emulatorII-list

Hi dear ,,colleagues''. First, sorry for my crap english. My EII story is a bit up-down. Bought it in 2007, perfectly working.Was a dream so I just decided to start ,, hunting''one -and finally got it. Since then no time to use the monster at all.Because of moving it from a room to another very often-from a place to another (renovating the flat, moving all things you know how is it).The problem I found -as expected,when I tested it a few days ago, the front panel with led's and buttons is completly dead... Just when I power the unit on , it blinks. The display shows some error data there.I took pictures.That's all.I just opened it. Oh...Jesus Christ. Inside I found flowers dirt, a pen, and a lot of dust.For sure the unit was serviced a few years ago, because there are some things that indicate this. I just cleaned it. But it behaves the same. The HD works, 5.25'' floppy works. I just have some blank new disks and one wich have (or have had, because I heared them ) just a few sounds on it... but now , when I introduce the disk, the floppy mechanism just runs ... and runs... and the display shows some unknown data there... very strange.What should I do ?
Second. Since I do not have any sound on the disks, What If I will change the floppy with an 3.25''? Can someone tell me what type? I can give the ten disks (new blank) and the old 5.25'' floppy mechanism to someone who need it , for free. Thank you guys very much in advance for help.
Regards, Mike, Oslo, Norway.

> the front panel with led's and buttons is completly dead... Just
> when I power the unit on , it blinks. The display shows some error
> data there.

The buttons and LEDs will all be dead until the E-II OS is successfully loaded. Your first priority is getting the machine to see the disk drives and boot. What is the exact error data seen on the display? Is it scrambled gibberish or a readable error message?

> I just cleaned it. But it behaves the same. The HD works, 5.25"
> floppy works. I just have some blank new disks and one wich have
> (or have had, because I heared them ) just a few sounds on it... but
> now , when I introduce the disk, the floppy mechanism just runs
> and runs... and the display shows some unknown data there...

Again, what is the exact unknown display data? When you "cleaned" it, did that include removing/cleaning/reseating all data and power connections (including those of the disk drives)?

> Second. Since I do not have any sound on the disks, What If I will
> change the floppy with an 3.25''? Can someone tell me what type?

See the group database for compatible drives, however I dont think changing to a 3.5" floppy is the solution to your immediate problems.

>..so, both drives spin endlessly, or you only have one drive in your
> EII?

Mike has a E-II+ HD (one floppy and a hard drive). I posted two pictures he sent in the "On-List Troubleshooting" photo album. As you can see his display on power up is scrambled gibberish. 

I agree that power supply problems and dirty connections may be pressing issues here. Since he has a HD model, as long as the E-II finds the drives at power up he should be able to boot from the hard disk with no floppy inserted at all...yes?

From: hexafuzz
Subject: [emulatorII-list] Re: Hi dear EII users, I have some problems with my EII and I don't now what it is..
To: emulatorII-list@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, February 8, 2010, 8:35 AM

�

>..so, both drives spin endlessly, or you only have one drive in your
> EII?

Mike has a E-II+ HD (one floppy and a hard drive). I posted two pictures he sent in the "On-List Troubleshooting" photo album. As you can see his display on power up is scrambled gibberish.

I agree that power supply problems and dirty connections may be pressing issues here. Since he has a HD model, as long as the E-II finds the drives at power up he should be able to boot from the hard disk with no floppy inserted at all...yes?

That's correct: I own an Emulator II+ HD model, and when I power it on, the machine briefly checks the 5.25" floppy drive for a disk. If no floppy disk is in the drive, it immediately proceeds to load the OS from the internal hard disk.


--- In emulatorII-list@yahoogroups.com, "hexafuzz" <gclip@...> wrote:
>
> 
> 
> >..so, both drives spin endlessly, or you only have one drive in your
> > EII?
> 
> Mike has a E-II+ HD (one floppy and a hard drive). I posted two pictures he sent in the "On-List Troubleshooting" photo album. As you can see his display on power up is scrambled gibberish. 
> 
> I agree that power supply problems and dirty connections may be pressing issues here. Since he has a HD model, as long as the E-II finds the drives at power up he should be able to boot from the hard disk with no floppy inserted at all...yes?
>