Moderately concerned at this point....

I have just replaced a faulty IDE cable (faulty batch, apparently) under warranty, and after putting everything back together, it won't turn on. When I plug it in the standby LED doesn't even light.

Can anyone suggest what may be the problem before I get onto technical support? Now, I'm sure the first thought in everyone's head is I must have bumped something while it's apart, but I have sufficient confidence in my abilities that I would be VERY suprised if I did (although I won't of course rule this possibility out).

My hope (!) is that it may be to do with the fact that it has not been plugged in for a few months.... is there some flash memory or something which has died without power over time? Unfortunately I didn't think to test it before opening to see that all was ok. Any way to force a cold reboot? Any other suggestions people can suggest would be met with open arms.... after having it out of action for a while I was really looking forward to cranking it up, and sending it under warranty (if they will even honour it now) from Australia will be a real drag.

Many thanks for any help you can offer.

Empeg guru powers, activate!

Ben

Sure you don't have the IDE cable off by one pin? I assume you didn't remove the display board cable, but if you did, is it off by one pin?

Rob

Yup, as I recall, the last person who reported a player-won't-boot-after-replacing-cable problem, it was either plugged in backwards or plugged in off-by-one-pin.

Remember that the display cable actually interferes a bit with the IDE cable connector, so it's easy to get things off by one even if you don't think you did. You've got to be extra careful.

I might try to boot without harddisks... But, that's just me d=)

it's easy to get things off by one even if you don't think you did.

Perhaps not all drives look the same, but my 18 GB Travelstar actually looks more "correctly" plugged in when the connector is off by one pin. When that happens, you power up and... nothing happens.

tanstaafl.

Hmmm.... well, I was indeed a pin off on the cable which attaches to the board, so it now turns on. Huzzah! But, it doesn't get much further.... I can't hear any hard drive action, and after showing the boot animation, it just hangs here:

<img src=http://yoyo.its.monash.edu.au/~blipman/trash/empeg.jpg>

I assume something's still not right with the cables, or should it not even get this far if that's the case?
Confidence in my skills falling..... falling..... gone.

Ben

Plug the empeg into your computer with the serial connection and then use hyperterm or equivalent to look at what the empeg prints out on the serial port. Read this bit of the FAQ for exact details on how to do it. You don't need the developer version of the firmware loaded however as you're more interested in the boot up messages.

It should be a lot more informative about what's wrong. Paste it into a post on here so we can have a look at it.

- Trevor

Hmmm.... well, I was indeed a pin off on the cable which attaches to the board, so it now turns on. Huzzah! But, it doesn't get much further

Are you sure you weren't two pins off, and you only moved the connector over by one pin??

I seem to remember that one of my connectors (Sorry -- don't remember for sure if it was to the drive or to the board) showed two pairs of pins not covered by the connector when the connector was in the proper position.

tanstaafl.

Ok, you asked for it

Connecting via hyper terminal as per tman's insturctions gives this:

------------------------------
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kerne
Uncompressing Linux................................... done, booting the kernel.

Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg51-hijack-v294 ([email protected]) (gcc ve
rsion 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Sat Sep 21 11:00:35 EDT 2002
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 40103373)
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15072k/16M available (928k code, 20k r
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 636f6972 'rioc'
Scheduling custom logo.
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
Could not find CS4231A (version=e7)
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id ffff
USB: Non-standard request
USB: Non-standard request
USB: Non-standard request
USB: Non-standard request
USB: Non-standard request
USB: Non-standard request
USB: Non-standard request
... and continues ad nauseum.

-------------------------

Is that any help?

Ben

Um, that doesn't look good...

I'm guessing that you've blown one of the fuses on the board and that's whats making the empeg not work. It can't find the crystal semi audio chip and the USB chip. You can either try and replace the fuses yourself but it's quite fiddly surface mount work or send it in to be repaired.

- Trevor

Interesting. It's not getting far enough to even start to detect for the disk drive.

