Sony NWZ-E370

[pamaury]

Hi,
I'm going to buy another one. In the mean time, some questions:

• Does that happne with the OF ?
• Can you try the following procedure and report the result ?

Procedure:

• Boot player, go to System > Debug (keep out) > View hardware info
• In the list, go to button and press select: the screen should display a big table with many numbers
• NOTE: I don't have the player, it is possible the table doesn't fit on the screen or is not exactly as described
• One of the lines should be "vddio: 0[2/2] (raw=XXX) ...."
• If you press up and down, the raw number above (XXX) should change: confirm this
• Some lines should be "BBB: 0[2/2] (raw=YYY) ...." where BBB is a button name like "up" or "down"
• Repeat the following for all offending buttons (like left, home, etc) :
• press the button, write down the value YYY in the corresponding line together with the corresponding VDDIO value
• release the button, write down values as above
• press up or down several time to change the value of vddio
• press the button, write down values as above[
• release the button, write down values as above[

[mxyzptlk]

Hi,
I'm going to buy another one. In the mean time, some questions:

• Does that happne with the OF ?
• Can you try the following procedure and report the result ?

Procedure:

• Boot player, go to System > Debug (keep out) > View hardware info
• In the list, go to button and press select: the screen should display a big table with many numbers
• NOTE: I don't have the player, it is possible the table doesn't fit on the screen or is not exactly as described
• One of the lines should be "vddio: 0[2/2] (raw=XXX) ...."
• If you press up and down, the raw number above (XXX) should change: confirm this
• Some lines should be "BBB: 0[2/2] (raw=YYY) ...." where BBB is a button name like "up" or "down"
• Repeat the following for all offending buttons (like left, home, etc) :
• press the button, write down the value YYY in the corresponding line together with the corresponding VDDIO value
• release the button, write down values as above
• press up or down several time to change the value of vddio
• press the button, write down values as above[
• release the button, write down values as above[

A lot to go through here, not all of it may make complete sense (at least for now). And for the record, these issues don't occur in the OF.

First: When I go to that HW Info scree, I see the big table, but not all of it -- the right-hand side is cut off.

Furthermore, the raw numbers are hard to make out, because they look like they're all a 4-digit number, but the 4th digit is constantly changing. It looks like the last digit is just running through all the numbers 0-9 over and over again. Only one button doesn't show this, the Right button, but I think that's because it's cut off on the right side, so it only shows the first two digits of what's probably a 4-digit string.

Second: Three of the buttons don't change any of the numbers, but just kick the user back out to the previous menu. Those include HOME (also BACK) and PWR/HOLD (also OPTION). The BACK button is one of the problem buttons, so can't really check that one.

Third: The first time I tried checking these buttons, the entire device locked up, and I had to do a hard reset. I think that has to do with the Up button (see below).

Fourth: Not sure if this is related to the button issue or not, but lately a new issue has emerged, where the device will do two things, often until a hard reset:

• The device will put whatever's playing into a quick pause every 6-7 seconds or so, then automatically resume playback. I have it set to rewind a few seconds after pause, but it doesn't rewind when this issue occurs -- so just a regular pause and resume on its own.
• Pressing any buttons when this happens does nothing. The screen will respond, but veeeerrrrryyyy slowly. If I hold the PWR button down for about a minute, it may turn off. If I power back up and resume on the same file, it will often (but not always) have the same problem. Note: This is not the file itself. I've deleted the file, done a hard reset, re-added the exact same file, and the problem didn't occur.
• This pausing issue began a while ago, and stopped when I reset the device's settings in the Rockbox firmware (Settings >> Manage Settings >> Reset Settings). However it resumed again a few days after the reset, but the random pausing occurred less frequently -- so not every 6-7 seconds, but sometimes only once every 20 seconds or so, and sometimes only once or twice during a 20-minute-long file, like a podcast.

Fifth: The device not responding unless it reaches a certain temp (almost body temp) is occurring much more frequently now. Room temp in my place is around 65-70 degrees F (around 20 degrees C -- it's winter on the North American Atlantic coast). At room temp, the device's HOME (BACK) button pretty much does nothing. Warm the device up, and it works again.

So, on to what I think you were asking for with the table and the vddio numbers:

Pressing Up and Down repeatedly seemed to change the screen's brightness as well as the vddio number; pressing Up makes it brighter, pressing Down makes it dimmer. But if I pressed up too many times, the device locked up with a solid light screen -- the same screen as when you go to Plugins >> Applications >> lamp, and all I could do was power down.

