experienced but newbie to the forum Q

Hey everybody. I had a 2000 ten years ago, played live, put out a CD, then my life took a bunch of twists and turns. Had to sell the MPC for bills and regretted it ever since.

Finally, I bought another one on Ebay recently. When I received it, it wasn't quite as billed (great condition), so I am in the process of sending it back. The guy has already given me my money back which is cool.

I bought two 16mb sticks and a zip drive, also on Ebay, and while testing this MPC out, when trying to access another device aside from the floppy, it freezes up with a "wait...." message.

My Q is, could it be bad memory, bad zip or is it more than likely just another problem with this particular MPC?

Tonight, I hope to verify the zip is good by hooking it to my pc, then take out the memory but leave the zip hooked up to see if it still freezes up. I am going to send the MPC back regardless, but want to know if it is an easy fix or maybe a bigger problem with this MPC, and thought I would go ahead an ask while I am toying around with it.

Thanks

I guess my first question would be is it a SCSI Zip? You said you were going to hook it up to your PC - does your PC have a SCSI card? Does the drive have two switches in between the rear connectors?

Funny you should ask b/c apparently I have the 25 pin port on my pc but it won't recognize it, so I guess not. thought that would be an easy way to test the zip drive and rule it out.

yes, this is a scsi zip, iomega 250.

I also tried taking out the 32mb I had added, and the machine is freezing up just the same.

and no, no switches between the connectors

Thanks

All Iomega blue case SCSI zips have one or two switches between the connectors, so if your doesn't, then it isn't a SCSI zip. Can you post the model number on the bottom?

Also, that 25-pin connector on your PC is not a SCSI connector, it is a parallel connector. PCs generally don't come with SCSI boards - those have to be added later.

And even the Zip Plus parallel/SCSI drive has one switch in the back for SCSI ID.

Oh man please don't tell me I bought the wrong one?

I am not a super techy guy so when I saw a 25-pin zip drive by Iomega that was blue thus looking just like the one I used to have, I snatched it up.

This one says Z250P, and I think you are now going to tell me that if it were a SCSI zip, it would be a Z250S right?

Man what a drag. Thanks for your help.

Yep, sorry to have bad news but the P is for parallel. Don't feel too bad - lots of people make that mistake because they all look alike and the DB25 connector is the same on both parallel and SCSI drives.

haha thanks. well like I said I have been waiting 10 yrs to get another beat machine and this whole thing has been an ordeal. What I will do is send this flawed classic back, and get one or an XL in better shape and hopefully an internal zip or an external one that comes with. I love the idea of a CF card, etc, but my shoestring budget was thrilled to get this one for $350. Guess sometimes you get what you pay for.

btw, is the XL worth holding out for? Really the 2k is all I needed before, and I will probably play out less live now than I used to anyway.