Hi,
An interesting project!! Boot ROM failures are relatively uncommon, and its
more likely that the problem lies elsewhere. A failed Boot ROM will hang the
EII before any LCD messages appear, and it should always hang this way.
ROM's do age and eventually the small program will be corrupted by failed
bits in the silicon, then it simply won't operate. Your EII is showing lots
of different symptoms rather than just Boot ROM failure, and the PSU is the
first candidate to suspect.
You can diagnose the failure points as follows:
If the LCD says Boot in Progress the main boot ROM is ok.
If the drive clicks 3 or more times and the EII stalls with Boot in Progress
it is RAM failure or RAM access failure - provided the drive is ok!
If the drive does not click at all and the EII stalls with Boot in Progress
its a main CPU failure.
If the drive clicks 3 times and the LCD is blank and random LED's light its
a Scanner ROM failure.
An Insert Diskette message means the EII cannot see a valid diskette in a
drive - bad media or drive or cable or controller chip
A floppy drive out of alignment or with dirty heads can cause OS loading
failure (Boot in Progeres stall)
A failed floppy drive controller chip will cause OS load failure.
Failed RAM will cause the OS to crash mid session too.
The EII scanning and main CPU's both have local SRAM as well as the main
DRAM. The main DRAM gets used for the OS and samples.
It is important that the PSU has been checked first before starting to
replace components and that you leave the EII to settle for a minute or two
between power on attempts. The Memory Test diskette is really handy for
sorting this type of problem out, but we don't have a copy. The debug ROM we
do have, but you need a RS232 terminal to use it!!
I suggest the following...
1) Check the PSU rails are on spec.
2) Recheck all SRAM, DRAM and ROM is seated.
3) Clean the diskette heads.
4) Check with the list above and see what problems you have still.
5) Check memory by swapping the SRAM chips around and the DRAM chips around.
6) Try a new boot and scanner ROM.
The Emulator Archive can supply you with Boot ROM's, but we unfortunately
have to charge. Our contractual agreements with E-mu Systems means we can
not post binary files via email or on the Internet. The main Boot ROM is
versioned as follows
Main ROM 2.0b
Main ROM 2.1
Main ROM EII+2.1
Main ROM EII+HD 2.1
Main ROM 3.1
Scanner ROM 2.1
Scanner ROM 3.1
It sounds like you have an EII rather than Plus or HD, in which case you
probably have 2.1 fitted, however you should upgrade to 3.1. Your EII serial
number will be around 1500 - 1800, only 3000 max were manufactured. May 1984
is the design date of the board not the build date of the EII.
Email me off list if you need more help, a copy of the Service Manual or
Boot ROM's.
Regards
Rob
Hi E2 users...
I'm Nicola from Italy... i'm trying to take back to life a old emuII that
seems to be not very healty...
I mean... i've bought it as "broken" and it was missing the OS too, so as
soon as i gpt a copy of the latest OS disk, i went to test it. It was
working, even if the LCD is quite totally faded away. Anyway, it was
working, i've cleaned it all, eack key, eack pot, and pressed each chip in
its socket, done some test againg...sampling and palyback... found that the
5th voice is out of order, anyway, i was having fun sampling and sampling
when it started to crash, totally blocked. So after some turn off/turn on,
the boot is hanging... sometimes i get "boot in progress", sometime "insert
floppy", sometimes the display is fading up and down slowly and sometimes
some red leds keeps on.
Now, maybe i'm wrong but it sound to me like a boot rom failure or a PSU
failure.
So, now i'm testing the psu out, but i would also like to burn a copy of teh
latest boot rom, as i have acces to a boot programmer i need just the binary
image file... the Scan rom is a 3.0, the boot is unknow cause there is no
label on it, the serial of my machine is unknown too cause the serial label
is missing too... but i can tell you the serial of the Digital Board (rev1
serial#1749) and the Output Board (May 1984 serial#1570)...also...there is a
number wrote with a marker inside the case of the eII... i think that it
shuld be its serial and it's #5796.
So... hope that someone here could help me out as i really would like to
give this old baby a new life.
Ciao ciao...
.kruz
PS: check my SP1200 pictures of Rob's website!!! ;)
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