Rio Car will not boot up while in car sled! Help!!

I have a question about my RioCar / EMPEG Unit. Almost everytime the unit is placed in the Car Sled, it dosen’t boot up the first time. In fact, I’ve had to put it in, take it out, put it in, take it out, as many as 10 or so times before it boots up. It will lock right after the company logo is displayed. Occasionally, I’ll get a “No Harddrive Contact Support” error message, but 95% of the time, it will just hang on the “Rio Digital Audio” screen. Oddly enough, I’ve NEVER had a problem when it’s connected at my house via the barrel plug. I’m almost to the point of installing a AC-DC Converter into my car to get it to boot every time! I mean, it’s just plain stupid! What on earth could this problem be, and what are my options to get this problem resolved?

It sounds like it might be a wiring issue with the car sled. The player is likely not getting enough voltage to spin up the hard disks, at least not on the wires it needs to use to do that job. This might be because the sled has been incorrectly wired to the car, or it could be a fault with the sled's docking connector. Or it might be something as simple as using a heavier gauge wire to the car's battery instead of whatever it's currently connected to. Please scan through the Troubleshooting section of the FAQ (linked at the top of this page) and see what you can glean from that.

By connecting the serial cable and watching the bootup process in hyperterminal, would there be any indication of low voltage in the boot up process, or is that the only thing it could be, not something wrong with the unit itself or anything like that (at least that you can think of) My tempreature sensor dosen't work either (not that I think that has anything to do with anything) is there anyway that can easily be fixed, as I'm worried about how hot the unit gets in my setup.

Maybe a power wire on the docking connector is loose. This would cause intermittent results on DC only. Just wondering, when it does boot up, does it stay up then, or will it drop out once it starts properly?

It has never stopped working once it's booted up... That's what really bothers me about the senero of a loose power/ground/harddrive cable connection... One would think that if it has to do with that, it would *possibly* come loose in my car... Not to mention that I have two JL Audio 15" Subwoofers, and I've seen the rearview mirrors in cars in FRONT of me shaking... I have NO CLUE how it would not shake loose enough to lock up the player if my problem had to do with a "loose" connection...

It has never stopped working once it's booted up... That's what really bothers me about the senero of a loose power/ground/harddrive cable connection...

Keep in mind that the player needs its maximum amount of current at bootup time. It's spinning up both hard disks and warming up the display all at the same time.

This lends credence to the theory that perhaps the power supply wiring to the player is inadequate. Have you looked here?

Alright, check this out kids... So if you've been following my thread here we've talked about possibly faulty hard drive cables, bad grounds, etc. All of which I personally never thought could be the culprit (Sorry if i spelled that wrong, never knew how to spell that one ) But here's somfin I found that may have you all rethinking your accusations. So I usually, for securities sake, remove my unit EVERY NIGHT and take it inside with me. So, I bit my lip, and have decided to leave it in the car sled for about a week strait now. And what do ya know... EVERY SINGLE TIME, I turn the switch, It pop's right up, NO PROBLEMS... I'm REALLY leaning toward something being wrong with the sled, and or connector now. It seems that if I leave it there, nothing happens... If I always pull it out, and stick it back in, I seem to have to remove and insert it multiple times til it "clicks" and works... So has anyone heard of any faulty sleds and/or sled connectors. If so, what can I do about this?

The MkI sled connectors were a bit finnicky - tended to regularly accumulate dirt... At least caused static on the pins carrying the low level out signals. Cleaning with alcohol and tops helped, until next time.

For it not to spin up the drives properly, I'd suspect the power pins... Do you get the battery indicator? (But that seems to be coming on for other reasons in v2.0beta13 anyway)

/Michael

Some of the Mk2a sleds didn't have their top lips folded up. While I've never seen this be a problem in practice (it seems to fit in a slot in the back of the player's fascia just above the lens), it might be a problem for you.

See if you have the (slightly) defective sled, then see if it might actually be affecting the player's ability to completely enter the sled.

More information about this is available somewhere in the FAQ.

Have you removed the sled from the vehicle and inspected the wiring connections behind it? Have you inspected the docking connector on the player? Are you sure the sled is mounted correctly and the player is being fully inserted into the sled (as oppsed to "catching" on a piece of dash trim)?

Please look at these entries in the FAQ here and here.

Could also be that the car simply cannot supply enough power - especially if you are starting the car and the battery is weak. I would have your battery, and charging circuitry, checked out.

How old is the car battery?