system overheats and some noob questions

daemonslayer · March 16, 2008, 05:32:18 PM

hello guys,

i have a phatbox system on a mfd navi.so far its excellent working - but in summer at hot days it hangs up often and needs some time to play again.i just cant get no cd acsess on it.anyone knows this problem?noe i attached a passive alloy cooler on the cpu-lets see if it works-if not i will add an cooler fan!

i read some old postngs here and iasked myself what did i miss all the time?new firmwares?new voice samples?new features?mods?software?is there a id3tag output somewhere?
can somone please inform me in short words.

thank you

buy the way phatnoise support is dead 4ever?

sbingner · March 16, 2008, 09:39:30 PM

It does support ID3 output, via voice I believe on your system. With a Kenwood head unit it will display on the HU.

As to overheating, that is an unusual problem... do you have AC in your car? Have you tried a different DMS unit?

daemonslayer · March 16, 2008, 09:43:50 PM

i dont have no other unit to test.but it must defintely be a overheat problem-because it never occures in the not so hot months.for example now - i dont have no problems at all.buy the way the phatbox is mounted on a wood plate in my front trunk.its not near hot object like ebgine or something (midengined)

is there a kenwood navigation system supporting this id3tag output visual?the voice tag stuff works just fine.

VorTechS · March 17, 2008, 01:03:31 AM

PhatNoise I believe are still accepting and answering e-mail requests.
They are not however accepting new purchases of their software/plugins.

John_volvo · April 25, 2008, 03:19:38 PM

I had the same problem with my Volvo Phatbox. Tech support from Volvo & Phatnoise useless. Phathack came to the rescue. I found that the hard drive was getting very hot them the unit would start skipping tracks, when it came to the end of a track it would report that my database was corupt.

I built myself a new DMS using a 4200RPM drive, hacked my box fitted the new drive and it has not crashed since. To prove that it is the drive I can fit a standard drive in the warm weather and within a short while the box will crash.

Many thanks to PhatHack

By the way Volvo are still marketing the 20GB Phatbox

S80_UK · April 27, 2008, 06:35:13 PM

Quote from: John_volvo on April 25, 2008, 03:19:38 PMBy the way Volvo are still marketing the 20GB Phatbox

Bet they don't sell many at their pricing...

John_volvo · April 28, 2008, 02:24:54 PM

It's a bargain at only £750.00. According to Volvo customer support the reason for the price being double everybody else is that they give the end user support on all their products.

Funny the Volvo Phatbox support site vanished 2 weeks after I purchased mine.

S80_UK · April 29, 2008, 06:55:07 PM

£750!!!

It was £599 when I bought my car in 2005 and that was enough to make me buy a VW unit and get that working in the Volvo instead. Best £150 I ever spent!

jtnfoley · June 20, 2008, 12:07:00 AM

I've observed the same behavior in mine (2003 VW Jetta in factory mounting location, installed by me.) I never thought to swap the disk for a lower RPM model, but I've gone to extremes otherwise: I mounted a heatsink to the bottom of the PB (on the bottom sheetmetal opposite the power supply FET.)

I'm a corporate IT geek and will be digging thru the drawers of spares tomorrow to find a 40+GB 4200RPM disk!

jtnfoley · July 01, 2008, 04:33:42 PM

Quote from: jtnfoley on June 20, 2008, 12:07:00 AM
I've observed the same behavior in mine (2003 VW Jetta in factory mounting location, installed by me.) I never thought to swap the disk for a lower RPM model, but I've gone to extremes otherwise: I mounted a heatsink to the bottom of the PB (on the bottom sheetmetal opposite the power supply FET.)

I'm a corporate IT geek and will be digging thru the drawers of spares tomorrow to find a 40+GB 4200RPM disk!

The drive that came out was a 20GB 4200RPM Hitachi. I've replaced it with a 40GB 4200 RPM Hitachi (same family.) AND... I'm still getting 'No CD' and 'CD-X' on all too regular a basis.
I'm having one of my machinists poke some nice vent holes in the cart now, will upload pics when I have them.

jtnfoley · July 01, 2008, 07:58:12 PM

No holes in the top (cosmetic) face. The sticker had to be sacrificed on the back, tho. And, I had him mill some slots in the top rear edge... hopefully some convection will take place.
We're expecting plenty of hot nasty weather in the very near future... i'll report back on whether this worked to resolve my CD-X and 'No CD' issues.

jtnfoley · July 07, 2008, 08:17:56 PM

Quote from: jtnfoley on July 01, 2008, 07:58:12 PM
No holes in the top (cosmetic) face. The sticker had to be sacrificed on the back, tho. And, I had him mill some slots in the top rear edge... hopefully some convection will take place.
We're expecting plenty of hot nasty weather in the very near future... i'll report back on whether this worked to resolve my CD-X and 'No CD' issues.

No rest for the weary, and no love for the wicked.

I'm still getting occasional 'CD-X' and I have to power cycle the HU.

When this happens, the red and green LEDs are on solid.

VW Firmware 7.2, hacked HU, disk upgraded to 40GB in the same Fujitsu model line BTW.

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system overheats and some noob questions