Finally bought the EmaxSE+

[Jvpiter8]

What the heck, I bought the big old beast. It's a 2100 model. Truly amazing sound, instant gritty, lofi and warm sounds.

My question is I made a boot disk with EMXP, which is an amazing piece of software. This boot disk is Plus 1.0 os version but when I try to boot from it the emax display says Wrong version blah blah blah. What is wrong with it?

Here is the picture of the sampler backside with the model label.

[jacodavis]

Model nr. 2100 = E-mu Emax I PLUS (no HD).

Congratulation, this is a great machine =)

[Jvpiter8]

Thanks!. So the "SE Plus 1.0" OS should work. right?

[jacodavis]

I have the original OS disk right here, and it says.:

OPER. SW EMAX PLUS
VERSION 1.0
ZD856

But again, as fare as i know, the only difference between the "SE" and the "PLUS" OS is
that in the "PLUS" you can choose the SCSI ID.

My Emax came with both. some with "SE" and some with "PLUS".
So i think it will work with both.

Don't you have any original disks, that i work with?
Because then you can just copy the OS from that one..

[esynthesist]

What is the exact error you get on the display, and when does the Emax actually gives this error ?

Is the error displayed during the boot process from the floppy disk ?

Normally the "wrong version" error occurs (only) when mixing floppy disks containing different OS versions on it.
E.g. you can get this error if you:
- have booted the Emax with a floppy containing Emax OS Plus 1.0
- then have replaced the floppy disk by another disk to load its sound bank, but this disk also contains an OS like Emax OS SE 1.1
- then when you press one of the module buttons (like "sample" or "preset management") the Emax tries to locate the OS module on the disk belonging to that button but it detects that the OS on the disk is not the same anymore as the one with which the Emax had been booted before.

[Jvpiter8]

Well I've been testing with 3 os versions. First of all I downloaded from Emu archive the SE 1.1 os and then EMXPied  that to an emax formatted disk. So no bank inside. The emax display reads:
1) "loading software"
2) "Bad bank on disk"
3) "Wrong software!".
Then I downloaded the Plus 1.0 os from the same place and copied that to a disk containing a ZD Marimbas bank. Booting from it reads on emax display:
1) "loading software"
2) "Loading bank"
3) "Wrong software".

Then I just discovered that one of the disks has the HD 1.1 revision. It boots ok, takes a little more time than the 3.2.

So what's wrong with it?

Thank you,
Augusto.

[Jvpiter8]

Status update. Today I managed to use the copyQm in a native DOS enviroment and copied the ZD700PLS to a emax formatted floppy. In fact I made 2 copies. I booted the emax and it says WRONG SOFTWARE! with both disks. What's wrong here?? I'm suspecting something is wrong here. Is it possible that someone changed something inside the sampler? I disassembled the keyboard and took some pictures of the main boards. Seems to be a legit Se+.

Analog board:


CPU board:


CPU board close up:


Echip:


External SCSI:



Looking forward to hear your thoughts about this.
Regards,
Augusto

[Elmbeatz]

If I recall correctly, there was a ertain SE - software issue (I'm not VERY familiar with the SE system, but I remember this 'problem'):

The original Emax had to be 'updated' to SE with some kind of a "personal copy" of the SE OS disk. It could only be updated once (IIRC?), and maybe you need this 'personal' copy of the OS (or other disks that have been formatted by THAT unique OS) in order to get your Emax running.
I know, that your Emax is a factory SE version, but maybe this software issue is the key?

Some expertise needed....  E-Synthesist? 

[jacodavis]

Mentioned above is the "SE Unlock Disk".
This disk could open the SE facility on a Emax (Model: 1000) and an Emax HD.
Nothing else.

I don't think that the solution lies here. Sorry..

[esynthesist]

Do you have a SCSI device that can be set to SCSI ID 0 and can be connected (internally or externally) to your Emax ?

If so, you could try to boot the Emax Plus OS from that drive instead of a floppy disk.
Just as a second test.
(you could use a CF card drive or an internal zip drive, and create an Emax CF/Zip disk including the OS on it with EMXP)

There's little chance tough that this will work if it doesn't work with a floppy... but you never know.
The floppy drive in the Emax may have calibration differences with the drive in your PC on which you create the floppy disks. But if that's true your Emax should in principle also have problems with loading banks from these disks, so not only with loading the OS....

