Azur 640H users - HELP!!!!

[KCWolfPck]

Ok, I got my 640H delivered today and I think I have a serious problem. I've already sent this to CA support, but given their hours....I may not hear from them for a while since the weekend has just started (what kind of support is that anyway?). I'm hoping someone here is familiar with the unit.

Here is my delima:

I just received my new Azur 640H today and hooked everything up. I played a CD in it and everything worked fine. I then did a system upgrade and now it is not working. Here is the process I used to upgrade the unit:

1. Downloaded the file from CA's website.
2. Opened Nero Express
3. Selected the file I downloaded and burned it to CD
4. Inserted the CD into the unit.
5. Started system upgrade.

When the upgrade got to 100%, the CD tray opened and then the unit shut off. I then removed the CD from the CD tray. I then turned off the unit (at the back) and reset it. When the unit turned back on, it went to the home screen. However, the unit's display did not light up and none of the buttons on the unit or remote would work. Reset does not fix the problem.

Did I somehow mess up the upgrade process? If so, is there something I can do to reset it?

Thank you for any assistance you can give.....even if it's just to say "Yep, you're screwed and it has to go back for repairs".

[KCWolfPck]

Well, the dardest thing happened. I got up this morning and powered up the 640H and everything is now working fine. I confirmed that the new software is installed. Now I'm just left wondering why it wasn't working last night, but appears fine this morning. Hmmm??

Let the ripping begin.....500+ CDs is going to take a while.

[KCWolfPck]

Well, it is happening again. It appears I will need to get a replacement from the dealer. I hope I don't have a CD in the tray as I'm not able to open the CD tray.

Has this happened to anyone else? It there some kind of button sequence for a system reset??

Thank you.

[enmac1]

I am on my third machine. The first didn't work at all, the second switched on but hung much like yours. The third is fine and I'm glad I persevered with it. Sounds like you need to send it back. I don't live near a Richer Sounds so I had mine delivered, there was never any issue with the returns and the old machine was picked up at the same time the new one was delivered.

[KCWolfPck]

Well, I called the dealer about sending a replacement. In an effort to save the data that is already on the (only about 65 CDs so far), he suggested that I may want to pop the top and insure that all of the ribbons are fully seated. He said that it appears that some sections of the unit is getting power, while others aren't.....which suggests that there may be a loose power ribbon in there somewhere. I'll give that a go when I get home this evening.

[trotsky10]

Something similar happened to me. I left the software update running and came back to find it switched off and the tray open. So took the cd out, reset the machine and was more or less fine for 2 weeks with the odd freeze. I managed to put a lot of music on it and connect it to mp3 folder on my wireless network. After 2 weeks I got a windows app error message everytime I started the machine.

I sent it back and am still waiting for it to be returned. I live in Holland so have to deal with a dealer here. Apparently will be back this week I have been told so will let you know how it goes.

Am hanging in there as those two weeks when it was working were a lot of fun.

[davidcotton]

Originally Posted by KCWolfPck

Well, I called the dealer about sending a replacement. In an effort to save the data that is already on the (only about 65 CDs so far), he suggested that I may want to pop the top and insure that all of the ribbons are fully seated. He said that it appears that some sections of the unit is getting power, while others aren't.....which suggests that there may be a loose power ribbon in there somewhere. I'll give that a go when I get home this evening.

Just a thought, but doesnt popping the case like that void any warrantys?

[KCWolfPck]

My dealer actually just went ahead and shipped me a new one so I wont be taking off the cover.

My next question:

While I wait for the new one to arrive, I am going to continue ripping CDs to a USB hard drive in .WAV format. When I plug it into the Azur 640H, what information will it recognize? I'm not sure that .WV files have ID tags? However, it should be able to recognize the artist and album names just by the folder structure. It should also recognize the track name. The only thing I should have to manually enter once on te Azur 640H would be the genre, correct? Also, can I just create "attribute" files and insert them into thier appriate folders, or does the Azur 640H have to create those?

Thanks!

[RonW]

The 640H will not automatically recognise the Artist/Album info from the directory structure. You indeed need to create (or copy from another location) and fill in the "attributes" file. Because this file is created by the 640H (if you let it scan the drive) you can also let the 640H scan the drive and then edit every "attributes"-file with the right info and rescan.

Two issues I noticed when scanning the bulk of my CDs:
- Sometimes the entry for "Genrename" would be deleted by the 640H if it scanned the drive.
- You have to be careful in editing the "attributes"-file. Be sure to finish the last entry "Albumname" with a CR/LF (Enter) (if you move your cursor to the end of the line it needs to go to the next (empty) line). Because the 640H scan will crash if the CR/LF (Enter) is not there.
Since I did most of the initial ripping with the previous version of the software I am not completely sure if these issues still exist.

