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#245158 - 01/01/2005 20:10 Disk upgrade...
TigerJimmy
old hand

Registered: 15/02/2002
Posts: 1049
Hi everyone,

I upgraded the disks in my player and my SO's player. After manually building the disks, I decided to cheat and I used dd to copy all the partitions except the music partition.

It "sorta" worked, but I intermittently get the Hard Disk Not Found error, or sometimes I only get playlists from one of the drives. Serial log shows that sometimes the second drive is not recognized at boot.

I figured I damaged the IDE cable, so I installed my Eutronix spare. No improvements.

I just installed the 2.00final image and hijack, figuring that dd might not have been the best way to do the upgrade. This might fix it, which would be great, but I really want to know why I can't use dd to move the player software from one disk to the next. The thing boots from flash, right, so this is not a boot block or boot loader issue. Am I barking up the wrong tree, or is there some reason this woudn't work?

If I don't see the second drive (intermittently) in the serial log, isn't this likely to be a hardware problem? Here's why I don't think so: both players are doing this. The only thing weird is the dd. So, what did I unintentionally do???

Thanks in advance,

Jim

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#245159 - 01/01/2005 20:42 Re: Disk upgrade... [Re: TigerJimmy]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14491
Loc: Canada
IDE header problem -- very very common, requires soldering to repair it.

Cheers

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#245160 - 01/01/2005 23:56 Re: Disk upgrade... [Re: mlord]
TigerJimmy
old hand

Registered: 15/02/2002
Posts: 1049
I was afraid you were going to say that. Why now? I've used the thing constantly for years. Perhaps it was just barely making contact and messing with the cable caused a solder joint to break?

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#245161 - 02/01/2005 01:06 Re: Disk upgrade... [Re: TigerJimmy]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14491
Loc: Canada
Quote:
Perhaps it was just barely making contact and messing with the cable caused a solder joint to break?

Yup. It's a heavily stressed mechanical component, which unfortunately was installed without regard to such -- instead it simply tries to rely upon ordinary surface mount soldering on small pads. The PCB was laid out with the correct holes for mechanical fasteners, but the connectors that were used used lack them.

Every time the unit is moved from horizontal (car, desktop, or dock) to vertical (carrying by the handle), considerable mechanical stress is placed upon the flimsy IDE header connections. Ditto for each time the cable itself is unplugged or reconnected.

The normal fix is to resolder it using sufficient new solder to establish at least a hint of a mechanical bond, and then to extend the IDE cables by a few centimetres to relieve the stress from carrying the unit.

Cheers

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#245162 - 02/01/2005 01:31 Re: Disk upgrade... [Re: mlord]
gbeer
carpal tunnel

Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
Quote:

The PCB was laid out with the correct holes for mechanical fasteners, but the connectors that were used used lack them.
Cheers


me unlurking... Since the PCB is laid out as stated, when having problems, why not replace the connector with one that has mechanical fasteners? I'm assuming such connectors are easily available.
_________________________
Glenn

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#245163 - 02/01/2005 13:34 Re: Disk upgrade... [Re: gbeer]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14491
Loc: Canada
Sure, DigiKey stocks both types of headers -- the original and the one with the two plastic pegs to mate with the empeg board (dunno if the hole spacing lines up or not, though).

Problem is, the header pads are very very fragile (from stress already inflicted), and removing the existing header is thus far more risky than simply reinforcing the existing solder joints.

In any event, a low-temperature iron is *essential* when fiddling about with this, as too high a temperature (most irons) will simply delaminate more solder pads from the main board.

Cheers

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#245164 - 02/01/2005 16:16 Re: Disk upgrade... [Re: mlord]
schofiel
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/06/1999
Posts: 2993
Loc: Wareham, Dorset, UK
The cable length is not a problem - the spacing between the cable's board connector and the first connector, is. The first connector needs to be 5mm further down the cable away from the board connector. I will be making modified ones available in the next couple of weeks if there is interest.

Have you checked that the second drive on each unit is properly jumpered for Slave, and that the jumpers are the correct size for the drive, and are making contact on the pins properly? If both drives register as Master, perhaps this explains some of the symptoms. Mark knows better than me on this as he wrote the drivers!!!!
_________________________
One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

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