Huge troubleshooting with my iRiver H340

[sckofelng]

Hey guys, I am new in this forum, hope I got the section right.

So the 40 GB HDD of my H340 broke and I bought a new 60 GB one (MK6006GAH) and when I wanna put it in, I get the ATA -32 error and can't even access to the HDD on my computer.

Is there anyone here who could help me out? I start to get frustrated because I was already able to access it on my PC when I let Rockbox from the (now broken) HDD run swapped HDDs. I tried to get Rockbox installed but the bootloader (which seems to be in a so called reserved flash memory from the iRiver) stops it all.

Cheers and thanks in advance.

[michaelbowe]

Can you still fire up the original firmware?

Has the new drive been formatted to FAT32?

[sckofelng]

Can you still fire up the original firmware?

Has the new drive been formatted to FAT32?

The HDD is formatted to FAT32.

Right now I can't do anything

[michaelbowe]

So when you power off and then power up does the iRiver go through the same sequence and stop with the ATA -32 error? Or is the player just dead? If you power up while pressing the record button (upper RHS button) does it boot into the original firmware? Try removing the drive and see if you can boot into the OFM (should come up ATA -1).

If none of that is happening then you may have a bricked player.

If you can't get communication with the drive with your PC,  look at getting a 1.8" IDE to USB connector like the one pictured. Cost is $4 plus postage. At least with this you can test if your HD is working and you will be able to get control over the files on the drive.

I don't understand what you mean when you say "... when I let Rockbox from the (now broken) HDD run swapped HDDs". Can you tell us, step by step, what you did and what went wrong.

[gevaerts]

I'd double-check all connections. If nothing at all sees the drive, I'd expect hardware issues.

[sckofelng]

So when you power off and then power up does the iRiver go through the same sequence and stop with the ATA -32 error? Or is the player just dead? If you power up while pressing the record button (upper RHS button) does it boot into the original firmware? Try removing the drive and see if you can boot into the OFM (should come up ATA -1).

If none of that is happening then you may have a bricked player.

If you can't get communication with the drive with your PC,  look at getting a 1.8" IDE to USB connector like the one pictured. Cost is $4 plus postage. At least with this you can test if your HD is working and you will be able to get control over the files on the drive.

I don't understand what you mean when you say "... when I let Rockbox from the (now broken) HDD run swapped HDDs". Can you tell us, step by step, what you did and what went wrong.

Yeah exactly what you described there. The OFM does not load even when pressing both Rec and Start button at the same time and neither does it show up when removing the drive, it loads into Rockbox again, shows a ATA -11 error. Might have destroyed my player when I did this
 (explaining that phrase you did not understand):

So I attached the old drive (which had damaged blocks was barely working then) to my PC and let Rockbox v 3.13 start on it, then while rockbox was still on, I removed the iRiver from USB and also removed the old drive and put in my new one and connected it via USB, that was the only way the new HDD would be recognized by Windows, was really shit. I guess since I changed the HDD's so many times to get Rockbox working I somehow destroyed a piece of the ATA/USB connection there.

There is no data on the new HDD that has to be restored btw, thought I let you know this, all I want is this iRiver to work again, but I think I have to stop dreaming of that now..

[michaelbowe]

OK, So it doesn't appear to be bricked. Not if it still runs up Rockbox and gives an ATA-11 error. Problem is that you need to be able to boot into the original firmware if you want to refresh the bootloader. I can't understand why it won't fire up properly. Try resetting and then powering up again with the record button pressed.

Also try getting into the OFM using your old HDD. I wouldn't recommend changing the hard drive while powered up. This may have broken something.

If you can get into the OFM then you need to get the USB convertor (see above) so you can load a fresh copy of the bootloader and Rockbox onto your new HDD. Load the bootloader first using the OFM and when that is running ok run Rockbox.

If you can't get into the OFM at all then you may have to sell it on eBay for parts.

Good luck.

[sckofelng]

OK, So it doesn't appear to be bricked. Not if it still runs up Rockbox and gives an ATA-11 error. Problem is that you need to be able to boot into the original firmware if you want to refresh the bootloader. I can't understand why it won't fire up properly. Try resetting and then powering up again with the record button pressed.

Also try getting into the OFM using your old HDD. I wouldn't recommend changing the hard drive while powered up. This may have broken something.

If you can get into the OFM then you need to get the USB convertor (see above) so you can load a fresh copy of the bootloader and Rockbox onto your new HDD. Load the bootloader first using the OFM and when that is running ok run Rockbox.

If you can't get into the OFM at all then you may have to sell it on eBay for parts.

Good luck.

The old HDD is not working anymore :/ Charging the iRiver again now 'cause battery ran out, but I don't think OFM will load up then. If I can get the OFM loading w/o HDD, you say I should buy an USB connector for the new drive and load rockbox on there? Let's see if it helps. Already been thinking of just letting it go and go for a new iRiver..