CF converted Gigabeat F10

[scharkalvin]

Sometime ago I converted my Gigabeat F10 to CF using one of those
1.8" ATA to CF converter boards bought off ebay and an Adata 16GB cf card.
The conversion seemed to work OK as I was able to install the rockbox
firmware and copy music files to the unit and play them.  The problem
is that the unit isn't stable.  After a few hours of use it suddenly stops dead
in the middle of playing a song with a 'kernel panic' message on the screen.
After this happened the unit would refuse to boot, the boot loader dies
with a 'file not found' message.  I can repair the damage by reloading
the bootloader and rockbox files back to the CF (the boot loader will still
enter the USB mode if connected to the PC during power up).  After doing this
my music files still seem to be on the 'disk'.  The problem does seem to be
a file system corruption, but usually to the system area. 

Does anybody else have any experience with a CF converted Gigabeat?  Maybe
my problem is just a bad CF card or my adapter module?  OR there may be something
in the drivers for the Gigabeat that are not totally compatible with CF modules.

[burkejavier]

I've been running a CF converted F20 for the last week+, and I haven't had one failure (so far).  Music, games, video have all been thoroughly tested.

I updated the CF wiki with my setup, but here's a summary:

- Dealextreme CF adapter
- Lexar 133x 8GB CF card (purchased at Adorama)
- Simple Build (11/30/08 version- haven't tested the new one, yet)
- 10/2008 bootloader: http://download.rockbox.org/bootloader/gigabeat/FWIMG01.DAT.

The original 2007 bootloader I had did not work for me at all - I needed to update it, which then worked fine for me.

[faichiu]

8GB ultra II sandisk works like a charm.
but need to convert it to fixed disk mode first.

[r00tb33r]

The problem is that the unit isn't stable.  After a few hours of use it suddenly stops dead
in the middle of playing a song with a 'kernel panic' message on the screen.
After this happened the unit would refuse to boot, the boot loader dies
with a 'file not found' message.  I can repair the damage by reloading
the bootloader and rockbox files back to the CF (the boot loader will still
enter the USB mode if connected to the PC during power up).  After doing this
my music files still seem to be on the 'disk'.  The problem does seem to be
a file system corruption, but usually to the system area.

It sounds like bad flash, but it could also be some sort of incompatibility between the controller and your particular CF card.
Try a different brand perhaps, you don't have to buy a new high capacity card just to try.  Find yourself a 256MB+ CF card out of something and give it a try to see if the problem goes away.

Personally I have a noname Chinese knockoff of Sandisk (similar label) 4GB, unknown speed.  Has worked fine since September of 2008.  Over 20 hour battery playtime for mp3.

[scharkalvin]

The CF card is an Adata 'speedy' 16gb that has worked well for others in
the ipod mini.  I have also converted a 1g ipod mini with a second Adata 16gb 'speedy' and that seems to work fine.  There are now some generic 16gb flash cards for around $30 on ebay built from Toshiba parts.  Maybe I'll try one of those.  Meanwhile the Adata flash card did initialize with no errors in my Sony A300 SLR.  So maybe I'll just use it in the camera.

[scharkalvin]

Just had a brainstorm.
I have a 4gb HD removed from an old ipod.
Maybe I'll put it into the CF adapter into my gigabeat F10 and see it that
works without corruption.  If so then my adapter is OK and it was probably my CF card that had problems.  The camera probably doesn't use the non-cf interface modes.