Hey there,
No, your S3200 will boot just fine without upgraded OS chips. My S3200 has V1.30 OS ROMs installed, my S3000 has V1.01 ROMs, and they both recognize the MO disk just fine, as well as many other types of SCSI disk.
With the S3200, there's room to install am MO drive and keep the floppy drive too. Just take off the front panel and pop out that MO drive bay cover. Then you can, for example, load OS2.00 from floppy and save it onto an MO disk. It's pretty flexible having the floppy drive still there.
As long as you save the OS to partition 'A', volume 1 of the MO disk, the OS will load itself from MO when you power on the machine (assuming you left the MO disk in the drive).
Theres a very important point I should make about putting any kind of internal SCSI disk into the S3200/S3000/S2800 though - and I have repeated it below the quote - you MUST connect the SCSI cable to the internal SCSI port UPSIDE-DOWN... or the machine will freeze every time.... see below.
soundtech wrote:Hello! Thanks for the post. I am still interested in this.
I'm just about to buy an s3200. I understand u need a chip with the os 2.0 for the sampler to boot if you replace the floppy drive with an MO.
Does that mean if u keep the floppy drive only you always need a disk with the os into the floppy drive so the akai can boot the os? Or how does it work?
How easy is it to install the os chip inside?
Thanks
INTERNAL SCSI CONNECTION ON S3200 / S3000 / S2800 SAMPLERS:The reason for your problems is this - the internal SCSI port on the IB301S SCSI card (which is what you will have in your S3200 unless you have the Mutec SCSI card) is, well, back-to-front, or upside-down. The plastic 'key' that stops you from putting the SCSI cable in upside down is simply in the wrong place - and seems to be on every IB301S card I've owned.
(The IB301S is the card that has a blue 'Centronics' SCSI connector on the outside of the machine and a 50-way internal connector on the opposite end, inside the machine)
This design flaw freezes the machine as soon as the S3200 attempts to access the SCSI bus. But it doesn't seem to cause any damage, like blowing the SCSI fuse for example.
The solution:
File away the plastic 'key' that protrudes from the SCSI cable, just at the end that plugs into the SCSI card. Now plug the SCSI cable into that port 'upside down'. Job done.
Obviously this does not affect the external port, that one is wired up OK:)
I can't say exactly which card readers work on the S3200 because I use MO drives in mine, but I'm almost certain that they will work on the S3200 if they work on XL models.
I have a mutec SCSI card here too, and the internal connector looks to be wired in the same way, but I have yet to test it with an internal device.
This will also apply to the other models that use the same IB301S SCSI card: S2800, S2800i, S3000, S3000i (and maybe the CD3000?) when using any kind of internal SCSI device.
I was about to throw an MO drive in the bin before I discovered this:)
Let me know if this helps,
Matt