On the other hand... your Emax seems in fact to be able to load the software, since it gets to the "load bank" stage, which is invoked immediately after loading the basic OS routines into the Emax.
Strange.
   

[Jvpiter8]

This is so strange to me. Maybe the eeprom was changed somehow? What if the psu breaks? What happens to the eeprom? Could it be erased?

I tried the SEUpgrade disks and the same issue, Wrong Software. HD os boots fine but when I go to load bank it hangs forever, I suppose it's looking for the non existant HD.

Still open to hear your thoughts guys about this issue. 

[esynthesist]

Two more questions:
1/ did you also create a floppy disk on your PC with the HD OS 1.1 on it ? You already had a disk with this OS and that disk is OK, but what happens if you create a disk with the same HD OS yourself ?  I'm asking just to eliminate the possibility of incompatible floppy drives (PC<-->Emax)
2/ if you get the message "Loading bank" when booting with the Plus OS, does it actually load the bank (taking 20 seconds or so) and then shows the "Wrong software" error, or does the Emax immediately jumps to this "Wrong error" message without actually loading the bank ?

The eeprom is not going to be erased in case of failing PSU. But it can have been/be erased at any time of course... these things just can happen. I wouldn't suspect a corrupt software in the ROMs though, because the machine works fine with the HD OS.

Also, in my opinion, the SE 'flag' in the eeprom should not cause the problem of not being able to boot an SE OS. As far as I know a non-SE Emax is able to load an SE OS. But I'm not sure and can not test this because my non-SE Emax seems to have been upgraded to SE after all while I have bought it explicitly as a non SE version
Anyway, the SE upgrade disk that you have tried out does not expect that you already have SE enabled on the eeprom (by definition) and even with this disk you also the "wrong software" error... that's why I don't suspect the eeprom. But I could be wrong, maybe there are somr other bits in it which are important too and if they are messed up, anything can happen.

The fact that booting the Emax with HD OS 1.1 or loading a bank with this OS takes a long  time and may end up in a "bank error" is normal if no HD is connected. The HD SE OS has the same problem but it 'hangs' a lot faster The Plus OS resolved all of this, because it doesn't require a HD to be connected.
   

[Jvpiter8]

Well, thanks to all of you. I've finally been able to boot into Se but.... I had to upgrade it.   

I tried copying the upgrade with EMXP with no luck, still Wrong Software. Today I copied the seup.emx (from the yahoo group) using Omniflop Emax utility and presto. I did the update and now I can boot with the SE os contained in the upgrade disk.
It seems somehow the eeprom got erased/ modifed/ back to std rev.

I don't have here a Plus os to boot neither a floppy drive on my pc. I'll have to wait till next Monday and make a plus disk at work. I'm pretty sure the Emax now will boot in Plus mode without a hiss. Then I can start playing with an ext/int SCSI option.  

Thanks to all,
Augusto.

[esynthesist]

Great, good news !

By the way: indeed, EMXP can not create the SE Upgrade disk.
- The SEUpgrade file on the Yahoo group must be saved to a floppy disk with OmniFlop itself, not with EMXP.
- The Seup.em1 file on the same Yahoo group must be saved to floppy with the emaxutil tool in DOS.
I will post this to that group too, to avoid confusion for other emax-users having the same problem.

For sure the Plus OS will boot now on your Emax.
Good luck with this great machine.

[Jvpiter8]

Great, good news !

By the way: indeed, EMXP can not create the SE Upgrade disk.
- The SEUpgrade file on the Yahoo group must be saved to a floppy disk with OmniFlop itself, not with EMXP.
- The Seup.em1 file on the same Yahoo group must be saved to floppy with the emaxutil tool in DOS.
I will post this to that group too, to avoid confusion for other emax-users having the same problem.

For sure the Plus OS will boot now on your Emax.
Good luck with this great machine.

You're right. I thought the upgrade could be copied as any other OS disks which is wrong, I was copying the SEUP.em1 with EMXP. The images are different so Omniflop must be used instead. I copied the seup.img with the EMAXUTIL which is just a floppy raw image and should be copied that way. It worked like a charm in a WinXP DOS bos.  If you have a Wind98 or Me as far as I know EMXUTIL should be used. We can document this for future clarifications.

Thanks esynthesist!