No hard disk found

The streak has ended. After over five years without a problem, I loaded the empeg into my car today and there was Tux with a friendly message of "No hard disk found. Contact support."

*sigh*

It's been a little frustrating for me lately in regards to my car stereo. First the left channel kept crapping out on me, and somehow Rob fixed that. Then recently I went a couple weeks without being able to turn the volume up past -32dB or else it would get all distorted. My installer took a look at it, found the fuse in the system was faulty, replaced that and I had a whole day of no-problem music listening. Then this.

Please help! I've never so much as opened my empeg up, and the thought of it scares me. This is my only child and I don't want to lose it! Does it sound like the hard drive cable has come loose? Did the hard disk simply fail? Is it something else? I'm going to try to open it up, but I can't seem to find a proper size hex tool around here. I'll keep looking.

I had taken it out of the car this morning to load some new CDs on it. When I went to synchronize, it was taking a really long time on the "checking disk integrity" part, so I left it to go get breakfast. I came back about an hour later and the player was turned off and emplode was just sitting there, so I assumed it has completed successfully.

Damn.

Thanks for any help you guys can give me.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: No hard disk found - 12/03/2006 16:38

Quote:
Well, you know the drill by now, serial log blah blah

Code:

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 kerne  

l.  

Linux version 2.2.17-rmk5-np17-empeg52-hijack-v410 ([email protected]) (gcc version 

2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Wed Aug 4 00:27:49 EDT 2004

Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11

Checking for extra DRAM: 

c0c00000: wrote ffffffff, read e91ba9f0 

NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.  

empeg-car player (hardware revision 7, serial number 80000408) 12MB DRAM

Command line: mem=12m

Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS  

Memory: 10952k/12M available (984k code, 20k reserved, 328k 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)

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 67706d65 'empg' 

Found custom animation at offset 0x9937c

Tuner: loopback=0, ID=-1  

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 d0005800).

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...

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:d7:10:01:9

8

RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0

RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.

EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended

VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).

empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)

Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...el panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:05

Quote:
take off lid blah blah

Done.

Quote:
tell us what colour stripe the cable has blah-di-blah etc. etc.

It looks like a black stripe to me.

At the very least, this has prompted me to finally buy another hard drive. I just picked up an 80GB drive. Can't wait to load all my music on there

I just have to get this working now...

Posted by: Dignan

Re: No hard disk found - 13/03/2006 03:29

Well, it turned out to be pretty simple. I opened the player up and lifted out the drive tray. I then saw that the cable was half off the main board. I pushed that into place, plugged in the player and it started up right where my playlist left off.

However, this opportunity seemed like a good one to have a go at upgrading my capacity. So I followed the instructions in the FAQ, which were a bit scary for someone who's never seen the inside of his own empeg, but I soldiered through.

Once finished, I booted up with hyperterminal running and it indicated it could see the two drives. I then launched emplode to check my new capacity, and was disappointed to see it still at 11GB.

I'm pretty sure I know the problem, though, so I'm not too worried. The drive I bought was a Western Digital (it was the only brand I recognized in the store), but the only problem is it didn't come with a jumper. I gave it a go to see if it would work without one. I guess it didn't. Does it sound like if I just get a jumper, the problem will be fixed? And if so, my next problem is that I can't find any documentation telling me what the jumper settings are (and no, it's not written on the drive). Anyway, here's what hyperterminal has to say:
Code:

Probing primary interface...ress.cpp189 (14 
hda: IBM-DARA-212000, ATA DISK drive
hda: IBM-DARA-212000, ATA DISK drive: Spinning up.est complete:
hda: IBM-DARA-212000, ATA DISK drive

hda: IBM-DARA-212000, ATA DISK drive
hda: IBM-DARA-212000, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: IBM-DARA-212000, 11513MB w/418kB Cache, CHS=23392/16/63
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:d7:10:01:9
8
Partition check:
 hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...hange_root: old root has d_count=1
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 4k init  player.cpp  : 385:empeg-car 2.00-be
ta13 2002/07/24.
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Jul 24 2002
Vcb: 0x4054d000

Posted by: Shonky

Re: No hard disk found - 13/03/2006 09:40

Well as you can see, there's no mention of the Western Digital anywhere.

Currently, you'll have the IBM as the primary and the WD should be the slave. It might or might not need a jumper to make a slave - depends on the manufacturer. You could try just a boot without the IBM (doesn't matter which connector) and you should see just the WD drive instead.

