Cannot upgrade - problems with serial port.

Hey guys,

I've been running one of the v3 builds for far too long, and decided it was time to revert back to v2.01. However, I'm having problems with the upgrade - it fails on 'looking for player' (sic).

Testing with HyperTerminal as described in the FAQ also shows some weird behaviour. I see nothing from the player at all in the HyperTerminal screen. However, with the player up and running, typing 'Q<enter>' into HyperTerminal causes the player software to shut down - but there is still no response in the HyperTerminal window.

I have checked that the cable I'm using is a null-modem cable, and it does seem as though I can communicate with the player, but that the player cannot communicate back.

Any ideas?

For reference, it's v3.00 alpha 7 with Hijack v379 installed.

Check your flow control settings? Possibly a bad cable.

Likely to be bad serial cable, or the wrong type of serial cable. You need a crossover cable for connecting directly to the player, or a straight through cable if you're using the connector on the car sled.

Just tried a brand new null-modem cable with exactly the symptoms. To confirm, I'm connecting directly to the player - not through a dock. And I have checked my HyperTerminal settings, include flow control.

I also tried typing 'player', after typing 'Q' into HyperTerminal, which does, as expected, relaunch the player software. This confirms absolutely that the empeg is receiving the commands I send it, but doesn't explain why nothing is getting back to the PC.

Another interesting symptom - when attempting the upgrade, if the player is unplugged from the mains at the point when it says 'apply power now', the player does not boot when power is applied. The white LED pulses, but nothing else occurs. I need to cancel the upgrade wizard, unplug the empeg again, and plug it back in, before it'll then boot up.

Well, good news! I fired up my laptop and plugged the empeg into that, and hey presto, it worked first time! I can only presume that my the RX line on my workstation's serial port has somehow been fried (which as I never use it, I wouldn't have noticed).

The bad news is that my laptop is being replaced (it's a work machine) next month with a new one, which has no serial port. So as of next month I'm unable to connect to my empeg via serial. I know that there are issues with some USB->Serial convertors, but can anyone recommend one that they've had working fully?

Sometimes desktop machines which have only a single serial port on the back panel, will have a header on the motherboard into which you can plug a second serial cable and run it to a port that takes up a card slot backplate. You'd have to get detailed specs on your motherboard before knowing this, though.

This is another option.

Quote:
I know that there are issues with some USB->Serial convertors, but can anyone recommend one that they've had working fully?

All of them work fine for me here. But I don't use Windows.

Cheers