EIII 'CAN'T LOAD SYSTEM'

[potscrubber]

Hello fellow EIII anoraks!!    

I finally found 2x EIII keyboards in New Zealand, on the same day! amazing, after years of searching....

They both have ISSUES, but importantly, both CPU's work & both PSU's, and most of other stuff.  Eventually I want to build the best machine out of both, but first I will try and get both going well and then assess.

The best one, my main issue is: booting from internal HD only works 1 times out of 10.  Rest of time: "CAN'T LOAD SYSTEM".

When I can boot, I format and copy OS to many other drives, HD, Fujitsu MO, CF card.  All work externally for formats, save & load banks, but none will boot internally or externally, just cycles through scsi numbers.

I have read and followed advice on waiting through verification, saving at least 1 bank to drive, everything.  I am careful to make sure other drives I am trying internal are terminated.

So I am stuck:
- original drive 9 times out of 10 'CAN'T LOAD SYSTEM', but 1 times out of 10 will work.
- other drives format & work fine externally, but won't be found for boot internal or external.

What am I missing?

OS 2.42, Boot firm 2.0

Any ideas graciously accepted!

Oh I forgot to say, both the floppies don't work, or, one works but it and my PC's (EXMP) floppy can't read disks written by each other. I think maybe the EIII floppy is out of alignment.  Fails about 1/3 of the way through every time.

pot.

[dr.c]

With the old disks, they didn't spin, to the machine didn't start.
If you are familiar with hardware, pull the second card from the top (processor), there is a big 40 pin circuit in front, named NCR5380. Take it away, put it back. Try... Pray... let me know...

[potscrubber]

Mmm I will try when my IC pullers arrive in the mail.  Question though, if the scsi can see the drive, and tries to boot from it but 'can't load system', why would pulling the chip help?  it's some kind of scsi instability no? or corrupted os ?

[potscrubber]

Success #1 !!!!!!!!!

I noticed I couldn't load 8M banks, not enough memory.  Available memory and memory diagnostics reported strange amounts of RAM.  I reseated all RAM modules, bingo, now it boots without problem from the internal hard drive, no more 'CAN'T LOAD SYSTEM'.

I hope this helps someone else!

Now, to figure out why my CF card won't boot it, and I'll be happy for a while....

pot.

[dr.c]

Great !!!!

The problem was often that the NCR5380 was very sensitive and some pins did'nt have good contact with the sockets, giving data erreors, just as if the memory was bad as well...
Two (or more) possible solutions for the same symptoms...

[potscrubber]

Thanks for your interest Dr C.

NOW>>>>>>>>>>

What are the secrets of the Eiii boot drive.  I have a Quantum trailblazer, and another Quantum.  The Eiii will only boot off these.  MO drives, CF drives, all recognized, format, copy software, save & load banks.  But Never grabbed as a boot drive.

I try different termination, term power on/off, parity on/off.

I read of people here that can boot off CF drives.  Can anyone accurately describe the setup/termination/term power/parity/whatever!?

I'll paypal you a dozen beers if you can help?!?!?

pot.

[dr.c]

The problem is that I left E-Mu distribution un Europe when they released the Emax2, and the Emu as a keyboard (black) can't remember wich shit it was.
I was fixing about 10 machines a day, and I wasn't trying anything else than making them work.

One thing is sure, its a bug I found : when you format a disk, you shouls ALWAYS save a bank to it, even a empty bank, in order to put something in the directory, otherways, it will NEVER work. For example : format a disk, install the OS, then save a bank.

For te rest, I do'nt know, sorry, chap !