I received my player today. When I plugged it into home power the empeg screen comes up but never goes away? Anyone know what is going on?


Alex Lear

When I plugged it into home power the empeg screen comes up but never goes away?

What, you wanted it to do something besides display a logo? What were you thinking?

All kidding aside, it sounds like:

a) You've got the USB cable plugged into a PC that's turned off (known bug), or
b) It's trying to boot but it's not finding its hard disks so it can't finish the boot process, or
c) It might have blank hard disks, too. Try downloading the latest software upgrade and running it via the serial port.

You can probably get some diagnostics by watching the serial port with Hyperterminal when you boot it. That might tell you what's going wrong.

Anyone have any other suggestions before he sends it back as a DOA unit?

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Tony Fabris

This sounds like you have the visual that is only an Empeg logo. Try changing the visual that you have selected.

Reg_2845 Mark 1 #00173, Mark 2 #119

When I look through the top I see a hard drive cable. When I lean the unit back and forth it moves about 1/4 inch. Is this cable for the not installed hard drive or is this the one that should be mounted to the first hard drive securely?


Alex Lear

I should also say that NOTHING but the empeg screen shows. No boot text at all.
and emplode won't find it.

Alex Lear

When I look through the top I see a hard drive cable. When I lean the unit back and forth it moves about 1/4 inch. Is this cable for the not installed hard drive or is this the one that should be mounted to the first hard drive securely?

Assuming that you bought a single-drive unit, there should be a loose cable end for a future second drive. So that's nothing to panic about.

Assuming the front-panel buttons and the remote control do nothing, and assuming that it's not one of the things I listed already, then get in touch with Rob. You might have a DOA unit.

Do try a null-modem cable with Hyperterminal and see what text it's showing when you power it up. You should get text on the serial port instantly, within a millisecond of applying power to it. The fact that it can get far enough to display the boot logo means that at least the kernel in the flash memory is working, so at the very least you'll see the initial boot text on the serial port.

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Tony Fabris

I'd try grabbing the version 1 release from the empeg website and re-flashing & pumping it.

Philb

Sounds like this is not normal. What I don't understand is, do you guys (empeg) test these units before shipping? I can't see how this wouldn't have been caught unless something came loose during shipping.


Alex Lear

What I don't understand is, do you guys (empeg) test these units before shipping?

I'm pretty sure they do get tested, but the testing might be done by the assembler and not Empeg. Rob, clarify?

I can't see how this wouldn't have been caught unless something came loose during shipping.

And if your unit really is DOA, that's the most likely explanation.

Have you tried the serial port thing? I'm really curious what it says. If you need to be talked through it, my ICQ number is 1228275.

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Tony Fabris

I'd try grabbing the version 1 release from the empeg website and re-flashing & pumping it.

Yeah, that was in my first reply. Alex, have you tried this yet?

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Tony Fabris

I think I was one of the lucky ones that got the wrong serial cable so I have not been able to test Version 1. I would think that if 12c didn't work consumer 1 wouldn't change anything. But you never know.

Ironically, I defered a year ago for the single reason I was waiting for the manufacturing and sofware bugs to be worked out. :)


Alex Lear

The units get thoroughly tested by the manufacturers; this includes PCB level tests, an automated functional test rig, and a soak test.

It's unusual for anything to slip through, but the manufacturers sometimes seem to go all clueless on us. I should be able to get the full test log over our network connection to the manufacturer's systems if I have the serial number of the unit.

Until then, though: can you see if you can apply the version 1 upgrade file to the unit? Unfortunately, if you were one of those who got sent a dud serial cable (there is an area on the plug moulding with either straight lines or a crosshatch pattern: straight lines is ok, crosshatch is from the dud batch - well, the proper cables will also have a crosshatch, but none of these have gone out yet) then upgrading the unit might be tough :(

Hugo

12c->consumer 1 won't change anything, unless the unit wasn't correctly loaded with software by the manufacturer - in which case it'll make all the difference :)

Do you hear the HDD spin up?

Hugo

I think I was one of the lucky ones that got the wrong serial cable so I have not been able to test Version 1.

What kind of a computer geek are you, that you don't have extra null-modem cables lying around the house?


I would think that if 12c didn't work consumer 1 wouldn't change anything.

Just as Hugo re-iterated, the point isn't to upgrade the software, it's to install a proper image onto a possibly-blank hard disk. The idea that the hard disk might be blank was just a guess, though. It might not be what's wrong.

Which is why you should check the bootup text with Hyperterminal first. It would tell us where in the boot process the failure is occurring so that Hugo/Rob/Mike can give proper advice. I mean, the unit's obviously DOA, so the proper advice is to send it back. But what we're trying to do is see if it's something simple (like a blank hard disk) so that you can correct it yourself. You've waited a year for this thing already, and now that it's in your hands, you'd probably prefer an option that allows you to fix it without any additional wait. And if it's a simple thing like a blank hard disk, then the fix is very simple.

