Problem playing music from USB stick

[Robert T]

I have had a Pioneer DEH-P7000UB headunit in my zed for the last few years and the two of us have got on very well together. I was using an 8GB Sony USB key for music storage, rather than keeping my iPod in the car. This worked well and would play both MP3 and AAC format files directly from the USB stick. I recently got to the point where I had more than 8GB of music, so treated myself to a 16GB Sony USB key. Having copied all the files from one stick to the other and then added a few more, I tried it in the car. I got a number of different messages, ranging from "Format read" to "ERROR-19" and occasionally the odd burst of music - I managed to persuade it to play one whole track, but it bombed out again on the next one.

Has anyone else had any experience with using USB keys (or USB hard drives) with Pioneer headunits? There are a few things that might be going on here, but it does seem odd that it will play any tracks at all, rather than all or none. So far my thoughts are:

* The headunit can't address the 16GB stick due to the size of the individual flash chips - this is true of certain types of camera memory card and also computer RAM - I didn't think it applied to USB sticks, but maybe it does
* The USB stick is faulty and has corrupted some of the files giving problems scanning the directories
* The stick is not flat formatted - the last one had some Sony software pre-loaded onto it - this one didn't, but could it be lurking in a hidden partition?

Before I can it and start getting selective with my listening, does anyone have any ideas?

Cheers R.

[Mr Silver]

Hi Robert, there are a lot of bogus Mem Sticks doing the rounds, especially the high value ones. Believe it or not but the cases are purchesed in China from the real manufacturers (Sony etc.) and loaded with reject chips. It's a good reason to buy from a source that will replace a duff one. The Kingstone brand are almost certain to be dodgy if purchased from other than an 'acredited dealer'! Best of luck.


Regards.

[Desiro]

Hi Robert

When I use an 8gig stick formatted FAT32 it works ok but my 16gig stick is NTFS and does not.

something to check but I am definately no expert.

[PCSAM]

yup I would say format to fat32 . if its still playing up its a duffer

[Robert T]

It is FAT32 formatted, so it's not that, but was worth a check, as I hadn't looked. I was more concerned about hidden partitions getting in the way.

I have just done a binary comparison with the original music files on my PC - only 2 albums have any differences and I can pretty much attribute this to artwork that has been dropped into the iTunes library since I copied the files onto the USB stick - otherwise the contents of the files are absolutely identical. This tells me that the stick is working fine when used in a PC, so there is nothing fundamentally wrong with it.

I know fakes are getting increasingly common, but this looks very similar to the 8GB one I have, only slightly larger, and it was supplied in Sony packaging by a reputable German supplier. It was hardly high value at 16 quid. I guess it may be worth trying some other brands if anyone had one with some music on it that I could try - perhaps at Newby, or at Zedfest if I haven't solved it by then.

Any more ideas?

Cheers R.

[PCSAM]

try giving it a reformat ..was your 8 gig fat32 or ntfs ? give this a go .format in ntfs then format again in fat32 ...

[Gazza]

The usb socket on my headunit supplies a small charge for my iPod, would it be enough to power a HD from a laptop ?

[Robert T]

I'll qualify that for you - as long as it is a USB-only powered drive, it should be no problem - some do require an external power supply. Your headunit also needs to understand basic USB storage devices as well - some connections only work with iPods - mine displays the USB standard logo on it.

Cheers R.

[Robert T]

Now that's an interesting proposition. A self-powered caddy for a cheapo 2.5" would solve my storage woes. My one concern with this is how vibration will affect the drive - laptop drives are a usually bit more rugged than 3.5" desktop drives, but they can still bury their heads in their platters if subjected to a violent enough jolt. I see from http://www.storagedepot.co.uk/hard-driv ... cases.html that there a number of slightly more protective caddies available. A hard drive is addressed differently to flash, so it is likely that my headunit to address a larger hard drive that it can USB memory stick.

I also see from reading this description that power can be an issue. I know that USB can only provide a certain amount of power, and is one of the reasons my phone takes longer to charge from my laptop than it does from its mains charger.

I might have punt on one, as even if it doesn't work in the car, it will still be a useful add-on for the day-job.

Cheers R.

[Robert T]

Well info on mine can be found here: http://www.pioneer.eu/eur/products/arch ... index.html

Basic specs are USB 2.0, up to 250GB capacity, FAT16 or FAT32, supply current 500 mA. It has further limits to being a single partition and a max of 150,000 files in 500 folders in 8 tiers. It does keep wittering on about USB memory, without mentioning hard disks, so there is no guarantee that a HDD will work, but if they support the USB Mass Storage Class, then it has to be worth a try. Formatting pure FAT32 should not be a problem with Linux.

I don't know what HU Gazza has.

Cheers R.

[Gazza]

I only have around 8gb of music so I'll keep using the iPod or stick

[macca]

I know im a bit late reading this thread but I had a Sony unit in my Z3 and it said in the instructions that it wouldn't play any usb or sd above 8gb. I tried a 16gb and they were right, it didn't play. It kept coming up with an error. Have you looked at the small print in the instructions? as maybe it's not designed to run anything bigger than 8gb?? I apolagise if you have already checked this.

[Robert T]

I can't find any mention of it, macca. The only criteria I can see are that the maximum size is 250GB, which is one hell of a memory stick!

Cheers R.

[Robert T]

Just been reading some interesting posts about sector sizes with FAT32. Although the manual doesn't mention it, it does seem that certain sized sectors are expected. I have just downloaded a formatter and am about to give it a try. I'll let you know how I get on.

I looked further into the caddy's and quite a number of these seem to provide leads for two USB ports so that they can draw additional power, but plenty of people have had success using just one. I then looked into drives, and there does not seem to be such a thing as a cheap low-power drive. I have at least one old laptop knocking around that I could cannibalise, but I doubt that it will be a SATA drive in it. The cheapest drive I can find is a 160GB Seagate White Label 5400 RPM drive for £30, but the postage is a whopping £4.70 on top! I'll see if I can fix the USB keyt first, and if not, I'll start looking around a bit more a cheap (but decent) drive.

Cheers R.