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

Hi, I've just get my Emu Emulator II, and I'm soooo happy about it!
But it has a problem.
When i turn it on, the dispolay ask me the diskette and the 2 diskette reader start to blinkin with a yellow light..
I put the diskette on and the floppy start to load the diskette fro 2/3 second...then it stop and the display says:
Insert diskette software rev 3. and it stop to load.

i tried to used other diskette and it say me.
Emulator II
Software rev 3 and it stops to load and do nothing...

somone can help me?!?

thanks a lot
PJ

Looks like you need the 3.1 software....

yes maybe...when i bought the EII+ they gave me like 30 floppy...
I received the Emu yesterday so i'm going to check all the floppy... i will let you know later when i finish so i can give you a right idea..

in case where i can find the REV 3.1 software?

thanks a lot for your reply

No problemo !

Try to see if its written on the floppy ! I don't like the idea of powering up 30 times an E2 in a row, that's the best way to kill it !

Once you have the floppy, make a software copy on all the others, I mean, the performance floppies, NOT the library ones ! The library floppies DON'T take software !

Hi Dr. C!

Why would the EII not boot with older OS disks? Does the EII's Eprom NEED 3.1 disks?!
(My EII boots with different OS versions, as I've got some disks with OS prior than 3.1...f*ck overlay errors though  >:( ...)

Greetz,
Elm.


EDIT: Is it because it is a "+" model? Mine is standard..

after 3 hours of work i tested some diskettes and nothing is happen.
so with my friend (is a great electronic technic) we open the Emulator and we see that the eprom was the series 1.8

we wrote another eprom and we upgraded that in 3.1

but nothing happened again.

when i plug in the emulator he ask me the floppy, i put the floppy, then he recognize the Software Version : 3.0 but he doesn't upload the banks and the sounds...

please help me!
thanks again!

i forgot.
when i put the diskette he started again to load and it stops after 3 times (da da da )
then the display says : Emu Emulator 2 Software 3.0.
then nothing....

Okay... it seems like you have a communication problem between the main and scanner.

Firts thing to do, this happenend to me hundreds of times (litterally, I was the service manager of E-Mu in France for 15 years) :

Your frien will understand if I make it short :

When the solder is efective on the Molex connector on the power supply, this happens.

Take off the PSU, check the soldering under the power supply at the Molex connector, take away the solder, scratch the cvarnish off the tracks in order to have a bigger soldering surface and resolder.

Look at the wires going to the Molex connector, the yellow contact may be browned or even burned.
Take it off, clean it, out it back.

NEVER POWER THE MACHINE WITHOUT ANY LOAD ON THE POWER SUPPLY, IT WILL BLOW !


Let me know.

thanks again for your answer. we'll try to do this this night at last tomorrow. i will keep you update soon.
thank you
PJ

hi Dr-C my friend already finished (thanks a lot Roby!!) to do the operation you suggested us but without any results.. (all the soldering was good and the yellow cable in good condiction)

the Emulator do the same problem

I can specify better:
I plug in the Emualtor. the 2 floppy drive start flashing in yellow light and the display tell me to insert the diskette.

then i plug in the diskette into the drive and it start to load for 3 times (da da da) then it stops and the diplay said Emulator 2 Software Re. 3.0.

then it stop to load everything and the floppy driver light is off.

the emulator is not operative too,...

thanks again
wait for your precious answer
Pj

Did you contact the poeple who sold it to you ?
Maybe there is a "trick", a disquette somewhere...

What do you really mean by : "we wrote another eprom and we upgraded that in 3.1" ?

for the Eprom:
we took the Binary Files with the images from the 2.1 version of the Main Eprom and the 3.1 for the Scanner Eprom than we programmed a 2 ne Eprom to change the otiginal ones. the original ones version was 1.8 for both Eprom.

About the diskettes: i bought the Emulator from Germany (a shop from Germany) and they sold me like faulty (they said that they was some problems with the display..but it's not true because the display works) with the Emulator they sent to me like 30 diskettes but i think they didn't tested this diskette because it was faulty..

thanks again for your reply...wait for a new one!
PJ and Roby

i mean i think they disn't test the Emu with this diskettes because it was "broke"

Did you check the diagnostics manual ?
http://www.emulatorarchive.com/assets/PDF/EII%20Diagnostics%20Manual.pdf

it was "broke" ?

