Help please - Patching Music Keg not working

[Anito]

I've just posted a thread aout my DMS not playing in the car.  Interestingly It seems I had the same problem as mine was also spending hours going through loops of flashing green light.

Quick for a while, then slower, then off.  and round it went.

I inserted the old 20GB DMS to update the update the firmware but when I tried the (re-hacked) 100GB I get the problem I have now.

Could this be an issue with 100GB Disks?  Everyone else seems to use 80 or 120's?

[judb]

I've used a 100 gig disk with no issues.. that shouldn't be the problem.

Look through the logs on the 20 gig after applying the hack and make sure it did hack properly and check the bootload.log on the new one and see if its able to see the drive etc..

[markbowen]

I'll have to stare at it to see if it is actually giving any diagnostic flashes.  What it mainly seems to be doing is a steady fast blinking, as it would when updating firmware -- which is why the theory about it being in a firmware-flash loop made sense.  

And oops, no, I haven't corrupted ramdisk.sig.  Will try that next.

But still. any idea why the patch doesn't seem to be applying itself correctly across the DMS?

(And AudiS4, this isn't about the 100GB disks, I am still stuck on the original 10GB DMS.)

[sbingner]

It's not applying the hack to the DMS, the hack applies to the firmware on your actual PhatBox... without a logfile I can't say how,  you can load a debug-10 logfile using the rc-files from http://downloads.phathack.com/bushing/rc_pairs.zip  ... if you have a partially applied patch and you need to corrupt your ramdisk you would get rapid flashing, followed by it turning itself off.   After power was disconnected from the phatbox it would take MUCH longer before it turned itself off, so the rapid flashing would count off the diagnostic code... pause, then repeat

[markbowen]

Sbinger, I understand that it is not applying the patch to the DMS.  

But when the patch files are copied to the original DMS from the hack CD, shouldn't the playlist files (p0.*) be getting copied into my PHTDTA\Profiles\Default directory?  That's what the hack CD says:  "The playlist will replace the first playlist on the drive.  When this playlist is selected..."

My point is that IF those p0.* files are supposed to end up in my Default directory as part of the hacked DMS creation process, the files are not getting there.  Those files remain in the backup directory and my playlists are untouched.  If those files are where they belong, I can rule out one more possible cause of the patch failure.

And sorry -- how to I use the files you have mentioned to load a debug-10 logfile?  Where should I put those files?

[sbingner]

I hate trying to do this over a forum, can you just come to #phathack on irc.freenode.net and I'll try to figure out your problem

[markbowen]

Okay, now maybe I'm getting somewhere.  I finally corrupted the ramdisk.sig on the original DMS, and now it boots and plays as normal.

But I'm at a loss what to do next.  I'm not sure if my keg is patched or not.  Do I need to re-run the hack CD on the original DMS for any reason?

If it matters, this is my bootlload log now:
BOOT0-0: OK
BOOT0-1: OK
BOOT0: Successful
BOOT9: Successful
BOOTB: Successful
BOOTF: Successful
BOOT*: Successful

This is my PatchVerify log:
Starting Patch Process
����Cphatpatch-0.5��
: No such file or directory
U�?�: No such file or directory
/dos/backup/phatpatch: /�4���m��pA+�� �L!HW�NK: No such file or directory
NK: No such file or directory
/dos/backup/phatpatch: 3: Syntax error: Unterminated quoted string

The other patch logs are very long and equally confusing.  Any advice much appreciated, as always.

[sbingner]

[size=24]YOU NEED TO REAPPLY THE PATCH SO IT WILL COMPLETE[/size]

[markbowen]

Yay!  The keg is patched, or so it would seem.  I ran the patch again (it only works with ramdisk.sig corrupted), and made it to the phathack "unlocked" message.

BUT I'm having quirky behavior with the newly built 100GB DMS.  When I first booted it up my Kenwood head unit read "load" for about 30 seconds, followed by "eject."  I could even hear the DMS spin down in the keg.  So then I cycled through the sources and back to the HDD.  It read "load" for another 15 seconds or so, but then it started playing.

The problem is that it does this load-eject things every time I turn the car on.  I have to cycle through the sources to get it to work.  Once I've done that it seems to work normally.  But what is the problem?  Did the patch not fully complete?  Do I need to corrupt any of the .sig files on the new DMS?

Before using the new DMS I did reload the Kenwood firmware to it (deleting the forceupdate and forcesettings files), and I've got no plugin folder on the DMS, so I don't know what the problem might be.  Suggestions??

[judb]

is that a 7200 rpm drive you put in the DMS?

[markbowen]

is that a 7200 rpm drive you put in the DMS?

No.  It's a 5400rpm Hitachi drive.

[A543]

Do you live in a cold area? Maybe it's a temperature issue.
Also, running a scandisk with a surface scan on it wouldn't hurt.

[markbowen]

Do you live in a cold area? Maybe it's a temperature issue.
Also, running a scandisk with a surface scan on it wouldn't hurt.

I do live in a cold area but the car is warm when I try this.  Also, reading through on the temp issue that seems to mainly apply when the disk itself is cold after sitting in the cold car.  In this case, the disk hasn't been sitting in the car.

The disk is fine according to scandisk.

Would it hurt to run the patch a few more times?  I've also seen one post of a similar problem, where the person resolved it by corrupting aadec.sig on the new drive.

