Two small issues after PBO firmware upgrade

[paulb104]

So here is my story:

In November 2009 I bought a PBO from amazon.com. I've had other media devices before and wasn't happy with any of them. The PBO, though was (almost) perfect. The fan was ridiculously loud, even out of the PBO. After reading about that in these forums I contacted Patriot and they sent me a new fan that was silent by itself (but was still a bit noisy) in the PBO. After a few weeks of using the PBO I added a 120GB internal drive. To put files on the PBO I would connect the PBO to my pc via the 4-pin usb on the back. The drive would appear in Windows Explorer and I would use that drive just like any other flash drive or sd card.

The only issue was with networking. I've got two pc's on an ethernet network. Each computer could see and interact with each other. The PBO could see both computers and access one without a password, but the other computer required a password. Both computers have the same network settings.

Two weeks ago a friend of mine bought a PBO CORE and when we got it and turned it on her interface was completely different than mine. I called Patriot tech support and asked if I can get that newer firmware on my older unit. They sent me to the forums and I downloaded and installed this:

Official Release P61 (Oct 13 2010)
ES-51-283G-PCMPBO25-P61 [Only for Bootcode 16]*

After which my old unit was running the new software.

My updated PBO can still see both computers, and access one without a password, just as before.

However, now I have two additional problems.

Neither computer can see the PBO even though the device can see both computers.

When I plug the PBO in with the same 4-pin usb cable, windows does not recognize it.

There’s two things I’m hoping to do:

1. make it so the computers can access the PBO over ethernet.
2. be able to access the PBO when directly connected to a computer with usb.

If at all possible I’d also like to be able to connect to the second computer from the PBO without requiring a password.

I’ve read hundreds of forum posts resultant from various searches, but I haven’t learned anything useful as of yet.

Honestly I’m not even sure what info to provide to receive help, so I’ll start with this:

From the PBO Version Information screen:

System Revision: P0020BC16-6L
Kernel Revision: 323634
Bootup:16
Bootcode: 000.0202.0016
Audio: 329564
Video: 329035
RootApp: 329742
rootfs:329742
Region Code: 0
HW: RTD1073-DEMO

From the PBO Network menu:

Wired Lan Setup: 192.168.15.101
Wireless Setup: Off : DHCP Not ready!!
PPPoE Setup: Off: Can't get any IP

Both pc’s are running 32bit Windows Vista Home Premium SP2.
Both pc’s have the same network workgroup name.

Any ideas about the networking or the usb connection?

If there is other info I can provide to help deduce the solution, don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks in advance!

[aasoror]

There’s two things I’m hoping to do:

1. make it so the computers can access the PBO over ethernet.
2. be able to access the PBO when directly connected to a computer with usb.

If at all possible I’d also like to be able to connect to the second computer from the PBO without requiring a password.

1. make sure "BT/SAMBA" is enabled on the PBO setup
2. try different cable or USB port on your PC, try different power up sequence (power before/after connecting to the PC), make sure all other devices are disconnected from the PBO (including usb devices and TVs).

Not sure about your password problem, you say you have two identical PCs one which you can access without a pass and one which you can't ?!
mmmm .. make sure they both have the same windows updates installed and same firewall settings.
You can also check the registry hacks in the sticky on the network section. though made for Win7 but settings are very similar on all Windows platforms.

[tourist]

It seems you may have just updated from P02 to P61-beta. I remember when I did that to P51, I need to reformat the internal hard drive. Before I re-format the hard driver, I can access it by plugging it to my PC through USB cable though. So it is not clear to me why cannot access it. Did you plug in the power adapter and unplug ethernet and any external drive? If you have other devices connected to PBO, it cannot be recognized by the computer.
For the other question, aasoror has already answered you. (Actually he has answered both while I was checking the drive connection myself).

[paulb104]

make sure "BT/SAMBA" is enabled on the PBO setup

This worked. Now I can access the PBO while usb connected to my pc.

Clearly I don't understand what the BT/Samba is. As there are a number of new options in the menu's, I'll have to download the PBO Core manual and read it.

Not sure about your password problem, you say you have two identical PCs one which you can access without a pass and one which you can't ?!

"Identical" is a strong word. They're both the exact same make and model, and both have the same OS. One is mine, one is the wife's. It's hers that needs the password. I've tweaked mine in more ways than I can (literally) remember, so no, not "identical".

mmmm .. make sure they both have the same windows updates installed and same firewall settings.

Interesting. I'll have to wait to check this until I can get a second pair of hands at the other pc to compare settings to settings.

So that's one down (usb access) and one to go (cannot see PBO in Vista via ethernet)!

[paulb104]

1. make sure "BT/SAMBA" is enabled on the PBO setup
2. make sure they both have the same ... firewall settings.

Well, once the BT/SAMBA setting was changed, when I plugged the PBO in to the pc, Vista asked to scan and fix the drive. The scan resulted with no errors and I was able to access the PBO drive.

What I didn't do (hindsight being 20/20...) was plug the PBO back into the tv and ethernet to check the network availability again.

While I I was copying 30GB or so to the PBO drive, I got my wife over and we compared firewall exceptions. The only entry that she had different than mine is that she had Windows Media Player checked, but I didn't so she unchecked hers and saved the setting.

Now when the PBO is connected to ethernet, both pc's see the PBO (anyone know why is is called VENUS?) and access it. The PBO still wants a password to access her computer. Oddly, the PBO (before and after the firmware upgrade) can see the shared folders on my wife's pc but when I go into one of the folders a password is required.

So now the firmware upgraded PBO works exactly like it did before.

Awesome!

Now if only I can fix that password thing. I'll check the registry hacks in the sticky on the network section, but I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks!