DMS errors - help

[scb71]

I am new to this whole thing, but unfortunately am finding myself spending way more time than necessary messing with my phatbox. Thankfully I found this forum - I certainly hope you all can help.

I tried phatvoice earlier today, changed a couple of tags in the phatbox.ini file and now my unit is dead in the water. Those things may have been unrelated, but it just happened all at once.

Several things of note:
DMS doctor comes up with an error under - Checking System Files..."the server name or address could not be resolved"

I cannot update the firmware through PMM b/c it says it cannot connect through the wizard. On the second screen of the wizard it says "there are no itema loaded" and when I click on the update from phatnoise button it just times out and says " unable to connect to server"

I tried copying new files to the phtsys but it does not seem to do anything. I could be doing it wrong for all I know.

I used the WIPE DMS function in the hardware part of PMM just in case - again, no luck.

I just returned from the car and placed the cartridge - no music on it now - in the phatbox and then I unplugged and replugged the cord to get the lights going. The red turned on after the plug was reconnected and teh green blinked every so often, but it never stopped. This went on for maybe 20 minutes.

Sorry to ramble. Any help is much appreciated.

[markbowen]

I'm by no means an expert, but one obvious problem you are having is that PMM is unable to connect to the Phatnoise website for some reason.  PMM requires a connection to update the firmware, and even to run DMS Doctor.

So the obvious question is, are you running this while connected to the internet?  If not, establish a connection and run the software again.  

If you connect and PMM still can't contact to the server, check in your web browser if the phatnoise site (www.phatnoise.com) is up.  If the site works and the software still won't connect, I would uninstall and reinstall the PMM, and try again.

Once you sort that out, DMS Doctor may tell you what's wrong.  I would think a reload of the firmware to the DMS should sort it out.  (Delete the forceupdate and forcesettings files from phtsys after the update, since you don't need to update your phatbox.)

[sbingner]

I think it's a problem on the phatnoise side... I can't connect to their servers either, for now try the files from http://phatbox.sixpak.org/firmware/ -- that should get you going

[scb71]

Thanks for the responses thus far. I am not having an internet problem as I can post here without error and the phatnoise.com homepage comes up, but still no connection through PMM.

I already reloaded from cd the PMM and re-updated the software - that did not help.

I also just tried downloading the firmware from the sixpack site and it just times out as well. Any other places to get the firmware?

And another question - why delete the forceupdate and forcesettings? Do I do that after I update the firmware?

THANKS AGAIN FOR YOR HELP!

[markbowen]

It still sounds like a connection issue to me.  I don't have any problems connecting to the sixpack site.  What kind of connection do you have?  If you're on a slow dialup PMM and DMS Doctor will also timeout.

Are you using a software or hardware firewall?  Disable any firewall and then try running the software.

(If you manage to do a firmware update, you would delete the forceupdate and forcesettings, because those force an update on your phatbox.  At this point there is no indication you need to do that -- though it wouldn't hurt the box either, as long as you use the correct firmware.)