external hdd skipping during use

**liquid23** · 11-12-2008 11:38 PM

heys,

i got a external HDD (500gb) to hook up to my HU (alpine iva-w502e). the HDD is powered by usb cable. When i run music on it my HU says "cannot find USB device" every 20 seconds and then it goes back to normal and repeats.

Has anyone tried to use an external HDD to their HU?,
if so have you had any troubles?

Is mine skipping because lack of power? because when it says can't find USB i can hear the HDD spinning like its starting up again.

**mr ©harisma** · 12-12-2008 05:25 PM

Have you hooked it up to a pc to establish if it's the connection or the HDD itself?

**ndeuro_** · 12-12-2008 05:35 PM

why do u need 500gb in the first place. the bigger the hd the more the power consumption. and plus memory is faster than disk drive so ud be better off with a 16 or 30gb memorystick. if u want more capasity then get a small seagate portable...

**chunky** · 12-12-2008 05:43 PM

get a smaller drive or mem stick
good example of when bigger isnt always better
asian 2" ftw!

**mars_panas** · 12-12-2008 05:47 PM

hrmms yeah lack of power dude...

but yeah did u buy a external HHD or got a desktop HHD and put it in a enclosure?

if its the 2nd one try opening it and make sure the cable isn't loose

**liquid23** · 12-12-2008 05:59 PM

Originally Posted by mr ©harisma

Have you hooked it up to a pc to establish if it's the connection or the HDD itself?

yeah all connection is fine. i can transfer and send with no problems. i just got it 2 days ago. but hdd can/do fail at anytime.

Originally Posted by ndeuro_

why do u need 500gb in the first place. the bigger the hd the more the power consumption. and plus memory is faster than disk drive so ud be better off with a 16 or 30gb memorystick. if u want more capasity then get a small seagate portable...

Well the reason for such a big hard drive is so i can have movies, music clips. tv shows etc. Which i can't seem to get to work either. i have over 1TB of stuff, so a big HDD is helpful to store alot of things.
The external hdd is a WD Passport

Originally Posted by mars_panas

hrmms yeah lack of power dude...

but yeah did u buy a external HHD or got a desktop HHD and put it in a enclosure?

if its the 2nd one try opening it and make sure the cable isn't loose

i bought an external hdd, i know a HDD from the computer wouldn't work because you need DC current running to it, unless you hook up a DC current to it, i guess it'll work too.

**mars_panas** · 12-12-2008 06:24 PM

ok seeing 500gb is alot i guess its lack of power... is there 2 usb ports for it or just 1???

**liquid23** · 13-12-2008 09:13 AM

Originally Posted by mars_panas

ok seeing 500gb is alot i guess its lack of power... is there 2 usb ports for it or just 1???

no just 1 usb port. it powers up fine, hmm i think i know what the issue was after reading the manual for the deck lol.

thanx guys!

**Stig** · 21-12-2008 02:45 PM

hey liquid23, just wondering, are you able to use the pac swi-jack (steering wheel control) with the iva-w502e? i know you are able to use it with the american version (iva-w505) but alpine aus site doesnt state it has the steering wheel control feature. just ordered a iva-w502ev and im gonna regret it if it doesnt have that feature lol

**liquid23** · 22-12-2008 07:39 PM

yes the pack swi-jack does work. takes alot of mucking around though. my installer took 2 hours to put my deck in =/ lol. You need to use the resistor as well. takes about 10mins to figure out how to set the steering wheel control buttons correctly haha >_<
Found out you can ONLY use an IPOD VIDEO to play divX on the deck or use CD/DVD. should've found that out before i got my HDD lol, i'm selling it to a friend anyway so i can get my ipod video

**lolwuut** · 22-12-2008 11:04 PM

its too big

headunits wont work with above 4gig approx

**liquid23** · 24-12-2008 02:56 AM

Originally Posted by lolwuut

its too big

headunits wont work with above 4gig approx

Alpine iva-w502e will work with big USB connections
it can read my 500GB HDD, just if you want to watch videos (dixv) you will need a video ipod or burn it on to a cd or dvd.
i currently have a 8GB USB flash stick connected to the usb cable and it reads fine.

All headunits are different. the w502e as said in the manual can read up to maximum of 10 000 songs. It has 10 "banks" each bank containing 1000 songs. Thats how it sorts out the songs.
The thing is that it takes a REALLY long time if you have lots of songs before it shows the titles of them but you can still search through the songs while it uploads to the headunit.
example takes about 3mins 40 seconds to read about 1000 songs