Freezing up on the road

I have about an hour of driving from my work to home. At about the 30 minute mark, my Rio will just freeze up... like it would if you pushed the pause button. The temp via Hijack's Vital Signs (I can still move around in the menu's) will be at about 113 - 118 F.

I'm guessing that it's overheating... not sure what temp it overheats at. If it is, how the hell do you keep it from overheating? Not like you can just jam a fan in there...

It should not overheat at 118 as far as I know. FAQ entry.

Although if there is a dodgy connection to the hard disks, extreme temperature shifts will tend to make the connection go bad...

Mine's been up at 55 C (131 F) without cutting out. You can put a fan in there if you want. Several people on the BBS including me have done it. Have a look here for instance.

I remember that thread. Damn good info...

I just wish I knew for sure that overheating was the prob before I go thru all that. I might just live with it... seems to only happen about twice a week. I pull over, turn the ignition off, start the car again and it's fine. May try reflashing tonight.

When you turn the ignition off does it turn off correctly? The other alternative is to simply pull the player to disconnect the power, wait a few seconds and push it back in. Saves you pulling over.

That sort of thing would really sh*t me though and I'd want to find out why it was happening. No else seems to be having this problem. There was a problem like this in 2.0b7 IIRC though.

Yeah, it turns off fine. If I try to reboot it via Hijack, I'll get a big screen with the linux penguin that says "Hard drive not found. Consult technical support." Same thing if I just pull out the Rio and push it back in.

However, if I actually turn the car off and turn it back on, it boots up fine. I've seen one post where someone had a similar prob, but it didn't really go anywhere...

Hey Rojo, I noticed the same symptoms, although mine don't happen till after an hour or so of driving.

On my empeg, the audio just quits, but everything else functions fine... Pulling the unit out of the dash to reboot it will fix it, but only for a few minutes. However, putting the Empeg in front of a vent blasting cold air will fix it for half an hour or so, so it looks like the audio circuitry is overheating and cutting out - btw, my digital temp sensor doesn't work, so one of the audio components must be hitting an internal temp cut. Turning down the volume helps too; I was running around 0db most of the time, using a 4V Alpine amp input.

My engine blew, and my amp was stolen while the shop was fixing the engine, so I won't be able to mess with this for a bit, but let me know if you figure anything out.

Empeg in front of a vent blasting cold air will fix it for half an hour or so, so it looks like the audio circuitry is overheating and cutting out - btw, my digital temp sensor doesn't work, so one of the audio components must be hitting an internal temp cut.

It is more likely that the heat caused a drive to fail rather than any audio circuitry. The disk drives are more suceptible to extreme temperatures than the audio electronics. Also, heat can sometimes make a spotty connection (such as a bad crimp on a disk drive cable) fail.

Perhaps, but the player still runs normalls, just no sound. I can go through all the menus, continue playing any track I like, and the visuals (I usually use the soundplot ones) keep acting like they're getting the proper digital input, I just don't get any sound out. The strange thing is that it seems to happen quicker at higher volumes. I get my car back tonight; no amp, but we'll see if it keeps doing it. I suppose it is possible that the amplifier itself was overheating; I'll investigate when I get a new amp.

Wade

Ah, interesting.

I'd say you're looking at a loose wire/connection somewhere then, either on the docking connector or internal to the player. Or perhaps an iffy cracked trace on a circuit board.

As far as I know, the disk drives will quit working before the audio quits working due to heat.

I'd contact support. It's not supposed to do that.

Unless of course it was just the amp's thermal limit circuit cutting in. On particularly hot days after several hours of driving, I sometimes have my amp do a thermal cutout.

Do you have any way of narrowing down whether it's the amp that stops making noise or the player? Some amps have an indicator LED labeled "protect" or something like that...

It is more likely that the heat caused a drive to fail rather than any audio circuitry.

Tony, what is the operating temprature for the laptop drives in question?

I linked the FAQ entry for that topic eariler in this thread. View this thread in "Flat" mode and scroll up.

everything really is in the FAQ!

Note to self check the FAQ before every post.

Unless of course it was just the amp's thermal limit circuit cutting in.

No, I don't think that is it. From an earlier post...

Pulling the unit out of the dash to reboot it will fix it, but only for a few minutes. However, putting the Empeg in front of a vent blasting cold air will fix it for half an hour or so

I don't think rebooting or cooling down the empeg is going to help the amplifier much.

