Solution: can't update OS? via Recovery Eprom / Floppy v1.20

If you're at wits end like I was, with a late model SE3 2000xl that would not see any recovery eproms to update OS. See below.

Firstly, I tried an eprom burned with OS v1.20 then later v1.14. Both unsuccessful, I read somewhere that you might need to update from v1.1 to v1.14, then to v1.20, which is not true. Although my grey OG worked a treat updating via eprom from v1.0 to v1.20

I tried lots of old Floppy disk drives at home etc but couldn't get the 2000xl formatted disks to work on windows XP, when tring to dump the .BIN file onto the akai formatted disk etc

Last resort was to buy SCSI2SD to load the BIN file, or salvage a flashfloppy gotek from other machines to see what's possible.

To summarize:
I managed to get a flashfloppy gotek running with ANOTHER 2000xl fairly simply, formatted the HFE file into akai's IMG format and saved the OS from a working v1.20 machine.

You need to add a simple FF.CFG file with the below code to your USB thumb drive, download notepad + +

host = akai

interface = ibmpc-hdout
______________________________

If I saw there was an IMG file for the actual physical v1.20 OS Floppy disk somewhere online (i couldn't), I would have tried this much earlier. It does seem that 2000XLs prefer to load OS from floppy disk, at my best guess there was some fault on eprom socket of main board, or that my intel flash rom chip was cooked. (it wasn't).

Hope this saves someone some time, in the rare instance you may need to do this, I'm unsure if the file name DSKA000 of the link below is important, but if you are using a HXC gotek, it may be.

LINK here to the successful disk image
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CT6JJOF7wtpr4BPLQhDzLUk_-itSRdt-?usp=sharing


In hindsight, if you can get an eprom burned locally, try that first, I found a PC guy who helped me out with eproms for $20.
But if unsuccessful it would be most practical to buy a SCSI2SD and update the system that way, as you'll get more long term use out of it, goteks aren't great for much in my opinion.

I think you may be misinterpreting the term EPROM when writing that you upgraded the EPROM from 1.0 to 1.20

The on board flash is not an EPROM, it's just an on board flash.

If your XL did not detect the EPROM inserted in your XL's mainboard, you need to make sure the DIP was set correctly. The XL doesn't know to boot off of the EPROM chip automatically. There is a diagram on the mainboard to tell you the correct DIP assignment.

You also may want to take into account that whomever was burning the EPROM may not have done so correctly (or may not have been the correct size of EPROM chip, where the addressing would need to be set correctly before programming) as there should be no reason why an XL mainboard would not detect the EPROM chip with 1.14 or 1.20 otherwise, unless the DIP pin I keep mentioning in this response is not set correctly.

I suggest you reference the in depth post I wrote you in the previous thread again as well.

Either way, glad you got it going again.

Thank you for sharing the HFE image as well.

Thanks Richie, I wrote this pretty quickly on my way out the house, and thanks for your reply on the other thread.

I do understand the difference and yes dip switch / jumpers were set perfectly on my 2nd machine, which I ran into some issues from.

I thought the similar things that the 1st eprom might have been damaged or the 2nd one might be burnt wrong, but I got both values tested and verified.
100% perfect and correct size etc.

My OG 2000xl could see both of the eprom ... big yikes when i realised that.

Rare chance someone will have this issue, perhaps there could be some flaws with SE3 late revision machines, I noticed the eprom socket is different from the OG models / Or maybe some weird bug on v1.1OS / or that I had broken trace/ bad joint around the socket.

Hard to believe the last one, as this SE3 minty fresh condition. But yeah, always good to have some recent info when you're working on these things, hope it helps someone.

Peace

Dillionaire_ wrote:If you're at wits end like I was, with a late model SE3 2000xl that would not see any recovery eproms to update OS. See below.

Firstly, I tried an eprom burned with OS v1.20 then later v1.14. Both unsuccessful, I read somewhere that you might need to update from v1.1 to v1.14, then to v1.20, which is not true. Although my grey OG worked a treat updating via eprom from v1.0 to v1.20

I tried lots of old Floppy disk drives at home etc but couldn't get the 2000xl formatted disks to work on windows XP, when tring to dump the .BIN file onto the akai formatted disk etc

Last resort was to buy SCSI2SD to load the BIN file, or salvage a flashfloppy gotek from other machines to see what's possible.

To summarize:
I managed to get a flashfloppy gotek running with ANOTHER 2000xl fairly simply, formatted the HFE file into akai's IMG format and saved the OS from a working v1.20 machine.