Pressing HOME (BACK) and PWR/HOLD (OPTION) doesn't change vddio numbers, but just kicks the user back out to the previous menu (as noted above).

So that leaves me with left, right, up and down. Here are the initial raw numbers recorded, and then the numbers as they appeared after pressing down about 8 times (note that I'm only putting the numbers I could see, and am leaving off cut-off and rapidly-changing numbers at the end of the string, and I believe that string is 4 digits long):

• Left: 342; pressed = 218; released = 342; after pressing down a few times, pressed = 245 and released = 385.
• Right: 34 (probably 342, but cut off); pressed = 18 (think it was 185, but cut off -- the other buttons read 185); released = 34; after pressing down a few times, pressed = 207 and released = 385
• Up: 342; pressed = 245; released = 332; after pressing down a few times, pressed = 276, released = 374
• Down: 342; pressed = 296; released = 353; after pressing down a few times, pressed = 265, released = 310 (but pressing down kept changing all the numbers for every button)

I have no idea if I did this right or if this info is helpful or useful, but here's hoping.

[mxyzptlk]

I fear this thread is dead, but...

I've found that the quick pause every 6-7 seconds almost always happens when a file is added to the current playlist. So you're listening to a file, decide to add something to the current playlist, do so, and the thing you're listening to then starts that annoying pausing.

I'm not sure if it continues to pause on the added item, because I've just done a hard reset every time -- because it's just not worth listening to that repetitive pause.

EDIT:

Just a note that when it does go into that weird pausing phase, the top of the Now Playing screen changes to look like all the other screens, with the battery indicator, volume indicator (which just reads -33), time, and a little lightning bolt in the upper-right corner. (This is with the standard cabbiev2 theme.)

Not sure if that helps or not, but there it is.

[pamaury]

Hi All,
I'm working on the problems, so let me summarised:

• Button problem: here is a modified build, please tell me if it helps: https://www.dropbox.com/s/17mlziuobfvjunh/rockbox_nwze380_buttonfix.zip?dl=0
• Bootloader buttons: currently the bootloader uses Play/Pause to boot instead of Power. I am investigating the possibility of using Power instead. Currently I am running into issues.
• Play/pause bug every 6/7 seconds: I have no been able to repeat the problem so far. I have one theory but I need to check it.
• Keymapping issues: while I'm at it, some people reported awkward/suboptimal keymaps, could you please restate them so I can fix them ? (I almost never use the player so I don't know about them)

[mxyzptlk]

Thanks! Trying out the new version presently. The button problem this build addresses -- is that the one where the Home/Back button doesn't work unless the device is sufficiently warm?

I've been trying something else to pinpoint that play/pause bug. I've reset the device to it's base settings to see if it was an adjustment that caused this to happen. The only thing I've adjusted is the bass/treble, and I've left everything else as is -- and so far, about five days into that test, no play/pause issues. (Did JosieQ have a similar issue? Seems jrbb had something like that happen as well.) Here's what I've adjusted in the past whenever those issues occurred:

• Commented out the big yellow "NOW PLAYING" progress bar from the cabbiev2.wps
• I'm a podcast head, so I set "Start File Browser Here" as the PODCASTS directory.

Under Settings > Playback Settings:

• Fast-Forward/Rewind: > FF/RW Min Step: 5 s
• Auto-Change Directory: Yes
• Constrain Auto-Change Directory: No
• Skip Length: 7 s
• Prevent Track Skipping: Yes
• Rewind Before Resume: 10 s
• Rewind on Pause: 3 s

Under Settings > General Settings:

• Had the Start Screen set to Resume Playback
• Idle Poweroff was set at 3 min
• Automatic resume: Yes
• Resume on automatic track change: Always

Under Settings > General Settings > Bookmarking:

• Bookmark on Stop: Yes - Recent only
• Bookmark Update on Stop: Yes
• Load Last Bookmark: Yes
• Maintain List of Recent Bookmarks: Unique only

I'm messing with some things in the new build you uploaded. One thing that seemed to be a problem in the past -- a trigger for the play/pause issue -- was playlists. Often, if there was more than one file in a playlist or if I added some files to the current playlist, that problem would occur. At this moment, with the new build I've got a playlist of 5 files going, and I've not experienced any of those play/pause issues. (Nor have I monkeyed with any settings at this point.) Hell, maybe it was something weird like removing the progress bar from the wps, no idea. But in any case, it's not happening at the moment.

