Windows DMS Hack Tools v2.3 - Bug Reports

[dippdydo22]

Hope I didn't speak too soon.  For some reason, I cannot get the hack to take on the Phatbox.  I have tried powering the head unit up, disconnecting the cable to the Phatbox (3 x) and all other methods you suggest in the instructions.  It just doesn't seem to be kicking in.  Instead, there is the normal 2 - 3 second delay and then music starts playing.  I am attaching the log files per the instructions.  I had to zip one of them up, as I exceeded the maximum size the first time I tried posting this.

Thank you for whatever assistance you can provide!

Dippdy

[dippdydo22]

I finally got the hack to work on the Phatbox...  I tried it one more time, and it seemed to take this time.  It did reboot several times, but I kept switching it back to the Phatbox as the source and voila, success.  I ran it back through the wizard and it said it was successful.

Now, I am trying to create my new DMS, and am running into issues with it.  I keep receiving the same error:  Creating DMS Failed.  Check log for more.  I am attaching the log file.
 Where it errors, it says:

Drive preparation successful.  Downloading firmware files...
...downloaded successfully....
...extracting contents...
...extraction failed, unable to continue.  Error(s) returned:
ERROR: Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Program Files\PhatHack\PhatHack DMS Tools\Downloads\Volkswagen-Native\Temp\TTS\'.
Completion time: 00:17:24.

Any ideas?

Thanx!

dippdy

[VorTechS]

Yes, I've just taken another report with the same issue.
Are you running Windows Vista by any chance?

I'm away for a few days, and don't think I'm going to get a chance to take a look at this until next monday - but will do so as soon as I get back.

If you are running Windows Vista - then I think the issue is security based because the firmware is being extracted to the application folder which Vista probably doesn't like.  Have a look and see if you can find any ways around this in the meantime and try again.  If not, I'll modify the code next monday to perform the extraction to the 'Documents' folder where there should be no security issues.  And if it's not security, then I've done something stupid that hasn't shown up on the alpha testers machines.

[dippdydo22]

I am not on Vista at all.  I am on xp.  I will work on it some more to see if I can modify my xp settings to allow it to happen.

Also, I apologize.  I believe I have put my comments in this thread mistakenly.  Per your instructions, did you want new issues to go into a different thread?  If so, is there a way I can move mine or delete them and create new?

Thanks so much!

Dippdy

[mscheaf]

I don't know, I can't get it to work at all. First of all, it says DMS not detected. The dms is plugged in and detected by windows 2000, so it is there. Second if I click on run hack wizard, i get a big long nasty exception error. it says "Index and length must refer to a location within the string. Parameter name: length." Which i assume is because since it does not detect my dms, the length string is probably empty and your program doesn't know what to do with empty strings. That is just a guess, since i really haven't looked at your code.

Why would it not detect my dms? It is an old 10Gb one from the original music keg 710 model.

[VorTechS]

I don't know, I can't get it to work at all. First of all, it says DMS not detected. The dms is plugged in and detected by windows 2000, so it is there. Second if I click on run hack wizard, i get a big long nasty exception error. it says "Index and length must refer to a location within the string. Parameter name: length." Which i assume is because since it does not detect my dms, the length string is probably empty and your program doesn't know what to do with empty strings. That is just a guess, since i really haven't looked at your code.

Why would it not detect my dms? It is an old 10Gb one from the original music keg 710 model.

Please attach the log files found under My Documents\PhatHack Media Manager\Logs and I'll take a look at the drive snapshot to see if I can work out what's causing the problem.  The reason your DMS may not being detected is because in all the test results I have had in the past, the DMS is reported by windows as being a 'Phatnoise USB' device.  It's possible that this is not the case with all cradles/drives manufactured.

Secondly, there is a portion of code extracting the device letter from the combo box and I suspect that the lack of string (as you suggest) is causing problems thene.  BTW, the SVN is not up-to-date with this code yet, since sourceforge changed the SVN access I need to backup the code and re-generate the Tortoise SVN folders.

I am not on Vista at all.  I am on xp.  I will work on it some more to see if I can modify my xp settings to allow it to happen.

Also, I apologize.  I believe I have put my comments in this thread mistakenly.  Per your instructions, did you want new issues to go into a different thread?  If so, is there a way I can move mine or delete them and create new?

Thanks so much!

