I've Broken my Gigabeat F40!!

[mad dan]

Been using Rockbox for ages on my Gigabeat. All OK until I decided to upgrade to 3.2.

1) Said "unable to find file".
2) Reinstalled Rockbox & bootloader to no avail
3) Downloaded the "dummy" boot files
4) Worse - now in a loop. On powerup states ubale to find file" &     reboots.Unable to stop it or log onto drive.
5) someone suggested startup with HD disconnected.
6) I've tried this, on powerup the USB logo appears on display but my PC does not see it.

Help!!!

[froggyman]

Well for startes this isnt a supported player and so you wont recieve any "official" support

[gevaerts]

The recovery things you try seem to be for the F or X, while the subject says S. Which is it?

[GodEater]

Must be an F or X, the S has no such error message as "Unable to find file". Not that I ever saw anyway.

[mad dan]

What a Dummy............................sorry, I meant Gigabeat f40. Senile dementia setting in!

[GodEater]

These are the procedures we have for recovering a Gigabeat F or X :

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GigabeatFXPort#Gigabeat_Recovery_Procedures

[mad dan]

Have tried the fix.
Unfortunately when I reconnect the HD the machine immediatley goes back into the "files missing-reboot" loop, which means I cannot access from PC.

[gevaerts]

The gigabeat bootloader can be picky about exact filesystem details.

Have a look at e.g. http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=19740.msg141660#msg141660

[mad dan]

Sorry, I know I'm being obtuse but:

How do I reformat if I can't stop the damned thing repeatedly rebooting?

I cannot get PC access to the HD.

[ej0rge]

I've repaired half a dozen F and S models and i'm not sure how you got where you are. It's still unclear which one you mean, too, but I'm also guessing an F since an S would just tell you "error 3" or "error 5" or jump to recovery mode.

I've never had to use the recovery procedure suggested by others, but it sounds like a reasonable first step.

Actually, the first thing I'd do is switch off the battery, plug in the usb, and then switch it on - maybe it'll boot directly into the firmware usb mode.

If THAT didn't work, I'd break out my usb-to-toshiba-harddrive adapter and reformat, but I'm guessing you don't have one. Dealextreme sells a usb enclosure for these older DAP drives for about $6 but you probably don't need it.

[mad dan]

Thanks to all!!!!

In desperation I tried the "open it up & boot without HD ploy repeatedly.
4th attempt it worked......I could access the HD & found that the GB(whatever) bootup file had aquired a 3 suffix, presumiably during auto download.

Initally could not rename - told me filemname already existed although I could not see it.

Pasted to PC, renamed & pasted back "file aready exists...overrite?...yes please.

Machine now working perfectly.

Thanks again.