My difficulties stem from a very poorly informed method of trying to hack the VW Phatbox, attributable to my imperfect understanding of the hack process.
I began by reading as much as I could on the Phathack site in preparation for the hack. I chose to use the method created by Vortechs employing the Windows 2.10 version of the PhatHack tools.
Before doing the hack on my original DMS, however, I purchased an appropriate 2.5” Fujitsu drive (160gb) and the parts for “building” a Kenwood DMS. I assembled the drive and the Kenwood parts and then downloaded Vortechs 2.10 hack software, installing it on a WinXP computer. My plan was to create an entirely “new” DMS, rather than use the “swap” method in which one performs the hack on the ‘original’ DMS and then removes the old drive, exchanging it for a newer and larger capacity drive. I guess I wanted to keep the original as pristine as possible in the event that things might go awry.
The first time I ran the version 2.10 hack, I used the newly built Kenwood parts and Fujitsu drive. Instead of doing the hack with my original DMS, I skipped that essential step and went directly to “Create a New Drive” (as explained in the 2.10 documentation). I thought—erroneously—that this would provide a workable DMS and, of course, it did not. When I tried it in the car, it just gave me a “No CD” message.
I went back to the computer—still using the “new” DMS and tried to return it to an “unhacked” version. Again, the results were disappointing and received the “No CD” message. By this time, I realized that my next attempt would involve the original 20 gb DMS and I would follow the orthodox “hack” method.
It seemed to go well. When I reached the stage where you insert the newly hacked DMS into the car, it yielded the “unlocked” message and then I was instructed to remove the DMS and resume the rest of the procedure at the computer. It, too, completed without incident and I thought I had done something “right” for a change. However, when I plugged the original newly hacked DMS into the Phatbox unit, I got the “NO CD” message. This was remedied when I followed the instructions to disconnect the Phatbox from it’s connector in the car, wait a few minutes and then try again. The original unit played just fine.
I tried the botched “new” DMS one more time in hopes that the newly hacked Phatbox might sense it’s presence, but it did not, giving the now familiar “NO CD” message. I reinstalled the original unit and it remains functional, but I’m wondering if there’s some way to get the “new” DMS working so that I can take advantage of it’s larger size.
Both the original and the botched DMS’s show music content in the Phatnoise Music Manager/Media Manager and work fine on the computer. It’s just a matter of getting the new DMS functioning in the car.
I will provide whatever logs you need, but as I’m not very proficient with these things, it may take a little coaching. Apologies for the convoluted explanation of my situation. I’m definitely a little over my head with these things. Thanks for your patience…