[sbingner]

you can run the patch as many times as you like, it can't hurt...  do you have the link to where he corrupted aadec.sig to fix it on the new drive?  That doesn't really make much sense to me...

[markbowen]

Doesn't make sense to me either but I believe that is what this person did:
http://forum.phathack.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1127854480/12#11
 
Triumphboy says he corrupted ramdisk.sig and aadec.sign on the original DMS, then when he couldn't get the new DMS to work he did the same thing on the new one, and it worked.

But I tried corrupting the aadec.sig on mine and it makes no difference.

I've also run the patch three more times on the keg.  Safe to say, that sucker is patched.

I also rebuilt the new DMS using the hack CD, and reloaded the Kenwood firmware to the new DMS.  No luck.

I now think that the drive itself is the problem.  I ran a forum search on "Hitachi" and found two postings of other people using Hitachi drives having similar issues:
http://forum.phathack.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1126587522/
http://forum.phathack.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1123209631'

I didn't find that the issues had been successfully resolved.  Not that the drives are defective, they are just made to work a certain way.  Looking at the Hitachi web site I think the problem might be the way their drives work.  They use something called "load/unload" technology to access the disk, as opposed to most other drives using "contact-start-stop."  

It's very technical, but as I understand it, other drives have heads that come to rest on the disk when it stops, so when it starts spinning, as it would when one starts up the keg/PB, the heads are right there where they left off and the music starts.  Hitachi drive heads lift off the disk surface and don't come down again until the disk is spinning fast enough.  I would guess it's taking too long the first time and the keg is timing out.  Make sense?

The information from Hitachi is here:  http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/library/whitepap/load/load.htm

[markbowen]

I don't know if anyone is following this thread anymore, but just in case someone else has similar problems:

For the sake of it, I reformatted partitions on the new DMS and loaded music using Media Manager 3.76, instead of Music Manager 2.30 that I've been using until now.  I also let it save in the old database format on the DMS, as is recommended.

This solves the problem of it failing to start up at first after starting the car.  It starts up and plays fine now.  But it creates a whole new problem:  Now the disk random function doesn't work.  When I enable it, it spins through the playlists, then I get "eject" on the head unit once again.  And nothing will make it work -- if I cycle through the sources on the head unit, all it will do is start the track that had been playing.  As a further side effect, if disk random is enabled, I cannot fast forward or rewind within a track.

I use disk random almost exclusively, so I will probably have to go back to Music Manager (probably have to reformat too) and put up with the first problem.

I'm still thinking this is a Hitachi disk issue, but I'd sure welcome further suggestions.

[sbingner]

Now it sounds like with the old PMM it was taking too long to read the info on all your songs off the new cartridge and timing out.... the new PMM uses a database format, so it should load faster.   Why dont you try it with less songs in your playlists and see if that helps?   Of course that's not a proper solution but it may at least tell us where the problem lies

[markbowen]

Sbingner, I tried your suggestion.  Just for good measure I cleaned the drive, reformatted, etc.

Nine playlists on the DMS.  First playlist is "Welcome to Phatnoise."  The other eight lists have an average of 15 songs each, the biggest with 33.  Now it doesn't time out, but it still doesn't solve the problem.  Maybe it does clarify things, though:

Enabling disk random at any point and then pressing fast forward sends the disk into the random spin for a second, then it goes to the first playlist.  Doesn't matter where it starts, it will only do the first playlist.

I know what you're thinking, and all the playlists are enabled for magazine random.  Now what?

(And on a somewhat related note, I've tried to hack my Audi box (already updated to a Keg) with the same hack disk that eventually worked on the Keg, and it won't work on the Audi box.  Any suggestions?)

[markbowen]

 ;DHALLELUJAH IT WORKS!!!!

I'm not even exactly sure why, but now it works perfectly.  Starts right up and plays random.  It never times out or acts weird in any way.

I abandoned Media Manager and went back to Music Manager 2.30.  Reformatted the partitions (again!) on the new DMS.  Reloaded the firmware (again!) on the new DMS.  I cued up about 45GB worth of music sorted into about 300 playlists, and saved without ejecting to let it transfer the files.  I tweaked some of the playlists, then saved again without ejecting.  Finally, I rebuilt the DMS database.  Then I saved and ejected.

I don't know if it works now because of the multiple saves, the database rebuild, or maybe even because it's a half full disk (as opposed to not more than one-fifth on previous tries), but it does work.  Fingers crossed as I fill up the rest of the disk.

THANKS to everyone at phathack, and for everyone's suggestions.  (And apologies, I guess, to Hitachi.)

[cbrpunk]

I am experiencing a similar issue with the hacking of my phatnoise,
I have a Kenwood 915DVD and my phatnoise is now showing up as CD-CHANGE (after i tried to hack it using the Windows tools) as opposed to "External".

I have reformatted my original 9gb phatnoise using the cd as the "revert" tool failed to do anything to the phatnoise.  It is also showing AUX, I saw a post a while back where someone had a similar problem, howebver nobody posted on how they got their "ch-chang" to go back to "Ext-drv"

as it is right now, my box is farked, ive tried putting the latest kenwood firmware back on the drive and it copies just fine, ive even gone the extent of corrupting the ramdisk.sig with no luck.

any help would be appreciated.