The Saga part 2

[csp]

Firstly apologies if you have been trying to contact me or read the main thread on the saga of the donated desk, but because of the number of views (I am suggesting some form of "bot") the number has exceeded the allowable number and the topic has been blocked with only the administrator being able to solve the problem.

Earlier today I put up a post that I really need urgent help with. I will copy/paste that post following this introductary post.

David

[csp]

An update --- sorry it will be quite long and detailed, but help and advice are seriously needed.

On Friday I had the desk going for most of the day (about 6hrs) and all seemed to be working perfectly then at about 10.30pm I decided to give it one last HD24 play (the desk had not been touched/altered since the previous successful play). Hit play on the HD24 and immediately there was audio amd the meters were moving in sync with the recorder, then at 30secs in the desk froze --- why when it had been working correctly for about 6hrs. Shutdown and rebooted and again played the HD24, this time it froze at about 18secs. Shutdown and went to bed very frustrated .

Saturday I decided to bite the bullet and install the purchased DSP board. Soldered on the missing 22UF electro and installed the board. On booting the board showed only the Red LED (perfect as the old board had both the Red and Green LEDs). Again the desk worked OK for a number of hrs, then it froze. Rebooted and tried again and again it froze at about 12secs.

I then decided to disconnect (ie pull out of the socket --- not completely remove from the desk) all of the boards from the Back Pane (apart from the Mackie clock card ). I then installed the 1st 12 analogue TRS plugs from the HD24's Line Outs into the HD24 and the desk's inputs 13 - 24. Booted the desk and played the song --- perfect --- did this shutdown/boot process about 4 times and each time it played perfectly, so I decided to see if one of the cards was faulty, so removed the analogue inputs and pushed in OPT-8 No. 1 card (ie tks 1 - 8) and played the Hd24 --perfect. Then did the same individually for the other two OPT-8 cards --- all Ok. Then repeated until I had done all possible combinations, including all three cards --- all perfect. Then repeated the entire process with the card installed in the Alt in/out slot and then with only the card in the Dig In/Out slot, and then with all three OPT-8 cards and both extra cards --- all perfect. Then waited about an hr during which time I had switched off the HD24 at its main switch (it has a main switch on the rear and a standby type switch on the front). I then tried the mic again --- still good signal --- and while still talking into the mic I again turned on the HD24's main switch. Immediately the desk froze --- all that was connected between the HD24 and the desk was the two MIDI cables and the six optical cables --- why did simply turning on the HD24 cause the desk to freeze !!!!!

After that I could not get the desk to boot up with the DSP board having a Red LED (hence no audio --- I did not retry the analogue Line inputs to see if they worked --- my mistake !!!), so I decided to put the bottom plate back on and flip the desk in reddiness to take it to the tip. However during the day I decided to give it one last chance and booted up, but got no sound (I now could not see the LEDs but guessing that the DSP card that had been working perfectly on booting since installed was now showing only the Green LED.

Then stupidly I re inserted the MFX and UFX cards and wondered if the UFX card had ever gone through its upgrading process, so proceed to do this, It got to the part where it stated that the desk had to be re-booted, selected the re-boot option and on booting I got the below notification:

PMI Function = 0001
INVALID SECTOR = 001C
PMI Function = 0006
INVALID SECTOR = 002C
PMI Function = 0006
INVALID SECTOR = 0034
PMI Function = 0599
INVALID HANDLE = 0027F420

The desk did not reboot and I could not shut it down all that I could do was to manually turn of the Rack Unit. Now on booting there is no audio but on a few reboots I got the VUs showing full or near full and I still can't recall what that condition signified or its possible fix !!!!!

Do I now have to re-install the OS and if so do I need to reinstall the Hack 2 software ---if so will I need to again discover how to install the hack2 as the piece of paper with the instructions has long since been thrown out !!!

As the freezing problem seems to mainly occur when I am playing back a song through the OPT-8 cards, could there be something wrong within the Back Pane board that plays up especially after the desk has been running for some time (rembering that I think all but one ribbon cable coming from the Back Pane go to the DSP board) and if so is it considered worthwhile spending about another $180 to buy and ship another Back Pane board, or could the problem be somewhere within the Rack Unit and/or the motherboard (eg a faulty memory board ot RAM chip or similar. OR am I simply wasting my money and simply remove the plugin cards as possible spares for my own desk and take the desk to the tip, because unless I get some very good advice I really have no idea what to do next apart from re installing the OS and discovering how to do the Hack 2.

Any advise within about the next three days will be VERY greatly appreciated even if it is negative advice (ie dump the desk --- something that I really do not want to do !!!!!!)

David

[doktor1360]

<deleted for brevity>

Then stupidly I re inserted the MFX and UFX cards and wondered if the UFX card had ever gone through its upgrading process, so proceed to do this, It got to the part where it stated that the desk had to be re-booted, selected the re-boot option and on booting I got the below notification:

PMI Function = 0001
INVALID SECTOR = 001C
PMI Function = 0006
INVALID SECTOR = 002C
PMI Function = 0006
INVALID SECTOR = 0034
PMI Function = 0599
INVALID HANDLE = 0027F420

<deleted for brevity>

Media/disk interrupt issue(s) - hard disk, cf card, whatever the case...

Corrupt media, or the previous install never really completed properly... in either case, a reinstall issue and/or replacement media as disk access is questionable...

[Standard Mgmt Disclaimer] - "Your actual mileage may vary..."

[csp]

DOK,

Thanks for the reply and I was hoping that you would not say something like that !!!!!

