Help, Music keg no longer works.

[markbowen]

I don't want to tell you how to shop, but don't you ask what you're buying before you pay?  If you bought a hacked drive it will do you absolutely no good, since your box is not hacked to work with non-original drives.

I've never seen a DMS with any tamper-proof dye on the screws, but if it has it and appears not to have been opened, it might be original after all.  Maybe Phatnoise did that on later DMS cartridges, after they realized some people (ahem) had hacked the box and were replacing their overpriced proprietary drives with cheaper higher capacity drives.

Anyway, the only way to find out now is to follow the steps as I previously mentioned.

[XxWickedz28xX]

Honestly, I had no idea a hacked one wouldnt work. Im a complete noob when it comes to this. So please bear with me.


ok, so Im gonna run the DMS tools as we speak.

Im choosing Kenwood v13.01 only because it the latest version....is that the right thing?

After that, which button do I hit? Update Firmware....Repair DMS.....Repair DMS Full......Create New DMS???

Im lost on this stuff.

[XxWickedz28xX]

hmmm....just noticed that on the back of the DMS, it says KHD-020G. Maybe it is original?   

[markbowen]

Do a full DMS repair, as per VorTechS' earlier post.  It will wipe everything off your DMS (including any transferred music) and load the correct firmware.

The sticker that says KHD-020G on the DMS only confirms that the cartridge housing is original (from an original 20GB DMS).  However, I would imagine that the DMS itself is original.  Sellers on eBay would normally state otherwise.  There is also a surplus of the 20GB drives, as they were included with the original VW/Audi Phatboxes, of which there was a huge surplus, once upon a time.

[XxWickedz28xX]

ok, so I followed VorTechs directions and it said "Repair DMS (FULL) completed sucessfully. Thats a good thing

So from what Ive read I now have to put the DMS in the music keg, let it do its thing, it'll probably a few minutes....once its done then I can bring it back in the house and load music.

Am I correct?

Again, sorry for the newby questions.

[XxWickedz28xX]

  ok, so I out the DMS in the KEG. The one light comes on and stays steady...im assuming thats power. The other (left light) comes on for a second, goes out, then blinks non stop for what seems like forever.

Im starting to lose faith in this sh*t.  Im kinda over my head with this stuff.

What am I doing wrong?

[markbowen]

What do you mean by forever?  A firmware flash can take up to 10 minutes.

When you did the DMS repair, did you load the non-hacked firmware, and did you tick the box to re-flash the box?
 
Did you follow what I wrote for updating the firmware?  Put the DMS in with the car/radio off.  Turn the radio on to start the firmware update, then turn everything off (radio off, keys out of the ignition) to let it finish.  Go inside, have a snack or something.  When you come back to the car, there should be no lights on, which means the firmware update was successful.

[Terry_Kennedy]

Let's assume for now that it is an original (and if it's not, you should get your money back), and the reason it's not working is because it was used with a different head unit.  Use the Phathack DMS Tools in Tools mode to update the firmware on the DMS to whatever head unit you have.

I'd like to clarify this as I've seen this comment made on the boards here a number of times. If the PhatBox itself already works with the car it is in, there is no need to do anything with the "firmware" on the DMS. This "firmware" actually consists of two types of files - a program that is uploaded to the 8051 chip that talks to the head unit, and files on the DMS that the embedded Linux uses on the main ARM CPU. If the PhatBox is already working in a car, there is no need to re-flash the 8051 with the same code over again - it just takes time and confuses users when nothing happens but the green light flashing for 5 minutes, while the PhatBox disappears from the car stereo.

As of any given release date of the firmware, all of the files except the 8051 firmware are compatible with all* PhatBoxes and head units (that the firmware knows about), regardless of head unit. In fact, when PhatNoise was still updating the PhatBox, a number of us would collect the newest files and run them on PhatBoxes they weren't released for.

The only time you can experience problems is if the versions of the files on a new DMS are different from the files you're used to on your old DMS - they may exhibit old bugs (if your original DMS is newer) or change features (if the new DMS is newer). In a case like that, it is a good idea to have the same version on all of your DMS cartridges for consistency.

You might have a problem if you have one of the newer car models and DMS firmware that was released before that car model was supported by the PhatBox. Chances are it will play audio, but the controls may be screwey until an update.

Some DMS cartridges may have optional features like the AAC decoder or SSA plugin, but that doesn't affect the basic operation of the DMS.

*Note: certain versions of the PhatBox had different hardware (Ford comes to mind). I don't know if the above is still true when moving a DMS between one of those and one of the standard PhatBoxes. I think it does, but I'm not positive.

