iPod color/photo: intermittent checksum boot error

[soodohkuu]

Hi,
I have Rockbox 3.10 installed on my 30Gb iPod photo.

When I start the device I sometimes (approx 1 in 5 times) get a "can't load rockbox.ipod" check-sum error, or occasionally a 'file not found'. Error report is as below.

Some diagostics:
Rockbox boot loader
Version v4.0
IPOD version: 0x00060000
TOSHIBA MK3006GAL
Partition 1: 0x0B 58524794 sectors
Loading rockbox...
Length: 9E11C
Checksum: 3EC4C1B
Model name: ipco
Loading rockbox.ipod
Sum: 3EC3536
Error!
Can't load rockbox.ipod:
Bad checksum
Insert USB cable, or...

Any help appreciated - great firmware, just seems rather unstable.

Many thanks...

[gevaerts]

To start with, check the filesystem.

[soodohkuu]

I've run Windows 7's file system checks on the iPod, which returned no problems. I then uninstalled Rockbox and restored the iPod using iTunes, and then re-installed Rockbox. It was fine for a while, as I closed and restarted Rockbox several times with no errors. Then three times in a row it failed to boot with a 'file not found', followed a fourth time with a checksum error. Then it booted fine again. Maybe the harddrive is faulty.

[TAC109]

I tried rockbox on an iPod Photo and had similar problems to yours.

I had the following booting errors at different times:
  File not found
  Checksum errors
  Low battery errors when the battery was fully charged.

I believe these problems have been reported in the forums before.

In the end I removed rockbox. My iPod Photo works fine with the original Apple software.

[dreamlayers]

The file not found and checksum errors seem like problems with the disk. You should check it with something like "chkdsk /r", which scans for bad sectors. It's possible that just by chance, the original firmware isn't putting anything important in the bad area.

If it was a Rockbox issue, it would be a problem with the bootloader. You can download older bootloaders and install them manually.

A low battery error at startup with a full battery could be due to voltage being low when the disk is active. That can happen with old batteries and/or at low temperatures. If it happens at other times, something else is wrong.

[DTSyX]

Just wanted to share my experiences with a similar problem I had with my modded iriver H140 where I also got this checksum error after updating to rockbox 3.10.

The solution that worked for me was simply to format the hdd, reinstall rockbox and copy all other files back on it.

More information on that ca be found here:

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,28808.msg191802.html#msg191802