EIIIXP Help Please!

[waterfrontstudios]

Hi folks,

I have an EIIIXP which has the SCSI boot problem mentioned elsewhere on the site. Even after receiving a boot-disk from someone, it still won't boot.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

When I opened her up, the RAM sockets seem to be empty (please see the photo).

The chips that you can see are Mitsubishi, and have the number: M5M44400L

Does anyone know if these are actually RAM chips?

I'm really stuck and would hate to have to sell it for scrap value.

Best Regards,

Chris.

[dr.c]

Take it easy....

First, what happens ? Does the disk spin ? What is written on the display ?

[waterfrontstudios]

Hello from Scotland!

Thank you for your quick reply.

When I switch on, the LEDs all light up (including the Green LED on the Floppy Drive).

The next screen says;

EMULATOR EIIIX
@1992 E-mu Systems
Firmware: EIIIX v.66
Checking Floppy... SCSI 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7...

I don't have a bootable floppy disk. A friend made me an EMAX II disk, but this didn't work.

I have tried hooking up a SCSI CD-Rom drive with an original Emu Disk, but again nothing. Just this loop of checking the SCSI chain.

Best Regards,

Chris.

[dr.c]

I don't have a bootable floppy disk. A friend made me an EMAX II disk, but this didn't work.

Why don't you try a Mickey Mouse one as well ? I cant believe it...

Find an EIIIX disk, don't you think it may work better ?

[waterfrontstudios]

Firstly, I appreciate you wanting to help me.

However, I'm reasonably sure that I read on this very site (about 1 year ago) that an EMAX II formatted floppy would allow the EIIIXP to boot up.

Clearly I'm wrong (or the posting was wrong).

In any event, if you have a look at the photo I posted, I'm fairly sure that the the ZIP Ram is completely missing (again, I read a posting on this site from someone else who had a "butchered" unit, and had described the empty ZIP sockets).

There is nothing online about the chips (that are visible in the photo) being RAM.

I'm not a technical "expert" when it comes to fixing pro-audio issues, but I'm no fool either.

I wouldn't have tried the EMAXII boot disk unless I had it on good authority that it would work (i.e. this website).

I purchased USB Floppy drives to try to create an EIII boot disk using the method described elsewhere on this site. This also proved impossible, and almost destroyed my laptop.

So I'm stuck - and I've clearly annoyed you - so sorry.

[dr.c]

You are NOT annoying , come on !!!!!

Okay, gimme a minute, I'll be back...

[dr.c]

I just modified your picture.

The red blocks on the right are either memory adressing or data drivers. I don't know. I think it may be adressing. Since the circuits has a sticker with a name code, it means it may be PALs (Programmable Array Logic) and then, if you don't have the right PALs, you cannot add memory, wich means you have to buy them from E-Mu, about 5 trillion dollars.
The circuit with green spots are memory chips, I can't read read clearly what is written on them. Can you tell, please ?

[waterfrontstudios]

Hi again,

The chips are Mitsubishi, all numbered M5M44400L.

There are sixteen of them.

[dr.c]

Wgat is written under M5M44400L ?

[waterfrontstudios]

Sorry... It's 023SE5F - 10

[dr.c]

There is the documentation of the memories (attached). You've got an 32 Mg (on 16 bits) machine.

16 x 4 Megs on four bits makes 16x2 on 16 bits, wich is 32 Megs.

You must find a EIII XP diskette, dude !

[waterfrontstudios]

You are truly the EMU GURU !!!

Thank you very much for your time and expertise...

Very much appreciated.

I shall now go and contact Route 66, as I see they now do them!

All the best my friend!

[dr.c]

In could not attach the file, too big.

Go to :


http://www.datasheetcatalog.com/datasheets_pdf/M/5/M/4/M5M44400A.shtml

[dr.c]

Is there anyone around who can make a diskqette for him, or put the file somewhere ?

[esynthesist]

I don't have a bootable floppy disk. A friend made me an EMAX II disk, but this didn't work.

Why don't you try a Mickey Mouse one as well ? I cant believe it...

In some way it's true that something was written about using Emax-II formatted disks in the EIIIXP.
What has been stated here a while ago (by me  ) is that the low level physical format of Emax-II floppy disks and EIIIXP floppy disks is the same. This has been said because OmniFlop didn't have the EIII in its list of supported disk formats, but it had Emax on its list. Do that was a workaround to make a low level formatted disk for the EIIIXP/XS. The newest version of OmniFlop has the EIII in its list now.

Of course such a disk will only work as a bootable disk if the EIIIX OS has been written on that low level formatted disk, instead of the Emax-II OS !! So low level formatting is not sufficient for making a bootable disk, it is however sufficient to use it as a sound disk.

So what should be done now is: take that floppy Emax-II disk from your friend and copy the EIIIX OS disk image to it with the OmniFlop software. You'll need a Windows XP machine which has an internal floppy drive.
As mentioned earlier, this EIIIX OS disk image can be downloaded here: http://users.skynet.be/emxp/Additional_downloads.htm

///E-Synthesist