In case anybody is interested, it turns out that it was a bad RAM board. Today, I finally removed the dead memory expansion board and then had to use the kernel flash utility to fix the corrupted flash. After that, I imaged a drive and currently have it sitting on my desk playing away. Wonderful.


EDIT: I guess I lied. I loaded a few tunes, rebooted the unit and got a No Hard Drive error. Now, I can't get the unit to "recognize" the drive. A serial boot log with a Samsung 256GB mSATA card reveals that the IDE interface can see the drive, but is filled with what appear to be IDE read errors. Check it out.

A good log booting this SSD in my MKII:

Code:
empeg single channel IDE

Probing primary interface...
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xffaa
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xff55
hda: SAMSUNG MZMTD256HAGM-00004, ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xffba
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xff55
hda: SAMSUNG MZMTD256HAGM-00004, ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xffaa
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xff55
hda: SAMSUNG MZMTD256HAGM-00004, ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xffaa
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xffff
hda: SAMSUNG MZMTD256HAGM-00004, ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xffaa
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xff55
hda: SAMSUNG MZMTD256HAGM-00004, ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xffba
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xff55
hda: SAMSUNG MZMTD256HAGM-00004, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: SAMSUNG MZMTD256HAGM-00004, 244198MB w/0kB Cache, CHS=31130/255/63, LBA48
empeg-flash driver initialized



...and the same exact drive, with the same exact cable attempting to boot in this MKIIa.

Code:
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xfbff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xfbaa
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xff55
hda: SAISQNC IZIT@216HACM)00004, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: SAISQNC IZIT@216HACM)00004, 7559MB w/0kB Cache, CHS=15359/16/63
empeg-flash driver initialized


The unit finds the drive, but reports bad characters for the Maker and Model Number, as well as only reporting 7.6GB of drive size. Again, this exact drive and cable work fine in my other player. I tested and verified all 44 IDE header pin connections to the motherboard. Do I have an issue with my IDE bus somehow?

Also, I'm not sure how relevant this is, but the kernel flash utility is unable to automatically reboot the player while it's powered on. I physically have to remove the power and plug it back in before the kernel flash will start. This behavior has changed since I last updated the kernel. Does this indicate some error, specifically?


Edited by FieroSTi (14/01/2016 21:25)