The above is a lot more long-winded than I intended. The gist of it is: It isn't necessary to update the firmware or hack the PhatBox when testing, and telling a user to do so will likely result in un-necessary confustion. Get the box working first, then update the firmware if necessary, then do the hack. 3 different steps, not all at once. It will make things a _lot_ easier to troubleshoot.

[XxWickedz28xX]

double post sorry

[XxWickedz28xX]

I didnt quite give it 10 minutes, but it was long enough. I'll try again this morning.

One question....when I put the DMS in the Keg, turned the key on...both lights came on like I mentioned. Once I turned the key off to let the firmware do its thing, both lights went off....are they supposed to stay on or go out?

[VorTechS]

As Terry says, never do a hack and firmware update at the same time!

The tools already includes an option to re-install the PHTSYS files in case of corruption, whilst not requiring a firmware update through the use of the option 'Reflash box'.  This defaults to 'Checked' when installing non-hacked firmware... which might be a bit daft, and I thought I changed it at some point, or perhaps it's changed for the next version.

I'll try and make the tools a bit cleverer and check the XML file to determine which firmware is already applied to the DMS to automatically check the 'Reflash' option.

As for the on-going problem.  The 'new' DMS probably did not have the correct version of firmware on it.  The answer to this problem is simple if you know what version of firmware is already installed on the box.  As Terry again says, a firmware update is only required to add functionality to the box communicating to and from the head unit, or to resolve bugs or re-instate lost functionality.

So, do you know which version of firmware was last applied to your PhatBox?  If so, then run a 'firmware update' selecting the version of firmware you already have installed.  Check the option 'Install non-hacked firmware' and uncheck the option 'Reflash box'.  (Check the option install AAC plugin at your discretion).  Once done, if you don't already have playlists created through PMM, then load up a single playlist.

Then take the DMS out to the car and try it out.  Now, if things STILL don't work, we need to take a look at a few things.

1) The logs from the Firmware Update process, which you can find in My Documents\PhatHack Media Manager\Logs
2) Installing the RC pairs so that we can analyze the log it produces (Assuming the box does actually fire up) to see where the problem is.

[XxWickedz28xX]

I GOT IT WORKING!!!

THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP!!

I did exactly what Mark said, using VorTechs DMS Tools. I updated the firmware, and that was it.

Its got about 14g of music on it now, its so great to have my music back at the tip of my fingertips.

I cant thank you guys enough for the help and patience.





So, now that I have the original dead 10g DMS, what can I do with that? Is it garbage, or can I do something with it?

[S80_UK]

So, now that I have the original dead 10g DMS, what can I do with that? Is it garbage, or can I do something with it?

Glad you got there in the end.

The original DMS though dead (presumably) is still useful for the case parts.  If you want you can sell them to one of us... Or use it for your next upgrade....

[XxWickedz28xX]

Well, Id like to try and use it. Maybe make a spare incase the new one takes a dump on me.

Any tips on what to do with it?

[markbowen]

As you already have 14GB of music on a 20GB DMS, what you should do next is hack your box and put a higher capacity drive in the case from the dead DMS.

Consider it as protection.  Should your 20GB DMS fail, you'll be stuck again and have to shell out for another original one.  Once you've hacked the box, you can use any drive.

The hack is pretty straightforward, using the Hack Wizard mode in VorTechS' tools.

[XxWickedz28xX]

Ive been looking for laptop hard drives all day. I think I would get a 80g. Anything more for me would be overkill.

I took the dead dms apart and seen that the DMS connector comes right off and should slip right on a new hard drive, pretty straightforward.

Are there any walkthroughs here that will show me what needs to be done to the new drive once its in the DMS case?

Ive read on here that I can use my new original 20g DMS to hack the box so that I can use a hacked DMS. Will I have to erase the music off of the 20g before I apply the hack?

[S80_UK]

No need to erase any music in order to apply the hack.

If you buy a laptop drive it must be the older type with a parallel ATA (also known as IDE) interface. The connector on the drive has two rows of pins - 44 in total.  You cannot use the newer SATA (Serial ATA types).  The Drive may have a jumper option (a small push on connector). This must be set to Master (often that means there is no jumper installed but the drive label should say).  A drive that runs at 5400 rpm is preferable to  a faster 7200 rpm drive.

If in doubt ask here with details of the drive that you intend to buy.  Most brands are OK. Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi, etc.

[XxWickedz28xX]

Cool. This site has been real helpful.


So, to boil it down.....im looking for a 80g, ata, 5400 rpm max. After that it should be a piece of cake.....lol hopefully.

[S80_UK]

And as of this evening I only have 54MB free on my 160GB drive... 

You can never have too much - I would go for a 120 - it'll hardly cost any different, and you never know what you may want to put on it.

[markbowen]

On Newegg, the difference in price between 80GB and 160GB drives is 5-10 dollars.  Spend the little bit extra.