Broken, you mean ?

Where are you from ?

thanks for share this link! the problem 1 seems to be the same of mine...I have to figure out how to make a disk based memory test.
thanks again

from Italy.. yes broken..i mean they sold me like faulty...

like faulty because they didn't test the emulator or they didn't tried to repair it..

You should have said it before.... it would have us save a lot of time because I assumed it was working and then, not working because you didn't know wich diskette was the good one, or something like that !
Asd well, you wrote : "Hi, I've just get my Emu Emulator II, and I'm soooo happy about it!
But it has a problem."

We (I), understood that it was working supposed to be working.

There os maybe a memory problem. Does it have a piggyback memory card, I mean an optional memory card ?

Sorry Dr.c it wasn't my intention to do this.. i didn't write it before because i thought it wasn't necessary..so sorry again..

i will check it tomorrow and maybe i can send to you a picture of the board..
thanks again
Pj

Sorry Dr.c it wasn't my intention to do this.. i didn't write it before because i thought it wasn't necessary..so sorry again...

Don't be so sorry, you have already so many reasons to be sorry with Mr Benito Berlusconi... :D

Well, you know, we also have his cousin in France... ;D

hahaha ok...but more than sorry in this case i fell sad...

do u have his cousin in France? wow lucky you....ehehe  ;)


hope that we can repair the Emulator and you and my friend Roby can give me a good help...not Berlusconi.... ;D

so... i have to check better the memory right?
what do you suggest ?

thanks
PJ

Make a picture of the digital board (it does not have to be perfect) and put it here.

ok here is the photos: i will uplasd 4 pics..
wait for your answers

thanks
PJ

(http://<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w25/saturdaymemories/foto1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>)

(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w25/saturdaymemories/foto1.jpg)

(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w25/saturdaymemories/foto2.jpg)

(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w25/saturdaymemories/foto3.jpg)

(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w25/saturdaymemories/foto4.jpg)

Your photos are nice !

Okay...
Your machine does not have a piggyback board, wich is a board that normally takes place over the white square I have drawn and connects with the highlighted connectors wich are not soldered at these places.

Take away carefully the circuits to wich I drew red and green dots and exchange them.
Be carefull to put the the right orientation and not to bend pins under.
Restar the machine and tell me if there is any change.

I would be surprised but we HAVE TO DO this test before anything else.

The reason of this : its the sound memory. A part of it us used for the machine management. If one of the memory is bad, the machine will stop working.

You said you changed the eproms. What did you do ? Put the good ones back in place !

Your photos are nice !

Okay...
Your machine does not have a piggyback board, wich is a board that normally takes place over the white square I have drawn and connects with the highlighted connectors wich are not soldered at these places.

Take away carefully the circuits to wich I drew red and green dots and exchange them.
Be carefull to put the the right orientation and not to bend pins under.
Restar the machine and tell me if there is any change.

I would be surprised but we HAVE TO DO this test before anything else.

The reason of this : its the sound memory. A part of it us used for the machine management. If one of the memory is bad, the machine will stop working.

You said you changed the eproms. What did you do ? Put the good ones back in place !

Hey Dr C.

Just for my information (partly off topic, sorry): were there ever versions of the Emulator II+ without an additional memory board ?
I mean: the EII+ received its "plus" logo because of doubled memory capacity, which I assumed was always installed using an additional 512K memory board (the one you are referring too and which is missing on the pictures). Or did later rev 1 versions of the EII+ have other memory ICs on the digital board itself with twice the capacity of the original EII ?
I'd just like to know...

///E-Synthesist

This, I don't remember. I am sure of something, tough : the NON E+ had as well piggyback boards, the first machines, for example. I don't think that E+ HAD TO have a piggyback board, just because its a matter of memoryadressing, wherever the memory is, piggyback or not. It could have been a single memory chip (big enough), if the adress was included in this chip, it would work.

Hi Dr.c my friend this morning did the operations (thank you Roby for your time) that you suggested and repleced the original Eproms...
mothing is happen...
the emulator continue to do the same "error".

wait for your consideration
thank you
PJ

What damn eproms did you have originaly ?
What did you do with the eproms ?
Wich are the software disks given to you ?

