dev/hda > /dev/null
hda: read_intr: status=0x59
hda: read_intr: error=0x40
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:00 (hda), sector 133080
cat: /dev/hda: Input/output error
empeg:/empeg/bin#
So what do you think?

Re-did the test and got the same sector error came up.
Is there a way to bypass that sector so I can add my songs or fix it?

I tried smartctl. I followed these instructions http://www.riocar.org/modules.php?op=mod...;faqent=275#275
When I try the ./smartctl -s on /dev/hda
I get No such file or directory.

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 kernel.
Linux version 2.2.17-rmk5-np17-empeg52-hijack-v466 (hijack@rtr.ca) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Fri Jan 12 12:10:26 EST 2007
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
Checking for extra DRAM:
c1000000: wrote ffffffff, read e28cc001
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 30103118) 16MB DRAM
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15008k/16M available (988k code, 20k reserved, 364k 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)
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 636f6972 'rioc'
Found custom animation at offset 0x99380
Tuner: loopback=0, ID=-1
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
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 d0005580).
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...
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xd0d0
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x3bc6
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x3bc6
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x3bc6
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x3bc6
hda: FUJITSU MHR2030AT, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: FUJITSU MHR2030AT, 28615MB w/2048kB Cache, CHS=58140/16/63
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:d7:26:0c:2e
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 initempeg init 0.8
I see this is a developer image!
Mounting proc
Mounting first music partition
Tried to mount /dev/hda4 as reiserfs but got error 19
Mounting second music partition
Tried to mount /dev/hdc4 but got error 6
Error mounting partitions (possibly already mounted)
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
No secondary hard disk
Press 'q' now to go into development mode. You Have Zero Seconds To ComplùStarting player
Timezone: Atlantic/South_Georgia
Hijack: intercepting config.ini

hijack: removed menu entry: "Serial Port Assignment"
khttpd: listening on port 80
kftpd: listening on port 21
Using non-standard cache size 124 (adjustment 10)
player.cpp : 385:empeg-car 2.00 2003/04/01.
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Mar 26 2003
Vcb: 0x407cd000
q
Restored terminal settings
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
No secondary hard disk
Player exited normally: 0
Switching to shell-player loop
Starting bash.
empeg:/empeg/bin# cd /drive0/var/smartctl
empeg:/drive0/var/smartctl# ./smartctl -s on /dev/hda
bash: ./smartctl: No such file or directory
empeg:/drive0/var/smartctl# exit
logout
Shell exit
Starting playTimezone: Atlantic/South_Georgia
er
Hijack: intercepting config.ini

Using non-standard cache size 124 (adjustment 10)
player.cpp : 385:empeg-car 2.00 2003/04/01.
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Mar 26 2003
Vcb: 0x407cd000
Do you see something I did wrong?

Ok that worked.Thanks.
It came up with the same sector error 133080.
Looks like its time for a new drive.
Anyone got one they want to get rid of?
I only need a 30gig.

Quote:
Nothing practical, anyway.

So is there a way to fix this?
If I have to get a new drive i'll have to put my music back on anyway so maybe I can practice on this one.

That's cool. Why does that work? What is it actually doing?

The hard drive knows (or will know) that a sector is bad when you try to write to it, so it will remap that sector to an area reserved for that sort of remapping. When you "cat /dev/null", you're just writing a bunch of zeros to every bit on the drive, so that when it gets to that sector it will remap it. The reason it doesn't do it until you write there is in case the data on the sector is still recoverable.

Hmm. Mark, is there any reason you couldn't just write zeros to that one sector? I mean, it would still corrupt the filesystem, but it would take less time to do it. Or maybe there's not a good way to find where the offset to that sector is.

If smartctl showed *only* a (very) few number of bad sectors, then you can probably repair the drive yourself,

In my admittedly very limited experience, a formerly good drive that suddenly develops bad sectors is usually telling you that there are more to come, that the number of bad sectors is going to increase asymptotically in a pretty short timeframe until the drive self-destructs and no information is recoverable. Most times a newly bad sector is caused by a head that touched a platter during some sort of impact, causing a microscopic gouge in the disk and a similarly microscopic accumulation of material on the head which makes it much more likely that the head will touch the platter again, even with a less severe impact. It's a positive feedback situation where a little bit of trouble causes a lot more trouble.

There may be less common reasons for a bad sector with less catastrophic end results, but the above scenario is by far the most likely.

tanstaafl.

Ok here is the text from the smartctl log.
Any opinions on the errors?


smartctl version 5.33 [arm-empeg-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Extended offline Completed: read failure 90% 1854 474790
# 2 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 1853 474534
# 3 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 1853 474534

empeg:/empeg/bin# /smartctl.bin -l error /dev/hda
smartctl version 5.33 [arm-empeg-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Error Log Version: 1
Warning: ATA error count 0 inconsistent with error log pointer 2

ATA Error Count: 0
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.

Error 0 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 0 hours (0 days + 0 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was in a reserved state.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
a6 00 ca 11 e0 59 00

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
01 a6 ca 11 e0 c4 14 02 05:01:28.230 [RESERVED]

Error -1 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 1850 hours (77 days + 2 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 59 04 a6 ca 11 e0 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0011caa6 = 1165990

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
c4 00 04 a6 ca 11 e0 00 38d+05:31:15.127 READ MULTIPLE

Error -2 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 0 hours (0 days + 0 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was in an unknown state.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
00 00 03 11 00 00 00

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
a4 d9 25 01 00 40 06 4b 31d+20:24:21.194 [RESERVED]
a4 00 00 00 00 00 06 00 31d+20:24:21.194 [RESERVED]

Error -3 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 0 hours (0 days + 0 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was in an unknown state.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
59 00 00 00 03 11 00 at LBA = 0x00110300 = 1114880

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
40 c4 df c5 25 01 00 e0 12d+10:16:23.304 READ VERIFY SECTOR(S)
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00:00:41.480 NOP [Abort queued commands]

Error -4 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 0 hours (0 days + 0 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was in an unknown state.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --

Doesn't look too bad (yet). Try zeroing the drive and run with it.

It could get worse, it could behave. I've had drives that went either way.

Cheers

Thank you,i'll give it a shot.
After I do this i'll put smartctl back on and test again.

Well I wiped the drive,installed the drive builder image,reinstalled the player software and hijack.
Added about 15gigs of music and things seem to be OK.No errors or warnings when syching.
Thank you Mark for taking the time to help.
Thanks to everyone else that responded also.

Well, thanks to you also, for being the (far more than) perfect n00b here. Very well done! (not that your post count even remotely matches your moniker, I suppose).

Cheers