If I get time today, I will try to do an OS and Hack reinstall. I will try to fully erase the FC card first as there is nothing important on it --- just stuff that I have saved there while working on the desk. I don't particularly want to have to buy another 4gig CF card.

Do you happen to have any thoughts on whether the Back Pane board could be faulty, because virtually all of its ribbon cables are going to the DSP board and that is the board that gives the faulty LED indication when the desk freezes.

David

David

[csp]

Re-did the OS, SP3 and Hack reinstall on to the CF card (formatted it on a Windows 8 PC and then again in the Rack Unit as part of the OS install), but on boooting there was still no audio, so will need to flip the desk and remove the base plate again to see what the DSP LEDs are doing ---- guessing only showing Green LED.

I did forget to mention in my very long post that I tested the +5Vs on the DSP Board and it measured about 4.8Vs irrespective of whether the DSP was showing the Red or Green LED, so I do not think that the loss of audio and VU freeze is voltage related (as was suggested in a 2006 post !!!), BUT I am really starting to feel that the problem is lying somewhere in the Back Pane board or the actual Motherboard in the Rack unit.

Do I spend more money buying the Back Pane board for about $AUS180 or call it quits? I have previously inspected the Back Pane board and could not see any obvious problem (eg dry joints, burnt component, etc).

David

[Phil.c]

Didn't you say that there was one ribbon connector that wasn't cleaned?

[csp]

Phil,

Possibly a couple, but none going to the DSP board. The couple that have not been cleaned are disappearing under the various boards (eg input and ouput control boards I think) and these would require a complete strip down of the desk to be able to be got at and none of those go to the DSP board. I think that one might possibly go to the bottom of the DAC board, but without looking I would not be sure.

David

[csp]

I am completely shattered !!!!!

First where I am it is now Saturday afternoon.

Last Tuesday I removed the Power Distribution board and went over it under a strong magnifying glass to see if there were any dry/suspect solder points --- all OK --- I also looked at the pins on the big plug --- they looked somewhat dull, so I gave them all a very good abrasive clean with a small file and then the Australian version of Deoxit.

Re-assembled everything and secured the big plug and data cable VERY carefully making sure that here was absolutely no weight on either lead's plug and then booted the desk.

Worked perfectly.

For the past 4 days the desk has been upside down and runnig perfectly for about 15hrs each day with me giving it a full test every couple of hours (3 x mics, tape replay {3 x OPT-8}, autromation and effects, etc) and I have not been able to fault it.

The desk itself since the re-assembly has not been touched, moved, etc with everything being done via the external monitor using a mouse.

This morning I decided to give it one last trial as it has been over the past 4 days --- booted and it worked perfectly -- then left the desk sitting for about 4hrs while I went out. It was my intention to then shut down and swap the data cable --- I have been using a spare one that I had, so was going to replace mine with the one that came with the desk when donated.

However before doing that I gave the desk one last try. The mic worked perfectly loaded the test song turned on the HD24 and checked all clock settings were correct then hit Play on the recorder (desk being upside down the Transport section is had to reach). The recorder started, there was sound in the headphones, the meters were perfect, THEN at about 30 secs into the song the meters froze and the Red LED on the DSP board switched off and the Green LED (indicating a major fault) came on --- WHY WOULD THIS HAPPEN AFTER 4 DAYS OF WORKING PERFECTLY !!!!!!!!!

Now when I boot it goes straight to the Green LED or Red and Green LEDs (an OK state) for about 3secs and then the Red LED goes out, or it boots with only the Green LED and all meters at full.

I had intended to change the data cable and if it worked OK for a day, I was going to put the base plate back on and flip the desk and try it for about three days and the if all still OK take it to the Centre assuming that cleaning the pins on the big plug's socket had solved the problem.

I have now turned everything off --- to let everything come back to room temperature and will try it again to see what happens (more or less as a joke !!!).

I AM NOW COMPLETELY STUMPED ---- I think that rather than take it to the Centre as i was finally looking forward to doing I will now probably be pulling out all of the plug in cards and taking it to the tip, as I have absolutely no idea what is causing the desk to be working perfectly for 4 days and then for absolutely no reason fail and return to the way it has been for 2yrs (received May 2022 !!!!!).


An Update. After about an Hr being turned off I have just rebooted the desk and on booting the DSP's Red LED was on (mic worked OK) so opened the song file (still OK) then switched on the HD24 and changed to the Tape Bank and immediately the Red LED went out and the Green LED came on --- shutdown the desk and re-booted but still the same so shutdown again --- then checked the big plug again and even though it is tightly locked on to the socket there is still a slight amount of movement in the rear section of the plug (where the actual cable goes into the plug) so it could be the combination of the plug and cable with the pins not making contact if the cable moves a fraction ---- remembering that it looked very suspect initially, but I thought that I had fixed that --- but maybe not. I would remove the plug and its cable connections and cut of about 3" of cable and start fresh, except that there are a number of cables with the same colour and unlike large multi core cables where if cable colours are repeated the cables have an identification stripe or something so as to identify them, the cables in this lead have no identification system.

David

[csp]

Somewhat off topic after rebuilding and cleaning all of the terminals on the big plug and the Molex plugs on the Power Distribution Board and re-asslebling and booting --- the desk has been working perfectly for at least 5hrs.

My off topic questions is as a result of doing some reading on a VERY wet day. In the Information for the effects plugins when refering to the TC FX II program it states that Level 1 is included to hopefully want you to get the Level 2 version.

Was a Level 2 version ever released and if so is it still available anywhere and what did it contain that the Level1 does't have ?

David

[Phil.c]

Is there a way to check whether the TC is level 1 or 2?

It actually says on the manual, This Version of TC Il is TC Level l ?