Ipod Nano 2 plays 8 secs , lots of noise then quit playing becomes inoperative.

[DutchRaider]

Hi,
I am new here so apologies if I don't have read through all the posts.  I did do a search for Ipod Nano 2 to find if anything was reported.

I installed rockbox on the ipod nano 2 serveral ways,  Auto / Manual etc, using the "Stable" version, and currently the latest r29969-110605.
Then added my Music files in Music folder, they are in OGG format, since I use linux.
The issue is that when playing the selection , about 8-10 seconds in, there comes a lot of crackling noise, followed by a cut out.  Software is now inoperable requiring a hard reset.

I have no idea what is going on, a stable version should behave properly in playing music.
No, the ipod is just fine, it has played music with the MP3 format under ITunes without fail.    hmm, I try that as well ......

Added an other LP in MP3 format.
Played it and get again the same problem, about 8 seconds in it cuts out, but now I have a Undefined Instruction at FC100004 ...

What gives, I thought that Rockbox should be able to play without an issue on these players.
By the way, it is a very basic install, just bootloader and Rockbox.
Anyone have a good suggestion here ?

Thanks DR

[Chronon]

It sounds like you have a corrupted file system.  Try connecting to a computer and scanning the disk for errors.

[DutchRaider]

Unfortunately , Not.
To waylay your concern, I scanned the drive for any failures , there are none.
I copied over the Music folder back to Windows, back to Linux, and all songs play just fine.

To prove further the point, I reinitialized the IPod with ITunes back to original wiping everything out.
Then on Windows this time, I ran the RockBoxUtility and installed again only the Bootloader for Rockbox and the version 3.8.1, which by the way supposed to be "stable"  I beg to differ on that....
Versions Bootloader 2009-10-13T08:17:25
Version  Rockbox  3.8.1

Then further I moved the Music folder from Windows install, to an other USB drive, then played every song without a problem.  Ogg format is working just fine.
Then Copied the Music folder from USB to IPod on Windows and tried playing the songs via Rockbox.   Exactly the same issue, about 7-10 seconds into the song, crackling noise and poof, no more music, and the whole interface hangs.   I think this piece of software that you guys have on your site is not good at all. 

I tried the so called stable release... 3.8.1 no good.
I tried the so called latest release...  r29969 no good.
I tried Manual and Auto install both in Windows AND Linux, keep having the same problem.

Where is the OGG converter that you guys must have build in the software ?  Perhaps that one can not handle what I give it ?   Between 192 and 224 kbps.
Perhaps the downloads from your site are compromised ?

So what gives , do you or anyone else have other suggestions ??

I booted into the Apple side, version 1.1.3 of their loader is installed which is their latest.
Just FYI, I was involved with Computer chips in the 60's already, and being a Software / hardware engineer this whole thing is very odd, in my review, it is the software, the hardware is just fine.

DR

[Llorean]

Nobody else is having / reporting this problem. And you said yourself it happened with both MP3 and Ogg which suggests it's not the vorbis decoder, so there's no sense in speculating on that at all.

What you need to do is figure out what's different or unique about your situation compared to what other people are experiencing. If it were simply the software not being good, plenty more people would be experiencing this issue.

So please, rather than telling us your history with computers, or making random speculation, how about some actual experimental evidence?

Have you tried PCM .wav files? Do they fail in the same amount of time, more, less, or not at all?

[Buschel]

I am also convinced this is not a decoder thing. You may keep in mind that we do not have any hardware documentation by Apple and need to re-engineer every tiny bit. We already experienced issues with some iPod nano 2G's (e.g. LCD not starting up correctly) which were caused by altered hardware.

If the noise is always happening 7-10 seconds after starting the playback the cause might also be the buffering, not the decoder. Can you please try the following:
1) Start playback and hit "pause" before the noise occurs (e.g. 2 seconds in the song). Now wait until you for sure are over the dangerous limit of 7-10 seconds. Questions: What happens now? Is the file playable afterwards? Is the nano still locked?
2) Copy a single small mp3 or ogg file to a single folder and play it. Is the noise and lockup occuring earlier now?
3) Is there any other action which normally happens after 7-10 seconds? For example: LCD shuts down, LCD backlight goes off?

