Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
By flololo Wed Feb 22, 2017 9:29 am
Hello everyone,

first of all, please excuse that I did not read every single topic in this forum before asking. I hope someone with more MPC-Forums experience will guide me in the right direction.

Yesterday I got my first MPC ever, a MPC 4000 Plus, and everything is working fine so far. The only problem I have is file transfer via ak.sys. I set up a Win XP VM in VMware Player and the connection is working, but whenever I try to transfer files I keep getting Errors 15 and 16. I tried different VM settings (USB, Virtualization and CPU) and also tried using Win 98, 2000 and 7. On 98 and 2k, ak.sys didn't work at all and with Win 7 there's the same problems.

I also tried using Virtual Box, but the USB passthrough didn't work at all, so I ditched that. At the moment I'm using the most up do date versions of the USB driver and ak.sys I could find, namely 2.01 and 2.53.

Is there anything I could try to get a better connection? When using USB 1.1 mode in VMware I could transfer some folders, but whenever I try to transfer multiple folders at once, it crashes again. Due to the speed being very slow, this is incredibly annoying. When using USB 2 mode, I can barely transfer anything. I tried different USB ports too, didn't change anything.

If the problem lies in ak.sys itself, is there any hardware modification I could do to make things easier? Like putting a removable SSD in the MPC? Is there any tested way to do this?

I'll be thankful for every hint :worthy:

Best,
Flo
By wavejockey Wed Feb 22, 2017 10:20 am
this is a problem that every one is experiencing (with aksys)
try keeping your files names / folder structure short & simple
you should be able to transfer in 100-200 MB batches
By flololo Wed Feb 22, 2017 12:34 pm
Well, that's (kind of) good to know. But this also means my problem will probably remain unsolved...

My latest idea would be to replace the CD drive with something like this: https://www.amazon.com/QuickPort-Intern ... 003H8T9J0/
It's an interchangeable 2.5" SSD/Hard drive mount for a 3.5" bay. That way I could just remove the SSD, connect it to an external adaptor for my PC and transfer files. I won't need the CD drive anyway. Has anyone ever tried something like this?

Edit: Okay, I just found out Horseclick did exactly that, but with a 5.25" bay, my 3.5" were an error. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=128991&start=150#p1699356

So I think I'm just gonna do the same...
User avatar
By Lampdog Thu Feb 23, 2017 1:07 am
You can also use a thumb drive in the front usb port to transfer files.
By flololo Thu Feb 23, 2017 7:46 am
Can I really transfer files from USB to hard drive and vice versa? I couldn't find a way to do that yet, only how to load from and save to USB.
By wavejockey Thu Feb 23, 2017 11:05 am
or you can put in a CD-ROM drive in the front USB, works flawlessly to read (AKAI) sample CD-ROM's
By flololo Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:04 pm
Okay, so just for the record: I did switch the hard drive with a 3,5" frame for 2,5" drives and fitted a SSD. Everything's working fine.