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Floppy boot fail

PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2020 3:26 pm
by SimonWalker
Hi All,
I wonder if anybody can help. I've recently reinstalled OS3 on my D8B as I suspect I had a corrupt session file. This meant that the D8B was 'all but' booting. All sorted now, and as it's an old HD I've installed a CF disc to replace the HD thanks to the splendid advice elsewhere on this site. All good, no problems. The only headache is that every time I boot I get a report of 'boot fail (A)' despite the fact that I have completely removed the floppy from the boot sequence in BIOS. I'm asked to press F1 and all is then fine, but it's a bit boring that this happens every time I boot.
Mystified of Brighton UK - any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Simon

Re: Floppy boot fail

PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2020 10:22 pm
by arjepsen
Hey, and welcome!

I would just simply play around a bit more with the bios settings.
IIRC, setting the boot order, does not "disable" the floppy drive - I think that's another setting. Can't remember exactly which one though...

Re: Floppy boot fail

PostPosted: Fri May 15, 2020 12:13 pm
by SimonWalker
Thanks arjepsen, I'll have a look.... I'll report if I solve the mystery. I've just remembered that the first time I opened the unit I noticed that the floppy was completely disconnected. Maybe a previous owner had the same trouble and found this to be the only/quick cure? Anyway I'll see if i can do better.

Re: Floppy boot fail

PostPosted: Fri May 15, 2020 4:40 pm
by SimonWalker
Hi arjepsen, Brilliant - I changed the floppy to 'uninstalled' in one BIOS window, and disabled 'Floppy Seek' in another. All better now, thanks! Weirdly, on the first boot after that, channels 17 &18 showed an input of -8dB (ish) when I've nothing plugged in to those channels. All else seemed to be working so I continued to work. At the end of the session I rebooted and the problem had gone. Ever on!
Simon

Re: Floppy boot fail

PostPosted: Sat May 16, 2020 3:22 pm
by Bruce Graham
Hi Simon and welcome.

It is sometimers amazing how much a re-boot fixes.

Sometimes, the "start-up" file gets corupted. Delete the file but going to the desktop, find the start-up file on the C: drive and delete it (drag it to the toilet), The OS will create a new file whenyou re-boot.

If a re-bbot is needed almost everytime to get rod of "strange things", a re-load of the OS is needed. That is a bigger job. Having a floppy emulator is a benifit!

Lots of info. Lots of great idea's. Lots of help here at the d8b Forum.

Cheers
Bruce

Re: Floppy boot fail

PostPosted: Sat May 16, 2020 5:32 pm
by SimonWalker
Thanks Bruce, and without this forum I would never have considered fixing the desk on my own. Luckily I've had much time on my hands recently (for obvious reasons) so I was able to absorb the wonderful advice I found here, and in the end reinstalling the OS and changing the HD to a CF was a breeze. I have to say that my love affair with the D8B continues so it's very good to not only have it up and running again, but that it's also booting up much faster! I ordered two CF cards, so I installed the OS on both, and have the backup CF in its plastic case within the unit. Thus it's brilliant to know that if the current CF fails I only have to swap to the alternative, and if I'm really unlucky I can still resort to the original HD which is working fine. This makes for a peaceful night's sleep!
Simon

Re: Floppy boot fail

PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2020 1:27 pm
by captainamerica
backup is key :)

Re: Floppy boot fail

PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 8:19 pm
by Shoom78
Good Morning all,

I had posted this in another section I had about motherboards which ultimately lead to this new problem, thus the post in this section. Apologize if I am repeating myself to others....but here goes the explanation

After replacing the battery, new floppy drive, new RAM memory sticks and video card I was finally able to get to the BIOS settings. This looked promising as all information and screens looked to match "old motherboard setting" I had life back into the CPU.......next came the Version 3 OS installation disks (3) again looked promising as the disks took and loaded according to the screen on the actual mixer as MACKIE OS INSTALLER BUILD version 176....and then came the problem, upon ejecting the final install disk the mixer asked to hit eject and reboot hit ok which i did and then NOTHING......just a black screen on the VGA monitor and a green asterisk in the corner blinking and blinking......
After what seemed like 30 mins of waiting...I turned off the CPU and restarted...I then got to the boot screen and the message I get is "BOOT FAIL"
I have MS DOS 6.22 disks coming hopefully this will help??? Also a new Hard Drive in case my HD is failing
Was hoping someone has had this problem before, possible I would need to post this in another topic section...I will try that as well.
Appreciate any insight anyone can give on this problem, I am hoping this means that it is fixable and I can get my D8B back to life.....seems so close but not yet UGH!

Thanks

SHOOM

Re: Floppy boot fail

PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 3:19 pm
by Crash
Give us more info. on the video card you installed.

Re: Floppy boot fail

PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 5:34 pm
by Shoom78
Video Card is a PCI VGA Video Graphics card CLVGA54PCI, from inspection and comparison, looks to be identical of the one inside the D8b CPU...