E-mu Emulator Sampler User Forum for the EIII EII EI and EIII XP

EII Nr. 2 (used to work with SD, now broken)

- Logic Board Rev 0.1 (scanner 3.1, main EPROM 2.1. OS 3.1, 2x 5,25 floppy drives),
- RS422 piggy board inside
- memory expansion piggy board inside
- used to work with SD with no problems
- about 1 year ago some voices missed, later can not boot from the disk (no tac, tac, tac at the beginning)
- we checked the power supply and its connectors (as recommended), did not help

I already answered that one. This you try lower software version ? (Easy with an EII)

Did you mean lower version of Scanner and main EPROM?

Noooo, disquette !

It doesn´t try to read anything from the diskette. The disk does not start at all.

Geee....

Is there anything written on the display ?

Tired to repeat again, and again :


First : take off the power supply, look under : the solderings of the Molex conncetor may be crackeled.
Take off the old solder and resolder after cleaning.


As well, the connector distributing the power to the boards, the one having the multicolour wires, mays be overheaten. You may see it by a brown trace. Try to clean the contacts with a special cleaner for printed circuits.

Put everything back in place.

Is there anything written on the display ?

Just Boot in progress, we already did everything you suggested with the power connectors, no result.

Ahhhhh !!!!! At last, we have got something ! (Man, that was hard... ;D)

Okay : this means that the main and scanner boards are not communicating.

I am EXTREMEY SURPRISED that the PSU trick doesn't work.

Can you please power the E2 and check one thing :

WITHOUT  a floppy : does the floppy reader blink (the LED, obviously).
If it blinks, does it blink fast; or slowwwwww

If it does not blink, does the motor start and stop (spinning of the diskette) ?

WITH a diskette : led blinking ? Fast/Slow ?

Does the motor start and stop (spinning of the diskette) ?

These are important topics, it telles where the mess starts

The LEDs of both drives together blink right after Power On (very shortly about 0,1 sec), no acoustic effects (motor does not start, heads do not move) with diskette or without the same.

We followed the service manual. The main processor does not start cpmmunication with the PIO (probably). M1 signal is cycled (square). We think that there is mess between main CPU and PIO or EPROM eventually.

There are many socket problems, contacts. Take off the Z80 CTCs and put them back, as well the 6116 static rams. Otherways, you would need the debuggin eproms.

Well I´ve already took off all chips, clean the contacts and put them back (nice weekend by the way). What would the debugging EPROMs do for me (if I have them)?

Debug Eproms would allow you to test the logics of the boards.

Well, I don't really know now what to tell....

Are they available somewhere?

Naaa... I don't know, I didn't use them. The reason is very simple : the debug eproms are usefull only if the system works, otherways they are useless. Its a bait "the snake wich bites his tail". Well, sometimes, it may be usefull.

Sometimes, I banged under the machine with my flat hand and it restarted. A nightmare....

I just had my PSU rebuild and I am having the same problem.

the drive come on for .01 sec then nothing.

The screen says "Emulator 2 Boot in Progress" but nothing going on.  >:(

I cleaned all of the Z80 CTCs now just the bottom drives LED is green but the drive is not spinning.

I found one problem now the drives are spinning but nothing else is happening.

It still says "Boot in Progress" and the Green LED stays on.

Can you take a picture of the processor board, around the connector concerned by the cable wich goes to the floppy ?

(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s149/machine13303/DSC04187.jpg)
(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s149/machine13303/DSC04188.jpg)
(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s149/machine13303/DSC04189.jpg)
(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s149/machine13303/DSC04190.jpg)
(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s149/machine13303/DSC04191.jpg)
(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s149/machine13303/DSC04192.jpg)

like these?

First of all, congratulations for the pictures.

Second thing : I see that the led colours are different. Are these floppy drives coming from the same batch ?

Do something : take away the flat cable from the bottom floppy and try. If it doesn't work, put it back and take the cable away from the other.

Are you sure these floppy drives don't have the same ID ? They are a bit like SCSI devices, they have an ID, and if they are on the same one, we have a data collision.

I also had a few problems with the CD40HCT11, IC2, the one near C4, and, as well.

Let me know.

Nothing, still the same.

