So, I pick up my new Mk2a from Fedex yesterday and wanted to clone my music from my old Mk2 (serial # 32 with a 6 and many zeros before it). The new serial number is actually "lower" than my old unit. Brilliant!

What to do? I ended up installing an ftp server on the old unit and an ftp client on the new one. I installed the ftp server with directions from this post. I installed the ftp client with instructions from this one. (Mostly because I hadn't fooled with debian package manager before, and wanted to get this to work quickly)

Things were going well. I left the mget command go overnight while all the fids came down to the new player. I woke this morning to see segfaults scrolling past me through hyperterminal on the new player. After that, things were never the same.

When I powered down and back up, it complained that it couldn't mount the filesystem. I tried re-applying the Developer 1.03 image. It reflashes, but I got an error that said BAD PUMP in the upgrade tool.

I then tried to load the "builder image". That flash worked too, but it stalls when it says something like, "selecting pump device". Also, when I try to just start the player itself, I get a screen that says No hard disk found, contact support.

Now it seems I can't hyperterminal in either. When I try to load it up, Hyperterminal just closes on me, after the splash screen.

Boy, it would be nice if either the serial numbers weren't so screwed up, or the clone tool would allow you to clone what you wanted to.

I'm not too worried about getting this working again, as I've seen time and time again that there's no real way to "break" it. The thing that sucks is that I don't know that this was a perfectly working player before, as I just got it.

I'll be contacting support, but if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Chris

I've had the "bad pump problem" on my player and the only way I've found to overcome it is by repetitive applications of the .upgrade package. Don't give up hope and keep trying to re-apply the .upgrade file you had on there last. I'll bet it will eventually take.

Good luck,
Tim

I had the same problem. Only right out of the box. The problem... badly crimped/loose HD cable.
Solution: I opened up my Empeg and gently straigten the wire a bit and push the cable back completly connecting it to the drive. I also called empeg and their sending me a new cable since this on still cuts out once and a while.

This might be your problem.. the cable could have had a connection then lost it after a bit and thats why your empeg is saying there is no drive, etc...

-Greg

Errors with "Selecting pump device" might be either hardware/cabling problems with either the serial port or the disk, or perhaps a bad copy of the .upgrade file.

Try re-grabbing the .upgrade file with GetRight and see if it fixes the problem.

For the record, there is a FAQ entry on this.

• Obviously, your Hyperterminal closing cannot have anything to do with empeg. It is just a serial terminal emulator.
• 'Bad pump...' problem as well as the disk not being visible are probably due to infamous bad IDE cable. I am in the same situation - awaiting replacement (they are out of them currently - David says they will have more next week).
• ftp segfaults are probably also there due to the disk drive being pulled out from under its feet. However, just in case, run a memory test once you get Hyperterminal running (IIRC, ctrl-T the moment you switch the power on)
• I am not sure whether that is necessary, but try enabling swap when copying (swapon /dev/hda6/)

One comment (although I don't know what good it will do now that all the units are sold) but I ordered two RioCars - one for me and one for my brother-in-law who doesn't have net access that often. Mine, made in June of 2001 was a 10gb unit and had the gap between the face and the handle. It came in a white box. The white box was inside of a bigger box for shipping that contained about ... 4 or 5 styrofoam peanuts. Obviously it encountered a lot of abuse because it wasn't packed right. THIS one has the drive cable problem.

The other one, a 20GB model was made in March of 2001 and DIDN't have the gap in the face, and was packed safely in a brown "Rio" box (that said "Quantity = 5" on it ??). Each unit was packed a little differently as well... This unit DIDn'T have the cable problem.

So, I am not sure if the cable problem is related to the differant assembly dates at all or if the packing increased the odds of something going amiss...

The white box was inside of a bigger box for shipping that contained about ... 4 or 5 styrofoam peanuts

Boy, did you ever get ripped off. My shipping box contained at least two dozen styrofoam peanuts!

It must have made a difference, because I had no cable problems.

tanstaafl.

You got 4 or 5 peanuts? Lucky b*stard. I got none with my new 20GB, just the white box inside the brown box! I haven't tried the player yet though (being in essence a spare at the moment). When I was a child we couldn't even afford styrofoam peanuts, we had to use dirt and broken glass to pack our empegs....(apologies to M.P's.F.C.)

-Zeke

Aww man! I got zero peanuts and a brown box inside a brown box!
I fired up the new one and it booted, but I think I might clone it and use it for a bit. I had my original empeg replaced early last year, and the replacement had the IDE cable problem after a few days of use, not right away. I figure it might be best to verify it's a good cable instead of trying to track one down years from now when I pull the spare out of storage...

Wait... you guys had your Empeg shipped with packing material? Mine was just a small box inside a big box with nothing. They just threw it in there and the inside empeg box can bounce freely.

Calvin

Mine had 14 green packing peanuts. WTF. MORE evidence that Digital River should be disbanded.

I still have the box i looked again, not even 1. You lucked out Loren, 14 whole packing peanuts? I've been cheated.

Calvin

zero makes more sense than 14!!! heheh. I mean, why even waste your time and effort putting in FOURTEEN peanuts. Absolutely pointless!

hmmm, mine was a white box inside a bigger box with a few zillion peanuts both in the bigger box and smaller box, with the empeg unit suspened in some styrofoam packing sides.
But then again I am a International customer and it came from the good ol Empeg guys who know how to pack these baby's!!

Mine arrived this morning and had a few dozen peanuts. It was a brown box insize a bigger brown box. The were enough peantus that it probably helped a little, but not nearly as many as there should have been.