The drive should have diagram on it for the jumper settings before you go rushing to the store to get one.

Personally I'd set the new WD to be the primary (since it's the newer and hopefully more reliable) and the old IBM as a slave after building both drives with the builder image. That way if either drive dies, your empeg should still somewhat work although you might have to disconnect the dead drive.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: No hard disk found - 13/03/2006 10:56

I'm not too hot on loosing all the music that's already on there. I'll think about it though.

And I eventually found a PDF that shows how the jumpers are set.

Does anyone know a physical store that sells jumpers in the DC area?

Posted by: Shonky

Re: No hard disk found - 13/03/2006 11:19

Why would you lose anything?

I'm not suggesting removing the old IBM. Just make it the secondary drive. For most intents and purposes it won't make any difference really. The WD drive will fill up first (assuming it's bigger) until the drives have equal space left. Then the software will alternate between drives until they are full.

And then if you wanted to go to 1 drive, assuming the WD has enough space, you can move all the files from the old drive to the new drive while on the empeg. Not super fast, but not super slow either.

Posted by: mlord

Re: No hard disk found - 13/03/2006 11:58

Check that the new drive is jumpered as "slave" (you MUST manually do this, as the factory default is never "slave").

Also, go into the Hijack menu, to the Hard Disk Detection setting, and ensure it is set for One or Two Drives.

Cheers

Posted by: JBjorgen

Re: No hard disk found - 13/03/2006 12:37

PM me your address and I'll drop a couple in an envelope and send 'em your way. I had to buy a minimum of 10 or so when I bought mine.

Posted by: JBjorgen

Re: No hard disk found - 13/03/2006 17:06

I'm in South Carolina, so I'd imagine you'll get them tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: No hard disk found - 13/03/2006 18:06

Thanks again. I'll let you know if it works.

Posted by: Shonky

Re: No hard disk found - 13/03/2006 19:34

Sorry poor choice of words. The IBM is already "built". There is no need to rebuild it. In the end both will be built so either will work if the other dies.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: No hard disk found - 14/03/2006 01:40

Sorry, I've just been a little frazzled by this whole process. It's a little nerve wracking to do on my only empeg.

So I tried removing the IBM disk from the cable and plugging in the WD drive. When I tried opening emplode, I had problems. It saw the empeg, and it started going through the process. When it got to the "checking media" part, I got a Windows error and emplode crashed. So I fired up hyperterminal and this is what I saw:

Code:

Probing primary interface...Poll result=0 on fd=514): Po
hda: WDC WD800VE-07HDT0, ATA DISK drive14 
hda: WDC WD800VE-07HDT0, ATA DISK drive
Stressing /dev/hd
hda: WDC WD800VE-07HDT0, ATA DISK drive


ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: WDC WD800VE-07HDT0, 76319MB w/8192kB Cache, CHS=9729/255/63
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:d7:10:01:9
8
Partition check:
 hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...change_root: old root has d_count=1
okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 4k initVFS: Can't find an ext2 filesystem on dev i
de0(3,4).
  player.cpp  : 385:empeg-car 2.00 2003/04/01.
! tags.cpp :  61:Failed to open tags (0xc0041002).
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Mar 26 2003
Vcb: 0x4054d000

What does it all mean?

Posted by: Shonky

Re: No hard disk found - 14/03/2006 01:57

Your HyperTerminal set up is munging the logs a bit, so things are a little hard to interpret.

The WD drive is showing up as a primary which is good.

The "Stressing /dev/hd" tends to imply that you still have the builder image on that drive. However it then appears the player software runs. Perhaps HyperTerminal is remembering an old session?

Are you sure you applied the builder image to the new drive AND then applied the developer image?

Posted by: Dignan

Re: No hard disk found - 14/03/2006 04:27

Quote:
Are you sure you applied the builder image to the new drive AND then applied the developer image?

I was absolutely certain. 100%

I was wrong. I had the consumer image. Crud.

I'm loading the developer image now. I never did like the way the download page is layed out...

Posted by: Shonky

Re: No hard disk found - 14/03/2006 04:30

Again a bad choice of words...

You don't need the developer image, but there's not a lot of point in not having it. However you must apply either the consumer or the developer image after the builder image has built the drive to actually use the empeg.

Your log showed a message that only appears in the builder image. That's why I'm confused.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: No hard disk found - 14/03/2006 04:40

I'm not sure how good that log is. I think I may have copied some past information in there. I can't read the thing, so if it scrolls past a page, I don't know where that session began.