On to the keymapping issues --

I went through the thread and tried to find what the keymapping issues were. Two common ones are the power vs play buttons for turning the device on, and that there doesn't seem to be a way to lock the device while playing in Rockbox. But three others (some of which were repeated/confirmed by other users, but a while back, so don't know if there have been other changes):

evilseabsti said:

All buttons works. Only thing weird is that it turns on with de play/pause button, and turns off with power button. I will feedback any issue i have. Do you know any method to lock the keys?

jrbb said:

I'm having that key-Issue which was already mentioned somewhere. Some keys(!) sometimes(! actually pretty often at the moment) don't work.
Especially the Back/Home- and the Play-Keys often don't work. Sometimes also the forward and back keys don't work, but they work most of the time. The up and down keys always work!
Additonally sometimes a key is triggered multiple times in a row, i.e. press forward to select an entry and it selects x entries in a row until it reached a leaf of the file-tree.
If a key is not working, a reboot has no effect. I can't reproduce it or see anything that influences the behaviour.
All the keys work perfect all the time in the original fw.

I said:

I still have muscle-memory from years and years of Sansa Clip use, and am finding that not all the keys work quite the same. Take the game plugin solitaire; in order to get it to deal new cards, need to hold the Option and then Up (it's the upper-left Back button on the Sansa).

EDIT
Just tried connecting the device to my computer (usb) while it was paused, and it caused a panic and needed a hard reset. Here's the info from the panic screen:

-----------------------------

*PANIC*
buflib error (CTX:0 X600f9138,30841580 bytes0; crc mismatch: 0xBA9DF4F4, expected:0x3F87B1B9 pc: 60049828 sp: 00004C(the screen cuts off here) A: 00004CD0
bt end
start of logf data
(bunch of stuff that runs off the screen, four beginning with Codec: entering run, then Codec: calling entry, Codec: cleaning up, Codec: entering run, Codecn: calling entry, end of logf data)

-----------------------------

Tried plugging it in while on in a few different screens, and it caused a panic every time.

Anything else I can do to help?

[mxyzptlk]

Update after using the new build for a few days:

I left the settings alone for a stretch, and didn't experience any issues. So I eventually went back and altered the settings to like what I mentioned above, and all was well for a couple days, until recently when powering on/starting the player in the middle of a playlist of 5 files. This had all the characteristics of the pause/play issue, where the wps becomes unresponsive; the only difference is the files didn't pause this time, the wps just became unresponsive, so that's a step in the right direction. Still had to hard reset with a paper clip in order to use the device again, and it automatically resumed to the file where the wps got stuck, and had to reset again (3 times total).

I have a sneaking suspicion it may have something to do with setting Startup/Shutdown > Start Screen to Resume Playback, so I changed that to Recent Bookmarks and see if I get the issue again.

One other thing is that many of the files seem a little bit crackly, but that might just be the podcasts themselves. It's not something I've noticed before, either with this device or those podcasts, so it may just be a coincidence, but it's just something I noticed. (And it's just slightly crackly, it doesn't really get in the way of anything and can be missed if you're not looking/listening for it.)

[pamaury]

Hi,
sorry for the late answer. The build I provided (https://www.dropbox.com/s/17mlziuobfvjunh/rockbox_nwze380_buttonfix.zip?dl=0) is supposed to fix the issue with buttons not working (due to temperature or other things). Can you confirm that it works or do you still have issues ? Apparently this build seems to have issue with USB mode (panic), I am not sure why, I'll upload a new build tonight or tomorrow, just use bootloader usb mode instead if you use this build.

Regarding the issue of using the power button to boot the device, I have some bad news. The short answer is that it is impossible.
The long answer is that the power button (contrary to all other buttons) sends a special signal to the soc. When the soc is powered off, this signal means "enter recovery mode". So if you press if from power off, the device will boot straight to recovery mode instead of our bootloader. If USB is not plugged then the recovery mode will timeout after 2 or 3 seconds and eventually boot rockbox. So you would need to hold the power button for 3 to 4 seconds to boot: that's a VERY long time. Now you might wonder how the OF does it. The answer is that the Of never powers off, it merely goes to deep sleep and thus avoids this problem.
Conclusion: unless we implement deep sleep (which is a lot of work for little benefit it seems), we can use any button to power off EXCEPT the power button...

[mxyzptlk]

Hi,
sorry for the late answer. The build I provided (https://www.dropbox.com/s/17mlziuobfvjunh/rockbox_nwze380_buttonfix.zip?dl=0) is supposed to fix the issue with buttons not working (due to temperature or other things). Can you confirm that it works or do you still have issues ? Apparently this build seems to have issue with USB mode (panic), I am not sure why, I'll upload a new build tonight or tomorrow, just use bootloader usb mode instead if you use this build.