Dippdy

Ah okay, then maybe this is another case of some instances of operating systems not creating folders properly, or the .NET 2.0 frameworks behaving in different ways.  In some tests I found that on my machine folders were being generated using a double backslash, and getting away with it but others not, something I thought I got rid of - could be one left in.  Could also be the extraction is going to a folder that hasn't yet been created.  I'll check out both when I return from vacation.  As I sort of hinted at before, check the destination path exists, with relevant security rights and you might actually complete the DMS creation.

[mscheaf]

Windows 2000 pro (yes i know its old, but after this long its 99.9% stable) reports the device as being 'usb-hs Phatnoise DMS 10 USB Device". it lists this under USB Mass Storage Device. It assigns it drive letter I: and J: both. My cradle is a "Phatnoise DMS USB2 rev A"

Log is attached



Thanks alot. If need be, I can do this on one of my XP machines, I just have my music on this machine so I do it here. Plus this machine is a Athlon 3700+ 2.2 GHZ that I have overclocked to 2.9 so it is obviously my favorite

[dippdydo22]

I checked and all of the folders are there.  It appears the path to the folder matches the path from the error message.  I am not sure how I can adjust the security on the folders so that it can extract the files to that directory.  I am not very good with XP.  Any ideas?

Thanks!

Dippdy

[funkdr_1999]

Hi VorTechS,

I, too, am having problems having the DMS Hack Tools recognize my DMS.  I have tried connecting two seperate DMS's, a 10 Gig and a 20 Gig, on two different computers and all combinations have not been able to see the disks on the pull down. 

I'm not sure if this is the log you need, but here is is as follows:


Win32_Drive List
----------------

      Starting device evaluation:
      Determining device signature...
      done.
   Disk ID: 0
   Disk Name: Maxtor 6L300R0
   PnP Device: IDE\DISKMAXTOR_6L300R0__________________________BAJ41G20\364C51315348485A202020202020202020202020
   Disk Unique ID (not serial!): 83D90F4

      Partitions List
      ---------------
      Partition: Disk #0, Partition #0
      Drive: C:
      Serial #: 40C26877




      Partitions List
      ---------------
      Partition: Disk #0, Partition #1
      Drive: M:
      Serial #: A0C45FAC



      Device evaluation complete.
      Next device evaluation:
      Determining device signature...
      done.
   Disk ID: 1
   Disk Name: ST3250623A
   PnP Device: IDE\DISKST3250623A______________________________3.04____\5&C99E0DE&0&0.1.0
   Disk Unique ID (not serial!): 791B350

      Partitions List
      ---------------
      Partition: Disk #1, Partition #0
      Drive: D:
      Serial #: 5844ACDA



      Device evaluation complete.
      Next device evaluation:
      Determining device signature...
      Error occured during drive snapshot:
System.InvalidCastException: Conversion from type 'DBNull' to type 'Integer' is not valid.
   at Microsoft.VisualBasic.CompilerServices.Conversions.ToInteger(Object Value)
   at StandAloneDMSHackWizard.frmStartupWizard.TakeDriveSnapshot(String Logdir, String Logfile, DiskSnapshot[]& AttachedDisks)
   Succeeded....enumerating devices....
      Device 1
         Checking device name for USB context...
         Not a USB labelled device.
      Device 2
         Checking device name for USB context...
         Not a USB labelled device.
      Device 3
         Checking device name for USB context...
         Not a USB labelled device.
   Device enumeration complete.
Starting Device Listing....
   Getting Device Snapshot....

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks a lot.

Harry

[VorTechS]

Thanks for the info on these.

dippdydo22: the logs show an error whilst querying WMI because Windows 2000 doesn't support the WMI properties being used to get the disk information.  I'll do some research on this and see if there is a different way of getting the properties required.

funkdr_1999:  Your problem is one that came up during the beta that someone got round by removing some USB devices that weren't needed - I think specifically it was a card reader.  I put some debugging in should it occur again, and yu've helped narrow this down with your attached logs.  Thanks.  I'll look into this on Monday and hopefully you'll be able to get further with this.

[judb]

does your application check to make sure the WMI services are in the correct state? not disabled, running whatever?

There are a lot of people who follow system 'tuning' guides that have you disable a bunch of services and WMI is usually included.

[VorTechS]

I don't think it's possible to actually fully disable WMI - as Windows itself relies on WMI, and as I'm using the .NET framework to interact with WMI via WMI messaging my assumption would be that WMI would return no records where this is the case.

