Booting Problem EIII HD

[softflow]

Hi all,
after some time I try to give the repair of my EIII another try.
The problem I do have right now is that it's simply not booting from HD.
It finds the internal HD on SCSI 2, sees the 2.42 software, says "Booting from SCSI 2" - and that's it. The disk keeps spinning but does not boot.

Unfortunately I don't have a floppy insider the EIII any more so I can re-format this disk or another disk.

Any advice or idea what's wrong?

Thanks a lot
Ingo

[massimo]

almost the same with mine. Sees the 2.42 OS version, says "booting from floppy" (which I have), than keeps spinning and does not load the system, or better, only decides to load after many, many tries...


best of luck to both of us
Massimo

[micromoog]

maybe search the forum about other boot problems threads, dr.c described in one a problem with the scsi-chip.

[polpatte]

Hi there..I found an EIII without hard disk, I pulled an Ibm 1 Gig hd (model DPES-30810, I don't know if it is compatible) from an Atari TT.
When the EIII powers up it recognizes the floppy with the 2.42 os (version I made with omniflop following all the instructions, I am not sure it is ok), then the "booting from floppy" message appears and stays forever.
At the end I am in the same situation of Massimo (ps: are you living in Italy?)
Tried also with my emax floppy but nothing changed...
Tried to change also the FD1772 ic and swapped memory simms ic but nothing...
Anyone solved this?
Thank you in advance for your kindness...

Patrizio

[polpatte]

A thing I forgot: sometimes the system writes "can't load system" and the "song" led lights up.
After that, few seconds later, something like "no os present" or "loaded" (I don't remember exactly) appears on the display and the panel goes to a blank patch with the "enter" led flashing. If I browse the functionalities on the panel it seems to be all ok, of course for what not involving the use of the hard disk.
So, at least I suppose the processor board it should be ok.
Firmware is 2.0.
Later, before to go to inspect the boards I will try to burn fresh eproms just to be sure they are not corrupted.
The diagnostic paper of the Emulator II was more helpful when I repaired mine, I mean in case of troubles at boot level...
So...the challenge goes on...

Pat

[midipuppies]

Exactly the same thing was happening to me last week. The problem was IC47.

Jay

[polpatte]

Hi Jay, thank you for your reply...
With IC47 do you mean the PAL in the uController board?

Pat

[midipuppies]

Yes Pat, on the microcontroller card.
J

[polpatte]

Uhmmm...that would be a big trouble for me if IC47 is the cause of my problem: I don't have a spare PAL to swap with and I don't think it will be possible (at least for me) to program another one because of the copy protection on the code.
I hope the problem depends by a fault on the boot ram ic's, I mean the 4 drams 4464 (64k x4) ICs 14, 15, 20 and 21 on the cpu board.
The floppy stops running after some seconds, I think the time when he tries to fill this memory.
A friend of mine pulled some 4464 drams from an old video card...so tomorrow I will try...and pray.
You have to know, I would'nt go with my desoldering station as I did when I repaired my Emulator II: I desoldered and resoldered all the components on the digital board because the pcb and lot of the ics was extremely dirty and ruined. But I did! This time no soldering, so I hope! ;-)
Thank you again for now Jay!

Pat

[polpatte]

Hi folks....what to say....bingo...it was a faulty dram chip.
I used some old 4464 from my friend and I've changed it on the board.
After that the EIII loaded correctly the disk!
Then I tried to format an old Conner 170 mb scsi disk and it was formatted successfully.
I've tried also with an Ibm DPES31080 1gb size but I've got a scsi error, nevermind....
The first step has been made: the system is loading from the hard disk now.
Next step will be to change the three sliders on the front panel, fix some of the buttons and buy a 20x4 new led blue display.
And of course, create some disk to test also the analog part of this EIII. I will keep you informed about it.
Thank you for all your support for now Jay and Massimo!!

Patrizio

[Zomnius]

HI,

what's the status?

cheers Z.