Schneider DVD HDD 80 won?t recognize DVD/HDD

[Sebastian Voitzsch]

Hi,

I'm working on a Schneider DVR HDD 80 that won't recognize the drives. It
boots up, I can search channels and access the menu. However, the DVD
doesn't get read, after a while it shows "def disc" on the screen. Drive
itself is ok, installed it on my computer and watched a DVD. HDD is also
fine. With a LG DVD burner installed instead of the internal drive it
sometimes starts to format the HDD, but will fail with "reset_mbr failed"
or "max_user_lba<ffffffff failed" after some seconds. Resoldering the IDE
connectors didn?t solve the issue. As far as I understood the chipset
announcements and block schematics for that platform, there are two IDE
busses, the encoder has its own bus for controlling the HDD.

The unit is the same as Tevion DVD 160 HDD II (MD80857) despite
the smaller harddisk, MPEG board is LRM302710-0201, chipset is Cirrus
CS98301-CMZ/CS92689-CBZ. Cirrus (Magnumsemi) refused to give informations,
datasheets are only given to customers.

Any hints on this?

Thanks,
Sebastian

 

[Morse]

Hi,

I'm working on a Schneider DVR HDD 80 that won't recognize the drives. It
boots up, I can search channels and access the menu. However, the DVD
doesn't get read, after a while it shows "def disc" on the screen. Drive
itself is ok, installed it on my computer and watched a DVD. HDD is also
fine. With a LG DVD burner installed instead of the internal drive it
sometimes starts to format the HDD, but will fail with "reset_mbr failed"
or "max_user_lba<ffffffff failed" after some seconds. Resoldering the IDE
connectors didn?t solve the issue. As far as I understood the chipset
announcements and block schematics for that platform, there are two IDE
busses, the encoder has its own bus for controlling the HDD.

The unit is the same as Tevion DVD 160 HDD II (MD80857) despite
the smaller harddisk, MPEG board is LRM302710-0201, chipset is Cirrus
CS98301-CMZ/CS92689-CBZ. Cirrus (Magnumsemi) refused to give informations,
datasheets are only given to customers.

Any hints on this?

I'd check the IDE cable, as it's an obvious and replaceable item! They
usually use insulation displacement connectors which rely on the metal
prongs severing the insulation to make contact which the conductors. They
occasionally go bad.

Also, I'd check the power supply is stable, the correct voltages are present
and there's a permissable level of ripple on the rails. Switchmode PSUs in
these sorts of units are frequently sources of trouble but easily
diagnosable with a a quick look at the outputs with a scope.

Failing that, parts are unlikely to be readily available to end users, so if
the chipset has issues it may be trash. It's possible the unit's BIOS has
become corrupted, but that's a long shot.

Morse

 

[Franc Zabkar]

Hi,

I'm working on a Schneider DVR HDD 80 that won't recognize the drives. It
boots up, I can search channels and access the menu. However, the DVD
doesn't get read, after a while it shows "def disc" on the screen. Drive
itself is ok, installed it on my computer and watched a DVD. HDD is also
fine. With a LG DVD burner installed instead of the internal drive it
sometimes starts to format the HDD, but will fail with "reset_mbr failed"
or "max_user_lba<ffffffff failed" after some seconds. Resoldering the IDE
connectors didn?t solve the issue. As far as I understood the chipset
announcements and block schematics for that platform, there are two IDE
busses, the encoder has its own bus for controlling the HDD.

The unit is the same as Tevion DVD 160 HDD II (MD80857) despite
the smaller harddisk, MPEG board is LRM302710-0201, chipset is Cirrus
CS98301-CMZ/CS92689-CBZ. Cirrus (Magnumsemi) refused to give informations,
datasheets are only given to customers.

Any hints on this?

Thanks,
Sebastian

When I had problems with the original burner, I also replaced it with
an LG DVD burner. Due to dimensional constraints, I tried to attach
the burner with a longer IDE cable, but unfortunately I could not get
the DVDR to recognise it. I don't know whether this was due to the
additional length of cable, or whether it was because I left out the
ferrite cable suppressor. In any case the burner worked fine with the
original cable. IIRC, it had to be configured as master. Have you
perhaps forgotten to restore your HD's master/slave/CS jumper to its
proper position after your experimentation? Have you tried
disconnecting the HD's slave device, ie the "OnSpec 90C46C IDE/ ATAPI
Host to Flash Media R/W Controller"?

The "reset_mbr failed" error message sounds like the formatter is
trying to rewrite the Master Boot Record at physical sector 0. I
suspect that the "max_user_lba<ffffffff failed" error occurs when the
formatter tries to update the partition table at the same sector.

- Franc Zabkar

 

[Sebastian Voitzsch]

When I had problems with the original burner, I also replaced it with
an LG DVD burner. Due to dimensional constraints, I tried to attach
the burner with a longer IDE cable, but unfortunately I could not get
the DVDR to recognise it. I don't know whether this was due to the
additional length of cable, or whether it was because I left out the
ferrite cable suppressor. In any case the burner worked fine with the
original cable. IIRC, it had to be configured as master. Have you
perhaps forgotten to restore your HD's master/slave/CS jumper to its
proper position after your experimentation? Have you tried
disconnecting the HD's slave device, ie the "OnSpec 90C46C IDE/ ATAPI
Host to Flash Media R/W Controller"?

The "reset_mbr failed" error message sounds like the formatter is
trying to rewrite the Master Boot Record at physical sector 0. I
suspect that the "max_user_lba<ffffffff failed" error occurs when the
formatter tries to update the partition table at the same sector.

Thanks for the input, but think the device has reached end of life. I could
not get rid of the formatting error with every cable I tried. As it
sometimes throws other errors (about not being able to initialize the
encoder device) I suspect there´s some error on the controller board, maybe
the memory fails or the controller part has an internal error. So nothing
left to do it seems...

Regards,
Sebastian

 

[Franc Zabkar]

Franc Zabkar wrote:

Thanks for the input, but think the device has reached end of life. I could
not get rid of the formatting error with every cable I tried. As it
sometimes throws other errors (about not being able to initialize the
encoder device) I suspect there´s some error on the controller board, maybe
the memory fails or the controller part has an internal error. So nothing
left to do it seems...

Regards,
Sebastian

One other precautionary measure I applied was to attach heatsinks to
the chipset. I found that the ICs were getting too hot to touch. But I
guess it's too late in your case ...

- Franc Zabkar