MPC 2000XL will not boot after 1.14 OS install

Hey guys,

I searched the forums and although found some info on OS upgrades in general I could not find anything that matches my specific scenario. In addition, other than what is on pg 169 of my manual " Loading an Updated OS" there is not much on troubleshooting in the event that something goes wrong during this process. Any thoughts, suggestions, solutions, etc. would be much appreciated.

Here is my scenario. I will try to be as thorough as possible.

I downloaded the MPC 2000XL OS update ver 1.14 from Akai's website. (I am coming from ver 1.07) This included a zipped folder with 1) a pdf readme and 2) a .bin file. I copied the .bin file over to a floppy and proceeded to install on the 2000XL. The 2000XL recognized the .bin as a legit file and upon loading it did in fact inform me that my flash would be erased and a new OS installed....so naturally I continued with the process. The install appeared to be going fine and once completed, prompted me for a restart by "pressing any key." But when I rebooted it just displayed mostly random strings of numbers (perhaps hexadecimal) In addition there are the tabs "seq, run, step, and memory" displayed at the bottom of the screen and ALL LEDs are solid on the sampler. Selecting any of the four tabs below mentioned just displays more random digits. If I restart once again without a disk inserted in the floppy drive it prompts me to " Insert MPC2000XL Disk!" Doing so gets me right back where I was before - a screen with random columns of numbers. I'm wondering if something perhaps went wrong in the process of rewriting the OS on the internal flash rom. Also, one thing I have noticed that in the manual on pg 169 the examples given are .exe and .sys neither which are a .bin file, but again this was downloaded directly from Akai so not sure there.

Sorry for such a long winded post but I wanted to be as detailed a possible. Hope someone out there has had some sort of experience with this as I'm starting to get real worried. My MP has become the centerpiece of my home studio and is like a baby to me. I can't imagine living without it.

Your help would be much appreciated.

-Mike

hey, maybe try downloading it again, and redoing everything.. perhaps something got messed up... or maybe the flash in the mpc is messed up. Give it a shot, it can't hurt.

Hey mr_debauch,

Thanks for the quick reply. We must be on the same wavelength because that is exactly what I was in the process of doing when you replied. I have recopied the original 1.14 OS .bin replacing the original on my floppy. I am now able to boot into the OS and even loaded up some of my programs. However, it is prompting me to insert MPC disk every time I start up. I'm scared to try anything now that it is "working" but think it will be necessary to start from the beginning otherwise I have to leave the floppy with the new OS in the drive at all times, which I'm sure that is not normal...especially for those who use floppies exclusively.

wow, that is odd... very odd... I don't know what to tell you... at least you got something to work though in the meantime until you find out how to sort it out.

that totally sucks though...

It worked! I went through the entire process again and was able to get the OS to stick. This truly is an odd situation alright. I hope others that have had the same problem will stumble upon this thread. Something must have happened either during the rewrite of the flash or on restart. Not sure but it is working again. Thank god. That is the closest I want to ever be to a heart attack, that is for sure.

studiotime wrote:It worked! I went through the entire process again and was able to get the OS to stick. This truly is an odd situation alright. I hope others that have had the same problem will stumble upon this thread. Something must have happened either during the rewrite of the flash or on restart. Not sure but it is working again. Thank god. That is the closest I want to ever be to a heart attack, that is for sure.

great news.. so now don't touch it!!! hahaha.. sometimes it's like walking on thin ice!

Yeah for sure, it was probably just not writing properly to the flash rom. You are lucky you didn't wind up in a situation where you had to have that replaced... what a pain that would have been.

Glad you got that sorted. Maybe once you get situated you could post up some of your work in the "your music" section of the forum.. it's always great hearing what people are making.