To conclude: Now that I have more than 500 CDs (most uncompressed) on the disks (the internal and a 250 GB USB disk) I really start to value the 640H as a music source/server instead of as a ripping machine. In the beginning you are so busy getting your CDs on the disks, that you hardly use the 640H for what it is best in: playing music. Most of the problems/crashes I had with the unit were during the initial ripping weeks. Since then: no problems.

[KCWolfPck]

RonW - Thanks for the info. Can you please confirm that I am clear on this:

If I rip CDs on my computer (using Real Player) in .WAV format to a USB hard drive, when I hook up the hard drive to the Azur 640H and scan the hard drive, it will only show as "Album 1" "Track 1" "Artist Unknown" Genre Unknown"?? It won't even register the track name?

Alternatively, I could create an "Attributes" text file like this:

Genrename:xxxxxxxx
AlbumArtist:xxxxxxxxxxx
AlbumName:xxxxxxxxxxxx

I could also drag the CD cover art into each individual folder. If I do these two things, I would be all set and I would just have to "move" the files to the Azur's hard-drive.

Is my understanding correct?

Thank you again!

[trotsky10]

RonW mentioned he uses an external HD with the 640H.

Regarding externals and the 640H would anyone be able to say if you have to keep the external hard drive connected every time to the same USB slot on the back of the machine?

[KCWolfPck]

Trotsky,

No, it doesn't matter which of the 3 USB ports you plug it into. It doesn't need to be the same one each time.

[RonW]

KCWolfPck:

Preferable you rip to a directory structure as: Artist\Album(s)\Track(s). If you name the tracks correctly: 01 <Track01 name>; 02 <Track02 name> etc., the 640H will recognise and use the Tracknames correctly, but will state the Artist and Album as "Unknown". At that moment it will also create the attributes-file in the Album directory. If there is an Attributes-file already in that directory when it scans it will use the information in that attributes-file. So either you create the Attributes-file (as you described), before you let the 640H scan the drive. Or you scan and then edit the attributes-file. If it is only one or two CD's you can of course do the editing on the 640h itself (Edit details). When I was ripping my collection I did that per artist. I would create a Attributes-file with Genre and Artist filled in, drop that in every Album-directory and edit the Attributes-files in the Album directories with the specific Album-name.

Like I said I now have most of my CDs on the 640H. Additions, I now rip on my PC and transfer ("Send to" in a 640H menu) to the 640H (including Album-art) over my wireless home network. That way I can decide the destination myself (Internal disk or USB disk). Or sometimes I let the 640H do the ripping (and miss the Album-art).

On Album-art: I used Windows Mediaplayer (11 as part of testing Windows Vista) to rip and that automatically creates the Album-art files (if it can find it) in the Album directory in the right format for the 640H.

I have the USB disk almost permanently (apart from bulk ripping) connected to the 640H, so i don't "move" stuff from the USB to the Internal 640H disk. That is one of the nice things of the 640H it combines the music on the USB disk with the music on the Internal disk in one index. Creating (in my case) a virtual total disk of 410 Gb. If you plan to move it to the internal disk of the 640H you could also rip to a shared folder on your PC and then "Send to" on the 640H over the network, without using an USB disk.

trotsky10:
You don't have to use the same USB-slot every time. But every time you disconnect and reconnect the USB disk the 640H will rescan the drive and rebuild the index. With a lot of music on the USB this can take some time.

[KCWolfPck]

Well, I discovered something that rather disappointed me last night. That discovery was that the USB hard drive must be formatted in FAT32. Vitually all the USB hard drives I see for sale at formatted NTSF. So, I tried to reformat the USB hard drive to FAT32, but it won't let you unless you partition the drive with a 32MB partition. This turns my 200GB hard drive into a 32MB usable hard drive.

Does anyone know of a brand/make/model USB hard drive (200GB) that comes formatted in FAT32???

Does anyone know why the Azur 640H only supports the old, inferior FAT32 file system? Will it support NTFS in the future? Ed????

One other gripe.....when I create an attributes file, it does not recognize the GenreName. Furthermore, when I correct attribute information on the Azur with 'Edit Detail' it doesn't appear to permanently fix the info. Meaning, everytime I rescan the drive, it reverts back to it's incorrect information. Anyone know a workaround for that?

Thanks!

[MagicBoy]

The Buffalo drives we use at work are FAT32 pre-formatted.