Music Keg with 'No Disc' MSG - Vista, Firmware & Software Up To Date - Non Hack

[doowop]

Been working on recreating my DMS and getting PMM to work on my new Vista box this holiday weekend ... spent a lot of time, read a lot of posts, downloaded and used DMS Tools to some success (was able to upgrade my Kenwood Music Keg - KHD-CX910 to firmware 13.01, and add aac plug-in), used Vista's Disc Management Tools to chk DMS for bad sectors ... all clean, but am having the same problem receiving "No Disc".  I've tried the many suggestions on this forum from checking the cable within the music keg to see that it is not loose, to unplugging the keg to reset, and to finally reformatting my 20gb DMS (recreated the PHTSYS & PHTDTA partitions, and then using DMS Tools again to reinstall firmware, aac plug-in, etc).

PMM is working well on my Vista box, I've had success with AT&T Voice on Tap through the many fine posts in the forum.  I have had to revert from my USB 2.0 cradle to my original USB 1.1 cradle so things are slow, but couldn't find a post with USB 2.0 cradle drivers that would work ... also of note I have had several MS Blue Screens of death, but have been able to correct with a reinstall of the USB 1.1 cradle ISD driver.

I'm not sure how to do - "If you are using v2.10 of the tools, make sure you have created a playlist in PMM containing some music as this version of the tools doesn't create a default playlist.
Failing that, Drop the level 10 RC pairs onto PHTSYS, stick the DMS in the box till it shows No Disc and post the resulting logfile.txt." as been posted early in this stream.

I didn't want to start a new 'DMS is detected as "No Disc" post, so I thought I might get some additional info/help from the person who originally posted this stream and from VorTechS.  I've had my music keg for many years, and really enjoy having my tunes and Audible books on the road with me.

Newbie to this forum so thanks for any help and let me know if I need to move off this stream and onto a stream of my own with this topic ...

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From: markbowen

Your original problem might be simple.  With Kenwoods, it can sometimes be necessary to just reset the head unit to get it to recognize the Music Keg.  I had to do this the first time I installed, with a 2004 Kenwood HU.

However, you wrote that you recreated partitions and reformatted on your 20GB DMS.  Did you use the Phathack DMS Tools to create and format the partitions, or did you just do it in Vista?  If you deleted and created partitions in Vista, you might have a real problem (assuming your Keg has never been hacked).

Also, the USB 2.0 cradle works in Vista or XP without any drivers.  Did you try it and it didn't work?

Depending on the situation, you might want to start a new thread.

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My 09/02/2008 Response:

Thanks for your comments ...

I have tried to reset my Kenwood head-unit ... that has worked in the past (many years ago when PhatNoise was viable ... helpful ... and up and running as a company/web site ... say 2003/2004 or so.  I've also done the reset by unplugging the cable to the music keg and plugging it back in ... that seems to help when the head-unit just displays 'AUX' like it doesn't even recognize the keg.

I know I have power to the keg ... the red light is on, and when a DMS is inserted the green light goes on and then out ... this also happens when I reset the head-unit and then the head-unit display shows 'No Disc'.

I tried to use DMS Tools to 'Create a new DMS', but at the initial step where the tool is creating the partition it failed; mentioned something about a .txt log, but could not find the log.  So, I decided to create the partitions (PHTSYS & PHTDTA) myself in Vista.  I've done this before back in 2004 with the help from PhatNoise using Partition Magic, so I know it can be done.

I'll try the USB 2.0 cradle again.  When I first was trying to use it I could not get the DMS to display within Vista or PMM and so that's when I reverted back to the original USB 1.1 (this seems to be working ok, but slow).

Is your Phatbox/Keg hacked?  I've been thinking that I might give that a try, but have read a few threads where folks have had problems installing the hacks (guess there are several ... like 11) onto their Phatbox/Keg ... patience is probably needed here for the hacks to install correctly.  I did try the option in DMS Tools, but can't get past Step 4 - the backup step.  Step 4 seems to hang ... I know I need to create my own backup with Vista, but do I need to be more patient with step 4?  Will it actually continue on to the other Steps?

Thanks again ...

[markbowen]

The log you are looking for should be in your My Documents folder.  Look for a folder called PhatHack or something like that, and the logs and some other stuff will be in there.

You could create partitions and format in Partition Magic, but unless you used that program, I think a format operation in Vista would format the disk in NTFS format, which is not readable by the Keg.  More importantly, if at any point you deleted the partitions or resized them, you may have erased the drive signature, which would cause the DMS not to work in a non-hacked keg.  If that is the case, you will need an original DMS to get things working again.

[doowop]

Thanks for helping me find the logs - got it.