The original Eproms: the main and the scanner both version 1.8

We did an upgrade of the Eproms:
we took the Binary Files and we upgraded the main Eprom  2.1 version
and the scanner Eprom 3.1 version

The Diskette software i think is the 3.0 because when the Emulator start to read the diskette it says Emu Software Rev 3.0

thanks

Fuck.... I don't know wich versions thay should be. Its so far away, now...

Is there anyone here who can help him out ?

Hi Dr, one kind user of this forum is going to send me some diskettes to try out.
I will let you know soon wich version is..
Wait for my reply
thanks
PJ

Ok here I'm..
The OS version of the diskettes i will receive soon is 3.1

wait for your reply dr.c
thanks a lot

As I said....
I think an Emulator II PLUS should be able to read ANY Emu-II OS (from floppy), whether older or latest (3.1)...  I 'just' have a normal EII, but even that one can read any EII OS (any EII disk), and it boots.  I really do NOT think the fault is the floppies you have.

But maybe I'm wrong...  ::)

I understand, but lets be sure... ;D
If I remember well, it was going this if we put a library disk instead of a performance one, but its such a long time, now... 17 years... I had other things to think about... ::)

I tried other diskettes and nothing happen. it does the same problem...
I tried original emulator libriary sound...and it doesn't work too...

Wait for your consideration
thanks a lot

IT CANNOT BOOT with a library disquette ! It HAS TO BE a performance disk.

I tried with a Performance one too...but with the same result..

Today i went to a guy who own an Emulator and we started to check some diskettes with his emulator.. they all started and works properly..

I tried the same diskettes on my emulator II+ and it didn't start...

We changed the Floppy driver as well but with no result...

Of course i cannot ask him to try to change all the CPU components because i don't want to ruin his Emulator..but maybe there is something wrong inside the CPU board..

what do you think?

thank you DR. and thank you Roby for your patient!

You have apparently changed the eproms, as you said.

It seems like the sanner eprom is not matching with the main and stops the machine, that the scanner eprom may have a bent pin, or is badly programmed, or, or...

do you suggest to try to program the Eproms again? which version do you suggest?
I saw that the working Emulator of my friend has the MAIN 2.1 and the Scanner 2.1.

Do you really need me to tell you wich side of your underwear goes in front ?

SURE !!!!!   DO IT !!!!

hahahah! I don't use underwear... jk...

Ok i will provide to do it and let you know soon! I mean to ry underwear...joking    ;D

I keep you informed soon about the Eproms.
thanks

Hi DOC. We've alredy write other epros: main 2.1 and scanner 2.1 and it does the same problem...  :(

We tried with the original eproms and it does the same problem...  :(

what do you think about it?

thanks again
PJ

The eproms didn't have to be 3.1 ?

I don't remember, iyts so far, now...

Somebody knows ?

Hi Doc.
Do you know if the MAIN EPROM of the EMulator II+ has to be specifical for the Emu II+?
In the emulator archive is write that the MAIN EPROM has to be specifical for the EII+ but in my EII+ is written Emulator II only...

Wait for your answer
thanks alot
PJ

I am sorry, I don't remember... its 17 years ago, now...

I'll check the Eprom and Scanner versions in my EII and EII+ (which I've just got back from a friend). I'm pretty certain they're 2.1 and can boot from 3.1 or 3.1HD performance disks. I'll get back to you on this.

I think Dr C is right in saying that you may well have a problem with one of the memory IC's that are located in that bottom right hand corner of your EII as you look at the boards. (the white boxed area)

WITH THE MACHINE NOT CONNECTED TO THE MAINS. It's worth slowly and delicately re-seating and swapping around (the same type of IC) in that region (as Dr C says, keeping them in the right direction - the little cut out). It's worth spraying a little Isopropyl Alcohol in the IC socket too and allowing to dry. You may then find that the boot up process time starts to go beyond the 3 seconds it's currently taking and may even boot up ok, this will prove whether you have a dodgy memory IC. It's worked for me in the past. It may be that you'll need to source one or two of these IC's. Boot up is not dependent on all off them being absolutely perfect.

Good luck!