2000xl CF Reader stopped working

I recently got a MPC 2000xl real cheap off my friend. He got it off some dude who bought it straight from one of those companies that mods MPCs and sells them. The floppy drive was replaced with a cf reader that worked fine, until one day it just stopped. As far as I know he didn't **** with any settings, but he may have been doing something involving Ableton and the card, as I found some .asd files next to some of the samples on the card. I backed the card up and formatted it Fat32, but still no dice. (sandisk 1gb) Other cards of varying size and age were no good either. I want to get this thing working again, but hours of searching forums has left me no further along than when I started. I'm hoping someone will have some insight into what the problem could be.

Some Details:

- when trying to load, a "no floppy device" warning

- Nothing working in the devices menu. No SCSI, floppy, or anything else. Should I be seeing an ATAPI option?

-All connectors appear to be in excellent condition, no bad solder joints or loose connections as far as I can tell.

-card reader appears to be an Addonics IDE-CF Adapter

-OS 1.2

Anyone else have this problem? My instinct is to start by getting some new ribbon cables...

Thanks for reading.

If I remember correctly the cf card needs to be formatted FAT16.

Thanks very much for the responses!

I tried formatting the card FAT/FAT16 with my PC and Mac, still no dice. I can't format with the MPC as it is not seeing the device! I'm pretty stumped. Any other suggestions?

Is the IDE cable inserted correctly? I don't see the cable connector's key notch in the bottom photo so it might be inserted incorrectly..

Yep, checked it on both ends. The notch disappears when inserted.

I checked the power too, it's good.

The usual thing is to temporarily re-install the original floppy drive. If that works then put the CF drive back in and it should hopefully recognise it again. I'm guessing that you no longer have the original floppy drive and cables.
I'm not quite certain how the MPC behaves without a drive of any sort installed but...
I would disconnect ribbon connector from the CF drive. Then boot the MPC. Switch off again and reinsert the ribbon connector. Then re-boot the MPC and see if the drive is recognised.
ATAPI is indeed what you are looking for.

Please report back here with the results.

I forgot to ask..... Is that a "Hotswap" drive?
If it isn't, then you need the card in the drive when you switch on the MPC and not take it out till the machine is switched off.


(edit: Just checked. The Addonics is not a hotswap drive)

Turns out the jumper on the CF reader was set to slave, not master. How it worked so long like that, I don't know. Thanks everybody for your help! It works just fine now!

@Hughstomato a win because you never had to spend any cash to get it resolved man.

excellent result

+Pilchard+ wrote:I forgot to ask..... Is that a "Hotswap" drive?
If it isn't, then you need the card in the drive when you switch on the MPC and not take it out till the machine is switched off.


(edit: Just checked. The Addonics is not a hotswap drive)

Just so others know and for the record ...
StarTech and Addonics card readers are basically the same, the jumper needs to be set to Master, they both need OS 1.2 to be used on the 2KXL and both are NOT hot swappable.

I had a very similar problem with a StarTech drive working for a bit and then all of a sudden behaving in the same way that yours did. How do you set the jumper to master? Have looked everywhere online but to no avail. Thanks in advance.

On the CF card reader it should be labeled "CF Select" with a black plastic piece over 2 of the 3 pins. Pins 1 & 2 are "MASTER", Pins 2 & 3 are for "SLAVE-SLV". You want it set for MASTER.
In this picture, the CF Select is identified on the right top portion of the card reader between the LED and the top mount screw.