Rockbox just freezes the audio playback (SDHC errors?)

[Jense]

Hi,

I'm using Rockbox since September 2010 on my Sansa Clip+ - all was just fine working since day 1. Also the 16GB SDHC-Card (SanDisk) was always recgonized, etc. All war just plain fun!

But since a few a days the audio playback suddenly freezes. Sometimes I can listen for hours and all is fine, but sometimes after just 20 minutes the audio stops playing. It seems completely random.

It stops playing the current file but still responds to my button pressings (navigates through the menus, etc). My guessing is, that it has something to do with the access to the SDHC or the SDHC-Port, but I'm not sure. When I try to switch to another file and want to let it start that one, it doesn't respond. I CHKDSK'ed the SDHC (even from within the SansaPlayer via USB connection) - but no problems were found.

The files I listen to are all always MP3 (mostly with 48kBit, CBR, Mono), and I'm always updating every now and then to the current daily build. I also use the included headphones since day 1. So after all: I never changed anything in my configuration - except updating to the current daily Rockbox builds -, but since a few days I get this strange behaviour. Even using RB 3.8.1 didn't help me.

Is there anyhing I could do?
Post Merge: May 19, 2011, 05:12:12 AMI've been trying around a bit and it seems that there REALLY is something wrong with the access to the SDHC.

When the player hangs on the audio (the file is stored on the SDHC) it also refuses to navigate through the file list (which seems to mean that it can't navigate because it would have to read the content of the SDHC. But when I remove the SDHC card (while the Rockbox ist running!) and then try again to navigate I just works, beause it just has to navigate through the internal storage.

But this is still a very strange thing, because I never changed anything with the exception that I sometimes plugged in my Clip+ the PC to charge the battery or copy some files onto the players internal storage or the SDHC card. And when switching the player off and then on again I can continue playing my MP3 files. So I don't really get this.

[Jense]

Still no one with any kind of idea what to do or if that's a thing that could be fixed within the software?

[Chronon]

Did the problems become apparent after installing a new build?  Do you have problems with an older release (like 3.7)?

[Jense]

I'm not THAT sure, when exactly I updated but I think, that issue I described above and the updating to a newer version of Rockbox fell onto nearly the same timeframe. But it could still just be a coincidence.

So to try another thingy I now did the following:

It just installed - step by step - the firmware like described here: http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,27926.0.html (using clipplus01.02.09.zip).

Then I downgraded Rockbox to 3.7.1; I deleted everything inside the ".rockbox" folder and put in all files from that archive: http://download.rockbox.org/release/3.7.1/rockbox-sansaclipplus-3.7.1.zip (from 26. Nov 2010) into ".rockbox".

I will try that configuration for a couple of days and I will keep you posted.

PS: Sorry for my buggy grammar. English is not my native language.

[Jense]

In last 24 hours I didn't use my Sansa that often, but I used it twice for about 30 minutes each time, and all was fine so far. I even tried to let it start different files, navigated through the menus or directories for quite some time while I listened to music - nothing bad happend.

[Chronon]

If I remember correctly, some timing changes were introduced prior to 3.8 that were supposed to improve the behavior of some SD cards.  Perhaps this caused some kind of regression with the card you are using.

[Jense]

Hmm, that may be the case. To help fix this for future releases: It's a original Sandisk microSDHC with 16GB  --> http://www.amazon.de/SanDisk-microSDHC-Speicherkarte-original-Handelsverpackung/dp/B001F7AJKI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306046542&sr=8-1

Are there any kind of benchmarks I could run for you? Or is this problem not going to be fixed. Maybe some option in the Rockbox options to enable or disable this feature would be a good idea?

[Jense]

Last night I used my Sansa for about 2,5 hours - all was just fine. Everything I tried: no freezing at all.

[Chronon]

Well, it definitely sounds like a regression for this hardware, so I would advise posting a bug report.  If you are able to build Rockbox it would help to narrow down which changes were responsible for this.  Otherwise you can note that the change occurred between 3.7 and 3.8 and give information about the card you are using.

[Jense]

First I will try that for just a few more days - to be really sure.

But then I will report that bug as good as possible.

Thank you so far.
Post Merge: May 24, 2011, 02:32:52 AMWell, there we go again! Last night I heard one file, it finishes, the next one starts to play and after about 8 minutes it just freezes. But this time the Sansa was completely stuck - nothing was possible, so I had to hold down the power button for 30 secondes.

[Jense]

This last night it happened agein. The first file finished, the next one started and after 35 minutes it just froze. But this time I was able again to navigate and so on.