Synth-DIY Yahoo! Groups Archives

Four Dots ....

2014-02-01 by Scott E. Whitehead

Nuts.� My MP7 is stalling during boot with just four dots displayed on the screen.� I looked in the archives and the suggestion was to reseat the ROM.� I tried that, moving it to another slot and taking it out altogether and no change.� Any advice for me?� And it was going so well\u2026

Thanks,

Scott

Re: Four Dots ....

2014-02-01 by steve_the_composer

These are the basic diagnostic questions I'd ask:

(1) Are you using midi, not usb?
(2) Do you have full round trip midi (in-> out & out -> in)?
(3) Are you using a cheap usb->midi interface (usu. 1x1) which might fail to handle sysex properly, if at all?
(4) Are you updating from an OS that needs the command prep?

Hope this helps.

Steve

--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, "Scott E. Whitehead" <scottewhitehead@...> wrote:
>
> Nuts.  My MP7 is stalling during boot with just four dots displayed on the
> screen.  I looked in the archives and the suggestion was to reseat the ROM.
> I tried that, moving it to another slot and taking it out altogether and no
> change.  Any advice for me?  And it was going so well.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Scott
>

Re: [xl7] Four Dots ....

2014-02-01 by Bruno

Hi Scott,

I'm sorry to hear you experience Four Dots of Doom issue. The advice to reseat the ROMs came from me - my MP-7 did it once and opening it, reseating ROMs plus some TLC fixed it. I don';t know what's the meaning of this message - if there's anyone from E-mu reading this list, please assist! - but since it's an "early stop" I would suggest there might be something related to hardware. Try disconnecting & connecting back everything you can safely disassemble on your own, probably starting with PSU.

Good luck!

2014-02-01 Scott E. Whitehead <scottewhitehead@...>:

Nuts. My MP7 is stalling during boot with just four dots displayed on the screen. I looked in the archives and the suggestion was to reseat the ROM. I tried that, moving it to another slot and taking it out altogether and no change. Any advice for me? And it was going so well…

Thanks,
Scott

RE: Four Dots ....

2014-02-02 by <scottewhitehead@...>

Thanks, team.

I'm not connected to MIDI at all at the moment. It first manifested while I was so I disconnected but the problem persisted. I've got the ROM out entirely at this point and it gets me to 7 dots. Oddly, last time I let it sit, it added a dot after several minutes.

At any rate, I'll give the old take-it-apart-and-put-it-back-together trick a shot. And my instinct says power supply too, maybe for no reason at all. There was mention of a replacement crystal in the forum as well although I've no idea what that means. Maybe I'll understand when it's sitting on my coffee table.

Thanks,

Scott

Re: [xl7] Four Dots ....

2014-02-02 by Jack Pratt

The four dots sounds like the dots that appear during OS upgrade. That would imply that the bootloader is running and not the main OS.�

Reasons for this could be that the memory has been corrupted or that the RAM is faulty and can't be recognised. Since both of these are on the main board on an MP7 (on the P2K series the DRAM was on a SIMM but the SDRAM is soldered to the mother board in the command stations) you can best hope hope to recover the system if the OS is corrupted. That might be because the board has a 'dry joint'. If you know anything about electronics you can clean the main board then rework the solder joints of the micro, SDRAM and FLASH memory and surrounding passives. If that doesn't provide a solution, then you could try using eloader to transfer the OS again - might work.

good luck...

From: Scott E. Whitehead
To: xl7@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, 1 February 2014 12:58 PM
Subject: [xl7] Four Dots ....

�

Nuts.� My MP7 is stalling during boot with just four dots displayed on the screen.� I looked in the archives and the suggestion was to reseat the ROM.� I tried that, moving it to another slot and taking it out altogether and no change.� Any advice for me?� And it was going so well…

Thanks,

Scott

RE: [xl7] Four Dots ....

2014-02-03 by Scott E. Whitehead

Thank you very much for the guidance. I fix fully half of the things I take a soldiering iron to, and I think these puppies are below my size limit. However the OS update is promising. Bizarrely, it booted fully before starting to become unresponsive. It’s a very cold day, coincidence?

Thanks again,

Scott

�

From: xl7@yahoogroups.com [mailto:xl7@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jack Pratt
Sent: Sunday, February 02, 2014 2:52 PM
To: xl7@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [xl7] Four Dots ....

