PhatHack
Phatbox / Keg software and support => Phatnoise Hardware Support => Topic started by: nerka on July 25, 2005, 02:09:44 pm
-
First thing - I live in Lithuania.
You guys have no idea where is that..
You can imagine what kind of support I can get here from phatnoise or local audi dealer....
So, I bought phatbox in US on E-bay. Trying to boot it on my AUDI S6 from year 99 wth NAVI+.
I have constant rebooting of phatbox with red led on. No green led at all. What it means? Faulty hdd or phatbox? I see you guys are professionals here, I desperately need an advise...
Nerka
-
Could be a bad drive, or bad box - but I'd try some software fixes first.
Download the Rescue disc linked to in the next post. Use it on your drive (be careful to follow the instructions. Then go into Phatnoise Media Manager and update the firmware for your system. (This is in the DMS options page). Then put some music on the drive and try again.
Let us know how that works for you.
(Oh, and, Lithuania is in Eastern Europe, on the coast of the Baltic Sea. :) )
-
I think the URL Paul was trying to link is
THIS ONE (http://unix.phatnoise.com/bootdisk.php) http://unix.phatnoise.com/bootdisk.php
Edit (Paul): Thanks, I don't know why the heck my formatting got all screwed up!
-
Thanks, for your quick response guys. It’s really nice to know, that there is actually someone to talk about this.
I already used this boot disk with option to check whole hdd, it took something like 6 hours.
I’ve tried to reformat both partitions with windows, but I did not tried to repartition it, as I understood, that it would cause me much more problems…
While booting – I can hear hdd spinning and red led is on, but in few seconds it shuts down and starts over.
Is there any differences between phatboxes for European and American versions of Audi?
Actualy I bought phat box for WV, but trying to boot it in Audi using special adapter. Can it be source of the problem?
Nerijus
P.S. I would like to buy some beer to my new oversees friends, otherwise I wonder how much it would cost to send it to you via UPS…..
-
The beer would be cool but it likley would be outragously expensive to do.. no worries!
Try this ... make a copy of the phatbox.ini to a new file called bootload.log in the PHTSYS drive... then boot the phatbox and when it screws up, take the drive back to your PC and post us the bootload.log contents (provided it doesnt look the same as your phatbox.ini does. it should get changed.)
Also make sure you dont have a forceupdate or forcesettings file in the PHTSYS .. and rename your plugins folder to plugins-bak.
Thanks!
-
Beer would be cool, but we always accept donations via paypal to pmulner@erskine.edu - that money helps keep this site going! I hope judb's suggestion works for you.
-
It might sound strange, but I can not find "plugins" folder ?
I have: Data, images, TTS folders on PHTSYS
Am i missing something?
Nerka
-
You might not have one, that's okay.
-
The plugin folder is there if you have purchased or installed any addons for the box.. AAC or VOIT for instance.
-
I can not see visible differences between ini and log files after trying to boot phatbox. Should I analyse it more carefuly?
P.S. I believe I could arrange 100 usd via paypal, if we'll work this out
-
Okay, that tells us that the boot loader is not talking to the drive, or it would write some data to the bootloader.log ... so thats a start.
You can repartition and reformat (without the badblock check to speed things up) using the DMS repair utility CD .. that might be helpful, but first have you tried using the Windows based DMS doctor? Does it say anything about your DMS?
also, donations are not a requirement for what we do, paul hosts the site and needs to defer his costs but the rest of us do this because we have no lives. :)
-
100usd!!!
Someone get this guy's problem solved quick! ;)
Seriously though, we'll get ya through this, or at least figure out if the box is hosed.
-
DMS doctor finds nothing wrong with hdd, boot cd just made "repair" on partitions. Phatbox reacts just the same.
Nerijus
-
Phatbox reacts the same way even if I erase all the files from DMS. Is it possible to diagnose this piece of junk via com port?
Nerijus
-
Okay so you reran the dms boot cd and it repaired the partitions?
hmm... interesting.
have you unplugged the phatbox and plugged it back in to reset it?
There is a serial port inside the box but getting into it and making a cable to connect to the serial port is quite a task, and even then its not going to help you till you get a working DMS. hmmm..
-
That is correct.
I did this few times before. Tried with different firmwares. I have been studying phatnoise web site for few days.
My knowledge of linux = 0. Can you give me instructions how to get connected via com port? Can I do this with windows os?
