RDR-HX717 service mode, service manual, firmare.

[jayu]

Hi,

Latest news are:

1. Power supply at the first sight doesn't show me any problem with voltage levels. It seems quite stable, however I haven't had good equipment to measure it.

2. Connecting DVD drive and HD to external power supply doesn't help.

3. I managed my "service" cable to work with the machine! It seems that no level conversions are required at all. So, I just connected my laptop RS232 directly to pins on machine board (I had to construct the cable anyway, because "mouse cables" or similar don't fit). That was really good experience. My observations are:
- there is Philips definitely inside HX717. It works with nucleus codes and especially answer for one of them is:
DS:> 903
090300:
BE version = 43.02.19. PHILIPS ,VAD8043        ,43021900,5VC0537341288
0200,
Optical unit version = 25.28.79.84.00
Test OK @
- I have found that this machine is not exacly as HDRW720, because some of nucleus codes doesn't work (however most of them work), and by blind typing I found some that are not documented for HDRW720 though.
- I have found next points to consider when repairing the machine - two tests failed:
Busy executing NUC115 5-27
Not all DMAs worked.
FAIL 011502
and
DS:> 2108
210802: Performance failure
Minimum access time = 204 msec
Maximum access time = 204 msec
Average access time = 204 msec
Number of commands below 160 msec = 0
Number of commands between 160 and 200 msec = 0
Number of commands between 200 and 250 msec = 1000
Number of commands above 250 = 0
Error @

The latter one is definitely Hard Disk failure. I am not sure about first one, but DMA may also be HDD dependant.

So, next step is to replace HDD, but first I have to found similar machine with working HDD or confirm what exactly Philips machine it is and have "Master DVD" for it.

What is interesting when playing with nucleus codes is for example - you may change region code of this machine I don't know if it is possible to make it region free, but at least one may change it when necessary.

/jayu

[jayu]

Quick news:

after HDD replace all the problems are no longer existing. However I can't format HDD yet, so it is still not functioning.

/jayu

[paulclaude]

Hi,

What are the specifications of the new hard drive ? size, partition fat32, no partition ?

Thanks

[jayu]

I have bad sectors on old WD disk somewhere at around sector 79400.
So partition table should remain not affected. Unfortunately after connecting it to Linux it doesn't show any partition, what means that there is prioprietary disk organization.

The drive I put into was just for checking if previous errors may be cleared. It was just Seagate 120GB, with some partition table, I don't know even what kind. Anyway the tests I previously performed could be completed with this new hard drive, however it doesn't contain proper data for this recorder. That's for I need this "Master DVD".

/jayu

[paulclaude]

Hi,
I've explore my hdd (wd1600bb) with "winhex". I haven't found trace of any known partition like fat32,ntfs... I found the word "Philips" , titles of television programs and "Boot-HTM"
I've made a research on internet with"boot-htm". All my internet researchs leads to xbox...But its filesystem is called FATX and i haven't found this word on the hdd.

One idea should be : make an image of the hdd (by paragon drive backup ; option " process sector by sector") and restore this image on another 160 gb drive...

Searching...

[jayu]

Hi,

you may use dd_rescue (or ddrescue) under linux. It makes such a copy and you may set that unrecoverable sectors may be zeroed. This implies that you may do full copy of hard drive, even if it is partially corrupted (my case).
Unfortunately I can't do it right now, because I have only one IDE channel on my motherboard and I would have to connect three devices (IDE disk with linux or CDROM with bootable version, old WD disk and new disk for recorder).

On the other hand I am not quite sure that disk I have was in this recorder from beginning. I could see that somebody (before I bought it) has manipulated it and there is an option that something was done also with data on this disk.

What are the symptoms on your recorder? Do you have also problem with disk? And what is recorder behaviour (STARTING or something else?).

/jayu

[paulclaude]

I don't have other 160 gb disc. So, i did one copy (with winhex) of sectors (0-3000000) (about 1gb of sectors)of the 160gb hdd on a 6.4 gb disc (i don't have anything else).

Result : i have always "starting" on startup. nothing else.
i hear the hdd, then the fan stops, then i hear the dvd. Then the hdd stop,then i hear it again... i wonder if there is an alimentation trouble (added to the hdd trouble)
...

[jayu]

I have exactly the same. It seems that it has cycles trying to startup again and again.
Have you detected any bad sectors on your hard disk?
Have you connected to service connector on your HX717?
Now I will check if I have something like 'PHILIPS' somewhere in these sectors.
/jayu

[paulclaude]

I don't know how to connect service connector .I tried "play" button at startup and the combination button for downloading firmware but nothing else.

I don't know i it has bad sectors (usual software need partition to determine if sectors are bad or not) Which software must i use ?

[jayu]

After you tried with "PLAY" button, did it show you any problem, or last message was "PASS"?

To look for bad sectors you may use linux and 'dd'. As input device for this command you set disk from your recorder, as output - /dev/null device. It will try to copy all the device to /dev/null and if it fails somewhere it will show you I/O error.

I checked my disk after connecting to service socket in recorder and executing seek test (attached in this thread).
Then I tried to copy the disk (at least some starting sectors) under linux and it failed.

I've just checked I can't find any "philips" string inside first 4GB of my disk

/jayu