It could just be a bad connection somewhere too.
One of my EII's has this problem every 2 months - all LEDs on and strange characters/frozen characters/black boxes on the display.
It could be anything; the EII stops during it's internal validation, this could indeed be in the very beginning of start up and not being able to boot from the eprom at all.
Anyway, just to show that the problem can be caused by something else, in mine the problem is caused by a subtle bad contact in the main board's connector for the frontpanel's ribbon cable or in that ribbon cable's connector. If I unplug and replug it, it's solved for a while :-)
So at least check all connectors and press all ICs again to make sure they really make contact with all pins.
And in the meanwhile, indeed, you can try to get a new boot eprom too.
///E-Synthesist
--- In emulatorII-list@yahoogroups.com, "xxxdavidmaysxxx" <xxxdavidmaysxxx@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for your expertise, but yes, I attacked all the chips. I must have mis-interpreted in my haste and excitement. And I just reseated all of them, making sure the polarities were correct and the pins were not bent. No luck still. I'm hoping it is just the EPROM. I think I'll try and get someone to make me one from (what I'm hoping will be compatible) the binaries in the files section. The main is a 2.1 and the scanner is an EII+ 3.0. Then I'm assuming I can try to replace the Z80 since its common. If it still does not work I'll take it to a full blown tech.
>
> I'll check the Power supply cables. And yes, I did it all last night so its bone dry.
>
> If you have any tips on finding someone to write an EPROM or anything please do share, thanks again :)
>
> --- In emulatorII-list@yahoogroups.com, "rob@" <rob@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi
> > The recommendation to clean IC contacts is well off base. It is far
> > better to try and diagnose the problem than attack all the chips. Did
> > you take some/all the chips out to clean the pins? Possibly bent a pin
> > or a chip the wrong way round? What was the original problem? As it will
> > still be there...
> >
> > Your EII is failing to boot from main EPROM. I would suggest starting
> > with the power supply, is it providing all the correct voltages, are
> > they present on the motherboard? Check the CPU and EPROM chips are
> > correctly seated the right way round. Is the PCB dry and the alcohol
> > gone, no shorts? Its very easy to disturb the power supply cabling
> > especially on the power suppy. Be very careful as mains voltage will be
> > live inside the EII. If in doubt find a good synth tech to do a repair.
> >
> > Please be careful there are 7000 dollars of electronics in an EII, its
> > one of the most complex electronic instruments ever made (except for an
> > EIII)
> >
> > Best Regards
> > Rob
> > www.emulatorarchive.com
> >
> >
> >
> > On 14/02/2011 21:52, xxxdavidmaysxxx wrote:
> > >
> > > I'm sorry for sounding noobish, but I truly am. I really need help and
> > > I'm deeply upset over my EII. I got it yesterday, it exibited some
> > > problems so after reading some forums telling me to crub all the IC
> > > contacts with alchohol I did. Now it doesn't do anything. When you
> > > turn it on, all the leds come on, the display has all black boxes in
> > > the first half of the screen and the disk drives don't do anything.
> > > Its obviously an issue with the main CPU or EPROMs I'm guessing, but
> > > what do you all think? Have I completely ruined it?!?
> > >
> > >
> >
>