Nerka
-
http://wiki.phathack.com/Access_Serial_Port should help you get into the serial port, however this is not an easy task. The com port displays no information by default due to the way the system was designed.
Have you tried contacting phatnoise about this at all? I mean, opening a support call with them?
it could be a problem with the cable inside the unit but I find that unlikley due to the way the box is designed if the cable was unhooked when you insert a dms it would not power up. Still it is worth checking I suppose.
Perhaps you should just call them directly? They are on the west cost of the USA (Pacific time.. GMT -8 )
-
If you NEVER get a green LED you have some serious issues... I can help you troubleshoot tonight on IRC if you like. I suggest disassembling the box, and ensuring that the plastic to the green LED isnt just broken, it could be coming on and you not be able to see it. Also make sure JP2 is NOT jumpered and that JP1 is jumpered as either pins 1-2 or 2-3
-
Oh yea by tonight I mean about 1800 (6PM) HST (GMT-10)
-
Looks like I missed something (was sleeping), I could not by on IRC tonight...
I had green len on like one month before, it was on together with red one for few hours, so i just had to shut box down. Does it mean something?
-
I should be on IRC again this evening if you want to try again -- about 1600 HST
-
Not sure if this is the problem, but other users have found that the ribbon cable to the DMS is sometimes not connected properly inside the unit on the pcb, as discussed in this thread:
http://forum.phathack.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=kegphatbox;action=display;num=1121178381
-Surgeon-
-
Just for additional information, I have set up my Phatbox in an Audi RS4 of 2001 vintage, also with Navi Plus satnav. It doesn't seem to care about selecting a head unit from the selection menu, any of them seems to work. I have had it crash a few times with red ligh permanently on (sometimes with green) and have had to unplug / reconnect it to get it going again, buit only when I've had it floating around the back of the car in the middle of various mods like trying to get the thing to fit where the CD chager was! I permanently get jumps and stutters and flickering track counter displays (which is something I'm going to ask about on this forum at some point), do you suffer this in your A6 also?
Maybe someone should set up a 'BeerPal' payment system, a bit like the Interflora flowers thing, so we could send beer to people in different countries, as these guys certainly deserve a few barrels for their efforts! I'm in the UK so it would be English beer from me I'm afraid. Or possibly Guinness ....
-
Oooh Bodingtons Pub Ale is one of my favorite UK beers. Yummy! I like the cut of your jib good sir. :)
-
My phatbox has never worked, so there is a chance - that I bought brand new "dead" one.
Now I'll try (I hope with support from IRC channel) to connect to the phatbox's com port. I found USB data cable for the nokia 6310i with the "bulb" in the middle of the wire, but there is only three wires going to the side of "phones connection"... Not four as it was mentioned in "how to" section.
Nerka
-
This data cable is made on chip PL-2303. As per chip's description it has all four needed pins:
txd
rxd
dcd - active low
cts - active low
As you see dcd and cts signals are inverted. Does it look like a problem?
Nerka
-
Is the red light intermittent?
I just installed a Phatbox (from a BMW) into my Audi RS6. Red light would come on then off, then on then off and so on.
For some unknown reason it need a ground wire to work.
Ran a wire from mounting bolt to chassis and all is good.
If that does not work I got this from Phatnoise.
Thank you for using the PhatNoise Car Audio System! You will need to
downgrade to version 5.02 of the Audi firmware. Please format the PHTSYS
partition ONLY according the instructions in this link:
http://www.phatnoise.com/kb/index.php?page=index_v2&id=77&c=3
You may download the firmware at the following link:
http://phatbox.sixpak.org/firmware/?Audi-Native=5.02
Download all 4 zip files for Audi.
Right click the files in any order, and select "Extract".
Under "Select a folder to extract the files to," click Browse Expand the
section under "My Computer" Select PHTSYS, then click OK.
Follow the same process for all 4 zip files.
Once the files are extracted to the root directory, you may eject the
DMS from your computer by clicking the green arrow icon in you computer
tray (next to your computer's clock". Click on "Safely Remove USB Mass
Storage Device".
You may now remove the DMS and follow "PART II: In Your Car", of the
instructions in the following link:
http://www.phatnoise.com/faq/firmware_update.php
Please let us know if we may assist you further.
Best regards,
PhatNoise Customer Support