MPC 2000 xl - Problem with floppy drive

Hello everybody out there.

I am the owner of mpc 2000 xl. Everything works fine and I am so happy about the mashine, but it has broken floppy drive. I decided to upgrade it to internal cf reader, but these readers needs OS ver. 1.20. Mine mpc is working on 1.12 so i need to upgrade the OS.

I have the new OS (1.20) on floppy, but mine reader is broken - The LED is lightning non-stop and when i try to load any file the mashine says "disk read error" (tried with many, many disks...).

I thought that I just need a new floppy device (standrad one, these devices are the same as for PC, right?), uprgade and install my cf.

But there is a problem. I tried with one floppy device that i found in my home (from some old PC) and the LED is lightning but mpc is not even saying it is an error, it says that there is no disk.

I thought that these reader is also **** up, so i decided to buy a new one from computer store. Plugged it in and... the same problem! The LED is lighting and mashine says there is no disk...

I am pretty sure that i plug everything properly (if you plug the cables wrong, mashine is not even starting, i tried that) - it's not a trouble to plug 2 cables...

I was searching but I didn't find any similar topic...

Any ideas what is wrong and how i can fix the problem?

Thanks for your help in advance

The floppy drive for the MPC 2000 (XL) is some kind of special.. as you can see on the backside of the drive there are a few jumpers which configure it for use with the MPCs Floppy controller (block size, etc..).
Those drives are rare and very expensive for FDDs.
So for you it would be the easiest way to connect the external scsi zip drive from one of your beatmakin friends and install the update from there.

Thanks for a quick reply!

The problem is that i would rather need to buy this ZIP DRIVE cause I don't have many beatmaking friends
Unfortunately, all of them are already using internal cf readers...

Is possible to plug a standard hard-drive or cd-rom or are they special too?

the 2000xl can work normal floppy drives. The older MPCs used special ones but the xl doesn't use double density floppies or anything like that. You could also aim for a scsi zip drive to update the OS.

If you are at a garage sale, or an old flea market then you could probably find a box of floppy drives for like 5 bucks. one of them will probably work.

When my FDD died, I tried about 15 old and new ones, none of them worked...
Then I did some online research and found out about the jumper settings on FDD PCBs for industrial
use/environments. Not talking about double density, but FDC termination, Drive ID and all the stuff you thought you can only have trouble with when using SCSI equipment.
That's just my expirience.. maybe some standard FDDs will do the job, I don't really know it and maybe just had no luck..
I moved to Zip and got happy! Added CF and got even more happy...

However, I just think Zubru should use equipment that is already tested in or with a 2000XL.
Can save money and a lot of time!

Zubru wrote:Thanks for a quick reply!

The problem is that i would rather need to buy this ZIP DRIVE cause I don't have many beatmaking friends
Unfortunately, all of them are already using internal cf readers...

Is possible to plug a standard hard-drive or cd-rom or are they special too?

Only SCSI devices.. and even not all of them will work.

How did your friends update the OS before installing the CF reader? Maybe one of them still holds a tested FDD or internal ATAPI Zip..

If you really need to buy, get an Iomega Z100S2, the cables, a Zip disk and a USB Zip Drive for file transferring..

An external SCSI CF reader will do it also, but it's more expensive.

Hope this helps.. pz

Your answers are very helpful. Thanks a lot for every up there !

My friends bought their mpc's with already installed cf
When I was buying the mpc i thought it can't be such a hard case to change the drive...

What I already know is:
- Any floppy device propably won't work (doesn't mean if it is special or normal)
- Any hard drive, cd-rom etc. won't work
- The only option in my case is to use ZIP

Maybe it will sound ridicolous but I already have a ZIP device (Iomega250). At the begging I thought it would be easier to update my OS via floppy but as we see it isn't...

Phulk, could you give me some links, where I can buy all equipment that I need?

Poland is a strange village country, don't know if polish people even heard about ZIP's... I was looking on allegro.pl (our 'polish ebay') and there is only one auction of this device (which I already own without cables and disks....).

I would be very pleased if you could advice me some tested and well-working equpiment.

Cheers and thanks a lot! Without you I will probably sell my mpc and get new one...

What's the model number of your ZIP drive?

Check your PMs..

pz

**** shit still not working ;/

I was so happy cause I have TWO zip drives, and each of them is working properly - connected to computer and transfering files in two ways with no problem.

Then I plug it into mpc, and thought that the one and only thing is to update but.... but of course NOT...

When I press shift + load, and change the device from floppy to SCSI-0 mpc says "Wait..."

Ok, I will wait.

And I have waited even half an our and nothing happened. But when I disconnect the cable while mpc says "Wait",
there is another information "NO SCSI DEVICE!"... It doesnt't mean if i try SCSI-0, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 or 9. Always the same, for both drives that work properly with a PC...

Any ideas?

It looks like I bought a piece of shit for some serious money...

Zip drive model numbers?

SCSI Fuse blown (caused by plug in the cable while the MPC was ON ??)

peace

SCSI Fuse blown (caused by plug in the cable while the MPC was ON ??)

It's blown for sure, I plugged the cable several times when the MPC was on (shame on me). Just didn't know that can cause like this...

So if I would like to use external SCSI, now I need to replace this SCSI fuse (is it expensive?).

However, I've got some IDE/ATAPI ZIP Drives. Will they work with that broken part?

Zip drive model numbers?

Iomega ZIP 100 - Model number - Z100P2

Iomega ZIP 250 - Model number - Z250P

Your Zip drives are Parallel Port models, they won't work with your MPC.
The MPC will only work with SCSI devices.

I wouldn't say that the fuse is blown for sure..

You can install an internal ATAPI/IDE Zip drive, but you will need a DC Power adaptor for it or to modify the power cable.

You wrote me, that you got an external SCSI CD Drive yesterday.. If you have the cables, try it that way...

To install ATAPI ZIP drive I also need to have a newer OS... I have tried with 1.14 and MPC don't recognize it. There is not even such an option...

I was trying to plug the internal SCSI ZIP, and cd-rom and it shows "wait..." so the SCSI Fuse is blown as i think...

The only way is to get new, mpc dedicated floppy... or to exchange the SCSI Fuse...

As I think, the floppy will be more expensive but easier to plug and buy... Am I right?

ATAPI Zip definitely does work with 1.14... Drive jumpers set to master?

In the first post you wrote your mpc is running 1.12?

Are you familiar with SCSI? ID's, termination, cables...