Posted by: kpollari
No Hard Drive Found but only in car - 04/04/2005 19:30
I'm getting the above error but only when I use the empeg in the car. The error comes up pretty quickly. My MK2 as 2 20GB hard drives installed. The second drive was installed in the last 6 months. I also replaced the IDE cable a few years ago.
Could this be caused by low voltage?
The car starts easily but I think I'm at the end of my battery life. The battery is almost 5 years old.
Thanks,
Kermit
Posted by: kpollari
Re: No Hard Drive Found but only in car - 06/05/2005 13:08
Well I finally opened the empeg to see what the problem was. It turns out a portion of the IDE cable was touching the display board behind the buttons. A solder joint from one of the pins from the right menu button had worn a hole in the cable and was shorting it out. This also explains why the empeg would shut off when I pressed the right menu button. I think my problems were intermittent because of temperature changes.
Posted by: TigerJimmy
Re: No Hard Drive Found but only in car - 06/05/2005 18:14
This exact same failure happened to me a couple of years ago. Use hot melt glue to glue the cable to the top of the disks. You probably don't need a new cable if only one conductor is pierced, but I replaced mine.
Jim
Posted by: kpollari
Re: No Hard Drive Found but only in car - 10/05/2005 16:43
My problems reappeared shortly after fixing the short. So, I opened it up today and found dry solder joints on the IDE header. I had a co-worker solder the problem pins and the player is working again.
The empeg probably has a shortened lifespan when installed in a vehicle with a firm suspension. I hope I can get a few more years out of it. I've had it for 5 years.