�

The four dots sounds like the dots that appear during OS upgrade. That would imply that the bootloader is running and not the main OS.�

�

Reasons for this could be that the memory has been corrupted or that the RAM is faulty and can't be recognised. Since both of these are on the main board on an MP7 (on the P2K series the DRAM was on a SIMM but the SDRAM is soldered to the mother board in the command stations) you can best hope hope to recover the system if the OS is corrupted. That might be because the board has a 'dry joint'. If you know anything about electronics you can clean the main board then rework the solder joints of the micro, SDRAM and FLASH memory and surrounding passives. If that doesn't provide a solution, then you could try using eloader to transfer the OS again - might work.

�

good luck...

�

From: Scott E. Whitehead <scottewhitehead@...>
To: xl7@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, 1 February 2014 12:58 PM
Subject: [xl7] Four Dots ....

�

Nuts.� My MP7 is stalling during boot with just four dots displayed on the screen.� I looked in the archives and the suggestion was to reseat the ROM.� I tried that, moving it to another slot and taking it out altogether and no change.� Any advice for me?� And it was going so well…

Thanks,

Scott

�

Re: [xl7] Four Dots ....

2014-02-03 by Jack Pratt

Sometimes cleaning the board with isopropyl alcohol will 'fix' problems. Get a soft tooth brush and softly scrub around the components then allow to dry.

For SMD parts only the TSOP (FLASH/SDRAM) and QFP (FPGA & micro) need concern you for getting the system up and running. If you can get hold of some liquid flux and a soldering iron with a fine tip, the best way to rework the joints is to not add any solder but to just put some flux on then just wipe the soldering iron along the pad. It will create unhealthy fumes but clean up the joints pretty quickly (after the flux is evaporated). You should then clean the joints with isopropyl alcohol [flux is acidic and will cause the joints to become dry eventually...] I recommend you have a magnifying glass handy to ensure that you didn't create any bridges (unlikely if you don't add any solder) but they can be removed with a bit of solder wick.

If that sounds beyond you, then perhaps you have a friend?

From: Scott E. Whitehead
To: xl7@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, 3 February 2014 12:01 PM
Subject: RE: [xl7] Four Dots ....

�

Thank you very much for the guidance.� I fix fully half of the things I take a soldiering iron to, and I think these puppies are below my size limit.� However the OS update is promising. Bizarrely, it booted fully before starting to become unresponsive.�; It’s a very cold day, coincidence?

Thanks again,

Scott

�

From: xl7@yahoogroups.com [mailto:xl7@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jack Pratt
Sent: Sunday, February 02, 2014 2:52 PM
To: xl7@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [xl7] Four Dots ....

�

The four dots sounds like the dots that appear during OS upgrade. That would imply that the bootloader is running and not the main OS.�

�

Reasons for this could be that the memory has been corrupted or that the RAM is faulty and can't be recognised. Since both of these are on the main board on an MP7 (on the P2K series the DRAM was on a SIMM but the SDRAM is soldered to the mother board in the command stations) you can best hope hope to recover the system if the OS is corrupted. That might be because the board has a 'dry joint'. If you know anything about electronics you can clean the main board then rework the solder joints of the micro, SDRAM and FLASH memory and surrounding passives. If that doesn't provide a solution, then you could try using eloader to transfer the OS again - might work.

�

good luck...

�

From: Scott E. Whitehead <scottewhitehead@...>
To: xl7@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, 1 February 2014 12:58 PM
Subject: [xl7] Four Dots ....

�

Nuts.� My MP7 is stalling during boot with just four dots displayed on the screen.� I looked in the archives and the suggestion was to reseat the ROM.� I tried that, moving it to another slot and taking it out altogether and no change.� Any advice for me?� And it was going so well…

Thanks,

Scott

�

Re: Four Dots ....

2018-02-24 by kloopyuk@...

Any luck with this?

I am experiencing same issues and next step before reworking the solder is to replace capacitors in the power supply.

Re: Four Dots ....

2018-03-09 by kloopyuk@...

So, capacitors replaced and still no joy. Then I went to re-flow the chips and immediately messed up few pins on U30 (XCF5307FT66B). I don't think this is salvageable. I will try to save it on another day but does anyone have a spare motherboard to sell from a decommissioned XL7 or MP7 please?

Re: [xl7] Re: Four Dots ....

2018-03-10 by Scott E. Whitehead

I reflowed and refailed as well. Ended up buying a second device with a bad something and mixing them together.

On Fri, Mar 9, 2018 at 3:08 PM, kloopyuk@... [xl7] <xl7@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

So, capacitors replaced and still no joy. Then I went to re-flow the chips and immediately messed up few pins on U30 (XCF5307FT66B). I don't think this is salvageable. I will try to save it on another day but does anyone have a spare motherboard to sell from a decommissioned XL7 or MP7 please?