I left the partitions as FAT32 and the sizes for PHTSYS and PHTDTA the same as the original partitions ... DMS Tools recognizes the newly formatted DMS as a DMS, so I'm feeling pretty good about the format ... yet ...

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The log from DMS Tools for my attempt at Creating a new DMS appears to id the DMS disk correctly in the very first part of the log.  It also goes through all of my other drives (main - bootable, backup drive 1TB, and my stuff drive 500GB, and lastly the DMS drive letter).

DMS Tools seems to like my DMS -

   Disk ID: 7
   Disk Name: PhatNois e DMS 20GB USB Disk
   PnP Device: USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_PHATNOIS&PROD_E_DMS_20GB&REV_M1.4\34A8087970A2FFF2&0
   Disk Unique ID (not serial!): 9D4647F7

      Partitions List
      ---------------

      (Debugging: About to Query WMI for Logical Disks)

      (Debugging: ..Query Complete)
      Partition: Disk #7, Partition #0
      Drive: L:
      Serial #: DCF24827




      Partitions List
      ---------------

      (Debugging: About to Query WMI for Logical Disks)

      (Debugging: ..Query Complete)
      Partition: Disk #7, Partition #1
      Drive: M:
      Serial #: 848B20A2



      Device evaluation complete.
      Next device evaluation:
      Determining device signature...
      done.

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But after all of the drives are evaluated all that is left in the log (PhatHack_NewDMS_Log) is -

Device evaluation complete.

Getting DMS Disk ID from snapshot...
Disk ID is ...7

Opening device through kernel....
....device opened successfully.
Checking for existing partitions...

Creating new DMS partitions...
Completion time: 21:20:56

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And DMS Tools says "Creating New DMS failed.  Check log for more"

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When I look at the DMS (either through Windows Explorer or PMM) I don't see that anything has been done.  After all of this DMS Tools and PMM still recognizes the DMS as a ... DMS ...

Thanks again for your help

[doowop]

Thought I would try a few things before ending the day ...

Retried my USB 2.0 cradle ... got it up and working now just fine
Retried DMS Tools ... same thing - no go on Creating a DMS and no go on using the tool to do a 'Full Repair'

PMM still likes the DMS, so I tried to use the 'Repair - DMS' part of PMM ...
PMM wiped the DMS clean ... that worked ... thought I might have something cause everythin with my DMS and PMM seems to be up and a go
Kept the 1 - Welcome Playlist from PMM's Repair
Added a 2nd new Playlist and raced outside to give it a go in the Music Keg

So Sorry ... 'No Disc' for you.

I'm now starting to thing that the firmware upgrade did not take.  Think I might retry the firmware on the Music Keg and might even try downgrading to an earlier version of the firmware ...

[markbowen]

OK, if I follow what you've done, the last thing you tried was a DMS repair from within PMM, using the option to wipe everything from the DMS. 

Unless I am mistaken, that operation wipes the phtsys partition, which means there are now not any firmware files on the DMS.  (It would still work in PMM but not in the Keg.)

So, use the DMS tools to load the non-hacked Kenwood firmware 13.01 to the DMS, and do NOT check the option to re-flash the box with the firmware.  Don't install the SSA or AAC plug-ins, as I believe those options in the DMS tools are meant to work in hacked boxes.  That might get you going again.

As for why the create DMS operation is failing, I think we need VorTechS (author of the DMS tools) to jump in here.

[doowop]

Ok thanks

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I just gave that a try and still 'No Disc'.

I know my Music Keg, and DMS are all functional ... things were all just fine before I tried to install the hacked version of PMM (3.92) on my new Vista box, and used DMS Tools.

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Will keep trying over the weekend; thanks again.

[VorTechS]

From what I've been experimenting with with another users Keg, 'No disc' means your partitions are not right.

Did you do anything to delete/re-create the partitions manually (fdisk etc?).  I ask because this concerns me:

I left the partitions as FAT32 and the sizes for PHTSYS and PHTDTA the same as the original partitions

If you manually did your partitions, then you need to have started them 1MB from the start of the disk.  By default, proprietry software does not do this and starts from the beginning of the disk.  In which case you need to trawl the logs from the beginning and find where your DD backup exists assuming you didn't re-partition before running the hack.  With the DD backup we can re-create the partitions and restore the drive signature making the disk usable again.  If you re-partitioned before doing anything, then I'm afraid your original DMS is lost!

Oh, and AFAIK there isn't a hacked version of PMM.  If you downloaded PMM from PhatNoise.org it isn't a hacked version... it's the full release from PhatNoise - they removed their authentication processes from the software for those that needed re-installs - but with the bonus being it's the FULL version.