If you can give me some specifics on how people are disabling WMI I'll check out the app. with the relevant things disabled to be sure.

[VorTechS]

      Error occured during drive snapshot:
System.InvalidCastException: Conversion from type 'DBNull' to type 'Integer' is not valid.
   at Microsoft.VisualBasic.CompilerServices.Conversions.ToInteger(Object Value)
   at StandAloneDMSHackWizard.frmStartupWizard.TakeDriveSnapshot(String Logdir, String Logfile, DiskSnapshot[]& AttachedDisks)

This has now been addressed, and was occuring when checking a device's signature (WMI Win32_Disk.signature property).  If there is no signature on the device it will now be skipped.

[VorTechS]

Drive preparation successful.  Downloading firmware files...
...downloaded successfully....
...extracting contents...
...extraction failed, unable to continue.  Error(s) returned:
ERROR: Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Program Files\PhatHack\PhatHack DMS Tools\Downloads\Volkswagen-Native\Temp\TTS\'.
Completion time: 00:17:24.

Any ideas?

Thanx!

dippdy

This is now fixed after using the firmware from the various bug reports on this issue.  Seems there was an issue getting file info for directories within one of the downloaded zip files, that doesn't occur with the Kenwood firmware.

[VorTechS]

Windows 2000 pro (yes i know its old, but after this long its 99.9% stable) reports the device as being 'usb-hs Phatnoise DMS 10 USB Device". it lists this under USB Mass Storage Device. It assigns it drive letter I: and J: both. My cradle is a "Phatnoise DMS USB2 rev A"

I've added some trapping at the point where the drive signature is being checked.  I wonder if there is some form of discrepancy with the WMI database for one of your devices as all the info. I can find on Windows 2000 WMI suggests it should be no different to that of XP - which would make sense as WMI was introduced in 2000. 

Download the latest version of the tools (2.3) run the program again and let's see if you can at least get somewhere without any strange errors in the log - and a DMS device listed.  I've also disabled the 'Run Hack Wizard' button at design time - the error shown in your log may have been bypassing the button enabling code. 

I'd appreciate a copy of the 'Startup_Sequence' log once you've downloaded, installed and run the latest version of the tools so I can see if the error you were getting was only for one device, or is a general problem with WMI under Windows 2000.

[funkdr_1999]

VorTechS,

Thanks for the quit reply and explanation.  I found an older computer without and usb devices and everything worked perfectly!  Now my mission is to get SSA working on the unit and learn how to navigate with my Kenwood DDx7015.  Does anyone find navigating with this deck a pain?  This question probably doesn't belong here sorry.

Anyways, thanks for the fantastic build, it worked as advertised.

[dippdydo22]

So far so good...  Thanks for all of the assistance.  I was able to create my new 160 gig DMS and now and filling it up, which is taking a very long time!  Hopefully, after this process is done it will work like a champ!  Will let you know.  Thanks again, this is fantastic.

Dippdy

[VorTechS]

For future information, I'd recommend loading up your DMS with just a few playlists in case the new DMS doesn't work.

I've had one report so far of the DMS not working, and am investigating the cause of this.  Glad to see that the bug parts have been sorted out though!

[funkdr_1999]

VortechS,

Sorry for being such a pain, but I can't seem to get SSA working on my newly created DMS.  I see on the PhatHack Wiki it states "If you have used the Hack CD to create a custom DMS and are adding SSA to that DMS, only perform steps 4 and 5".  Is using the DMS Hack Tools the same as using the Hack CD?  Because I did only steps 4 and 5 and cannot get it to work on my stereo.  I have a Kenwood DDX7015 navigation stereo - it is possible the problem lies with the deck.  Any help would be great.  Thanks a lot.

[dippdydo22]

VortechS -

The DMS seems to work great for MP3 files, but I have a ton of AAC files, which worked before on my old DMS cartridge.  Now, when I try to play any of those files, it says that needs an "AAC Decoder."  I believe I purchased this and I have the code for it, which I can apply through the Phatnoise Media Manager software, except when I go to apply the plugin, it says that I do not have any firmware installed on the DMS, although it works great with this one exception with my head unit.

Can I still install the VW 7.02 firmware through PMM and then attempt to apply the plugin for AAC?  Will that undo the patch that allows me to use such a big drive?

Thanks!

Dippdy