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#293981 - 19/02/2007 04:10 Help. Buttons and IR stopped working after a fall.
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA


I really didn't drop it that hard. Knee level to floor. It's had a lot farther falls than this, and onto much harder surfaces. But it landed at an angle that cracked the upper right corner of the lens, and cracked the fascia a little bit.

Player works, boots, looks fine. Network works, songs play (when controlled by EmpegFace), no hard disk trouble. But the buttons and knob don't work. IR does not work either.

Dismantled, made sure nothing internal was bent or broken. Display glass still A-OK.

The connector that joins the display board's ribbon cable to the motherboard was slightly bent, as if it had been bonked by something, except there isn't really something that could have bonked it. Perhaps the hard disk tray flew forward hard enough to yank on it. Anyway, bent those pins back up straight (very gently) checked connectivity, checked the three nearby fuses (all good), touched up the solder joints where the connector meets the motherboard. No help.

I once had a problem where the PIC next to the buttons had a cracked solder joint at pin 1, so I retouched all solder joints on both of those PIC ICs on the display board. Touched up solder joints at the display-board's end of the display ribbon cable. Touched up a few other solder joints on the display board that were easily reachable. Still no dice. Checked connectivity of all pins on the display cable, testing connectivity from the motherboard to the display board, they're all good.

Please note that this is a fully dismantled player, with the display cable connected but the display board removed from the casing. Just to make sure it's not fascia sticking or case flex or anything like that. Another trick is that the Hijack menu should still respond to a longpress on the knob button even if there's no hard disk connected, and when I try that, the longpress does nothing.

Stu, Rob, anyone else... What are the most likely points of failure with these symptoms? Perfectly working player, even the illuminated buttons are working fine, except pressing the buttons, turning the knob, and sending IR commands don't work.

I'll post this then go look if there's anything funky in the boot log and follow up here if that's the case.
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Tony Fabris

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#293982 - 19/02/2007 04:17 Re: Help. Buttons and IR stopped working after a fall. [Re: tfabris]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
The boot logs look OK.

Here is the boot log without a hard disk.


Attachments
294572-without_hard_disk.txt (117 downloads)

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Tony Fabris

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#293983 - 19/02/2007 04:17 Re: Help. Buttons and IR stopped working after a fall. [Re: tfabris]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
And here is the boot log with the hard disk.


Attachments
294573-with_hard_disk.txt (116 downloads)

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Tony Fabris

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#293984 - 19/02/2007 11:31 Re: Help. Buttons and IR stopped working after a fall. [Re: tfabris]
maczrool
pooh-bah

Registered: 13/01/2002
Posts: 1649
Loc: Louisiana, USA
Check continuity between pin 2 or 17 (check both) of of the display control PIC and pin 10 or 6 of the ribbon cable on the display. 2 goes to 10 and pin 17 goes to 6. Sorry, I just can't remember which of the two lines it is at the moment, but I'll try to look at one a bit later and tell you which it is. It's best to check these continuities all the way down to the connector on the mainboard (as you did already). If this all checks out, you need to establish that the the display control PIC is actually running. Without an osciiloscope or frequency counter, this could be tricky.

Hope this helps,
Stu

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#293985 - 19/02/2007 12:26 Re: Help. Buttons and IR stopped working after a fall. [Re: tfabris]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14491
Loc: Canada
Examine the display ribbon cable very closely, especially the two outside conductors.

When a player is dropped, the drive cage often moves forcefully and hits the back of the display board, pinching the cable, and breaking one of the two outside conductors. A little delicate splice work (solder in a short length of repair conductor, and tape it up afterward) is the usual fix.

Cheers

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#293986 - 19/02/2007 12:31 Re: Help. Buttons and IR stopped working after a fall. [Re: mlord]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14491
Loc: Canada
Quote:
Examine the display ribbon cable very closely, especially the two outside conductors.


Keep in mind, that such a failure can be intermittent -- it might test okay for conductivity, but when reassembled it may no longer do so..

Next up, reassemble it, and note exactly where the drive tray would have impacted on the displayboard. Heck, even trace it with a red felt-tipped pen.

Then take it all apart again, and use a magnifier to examine the entire length of that marking.

[EDIT] If it bothers you later, the marking can be removed with a single swipe of a Q-tip swab that has been dipped in alcohol.[/EDIT]

Cheers


Edited by mlord (19/02/2007 12:33)

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#293987 - 19/02/2007 14:45 Re: Help. Buttons and IR stopped working after a fall. [Re: tfabris]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
Spaz. Didn't you just drop it like a month ago?
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Bitt Faulk

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#293988 - 19/02/2007 14:47 Re: Help. Buttons and IR stopped working after a fall. [Re: maczrool]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
Quote:
Check continuity between pin 2


I love you, man.
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Tony Fabris

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#293989 - 19/02/2007 14:49 Re: Help. Buttons and IR stopped working after a fall. [Re: wfaulk]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
Quote:
Spaz. Didn't you just drop it like a month ago?

Heh, I drop the thing about once every month. I can't believe the VFD hasn't broken yet.
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Tony Fabris

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#293990 - 19/02/2007 14:51 Re: Help. Buttons and IR stopped working after a fall. [Re: tfabris]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. Oh, and Mark, the ribbon cable doesn't have a scratch on it, but thanks for the suggestion.

It turned out to be pin 2 of the PIC nearest the buttons. I thought I'd touched it up, but it seems not enough. More careful work on pin 2 and all was well. Although Stu, I think you had some of the numbering backwards in terms of which pins needed continuity with which pins on the display connector. In any case, I checked everything, and that was the pin on the PIC that wasn't giving me continuity, so I touched it up and bingo. Thanks again!

Yay! No silent commute for me today!
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Tony Fabris

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#293991 - 19/02/2007 14:53 Re: Help. Buttons and IR stopped working after a fall. [Re: tfabris]
maczrool
pooh-bah

Registered: 13/01/2002
Posts: 1649
Loc: Louisiana, USA
Quote:
I love you, man.


I know . Too slow. Glad you got it!

Stu


Edited by maczrool (19/02/2007 14:57)
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If you want it to break, buy Sony!

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#293992 - 19/02/2007 15:00 Re: Help. Buttons and IR stopped working after a fall. [Re: tfabris]
maczrool
pooh-bah

Registered: 13/01/2002
Posts: 1649
Loc: Louisiana, USA
Quote:
Although Stu, I think you had some of the numbering backwards in terms of which pins needed continuity with which pins on the display connector.


Not backwards. Patrick numbers them that way. Look at the schematic for the extender board and you will see .

Stu
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If you want it to break, buy Sony!

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