Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
By tank Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:14 pm
I cannot get my floppy drive to work. After trying to install a 250 internal Zip drive with no success (0000:bff2 error, already well know for a lot of users), i did a research and got to the conclusion i need to install OS1.14c because it solves some bugs related to 250 zip drives.
After coming back to install my floppy drive for being able to install the new OS version the problems came: the floppy drive light is on but i'm not able to load the OS, the rom memory was erased, I'm not able to access the OS interface, my mpc isnt able to detect the floppy drive, it keeps saying "Insert MPC2000XL Disk !" and if I press shift+load to load the OS nothing appens.
I've tried diferent things already, based on others posts based on similar problems, but nothing works:
- i've tried 3 diferent floppy drives
- diferent disks with diferent OS's
- diferent cables

I run out of ideas, I dont know what to try more, can you help?
Last edited by tank on Thu Jan 12, 2006 5:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By Lampdog Thu Jan 12, 2006 4:55 pm
Maybe you have the floppy drive cable backwards.

The redline on the cable is placed close to the power cable.

By tank Thu Jan 12, 2006 5:18 pm
I've tried both ways already. Didn't worked. In the wrong side the light gets intermitent, in the right side the floppy drive light stays always on.
It seems that the mpc is not communicating with the drive at all, i can feel that because theres no sound of the drive/disks reading, but the floppy has power and the cables are well connected.
When I put the 250 zip drive the mpc gives a different error (due to incompabilities with the drive) but at least it is trying to read.
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By Lampdog Thu Jan 12, 2006 5:33 pm
When the light STAYS on the cable is backwards.

Everyone I've known to install 1.14c has had problems with it.
I still use 1.14 and will never change from that.

Maybe gat a floppy, download the 1.14 OS from the akai website again.
Make sure ONLY the 2 files in the downloaded zip file are on the disk.
Try that.
By 4dahaterz Thu Jan 12, 2006 5:41 pm
dont u have to unzip them before u put them on the floppy and then into the MPC

By tank Thu Jan 12, 2006 5:50 pm
When the light STAYS on the cable is backwards.


Are you sure? man, gotta check that again when I arrive home.

In relation to the the OS files I'm doing everything right, unziping directly to the disk.
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By Lampdog Thu Jan 12, 2006 6:12 pm
Yeah, that's very basic pc repair knowledge.

By tank Fri Jan 13, 2006 12:13 pm
You are right Lampdog. When the floppy light is always on means the cable is in the wrong side. Still my MPC cannot read from floppy disks.
I've tried diferent disks with different OS but all the MPC say is "Insert MCP2000XL Disk !".
Now the floppy is making noise, like trying to read from disk, but nothing else happens. Shift+Load doesnt work neither.

By mpc3000 Fri Jan 13, 2006 2:11 pm
"Insert MCP2000XL Disk !"

The reason the MPC displays this (as frequently mentioned in the archives) is because you attempted to load a corrupt OS into the MPC. The MPC loaded a new OS but would not allow you flash your corrupt OS until the old OS was erased (sounds like a bad design, but Windows works the same way). Then your MPC functions like an MPC2000/S2000 where it can boot from the first OS it finds either on Floppy or on SCSI, until after you boot and re-flash the ROM.

In addition to this, you screwed up your drive change and now you apparently have no working drive to even boot the MPC from.

Lesson: Only make one change your MPC at a time. For instance, if you need to change a drive, get the drive working before you attempt to change the Os. Or update the OS and be sure to reboot the MPC to ensure it will boot again.

By tank Fri Jan 13, 2006 3:35 pm
"...you screwed up your drive change"

What do you mean? You mean it is possible the floppy drive got damaged?
And is it possible i need a MPC formated disk?

By tank Fri Jan 13, 2006 7:22 pm
Is it possible that my mpc is booting from a damaged rom OS and not looking for the OS in the disk? if so its strange because it asks "insert mpc2000xl disk!", wich I interpret like "there is no OS on the rom so i'll try to find a .bin file in the floppy disk"
When I arrive home I'll try the HOLD Play button technique to force a disk boot.

By tank Mon Jan 16, 2006 1:23 pm
Ok, I solved the problem finally.
First, MPC was ignoring the .BIN file in the disk, and I was receiving "Insert MPC2000XL Disk !" again. After I tried to change extension from .BIN to .EXE. Finally I got a diferent message: "Loading: MPC2KXL.EXE" but after that "Insert MPC2000XL Disk !" appeared again. Then I copied two files to disk: one .EXE another .SYS. Same messages again. Finally I tried a .EXE and a .BIN in the same disk and suprise: OS loaded!!

If you have the same problem try this:
a) first make sure all the cables are well connected http://www.mpc2000xl.com/images/xl1.jpg
b) download the OS 1.14 (.zip file) from AKAI website
c) unzip to floppy disk
d) rename file MPC2KXL.BIN in floppy disk to MPC2KXL.EXE
e) unzip again to floppy disk
f) now you should have two files in the disk: MPC2KXL.EXE and MPC2KXL.BIN
g) now the MPC should boot well from disk
h) copy OS to ROM

By tank Wed Jan 18, 2006 3:35 pm
Any comments on this?