So I installed the developer image anyway. You're right, it doesn't make a difference. When I select the player in emplode, it gets to the "Checking media" portion and says it's checking the integrity, at which point the player restarts and then emplode crashes. I'm giving up for tonight. I have to get some sleep...

Thanks for the help, though.

Posted by: Shonky

Re: No hard disk found - 14/03/2006 04:54

Hmmm. I'm not real sure then. I'd probably try doing a manual fsck like this if it's crashing or something while "checking media". Without the second drive you don't need to do the lines with hdc in them.

The manual fsck (which requires the developer image you now have

) might provide some clues as to what's happening since you'll be able to see any errors generated.

Edit: I'm basing this purely on the fact that I assume "Checking Media" is doing a fsck. Perhaps it's something like the swap partition isn't working properly.

Posted by: Roger

Re: No hard disk found - 14/03/2006 08:04

Quote:
I can't read the thing, so if it scrolls past a page, I don't know where that session began.

The Copy/Paste functionality in Hyperterminal is severely screwed up. Either use the File / Capture Log menu item (I think that's what it's called) to save the log to a file, or use a different serial terminal program (like TeraTerm).

Posted by: Dignan

Re: No hard disk found - 14/03/2006 11:57

I'll try that when I get home tonight. I don't suppose the attached emplode log is of any help...

(it's just the end of the log, since the whole log was too big to attach)

Posted by: tfabris

Re: No hard disk found - 14/03/2006 13:45

Quote:
The Copy/Paste functionality in Hyperterminal is severely screwed up.

Yeah, I should make the FAQ entry more clear on that.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: No hard disk found - 14/03/2006 14:11

I updated the Wiki's copy. Feel free to copy what I did or replace it on the Wiki, too, if what you come up with is better.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: No hard disk found - 14/03/2006 14:18

I was probably editing the real FAQ at the same time you were updating the wiki.

And now we see the desynchronization inherent in the system. Help, help, I'm being usurped.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: No hard disk found - 14/03/2006 14:58

Like I said, if yours is better, fix it there.

Posted by: schofiel

Re: No hard disk found - 14/03/2006 17:24

"The peasants are revolting!"

"Yeah, they don't smell so good, do they?"

Ah ha ha I'm so funny

Posted by: Dignan

Re: No hard disk found - 15/03/2006 02:34

I've attached the latest log. This is what I get when I just have the Western Digital drive plugged in.

This drive has had the disk builder applied and then the developer image. I thought I followed the instructions correctly, but I wouldn't be suprised if I screwed something up.

Please help!

Posted by: Shonky

Re: No hard disk found - 15/03/2006 02:52

Yuck. Hyperterminal sucks for this. We need to find something free and easy to use for grabbing boot logs. That log still has builder image stuff in it ("spinning down", "hdstress.cpp" etc) but also has developer image text in it. Personally I use a bought version of SecureCRT. SerialWatcher here is good for just capturing (I use it all the time when developing protocols for work) but isn't a terminal and as such won't let you issue commands at a shell prompt to fsck for example.

Anyway, it *looks* like the image is OK. Tried the fsck yet?

As far as I am aware the builder image works correctly on 80GB drives. I know it has problems with 100GB and higher. Perhaps, it created something incorrectly. Personally I built my 80GB by hand using Roger's instructions.

Posted by: Shonky

Re: No hard disk found - 15/03/2006 04:54

OK to update everyone else, I helped Matt out via MSN and it appears to be sorted.

It appears that the builder image partitioned the drive correctly (all 6 partitions), but did not actually create the ext2 filesystem on the music partition (i.e. the big one - /dev/hda4). I helped him create the file system on the empeg manually from the shell i.e. the root partition and filesystem worked and had all the binaries. Also the swap partition appeared to work fine too. All is good now apparently with both drives fitted. I believe he's synced successfully as well.

I thought the builder broke above 100GB. Perhaps it's >=80GB drives that break it?

edit: I see the Drive Upgrade Guide mentions >60GB drives can cause problems.

Posted by: Roger

Re: No hard disk found - 15/03/2006 06:15

Quote:
We need to find something free and easy to use for grabbing boot logs.

I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it: TeraTerm.

Posted by: JBjorgen

Re: No hard disk found - 15/03/2006 11:21

I'll second TeraTerm, even though I use SecureCRT myself.