Unplug the drive cable completely, and then let's see a serial log.

Scheduling custom logo.
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
Could not find CS4231A (version=e7) < Oh Oh
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id ffff
USB: Non-standard request < Oh Oh 2


You have a damaged CS4231 chip, which brings down the power for the IDE, making it look as if the disk is not found.

Contact support.

Contact support.

Hmm... I thought you were support. I guess you meant "email support so I officially have to look at it"

Yeah, the missing CS chip worried me too. I didn't want to be the messenger with bad news though, and was hoping that maybe someone would know of an innocent non-support issue that could cause that.

Not sounding good, is it?

Ok, tried connecting via hyperterminal with the hard drive disconnected, and got this:

-------------------------------

ÿIf there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux................................... done, booting the kernel.

Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg51-hijack-v294 ([email protected]) (gcc ve
rsion 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Sat Sep 21 11:0
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 40103373)
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15072k/16M available (928k code, 20k reserved, 360k data, 4k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 636f6972 'rioc'
Scheduling custom logo.
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0004900).
empeg RDS driver initialised
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
Probing primary interface... (it waited here for several seconds)

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:d7:28:0d:2
d
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...Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:05

---------------------------

I then tried plugging the hard drive back in again and turned it on, and bingo, hard drive noise! It stuck at the "Hijack v2.94 by Mark Lord" initial screen. Turned it off, then on again, and once more, hard drive noise, this time it made it to where it did before (the logo screen after animated logo). It flashes for the very briefest of time the "hard drive not found, contact support" screen (something left in memory?). Hyperterminal at this point produced the following:

-----------------------------------------


ÿIf there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux................................... done, booting the kernel.

Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg51-hijack-v294 ([email protected]) (gcc ve
rsion 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Sat Sep 21 11:00:35 EDT 2002
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 40103373)
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15072k/16M available (928k code, 20k reserved, 360k data, 4k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 636f6972 'rioc'
Scheduling custom logo.
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialiseduest
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
USB: Non-standard request
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
USB: Non-standard request
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012d request
USB:
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0004a80).d request
USB: Non-standard request
empeg RDS driver initialised Non-standard request
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
USB: Non-standard request
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
USB: Non-standard request
empeg single channel IDEtandard request
Probing primary interface...ndard request
hda: ÆUÊIÔSÕ ÍHÍ2±0°AÔ                      , ATA DISK drive
USB: Non-standard request
USB: Non
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
USB: Non-standard request
SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:28:0d:2st
USB: Non-standard request
U
d:
Partition check:uest
hda: read_intr: error=0x10
hda: read_intr: status=0x59
hda: read_intr: error=0x10
ide0: reset: success
hda: read_intr: status=0x59
hda: read_intr: error=0x10
hda: read_intr: status=0x59
hda: read_intr: error=0x10
hda: read_intr: status=0x59
hda: read_intr: error=0x10
hda: read_intr: status=0x59
hda: read_intr: error=0x10
ide0: reset: success
hda: read_intr: status=0x59
hda: read_intr: error=0x10
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:01 (hda), sector 0
> hda2 hda3 hda4
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...X]]Y[\]fs: unable to read superblock
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:05

---------------------------------

which is strangely different to what it was doing before. It consistently gets to this point now. The only mild comfort I get from all this is that at least the hard drive now spins up and does a small read or write when I turn it on.

Ben

Hmm... that makes me wonder if maybe the IDE was bringing down the CS chip, not the other way around.

But, I don't have the schematics for the player - I assume that Rob does.

ISTR the 4231 is definitely on the 5v side of the bus (hence would be affected by a faulty HDD or cable fiddling with the signals). I think the USB slave *might* be too - don't have the cct diagrams to hand.

As the player works much better with the HDD not plugged in, I suspect:

- HDD
- Cable
- HDD header on PCB

Got another HDD to try it with?

Hugo

You broke it Ben!!