Btw, I am running an iPod nano 2G as well w/o such issues.

Edit: Another idea mentioned by a developer is that your nano might not work stable with the undervoltage we use to enhance the battery runtime. During buffering rockbox uses the full CPU clock, after that rockbox will -- depending on the codec -- most likely use a lower CPU clock and lowered voltage supply. You could change the source code to make some tests on that. Can you compile rockbox on your own?

[DutchRaider]

Thanks for the Hints and Suggestions.
Actions taken : installed Rockbox 3.8.1 this was marked as stable.

2 music pieces installed in separate folder Music2 under the root.
A .wav file of about 20 seconds
A .mp3 file of about 20 seconds

First MP3 when its playing normally about 8 seconds in , noise , song cuts out and Rockbox software hangs.  No buttons are recognized, display stays up  (as before)
Hard Reset needed to clear.
Then further , when I pause it 2 seconds in , and play after at least 10 secs, that the file became shorter, either in Buffer or in the Playlist.  It played 0-2 secs and then the 17-20 seconds, then gave a Undefined Instruction  E59FF030 ,and continued to do that after a restart and play again until I cleared playlist etc out.

Second WAV when its playing normally about 10 seconds in, the exact same thing happens, song cuts out , Rockbox hangs but in this case I see more Undefined Instructions e5955b98, 00014c28, 001acc5c , also seen panic: stkov  Sceens are all white with black lettering.

On the MP3 file when I pause it 2 seconds in, play 2secs, pause it, plays 2 sec, pause , play 2secs I can make it go to almost the end before a Undefined Instruction e5955b98.
One time I did this the same , and got a Undefined Instruction at 07087C2C , white on black background.

On the WAV file when I try to do the same , around the 8 second mark get e5955b98 very often.

Some other things that happen :
1. Sometime TV static noise when controls are operated, followed by a sound cutout, and a hang of Display and Operation
2. Sometimes a hang of operation happens.
3. Seen when operatinog a Display go funny nice colors all over, like Color TV noise. Somehow the regular Rockbox menu is still in background, it is scrollable and changes the bar color and selection, hung on files selection.
4. Scrolling through menu can also hang the unit.

As you can see, a lot of intermittend issues, it sure looks like we have a unstable build, or that the build is fine but that my IPod is just a Apple Special...
IPod Nano 2 (4GB) model A1199 Serial YM722CZ9V8T ECM 2115  are its markings. Perhaps that may help others as well... and it could be one of the earliest units in that size.  Its something else to investigate, as that may make a difference.

Well I hope that all of this sets someone on the right direction what the problem can be, and if this can be fixed.  After all these test I think you are right, could be the too frugal settings that are used for CPU clock and Voltage..... We should have an option to tell via a configuration file to the unit, battery be damned and don't fiddle with the voltages.  I rather have a proper operating IPod with 2 hours less battery time than one that has 4 hours time, but don't work.

Although my software time is valuable, with some studying I should be able to compile Rockbox on my own, changing the source code.  I have no time for this until the weekend...

Let me know if there are other ideas... DR

[Buschel]

Hi,

from your results it also sounds like your nano does not work reliable with our settings. I have build and uploaded several builds (the file rockbox.ipod only), plus a short documentation of what each build changes. Maybe you will find time to test those builds. All of them are based on svn r29983.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/2b0nle

Buschel

Edit: Forgot to mention how to test those Just choose one of the files, rename it to "rockbox.ipod", then copy it to your iPod's ".rockbox" folder and overwrite the existing file. Finally restart your iPod.

[DutchRaider]

Thanks for that, I will work through them and let you know.  DR.

[Buschel]

Any results yet?