I ordered the 3.5 in drive and all of the update ROMs from route 66. we'll see then.

Sorry about that....

banging feels so wrong, hate to do that.. but it works.

THIS IS BECAUSE OF THE POWER SUPPLY, AGAIN !!!!!

Tale it away, resoldre the soldereings from the output pints, clean the connector wich goes there, see if the cointacts at the yellow wires are not burned (brown), and it will work !!!!

OK, I am getting at the end of my rope.

I put the new Scanner ROM 3.1 ,Main ROM 2.1, New 3.5 Drive, new back light and a rebuilt power supply.

Cleaned the all the ICs too!

Still the same problem.... Everything lights up, the drive is spinning, the LCD say "Boot in Progress"  and that's the end of the show!

Any ideas?

I know you hate my black emulator Dr.C, but any ideas?

maybe there is a bad via, like a bad solder spot on one of the pads...?  

like one components pad/electrical pathway has some old solder in there, that needs to be heated up etc to pass current?






just a quick question, Scanner Rom 3.1 is the chip you put inside the EII to help you diagnose problems correct?

If not then there is this one chip, you can pop into the EII and it helps you diagnose problems... anyone recall the name of this chip..? some sort of diagnostic eprom...  I saw it sold on ebay a couple of times should've picked one up

Forget it, the Eprom is Okay, there is a Service Eprom but it requires the documentation, its a hell, I tried it once and never retried it.

I must have done about 800-1000 E2 repairs in 13 years time (I was the service manager for France) and it ALWAY have been a power supply problem, or a scratchpad memory problem.

Does this machine have a memory piggyback board ?

(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s149/machine13303/DSC04220.jpg)
(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s149/machine13303/DSC04227.jpg)

Geee... this is a model I didn't know.... Well, there is no piggyback board. I have highlighted a zone and there are two fields, "A" and "B". "A" is the scratchpad memory, used to manage the machine. Swap the "A" circuits with the "B" circuits. Beware not to bend pins and to put the chips back the right orientation. This may be the problem. Otherways, its a pain, at such a distance, without equipment, etc ...
Let us know
(http://drc.keyboardsrecording.fr/forum/scratchmem_E2.jpg)

Dr. C -

you did't know that there are EII's without a piggyback board ?!

Yes, I did know, but I have never seen an EII with only two rows of rams fitted, and two empty !

Ah, I see.

Well no luck, I sit broken hearted  :'(

I guess the only thing I can do is see if I can find another one for parts and make it a project.

Thanks for all your help!

I cant believe this shit... can you leave only one floppy reader connected ?

WITHOUT floppy disk into the readers, does it seek slowly, really slowly, is it is brlink fast ?

everything lights up the drive is spinning.

But the drive is not seeking or trying to read anything, it just spins.... like record... round and round...

sorry couldn't help it  8)

Wait.....

Okay, go to :
http://cjoint.com/?hbwDzgDrSK (http://cjoint.com/?hbwDzgDrSK)

Have you got the tech manual ? The related pages are 7-14 and 7-15. You should sneak around the Z80 SIO2 and PIO; I had as well some trouble with the LS07, they are the ones driving the floppy readers.

Thake them off and put them back, or change them, they cost peanuts (50ç)

The very first set of ram chips must work to store the very first sequence of disk software.
segment one! or the boot progress just holds. if you can swap the chips in the first bank to the second bank 8 chips. then try! they are ic12 to ic20 on EII's MT4264-15 chips.
I used a memory test diskette and found this problem and was able to fix it that way.
I used the first slot to test each chip individually to isolate the bad ones even the test disk will hold if the first cells of the ram are bad. hope this helps!

made a mistake! IC13 not 12 don't swap 12 out just IC13 to 20 and using the next bank of chips IC32 to 39

I was looking at this tread again and realize that those chips in the first position need to be there IC13 to 20. i know this is a unit without a piggy back board but i did a lot of testing on this and think it really needs the first set of them to run boot. i don't think its the A and B areas you indicated. but it uses the first set ic13 to ic20. i took all other chips out and it booted up with 8 good IC's. Of course i may be wrong and the units without piggy back boards had a different structure so forgive me. but whats the harm in trying. Could it be possible someone took out the first set before you got it?