Yep, that's the build I've been using this week, and I can confirm that I've not had any issues with the buttons not functioning if the device wasn't sufficiently warm. So that's that sorted, nice work!

I'll give the other build a try when it's available to see if it still panics in usb mode. That's not any sort of show-stopper; personally I only used it to recharge the battery when I was listening to something, and didn't really have use for the mouse feature when plugged in. The only other issue I've had was that lockup on the wps screen, but it was only once and at least it's not pausing every six seconds. I can report that since I changed the Startup/Shutdown > Start Screen away from Resume Playback (to Recent Bookmarks) I haven't experienced the issue, but it's only been a day so far.

As for the power button, not sure that's a real problem in the grand scheme of things. As long as it turns on and off, I'm not sure if it's much to be bothered about, as long as it doesn't require a paper clip and the reset button.

EDIT

I spoke too soon. Just had the problem again where the wps is stuck, buttons won't work... and it's pausing every few seconds again. Two files were in the playlist, and it was bookmarked to start about 5 minutes into the first file. Can't get it to do much of anything at the moment. Press a button, nothing happens, and the wps will change screens, like if I hit the back button, but only after about 20 seconds or so, and the screen veeeeerrrrryyy slooooooowwwwwllllyyy fades in. Volume, play/pause, etc., those don't work. Was able to eventually power down without doing a hard reset, and when I started the device up again, I could change volume and play/pause, but when I hit the Back button from the wps, it all slowed down and became unresponsive again.

[mxyzptlk]

One development in the weird random pausing thing (or just regular moments of silence that occurs at random times and the entire wps slooooows waaaay dooooown):

So of course it's happening again right now, because I have more than one file in a playlist, and that's when it happens. I was able to get it to power down just pressing the PWR/Hold button, but then it went into panic mode. So maybe this info will be useful.

------------

*PANIC*
queue_post ovg q=60
0CF948
pc:60006BE94 sp:600008
          A: 600493B4
          A: 60059338
          A: 6006FD98
          A: 6005ECF8
          A: 60061A6C
          A: 60061AC0
          A: 00001B1C
bt end
     start of logf data
     Codec: entering run *may be more off-screen*
     Codec: calling entry *may be more off-screen*
     end of logf data

[mxyzptlk]

Okay, I think I know what's going on with the random pausing and the wps slow-downs.

The files that it occurs on aren't being read correctly. On all of the ones that have had this happen, they're supposed to be at a 128 Kbps at a constant bit rate mode, but if you go to Show Track Info, all the at-fault files read 127 Kbps. No other files do this.

(Show Track Info: from the wps, press and hold Option to get the Context Menu, and then choose Show Track Info.)

Another thing that happens with these files is if they're rewound a few seconds (skip back), it often goes to a different (earlier) place than it should. That also happened with Rockbox on the Sansa Clip with occasional files, but that never had the pausing and slow wps issue.

I took one of those problem files and just sent it through Audacity, exporting it with the same settings -- 128 Kbps, constant bit rate -- and put it back on the device. Once I did that, the file didn't have the issue, and Show Track Info read 128 Kbps, not 127 Kbps.

So I'm nearly sure it's something to do with those files being read incorrectly. I've double-checked those files on my machine, and according to mediainfo (linux command line tool) they seem to be 128 Kbps, but just aren't being read that way by Rockbox. It could be a problem with the files themselves, but they're coming from some national broadcasters, so I'm assuming they're doing things well enough, and the files seem to be without issue when being read on a computer (i.e. no 127 Kbps issue). If possible, I'd rather not have to send files through Audacity every time I want them to work on this device via Rockbox.

So that's that.

[pamaury]

@mxyzptlk: that's a very interesting finding. Could you send me the file so I have a try on my device please ?

[mxyzptlk]

@mxyzptlk: that's a very interesting finding. Could you send me the file so I have a try on my device please ?

First, I've found some other similar issues on older sites, but they didn't have anything to do with Rockbox (or the Walkman). Looks like it was an issue for some who use Mac applications -- I think Quicktime -- to record/mix something. (What I saw was related to music, but the same issue applied.) So maybe this stems from places that use certain Mac tech to record their content?

Second, since my last post, I've tried converting with ffmpeg, avconv, and Audacity, and it doesn't make much of a difference.

Third, though, is that this has since happened with files that were originally recorded at a standard bitrate (128, 96). The thing is, though, the files that cause issues have to be one of two or three in a playlist (so Files >> Podcasts >> Name of Podcast >> multiple files in that directory). It doesn't make a difference if the playlist is automatically generated from what's in a directory or if I make it -- the same problem occurs if I'm listening to a single file from a single directory and add another file to the dynamic playlist -- if there's two or three in that dynamic playlist, the pausing/slow wps issue occurs. 

