Stability issues

[Tron]

Hello, All,

In addition to the strange backlight behavior I experience stability issues with Rockbox. I've started using the unit for its main purpose, listening to music on my motorbike. I then carry the unit in a pocket of my jacket.

However, I experience frequent crashes. The Display still shows the "playing"-screen, but the unit is dead and all I can do is power off and on again. Once I even received something that looked like debug info.

Funny enough, rockbox performs fine when sitting on my desk and the original firmware is motorbike-proof, no crashes there. So I rather doubt that it's an hardware issue like loose battery connections or something like that.

I even raised the anti-shock-buffer to the maximum of 7s, but that did not help either.

This has happened with the daily build as well as v2.2, both flashed by "playing" the ucl-file.

Ideas, anyone?

Cheers,
Tron

[LinusN]

This is probably what we call the Red LED Death (RLD). The hard drive stops responding and Rockbox can't deal with it. We have tried to solve this in software, but have so far not been able to solve it completely. The original firmware is somewhat more tolerant, but it can crash as well.

My guess is that you have a Hitachi DK23DA or DK23CA disk in your Jukebox. That model is very sensitive to shock. Upgrading to another model will probably solve your problems.

[LinusN]

This "strange backlight behaviour", what exactly is it? Is it dimming the backlight slowly? This is most likely a hardware problem. I haven't found a solution for it, and neither has Archos, since the original firmware has the same issue.

[Tron]

This "strange backlight behaviour", what exactly is it? Is it dimming the backlight slowly?

Umm, no. See my other thread. The backlight stays on during charge mode. When the unit is running with the power plugged in, the backlight dims after the set period. However, I am not completely sure that this is a firmware issue, as the backlight also stays on when I plug the power with F1 pressed (therefore going into the archos charge-mode).

Yes, the drive is a hitachi, I'd need to check which model exactly, though. I will need to check if the red LED is on when it happens next time. Funny, though, that the original firmware seems to have no problems with that, at least I have not experienced them. Speaking of functionality, it is no match against rockbox :-)

Cheers,
Tron

[LinusN]

OK. The dimming is a hardware problem, the backlight being on is a "feature" in Rockbox charging screen. Like Jens said in the other thread, just start Rockbox by holding ON, and the backlight will stay off.

As for the Archos firmware being more tolerant to RLD, yes, it looks like it. I have seen RLD with their firmware too, but it seems to be less often. I don't know why.

[Tron]

Hello, all,

I checked and yes, I do have a Hitachi DK23DA drive. I guess I'll have to test a bit more.

About the backlight: is there a reason for this behavior? I personally like to plug it in for charging and leave it overnight. What would I need the backlight if the unit's just charging and not doing anything else?

Cheers,
Tron

[LinusN]

I can't find a really good reason to have it that way. I have now changed the behaviour to obey the "on when charging" setting.

[Tron]

I have now changed the behaviour to obey the "on when charging" setting.

Thanks. I agree that this makes much more sense. So this change will be in tonight's daily build?

Cheers,
Tron

[Tron]

Hello, all,

I now had the opportunity to test Rockbox a bit on the bike. Although I never experienced the "Red LED Death", stability was none to speak of. Several times the sound stopped completely, showing several different error conditions:

• Unit switched off completely
• Display showing the usual information, but playtime does not elapse though the unit in in "play" mode. No red led alight. Reset only by switching the unit off.
• Unit playing, time is elapsing, but sound output has stopped. Reset only by switching the unit off.

Besides that, the sound kept being cut off, but came back again after half a minute or so. I doubt that I was able to listen to music more than five minutes at a time before the next breakdown.

The original firmware kept playing through a half-hour ride, so it has to be a software issue. But I'd really hate to use that...

Cheers,
Tron

[Tron]

My guess is that you have a Hitachi DK23DA or DK23CA disk in your Jukebox. That model is very sensitive to shock. Upgrading to another model will probably solve your problems.

I tried taking the archos on tour again and still had several lockups, sometimes rockbox catched up again after a minute or so, but mostly not. However, the original firmware also crashed twice with a "hard disk error", which is probably due to the hitachi drive.

Would upgrading the harddrive get rid of these crashes or would I be better off with a different player? Which drives are more shock-resistant than others? Experiences, anyone?

[Tron]

Hmm, nobody who switched their harddrive? This can't be...

btw., does anyone know if the archos supports harddisks >20GB? If I would swap the drive, I'd most certainly go for more capacity, like a 40GB disk.

[Bagder]

The previously mentioned Hitachi disk is well-known to be the worst one to have in your Archos.

Yes you can swap disk to any currently existing 2.5" 9.5mm disk. I have a 80GB Fujitsu in mine. You should aim at one with lower possible power consumption.