You need to add a simple FF.CFG file with the below code to your USB thumb drive, download notepad + +

host = akai

interface = ibmpc-hdout
______________________________

If I saw there was an IMG file for the actual physical v1.20 OS Floppy disk somewhere online (i couldn't), I would have tried this much earlier. It does seem that 2000XLs prefer to load OS from floppy disk, at my best guess there was some fault on eprom socket of main board, or that my intel flash rom chip was cooked. (it wasn't).

Hope this saves someone some time, in the rare instance you may need to do this, I'm unsure if the file name DSKA000 of the link below is important, but if you are using a HXC gotek, it may be.

LINK here to the successful disk image
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CT6JJOF7wtpr4BPLQhDzLUk_-itSRdt-?usp=sharing


In hindsight, if you can get an eprom burned locally, try that first, I found a PC guy who helped me out with eproms for $20.
But if unsuccessful it would be most practical to buy a SCSI2SD and update the system that way, as you'll get more long term use out of it, goteks aren't great for much in my opinion.

I think I'm yessing to all of that; but I'm new to cracking the case open for real troubleshooting, so I don't know any of that shorthand.

I'm guessing SCSI2SD is what it reads like, but I don't understand any of the steps beyond that.

Capable, yes. But brand new to deep troubleshooting.

I bought an SD card adapter, but can't get the 1.20 to load, screen frozen at 96%.

Right now, I can't get past "insert mpc2000xl disk", which is how I ended up coming back to the general site after a decade or more.

Anyway, I think this could be my solution.

Once I figure out how to do the steps (minus the EPROM stuff; but since it gets hung up at 96%... Maybe do the EPROM stuff?), I'll see if I'm back in business.

If not, I'm guessing I have to do the EPROM stuff, and then it's gonna take research on how to do that.

I don't know what Gen machine I have. I bought it pretty soon after the 2K was out, so I'm guessing it's a Gen 1.

Questions:

1. What is an "HFE file" and how do I convert it into akai's IMG format? Do I have to use a working MPC running v1.20 and saved its OS?

Can I not just download it on my PC and drag&drop or copy onto a floppy?

2. "You need to add a simple FF.CFG file with the below code to your USB thumb drive, download notepad" I have no idea what this means. Yes, I know what you mean by thumb drive, but where would I get this file (I'm guessing the text below that quote?), and can I use my PC's text editor then save it with that extension?

3. I'm guessing the link included in the post has the files and disk image (I'm gonna assume it's both?

4. All my troubles started because I couldn't get my Gotex floppy emulator to work. I couldn't get it working years ago, which is ultimately how I ended up just shuttering my machine, because I also couldn't get the floppy drive working, so I couldn't get the machine to boot.

Are you saying I have to have that Gotex working in order to do any of this???

regarding the FF.CFG file:
you simply create that file by writing the text and save it in plain text (ascii) format.
That‘s what notepad does, and it can‘t do any other, so it‘s fail safe.
(notepad is part of any win installation, unless one removes it deliberately from the accessories group)

To get the Gotek going isn‘t a crucial part of the process, afaik.

Cool cool.

Yep, I get the notepad stuff and more than comfortable doing that from my PC.

So I just download the .img file, put it on a floppy (you're correct about it preferring the floppy, is a relic from early PC days, methinks, where you had to tell it to start up on CD drive, or DOS defaulted to A:, a floppy drive), add the notepad created file saved as "FF.CFG", then insert that disk with those files and nothing else in my machine and turn it on and--whalah! I should have 1.20 OS, and be ready to yank my machine to the 2010s--correct?

richie wrote:I think you may be misinterpreting the term EPROM when writing that you upgraded the EPROM from 1.0 to 1.20

The on board flash is not an EPROM, it's just an on board flash.

If your XL did not detect the EPROM inserted in your XL's mainboard, you need to make sure the DIP was set correctly. The XL doesn't know to boot off of the EPROM chip automatically. There is a diagram on the mainboard to tell you the correct DIP assignment.

You also may want to take into account that whomever was burning the EPROM may not have done so correctly (or may not have been the correct size of EPROM chip, where the addressing would need to be set correctly before programming) as there should be no reason why an XL mainboard would not detect the EPROM chip with 1.14 or 1.20 otherwise, unless the DIP pin I keep mentioning in this response is not set correctly.

I suggest you reference the in depth post I wrote you in the previous thread again as well.

Either way, glad you got it going again.

Thank you for sharing the HFE image as well.

Can anyone post pics of what I'm looking for, in terms of dip switches (in the MPC)?

I've had my machine almost completely torn down recently, and I only saw soldered components. No plug and play anything, especially not with those items that look like processing chips

Have a look at the socket where the recovery ROM chip is inserted.

All of the dip pin settings are printed directly to the mainboard with a dip button that can be removed and swapped between the toggles.

It's in front of you, have a look when you have a chance.