Well... maybe. The amplifier will be powered off when the empeg is pulled from the dash. Perhaps just the 15 seconds or so it takes to reboot will allow the amplifier to cool enough to reset the thermal limit circuit. Seems unlikely, though...

tanstaafl.

The amplifier will be powered off when the empeg is pulled from the dash. Perhaps just the 15 seconds or so it takes to reboot will allow the amplifier to cool enough to reset the thermal limit circuit.

Right, that's what I was thinking might have happened.

Hey guys, this is my first post.

I seem to be having this same problem as Func, after using in car for about an hour, the Rio keeps playing but the sound cuts out. I pull it out of the dash and put it back, it works again, sometimes for awhile, sometimes for just a few minutes. No clue if its Amp or Rio Car.

"Do you have any way of narrowing down whether it's the amp that stops making noise or the player? Some amps have an indicator LED labeled "protect" or something like that... "

Mine is definitely Rio-related, since the amp I'm using is from my head-unit's built in amp. Altho my Rio keeps working, the songs don't keep playing like Func. It totally pauses. The time doesn't count down or anything, altho I have seen it mute like Func's problem once. Hijack's reboot function took care of that without having to remove the Rio, turn off the car, re-insert the Rio and turn the car back on. ;p

Sadly, re-loading the Rio's operating system didn't help either. I may be going to the extreme and installing the fan like Beak showed earlier. I've noticed that in the ventholes on the Rio's topside, all I can see is the hd cable... which I imagine is making for a nice air-barrier. If moving that to the side doesn't work, it's fan-installation time.

the songs don't keep playing like Func. It totally pauses. The time doesn't count down or anything,

This sounds like a different problem than what Func is describing. You could be looking at disk drive or cable problems in that case.

"This sounds like a different problem than what Func is describing. You could be looking at disk drive or cable problems in that case."

Then the player still wouldn't work when i reboot it...

Could be a temporary thing that corrects itself quicly? Dunno. My point is that it's not supposed to happen and most people don't get that problem.

NOTE: In this whole discussion I am assuming that if you are running Beta11 you are also running Hijack. If your player freezes with plain Beta11, that's a known "jiffies bug" in the beta11 kernel that's corrected by installing any recent release of Hijack.

I meant to post this a while back, but my problem was solved. Turns out that one of my tires was causing some vibration. Once I got new tires, the Rio never cut off again. Woohoo!

So make sure your Rio has a smooth ride.

If a mild tire vibration is enough to make the player cut out, I would seriously check the wiring and the internal cabling on the player. Especially make sure the disk drive cables are OK, the drive shock mounts haven't come undone, all of your wiring connections are soldered properly, and the wires are not pulling out of the crimps on the docking connector. The thing is designed to tolerate moderate vibration, and if it doesn't, there's something wrong with the installation or the player.

it was more than moderate when I reached higher speeds, in which it would almost feel like a push-lawnmower... can't be good for harddrives. I was just so used to it that I didn't think of it as a cause. I didn't take the actual Rio apart, but none of the outside connections were loose. It's been almost 5 months now and it's running beautifully.

And you didn't notice this for a while?

- Trevor

A constant severe vibration can cause the player to glitch or fall over completely. Even though we have several minutes of cache, if the cache can NEVER be filled obviously it is all going to come crashing down. This isn't a typical automotive problem, but we have seen this happen with some aviation installations.

Rob

Yeah, I did say "moderate".

In reply to:

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A constant severe vibration can cause the player to glitch or fall over completely. ...
we have seen this happen with some aviation installations.

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I would have to say, that if your Empeg falls over due to coninuous vibrations or turbulence whilst installed in your airplane.
Then I hazard a guess, that listening to music is probably the last thing on your mind!

If it happened to me, I would probably be reaching for the either the vomit bags or the parachute - whichever was available!

No nothing that severe - THAT's the kind of shock that the player can cope with very well. I mean the far less severe (but continuous) vibration you get from props and sometimes rotors. Some craft are better than others.

Rob

I've always noticed it... it just didn't occur to me that it could be the problem. I've been so used to the vibration for months it's like it wasn't even there. *shrug* I'm not the best car owner in the world I guess.. heh