Posted by: mlord

Re: No hard disk found - 15/03/2006 12:28

(c)kermit.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: No hard disk found - 15/03/2006 12:42

Big, huge thanks go out to Christian for helping me out on this. He was great and walked me through what needed to be done. I'm now up to 85GB which should hold me for a while

Thanks also to John for the jumper, which I did end up putting on the IBM to make it the slave - just in case.

I now have the room to reencode my MP3s at a higher bitrate. I'll have to find a time to start that project...

Thanks again everyone! It was a scary process and I don't think I'll try it again until I've found a second empeg for a backup. Still, I'm glad I did it.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: No hard disk found - 15/03/2006 17:00

Third, although TeraTerm's configuration is clunky.

Posted by: Roger

Re: No hard disk found - 15/03/2006 19:11

Quote:
Third, although TeraTerm's configuration is clunky.

Agreed. To make it easier, here's my empeg-com1.ini file. Just drop it in the C:\Program Files\TTERMPRO directory and add /f:empeg-com1.ini to the shortcut that starts TeraTerm.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: No hard disk found - 15/03/2006 20:43

Oh, and for those of you using USB serial ports and getting ports like COM8, you need to modify teraterm.ini and add or change the "MaxComPort" variable to 8 or 16 or whatever you like.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: No hard disk found - 18/03/2006 05:25

So, bad news.

I put the whole thing back together, and listened to my empeg on the way to work. At the end of the day I start my car to go home, and there it is. "No hard disk found, contact support." So I take it home and open it up. The cables didn't look disconnected, but I made sure they were all in there firmly. I powered it up and everything looked fine. So I put it back in my car and played it normally for the next day. Then tonight I got the message again.

So is it the cable? If so, where do I get new cables?

Posted by: CrackersMcCheese

Re: No hard disk found - 18/03/2006 10:55

I'll be honest - I can't be bothered reading the entire post, but have you thought of a dry solder joint on the ide header?

Posted by: Dignan

Re: No hard disk found - 18/03/2006 15:09

I don't think I've ever thought of soldering anything. I've never done it before, and I'm not so sure I'm willing to do it for the first time on my empeg. My only empeg.

Posted by: CrackersMcCheese

Re: No hard disk found - 18/03/2006 16:12

No sorry I just meant that a poor solder joint could be the problem. It would give the intermitent symptoms your seeing.

Theres been a lot of posts with that problem with some photos. Open it up and take a look - do the pins look like they've risen up from the board?

Like this...

Posted by: Schido

Re: No hard disk found - 18/03/2006 17:09

Or maybe it is just the same problem as i had, the ide cable slipping of due to the vibrations in the car.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: No hard disk found - 18/03/2006 19:51

Ah, I see what you mean. My appologies, I haven't looked at most of these problem posts, so I'm not too familiar with most of the issues, despite being around for a while

The next time it fails I'll check that. I went to open it up today and it's functioning properly...for now. I'm sure it'll happen again, though.

Thanks!

Posted by: Shonky

Re: No hard disk found - 19/03/2006 02:43

It doesn't need to fail for you to inspect it. Just look at the solder joints holding the header on to the PCB. They should be shiny. If they are dull then you need to got someone to rework them (basically just reheating, maybe adding a touch of solder - a televsion technician or someone like that could easily do it for you. If the header has pins which have lifted off the board they'll need resoldering too of course.

You really need to disassemble the whole thing though to get the motherboard out of the empeg to fix up any soldering problems properly.

Posted by: schofiel

Re: No hard disk found - 19/03/2006 13:08

...or a bad crimp on the cable (more likely).

Posted by: tanstaafl.

Re: No hard disk found - 20/03/2006 17:10

I don't think I've ever thought of soldering anything. I've never done it before, and I'm not so sure I'm willing to do it for the first time on my empeg.

Before you even think about doing such a thing, read through this thread.

This is something best left to the professionals.

tanstaafl.

Posted by: oliver

Re: No hard disk found - 27/04/2006 23:52

Quote:
my buddies empeg is doing the exact same thing. It didn't help when his stereo rack fell over and the empeg got crushed by a 40 pound hafler pro 2400 amp

If anyone cares I just figured out what the actual problem is in this unit, and it's way beyond my knowledge. The headers which David at Empeg Support fixed held up great, maybe just a little too good. Because I've got at least 8 IDE pads pulled directly off the motherboard. I'm not even sure if this can be repaired.

Any thoughts?

No hard disk found