d8b Forum

Hello Guys,

I just got by chance an D8B console, didn't know this one until a few days before... because I own also a Mackie HUI thought this might be a good chance to get a nice "old school" but still good recording system,.
Said and done, I bought this very cheap in a good condition... it was working, needs a little bit cleaning but nothing special. Except...I noticed heavy noise from the hard drive (bearing damage), but still working,..

Ok, back home I took a deeper look, first thing to do is to change the original drive. After doing a little research, I made a clone of it with macOS and balenaEtcher to an 160 GB 2,5 drive and an IDE-Sata Adapter...
Needed 10 minutes and works like a charm.

Next I changed the CPU fan which was also making a little noise. Now the desk (or CPU) was silent again to work with in the same room...

What I noticed from the beginning, it was missing all plugins, which should be there with the MFX card. The card itself is identified, but in the licensing tab are no plugins shown. I changed the "mackieOS.exe" to the "optimised" one , ESN is shown there.
What I can't find in this very good forum here is: I have have installed 5.1 Build 445. Do I need for the last version the SP3?
Because I read something about "Plugin SP"...
I would have tested this, but because of the lack of a working Windows system with an 3,5" floppy I first wan't to know if it is necessary...

I wish you all a nice Sunday....

Marie

Marie,

Two things.

Can I suggest that you do a Forum search for the OS 5.1 Hack --- quite lengthy but if you look at my topic "Not Quite the end of the Saga " you will find quite a bit of reference to it and how to do it. Once installed you will need to install the SP3 package. Doing the hack install will also get around the licencing problem with the plugins and OS 5.1.

Also in the same topic you wil find information in relation to changing from the hard drive to a CF Drive. I was reluctant to do it at first but once convinced I will have to admit that it is great. There are also a number of topics on how to do this as well.

Good luck with and enjoy the new toy. When working correctly it is a great desk. I have had mine for virtually 20 years and it really has not missed a beat --- sorry that I can't say the same about the desk that is the subject of my topic mentioned above.

David

David,


thanks for your reply,

yes of course I did a research first...that's why I have the "Hack2" mackieOS installed... everything works good so far... what I couldn't find was the answer if the SP3 has to be installed after 5.1 installed...
You just gave me the answer... thank you for that.
I'm just trying to get an old pc to work, so I can build the three disks for the SP... not finished yet... but it doesn't look bad yet. But... last time I installed Win 98 is a few years ago...
Luckily I have all the components still here at home ..

Regarding the CF card: I managed to copy the original hard drive onto a 2.5" 160 GB SATA drive which is working fine right now in the Mackie PC. So, no need to use a CF Card right now..

best regards

Marie

At the End of the day....

I got it to work.... spend most of the day to build a pc with windows 98 (installing it was the most difficult part)... luckily I had original installation CD's of WIN 98 here....
found enough 3,5" Disk (nearly 30 years old most of them, but unused still "new")
After hours of working on the PC I was able to build the SP3 Floppy's, installed them on the Mackie... and...
all Plugins are there!!!

And they're working as well... so now I need to test everything...

I'm happy...

best regards

Marie

Marie,

I am juist a bit confused (not all that hard with me !!!) and I am sure that others will correct me if I am wrong.

The OS, plugins, etc have to be installed on to the hard drive in the d8b's CPU (often called the Rack Unit) and not an external PC , but not being a Mac person there might be a way that an external computer can be used, BUT I doubt it !!!!!

It was the d8b's hard drive that I was (and others) have suggested changing to a CF card.

As I said correct me if I have mis read what you have said.

David

David,

of course you're right! I used the wrong word with "external PC".. what I meant was of course the Rack unit... my bad...

sorry for this confusion!

Best regards

Marie

Marie,

Not a problem and glad that it is all working.

If you do not alrerady have it, can I suggest that you download from the Forum's Database the OS 5.1 Instruction Manual and give it a good read or even better print it off (a total of 191 pages but worth it) --- have coffee where suggested !!!!! ---- there is so much that a fully working d8b can do, some things that even the majority of the latest and most expensive desks will not do, and it was designed more than 20 years ago !!!!!!!

David

Yes,

because I saw all these possibilities I bought this desk...
and...
i have the original blue D8B folder here... long time ago I read such a nice manual...
Today there is only: "you can find the manual at www.....


best regards...

Marie