Sync Fail!!!!

OK, this is the first major problem that I am having with my Empeg. When i just got it, with beta 7a, I was able to install 2 gig in one shot now I am lucky if i can get 50meg in one shot. I am in the proccess of re doing my muscic and have a lot of music to delete off the player and a lot to put back on. I started a new post because I have been reading the long list of posts from others and I am basically getting every syn error message that everyone else is speaking about. Some times it fails at stage 5 other times at 3, it is never consistant and I even have win98 booting with minamal crap, and only have the sync running and it still fails. I have been doing other things in the past and never had a problem but that was with older revs. This is also the same computer that I used before and even tried reloading win98 fresh on a formated HD. PLEASE HELP!

SN 279 working great until now

...out of curiosity, did you load w98 Second Edition or the original? Also, what were you running before?
-mark

...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

First edition of 98, thats what I have been running the entire time. will the second edition fix my problem? If so I will be leaving right now to purchase it.

Have you tried the latest version of emplode and Mike's comments? it said:

I have an updated USB driver that I hope addresses this error. If you have tried the emplode update available at
http://www2.empeg.com/upgrades/test/interim/private/emplode-0.84.2.zip
and are still seeing this error regularly then please email me directly and I'll send you a copy of the driver.

You may want to ask Mike for the new driver.

Out of curiosity: next time when you do a synch, run System Monitor. I've the hypothesis that when 'unused memory' decreases rapidly, the synch is going to fail. If it remains stable, you're OK.

Henno
# 00120

Thank you, i downloaded that file and I am also running 9c+
I will keep the resorce monitor running, I use it normally to watch my PIII 450 used 100% when i am making MP3's.
I hope this works or I might need that new driver

I am still having one of 2 problems, either the machine locks up after uploading for a while, to a point where i can only turn off the computer and then turn it back on, or a syn error. Mike can you email me that driver? I forgot about checking the memory usage, i will try it again...

[email protected]

I am now running 9c+ on both emplode and the empeg and it does one of many neat errors, locks up the PC totally, fails during stage five, stage 3, and sometimes what ever stage the scan disk runs in, you have to unplug the empeg and then plug it in to get it to rebooot after the Pc locks. ARRRRGGGGGG...... I want new visuals and stuff But i think these sync problems need to be fixed first, my player worked great until beta 9. This is really starting to &*%#@ me off. i love my empeg and just want it to work........

After never getting any additional help with my sync problem, I took the advise of the other happy Empeg owners. I upgraded to Windows 2000 Professional, and and problems are gone, no matter what I do when the sync is going.

So for those of you having problems, upgrade your windows
I am once again happy with my Empeg, but feel a little let down that no one was able to help us to make it work with 98. I still don't understand why it worked with Beta 7 and then didn't work with 9c+ on the same machine and win98

I can confirm that Windows 2000 is a greate curer of emplode sync failures. I have always had regular sync failures under Win98, even when I set syncs going and just left them to it (certain version of emplode were worse that others).

Since I upgraded to W2k my sync failures had almost entirely vanished. It would appear that either the USB drivers in W2k are better (or it could be the improved multi-tasking I supose). I can even get on and do other stuff while the sync is running, hell, I'm doing and sync while writing this message AND ripping a CD with AudioCatalyst at the same time. I do still get the occasional sync error, but it tends to be at the later stages, I think when it is rebuilding the database.

__
Unit serial number 47 (was 330 in the queue)...

Sorry you feel let down, but the fact is that we are putting in a great deal of effort to track down the sync problems. When problems seem to be tied in to specific chipsets and OS releases it becomes a very time consuming exercise to recreate and debug them. We're not even sure that the problem lies with emplode, there are indicators that some Windows USB drivers are buggy.

If you emailed [email protected] you should have had a response. Mike has worked with a number of our clients to test out patches and find solutions to these problems. If you just posted here, then it's pot luck whether you get a reply - we don't provide support through the BBS, OneList mailing list, or any other unofficial forum.

Rob

there are indicators that some Windows USB drivers are buggy.

I've been reading more and more reports of this in computer magazines, so you might not be far off. I can't remember if it was Machrone, Berst, Dvorak, or somebody else who recently wrote an article about it. It seems that some combinations of motherboard, OS, and USB device will have troubles. It seems that USB isn't perfect (GASP).

As I understand it, it can often be the system BIOS and its handling of USB that's at issue. Some people might be able to cure their problems by going to the website of their computer/motherboard manufacturer and obtaining flash BIOS patches or updated Windows USB drivers.

Of course, that doesn't explain why some people had no trouble up until a recent software release. But I'd be curious to know if this helps anyone.



Tony Fabris
Empeg #144

I did send an email to report my bug and my responce was what I already tried. I forget if i sent another email or not. Thats my fault. What I find strange is, when i first got my empeg, it had 7 something beta. I had been making Mp3's for weeks and was ready to install them. It worked perfectly, and it was about 3 gig. I had also performed other syncs since then and the empeg has been running with about 2.6 gig free of a 10 gig drive for some time now. I noticed that some of my MP3's sound funny and started doing them over with a different ripper. Now that we are using 9c+, its the first time that I am really doing big downloads. Thats great that its a win98 problem, but why did it work before, and I also must say that I even reinstalled 98 and booted with a bare bones system, no volume control in the task bar or anything, and it still failed. I also ran the system monitor while syncing and notice little change in memory and cpu usage. You know what, who cares, where is the new release with the new visuals, that will make me extra happy, since I already upgraded to win2000 and my sync problems are gone.
Thank you for responding Rob