Modding my player

[NPswimdude500]

My player has been behaving oddly (even erratically) for a long time. So it came as little surprise today when its hard drive stopped functioning today. I could tell the drive was gone because when I booted it up it made a loud, repetitive click which I knew signalled the end. Now, I haven't backed up my data in a while, but I haven't exactly added anything new either, so that's really not a problem.

Guts of my busted MK2004GAL:


Anyway, to fix my player, I've ordered both a new hard drive and a new battery. I was able to order an MK3006GAL 30GB drive from ewiz.com (linky) for $105.06 shipped via UPS ground ($9.59) making it $114.65. A good price, considering they normally sell it for $112 before S&H. I also ordered an 1800mAh Newertech 1G/2G iPod battery (linky) on the offchance that my battery was going and possibly causing HD troubles as well. It cost $7.99 with $4.50 shipping, making it $12.49.

Overall I spent $127.14, which isn't too bad (especially since I just got paid). When I get the drive and battery, I'll post again (with more pictures). I'll also add my long overdue photographic contributions to the HDD Upgrade FAQ and add a section to the wiki.

In the meantime, I'm preparing to re-download all my music, and I'm re-ripping a bunch of CDs with EAC (which I just set up with DT's guide).

[shadesbass]

Really sorry to hear about your player. Hopw you can live without it til your new HD arrives.
Thanks for the interesting pic though!

My iHP-100 must be over 3 years old by now (and at least 3rd hand!), so I'm dreading the day that it won't boot up.

[foxdude333]

Sucks to hear that...

BTW, what are those little specs on the hard drive disk? Dust? If so, you must either live in dusty places or you had that left out for awhile!

[NPswimdude500]

Yeah, that's dust. I had it in a dusty area. The disk is astonishingly shiny, as you can see here:

You can read the lettering right off the camera!

And I'm hoping the new parts are here by wednesday because I won't last long w/o my precious!

[foxdude333]

Damn, that looks like a nice camera.

And daaayyyyymmm, is that HD disk shiny!

[XavierGr]

Sorry to hear that NPswimdude.

But the H100 is among the best players on the market with Rockbox.
Spending another ~100 for it worths the hussle. This DAP is a legend. (as the box says)

Cool Camera too!! [\Drooling mode on]

[pachinkoman]

Good luck with the upcoming surgery to your player. Please post pics.

[gorcorps]

But you'll possibly get another 2 years out of it now! Just think about that!

[caramelsoul]

Now you will be able to rip your music to a decent quality....

[Judge]

Originally Posted by caramelsoul

Now you will be able to rip your music to a decent quality....

Ah, the benefits of destroying a harddrive!

[NPswimdude500]

Ahh yes, the extra 10GB will be a nice addition

Like I said, I knew it was coming so I'm not too disappointed. Really gives me a chance to get my music collection in order.

As of today, my drive was officially shipped. Tracking number doesn't seem to be working, so no idea when it'll come in. But when it does, I'll definitely post pictures of the operation.


Camera is a Canon Powershot A410, btw.

[NPswimdude500]

Ahh, battery arrived today. Details in the discussion thread (here)

pic:


And tracking info for my new HDD says it arrived in Hodgkins, Illinois today. scheduled delivery is for May 31st. I don't think I'll make it.

[ilovethgod]

You should take the old hardrive (or new one) and put a platic front cover instead of the metal one. Ive seen it done and its not all the hard. Just cut out of the metal one and glue a peice of CD cover on the inside. It looks awesome.

[NPswimdude500]

Umm....definitely not the new one. The old one was busted anyway, and doesn't work. That's why I took it apart-so there's really no reason to put a cover on it...

[NPswimdude500]

Okay then! Got my drive yesterday (was a bit worried...it was packed rather poorly).

First I installed the battery (following these wonderful wiki instructions).Then I replaced the drive (I'll be adding pictures tomorrow, probably). Next, I reassembled it. It was a bit of a squeeze, as the new battery is a mm or two thicker than the stock one, but it fit nicely.

Charged the battery, and then booted up. Of course, the rockbox bootloader was patched on the old firmware. It got to the splash screen and froze (At this point, I'm like "Oh fvck"). Okay, try the stock firmware then. SUCCESS! It booted! Now, I figure I'll use the onboard formatting utility, on v1.65US. I try it, and it flashes "Can't Format!" at me. Oh dear.

So I plug it in to my PC, and start messing around with The Add/Remove Hardware Wizard. Eventually, I figured it out and was able to use Windows 2000's built in formatting utility to properly partition and format the disk. My instructions (with screen shots) can be found at this wonderful wiki page. It finishes formatting, and I load a clean firmware copy and flash to it.

Next I load some music on, and now for the final test: will it play properly? Was the hard drive the problem afterall? Or was there another problem? I select Geto Heaven T.S.O.I. by Common and Macy Gray as my test track. And it plays! Incredible! For once, I actually fixed something!

So I load some more music and listen for a while....but I can't. The stock firmware just isn't good enough. I was hesitant to reload rockbox (mainly because of the aforementioned boot issues). But I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. My worries were for naught - it worked perfectly. And issues that I had previously experienced before replacing the drive were gone. Checked the available space: 28,607MB. Very nice. Went into Menu-->General Settings-->System-->Battery-->Battery Capacity, and changed it to 1800mAh (my new battery's capacity). Fixed up all my settings, reloaded my WPS (Modpod1.0 - it's in my sig) and I was good to go.

I'm still reloading music, but other than that, everything is back to normal! And it's sooo nice to have my jams back

[Judge]

Good job! (Late reply )

[Dragon_Fangs]

great job. this is what ill have to do as both my battery and hdd dont work, once i get around to buying the replacement parts...