Rockbox Technical Forums

Third Party => Repairing and Upgrading Rockbox Capable Players => Topic started by: sl33py on November 20, 2022, 06:42:28 PM

Title: Trouble adding mSATA drive to H140
Post by: sl33py on November 20, 2022, 06:42:28 PM

Hi All.
I have an iRiver H140 with 7pre4 loaded. The hard drive had faults so I pulled it out and I've got an mSATA drive (dogfish 512Gb, formatted as FAT32 + 32byte allocation chunks) with the .rockBox folder from the old drive on it,an mSATA to ZIF board, and a ZIF to PATA/IDE ribbon/cable connector.

When I connect it all up, the H140 gives the following error: "ATA Error -11. Insert USB cable and press a button". After a few moments, it then says "No partition found".

I believe the issue is that the drive isn't connected properly... it could be either:
1) The ZIF to IDE adaptor is plugged in the wrong way (it fits both ways and I don't know how to tell which way is right)
2) The mSATA daughterboard is connected to the ribbon cable the wrong way... again, I'm not sure which way is correct (although I suspect the contacts facing DOWN into the board is correct?).

I've actually tried to connect them all up in all the 4 combinations possible... no matter which way I face things, I get the same error.

Regarding the little ZIF>IDE cable into the daughterboard... the cable doesn't have a very strong hold on it however I try to attach it, and I don't think it's secured properly. I've seen people plug them in and hang the component by the ribbon! I'm using the little plastic bar that clips the ribbon into the socket, but it doesn't seem to do much at all....

Any help would be much appreciated!!!

Title: Re: Trouble adding mSATA drive to H140
Post by: sl33py on November 27, 2022, 10:59:09 PM

Anyone?

Title: Re: Trouble adding mSATA drive to H140
Post by: speachy on December 20, 2022, 09:13:26 PM

All I can suggest is to check the orientation of the original drive, and make a note which side is "up" (ie with the label, and it's also keyed) -- the side of the mSATA adapter that holds the drive is the side that should face "up"

I also vaguely recall that you'll need the newest rockbox bootloader to use any SSDs on the iriver units, and I don't know if that was ever released as a "stable" binary.

Title: Re: Trouble adding mSATA drive to H140
Post by: mr_2022 on April 04, 2023, 09:48:31 AM

There is a 'new' latest bootloader for iRiver H120/140 and H320/340.

https://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,53654.0.html

Good luck report back if the new boatloader helps you.