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#302683 - 30/09/2007 04:31 What's wrong with my Empeg?
dewdman42
member

Registered: 13/09/2000
Posts: 186
I've been happily using my Empeg for quite a while. Recently it started to intermittently do some weirdness. I will be playing along and then in the middle of a song it will just stop making sound. I look at the screen and the second counter is not advancing anymore. I hit the next song button and things continue normally....for a while. Sometimes it can run and run for hours no problem, other times it happens over and over.

I already thought maybe the IDE cable was loose or something, opened it up to check, but looks good.

Any other ideas? I'm using the last 2.01 consumer firmware.


Edited by dewdman42 (30/09/2007 04:32)

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#302684 - 30/09/2007 04:43 Re: What's wrong with my Empeg? [Re: dewdman42]
dewdman42
member

Registered: 13/09/2000
Posts: 186
Oh I should mention also that one time when this happened, the player seemed to blank out or lock up in some way and I had to cycle the power to get back to normal again, but that never happened again.

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#302685 - 30/09/2007 06:07 Re: What's wrong with my Empeg? [Re: dewdman42]
maczrool
pooh-bah

Registered: 13/01/2002
Posts: 1649
Loc: Louisiana, USA
Maybe it's encountering a bad MP3 file? Try installing Mark Lord's Hijack which recently added a feature that let's deal with such situations.

Hope this helps,
Stu
_________________________
If you want it to break, buy Sony!

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#302686 - 30/09/2007 13:15 Re: What's wrong with my Empeg? [Re: dewdman42]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
Quote:
I will be playing along and then in the middle of a song it will just stop making sound. I look at the screen and the second counter is not advancing anymore.


Two most likely culprits are hard disk trouble and (as was already mentioned) bad MP3 files.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#302687 - 15/10/2007 03:27 Re: What's wrong with my Empeg? [Re: tfabris]
dewdman42
member

Registered: 13/09/2000
Posts: 186
Yea, I can't see any reason why suddenly a large percentage of my MP3's would have become corrupted, unless they were corrupted in the Empeg somehow. I've been using this unit with this collection of music for a long time without any such issue. I opened up the empeg to see if the ide connection was loose or something, but its not.

I dunno what to say. Frustrated here.

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#302688 - 15/10/2007 12:03 Re: What's wrong with my Empeg? [Re: dewdman42]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14491
Loc: Canada
Quote:
Yea, I can't see any reason why suddenly a large percentage of my MP3's would have become corrupted, unless they were corrupted in the Empeg somehow. I've been using this unit with this collection of music for a long time without any such issue. I opened up the empeg to see if the ide connection was loose or something, but its not.

I dunno what to say. Frustrated here.


If you have not been adding/deleting music recently (with Emplode or jEmplode), then the obvious culprit is hardware trouble -- 95% likely that the IDE header is the cause of it.

This is a simple repair for many people on this BBS, so find someone in your part of the world who fixes such things and arrange for them to help out.

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#302689 - 16/10/2007 17:54 Re: What's wrong with my Empeg? [Re: mlord]
dewdman42
member

Registered: 13/09/2000
Posts: 186
Is there any way for me to verify that the IDE header or hardware is bad? The problem is that this is happening sporadically. I brought the unit inside to let it run in my office and it has been playing 5000 songs since I started it in here. (shrug)??

Are there any diagnostic tools I can use to confirm the hardware is having a problem?

I can certainly try to wipe the drives and resync all my MP3's in, just to try to eliminate this possibility...

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#302690 - 16/10/2007 20:05 Re: What's wrong with my Empeg? [Re: dewdman42]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14491
Loc: Canada
Quote:
Is there any way for me to verify that the IDE header or hardware is bad?


I don't think so, other than capturing serial port traces, which is not practical when it only fails some of the time.

Quote:
Are there any diagnostic tools I can use to confirm the hardware is having a problem?


Yes, install Hijack, and then pay attention to the front panel display when the player misbehaves.

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#302691 - 16/10/2007 20:24 Re: What's wrong with my Empeg? [Re: mlord]
dewdman42
member

Registered: 13/09/2000
Posts: 186
Quote:

Yes, install Hijack, and then pay attention to the front panel display when the player misbehaves.


I may try that. Thanks.

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