Hey guys

I'm having problems with the latest beta software (beta11) -- it seems as though after applying the upgrade, I can't hit my Empeg over the serial port at all anymore.

I've checked my PC, nothing has changed with my settings. The serial ports are all enabled in the BIOS, and no conflicts are listed in the windows diagnostic page.

I thought maybe my serial cable had gone bad, but I've tried connecting with two cables on two different computers. Still no go.

I can't hit the player using my .ht HyperTerminal file or Tony's UPLOAD.EXE.

Any help troubleshooting this issue is greatly appreciated

I have not noticed any problems with serial communication since upgrading to beta 11.

There is a known problem with the config.ini file, documented here which might have a bearing. Check that.

At absolute worst, you should be able to do the following:

- Remove power from the car player.
- Run the 1.03 upgrade file.
- When the upgrade software prompts you to apply power to the player, do so.

That procedure completely bypasses all code on the player's hard disk and kernel, and directly flashes a new software build. So if beta 11 is giving you trouble, try that and see if everything goes back to normal.

FWIW I connected to my empeg (beta 11) using hyperterminal last night, with no problems. This was the first time I had used a serial connection since 1.03, and the .ht file was unchanged.

I would check the following:
Is anything using the serial port?. Do you have a palm or handspring with the hotsync software running.

Are you using the correct cable. You need a NULL modem (crossover) cable. A normal modem cable will not work.

Next I would double check my hyperterminal settings using
this link. Perhaps you have flow control turned on?

Let us know how you get on....

Peter

Did you also install hijack, and did you perhaps select forced car-mode? This would set serial speed to 9600 baud. You would still see some boot messages (not all) in hyperterm though

Duh, just re-read tonys post come up with the following cunning plan (Blackadder anyone?)

If you can connect to the player using emplode via serial, then this will prove out the cable and COM port, start looking at your hyperterminal settings.

If you can't connect using emplode then the problem lies in you cable or something grabbing the COM port.

Cheers
Peter

His initial post said that the serial problems only started with Beta 11, so I assumed he hadn't changed anything else.

i had some problems connecting via emplode as well via COM. after power down and power up i was able to reconnect, but upon doing a synch, i got a message that emplode could no longer communicate with the device.

i havent invested any more time to troubleshoot the problem any more, but it might be a bona fide problem.

-ted

Sorry Tony, the first line of my post [duh....]was aimed at myself. After I re-read your post I realised that half of what I said in my first reply would be proven / disproven if he could connect using emplode.

Sorry if it seemed that I was aiming at you.


Peter

Oh, OK, I see what you were saying now. Right. No offense was taken.

Still, wouldn't hurt to have him re-check the FAQ on using Hyperterminal. There's a lot of little troubleshooting tips scattered in that FAQ entry.