See if you can scrounge a proper null-modem cable (from work or from a friend or something), then look at the bootup text.

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Tony Fabris

Hugo, I hope you did the proper thing and located the person responsible for shipping the wrong cables, then cut him a new orifice.

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Tony Fabris

Rob spoke to them; they appear to have actually manufactured the cables wrong (ie, they look right - female to female 9w) and were in bags with the correct null modem part number... but were wired wrongly.

You'd think a cable specialist would have managed to get it right, really...

Hugo

Every player is tested VERY thoroughly by a series of rather techie test rigs. If you let me know your serial number I can pull up the test report direct from the server that ran the test (which is located in the manufacturing facility across the country).

The fault sounds like one of three things:

1. Hard disk is not connected
2. Hard disk is faulty
3. Software not loaded onto the player

None of these could have been true before the player shipped, and I don't see how #3 could have happened subsequently if you haven't tried to run any upgrades into it. #1 and #2 could both result from shipping - new products are most likely to fail within the first few hours, or as a result of first shipping.

Email [email protected] and we'll get your player working ASAP.

Rob

Hard Drives do spool up.

I got a cable. It won't finish upgrading, it gets hung up at "Selecting Pump Device".

After finding pump it puts the empeg logo up, I can hear the hard drive start, then it hangs, just as it did when it got here.


Alex Lear

You've probably got a faulty hard disk or a disconnected HD cable then. Run hyperterminal, tell it to go direct to Com1, then boot the unit and tell us what it says...

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Tony Fabris

Tony,

It wasn't as simple as shipping the wrong cables. We moved to a new cable supplier, who manufacture their own parts, and supply vast quantities of them to OEM's. They're the cable experts, apparantly.

I ordered an appropriate null modem cable from them, which was duly delivered, and which has subsequently turned out to be a straight through cable. The part code that I ordered was correct, the code printed onto the bags is correct, the only problem is that someone in the factory spec'd them incorrectly. Apparantly every null modem cable they've supplied recently is wrong. Great experts huh?

So now we're going to have to Airmail ship about 200 replacement cables throughout the world. Cost of cable - around 80 cents. Cost of shipping each replacement - around 6 dollars. Add to that how incompetent the whole fiasco looks to our clients, and we're not happy chappies :-)

Rob

I have run hyperterminal and it comes up with about 25 characters of garbage. I probably have the settings wrong. What settings should I have in hyperterminal?


Alex Lear

Exactly my point. If it were me, I wouldn't rest until I could locate the person at the cable supplier who was responsible for the mistake and personally administer a dope-slap.

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Tony Fabris

> Ironically, I defered a year ago for the single reason I was waiting for the
> manufacturing and sofware bugs to be worked out

It's not a software bug - possibly a manufacturing glitch, but most likely something that has failed in transit. That happens with electronic parts, and although it's very regrettable that this has happened to you, overall our return rate for Mk.2's has been excellent (says he, touching wood).

I appreciate how frustrating this must be for you, but at least you can be assured that we will cover all costs in retrieving your player and getting a working one to you (if it proves necessary) as fast as we can.

Rob

I'm not sure what a dope-slap involves, and whilst it sounds like an attractive proposition I'll probably restrain myself to simply writing a scathing letter to their boss.

Rob

Hyperterminal should be set to the correct COM port, it should be direct-to the com port (not via a modem or anything), and it should be set to 115200 bits per second, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, and flow control:none.

A that point, you should be able to boot the player and see the text scroll by on the HT screen.

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Tony Fabris

I'm not sure what a dope-slap involves and whilst it sounds like an attractive proposition...

It's when you smack them on the back of the head and say, "You DOPE!"

I'll probably restrain myself to simply writing a scathing letter to their boss.

ShadowMan was right. You guys are too proper.

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Tony Fabris

OK, here are the last dozen or so lines on the serial line that are the problem. The player pauses at probing primary interface for about 10-15 Seconds.

RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
Probing primary interface...
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman ([email protected])

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:10:00:8
3
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Cannot open root device 03:05
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:05


There you go, what do you think?


Alex Lear

There you go, what do you think?

I think it's time for a new empeg.


After reading that bootup log, I'm sure Rob will be in touch. Hey, here's a thought: Can you see at least ONE hard disk through the holes atop the unit? Maybe the guys in Customs needed a disk upgrade for one of their laptops?

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Tony Fabris

Ya, there's a hard drive in there. Can you explain what the problem is from the log? Or at least translate the log into english?

Oh, and by the way, I'm not unhappy with empeg, just dissappointed. I realize this is rare.

Thanks,


Alex Lear

Can you explain what the problem is from the log?

Yeah, as suspected, it thinks there's no hard disks installed at all. That's the 15-second pause when it's trying to detect the primary disk drive.

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Tony Fabris