For whatever reason, when there's a load of files in a playlist (like a bunch of stories from NPR or BBC), the pausing/slow wps doesn't happen. But if it does happen, it's with files in a playlist of 2 or 3, and if the file was originally recorded at 127 bitrate, then it's pretty much guaranteed.

So that leads me to believe this is all down to how Rockbox is handling files in a playlist, particularly when there's only 2 or 3 files in that playlist.

Here's a file that was recorded at 127 -- a rugby league podcast from a radio station in Australia:
19/05/2016 Rush Hour Podcast


And here's one that wasn't recorded at 127, but still threw the pause/slow wps problem when in a playlist of two (Rockbox shows this as 96 kbps):
Rationally Speaking #115 - Maarten Boudry and Massimo On the Difference Between Science and Pseudoscience
(That file was in a single directory with one other file, so two files in the playlist, and it caused the same issue.)

--------------
EDIT
--------------

Yeah, so the pause/slow wps problem definitely a playlist issue, and occurs whenever there is more than one but less than four files in a directory or in a dynamic playlist. This always occurs with files that are being read by Rockbox as 127 kbps, and almost never occurs any other time (but has at least once with the file above).

I did some experimenting, and put four files in a dynamic playlist. All were files that Rockbox shows as having a 127 kbps bitrate. All of them have given problems in the past, locking up the device and necessitating a hard reset (the file still plays, but the device becomes unusable until a hard reset or the file ends). Three of them come down as three separate 1-hour files in a 3-hour show, and the other was a different podcast.

The three have always given be trouble since I put Rockbox on the device. Always. But when I added all three to a dynamic playlist along with the fourth 127 kbps file, there were no issues.

And as noted above, this also occurred at least once with files that have a normal kbps. I've just rarely had occasion to have only 2 or 3 normal kbps files in a directory/playlist, so didn't notice it until recently, and thought it was only an issue with the 127 kbps files. (And to be clear, it doesn't always happen with normal files -- I have a two-file playlist going now, the two files are 64 kbps, and there are never any pausing/slow wps issues with them.)

So that seems to narrow it down to the way this spin of Rockbox on this device is dealing with playlists: If either the number of files in a directory or the number of files in a dynamic playlist is only 2 or 3, that seems to trigger the random pausing/slow wps issue that locks up the device, especially if Rockbox reads those files as 127 kbps instead of the standard 128 kbps.

[pamaury]

Hi mxyzptlk,
I have been trying to reproduce the play/pause issue on the NZE-E380 with your files but no success so far... I tried to put your two files in a directory and play them, I have try to add them one by one to a dynamic playlist, but didn't trigger the bug. Do you have any specific procedure that triggers the bugs reliably and quickly ?

[mxyzptlk]

Hi mxyzptlk,
I have been trying to reproduce the play/pause issue on the NZE-E380 with your files but no success so far... I tried to put your two files in a directory and play them, I have try to add them one by one to a dynamic playlist, but didn't trigger the bug. Do you have any specific procedure that triggers the bugs reliably and quickly ?

Just the files that are read by Rockbox as 127 kbps when there are 2 or 3 in a playlist -- those always trigger the problem, every time. Those same files are always read as 128 kbps on the computer, but Rockbox reads them as 127.

The times are also screwy on those files: When the time reads 0:00 at the end of a file, the file isn't actually done and the time will go negative, so like -0:30, -2:10, etc. And if you skip ahead on those files, it'll actually go backwards first and then start skipping forward on repeated skips.

Normal files generally don't have that pause/slow wps issue, but on a couple of occasions, I've experienced the same problem with files at 128 kbps and with 96 kbps, and always when there were 2 or three files in a playlist -- never with 1, not with more than 3.

If I reset the device as mentioned above (in the settings, not the hard reset), then that issue doesn't happen for a short while, but always starts again after a few days use. But it's been a long time since I've done that, so I haven't reset the device and then tried deliberately triggering the playlist issue.

[mxyzptlk]

Hi mxyzptlk,
I have been trying to reproduce the play/pause issue on the NZE-E380 with your files but no success so far... I tried to put your two files in a directory and play them, I have try to add them one by one to a dynamic playlist, but didn't trigger the bug. Do you have any specific procedure that triggers the bugs reliably and quickly ?

You got a new device, right? If you go into Files > DeviceInfo, what does it say? Mine is different than others on this thread -- mine reads

COMP.1.00.0100
PROD.1.00.0100