Topic: iHP-120 Problem

[fmaderjr]

I just bought a 3rd one on Ebay-couldn't resist the $31 shipped Buy It Now price for one with supposedly nothing wrong with it. It's a good price just for parts.

It powers up great and I was able to successfully Rockbox it. The battery seems like it will last a long time too. Probably don't even to upgrade that for now.

I presume I need a new hard drive though. Even after reformatting and using check disk set to correct errors (it ran slowly but finished without reporting any errors), I can only record about 50 minutes in wav. Then the unit stops recording and says "disc full" even though when I hook it up to the computer and check it has the expected 18 gigs free space. Also, the machine froze up when it read disc full and I had to reset it to get it connected to the computer to check the actual amount of free space.

So what to you guys think? Is my diagnosis correct? If so it might be a good time to try the CF card mod I've been hearing so much about.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[lordbelial]

It really seems that you've got a bad HDD.
My second unit came from ebay, a buy it now "brand new" iriver. It came with a bad HDD, not corrupted, but had similar problems (I only could record wav for 10 minutes, then reading data was a pain in the ass).

I did perform the CF mod and I'm absolutely happy with the results. I have a crappy 4GB CF card inside, but it's enough for most club shows I tape.

[Arni99]

I also did the CF-MOD with a "8GB Sandisk Extreme III" card. Now it runs forever HAHA.
Anyway....after 12h xx min, the 8GB card is full when recording in WAV.
Using WAVPACK-format extends recording time considerably as less space and power is used.

Try to run to System/Version/press-joystick=>Scanning disc check.
Maybe this frees some internal space-allocation-errors.

[fmaderjr]

Thanks guys for your help +t

Will probably look for the CF mod directions and order the parts in a couple days.

Arni99-I could not due the scanning disc check. When I navigated to version and pressed the joystick, all I got was the credits. Probably has something to do with the bad hard drive, I guess.

[Arni99]

Thanks guys for your help +t

Will probably look for the CF mod directions and order the parts in a couple days.

Arni99-I could not due the scanning disc check. When I navigated to version and pressed the joystick, all I got was the credits. Probably has something to do with the bad hard drive, I guess.

System/Rockbox Info/press joy => "Scanning disc" shows on the display

Sorry, my fault.

[fmaderjr]

Arni99-still doesn't work with my firmware (it was released about 2 weeks ago or less). All I get is info on battery, free space, etc.

No big deal though. Probably should try the CF mod anyway. Appreciate your efforts, though (and in the past, telling me how to reduce crowd noise with DPA 4060 series).

[Arni99]

Arni99-still doesn't work with my firmware (it was released about 2 weeks ago or less). All I get is info on battery, free space, etc.

No big deal though. Probably should try the CF mod anyway. Appreciate your efforts, though (and in the past, telling me how to reduce crowd noise with DPA 4060 series).

After "scanning disc" was performed, try to record and check if it records continously now without stopping after ie. 50minutes.
I always perform the "scanning disc"-process before i record a show.

The CF-mod is great!  Do it!
As I told you before, my sandisk Extreme III 8GB card works flawlessly with the cf to ide adapter and the modified bootloader.
I described the TODO for the H120 in the CF-mod thread .

[fmaderjr]

Arni99-Still can't access "scanning disc". See first paragraph of my previous post for details.

Will probably attempt the mod anyway, so no big deal if I can't figure scanning disc out, I guess. Can't find the thread with your instructions for the mod, but did find them posted by someone else on the iRiver site. If you can tell me where to find your instructions for the mod, that'd be great.

[Arni99]

Arni99-Still can't access "scanning disc". See first paragraph of my previous post for details.

Will probably attempt the mod anyway, so no big deal if I can't figure scanning disc out, I guess. Can't find the thread with your instructions for the mod, but did find them posted by someone else on the iRiver site. If you can tell me where to find your instructions for the mod, that'd be great.

here the CF-mod for the H120:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,95239.msg1388440.html#msg1388440

[fmaderjr]

Very detailed instructions, Arni99-thanks! Will look forward to trying them out when I order the parts.

[fmaderjr]

Arni99-i finally figured out how to get the iRiver to do your scanning disc.

I had to do System/Rockbox Info/press joy as you said and the Rockbox info screen showed up. Then I had to press the joystick a 2nd time to go into scan disc.

It did not solve my problem, but reported something like "cannot write to sector 429" confirming I need to replace the hard disc.

Thanks a million, this was an incredibly useful piece of information.

[Ziggz]

Looks like a few of us had problems buying old "new" 120's  I got one from MisticRiver a few months ago -all was fine apart from the HD. There's no way it was new, it looked cleaned up for sure. I was planning to do the CF mod regardless, so I wasn't too cut up about it. Navigation is so much faster on the CF card. Recorded a couple of shows with it and all is well