Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
By georgeoner Thu Oct 20, 2011 11:53 am
Ello ello.

Alright I looked around and haven't been able to find a solution on here, so here we go.

I have a cf drive from MPC stuff, one of those ones with all the slots, sd and cf and whatever. It was working fine, but I decided to get a reader from scsicardreaders.com just before he shut down or whatever because the MPCstuff reader was flimsy as hell and hard to line the card up when inserting it. I tried tweaking the brackets to make it fit better but it was really shitting me so i got another one. Shallow I know. I went to install the new drive, you know used the mpc stuff youtube video and was careful with my cable orientation and seating but no dice. Powered up with working cards (transcend 2gb and sandisk 1gb) and the machine just sits dormant. Screen is blank and all lights are on. If started with no disk in the drive it will take forever to boot then says no floppy. Atapi is not showing at all.
Drive is set to master.
I tried to reloading two 1.20 disks through my floppy, and also 1.14. I have tried multiple ribbon and power cables.

I put the original drive i had ( the flimsy one ) back in and tried all configurations (diff cables, OS's) and am still having the same problem where it is still looking for the floppy and wont show atapi. The floppy drive when reconnected works fine.

Any ideas and assistance would be much appreciated, i'm getting worked up over here!

cheers
User avatar
By Lampdog Thu Oct 20, 2011 3:17 pm
Yep, right, if all the lights are on that means the ribbon cable is backwards. Disconnect one side and flip it over. If there's a red wire that red side sits towards the power plug.
By georgeoner Thu Oct 20, 2011 10:05 pm
yo thanks for the replies guys, appreciate it.

the ribbon cable is keyed on my newer card reader ( the one that crashes the machine with all lights on when attached ) so the ribbon cable can only go in the one direction.

I've also tried the IDE cable both ways, no dice.

original card reader from mp stuff
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/98/img1039u.jpg/

and again. The red wire is always going to need to line up with the 1 on the board yeah?
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/839/img1040i.jpg/

scsicardreaders rig that i havent been able to get working at all, just freezes up the machine
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/11/img1042ey.jpg/

and again
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/713/img1043py.jpg/

sorry i couldnt get the pics to embed, i'm an idiot.
User avatar
By Lampdog Fri Oct 21, 2011 6:16 am
Isn't there a setting inside the 2kxl that tells the mpc to start with atapi and not floppy.

It's in the manual, cause I too have a cf reader in my 2kxl and had to do this SETUP option in order for the mpc to stop searching for floppy upon boot.

pg 153 2kxl manual.
By georgeoner Fri Oct 21, 2011 7:32 am
yo cheers. when i highlight primary device in setup I am not getting ATAPI coming up, and if I select scisi port one and reboot i still get no device. Is this what you were talking about?
User avatar
By Lampdog Fri Oct 21, 2011 3:20 pm
When you finally get the master/slave/jumpers thing correct ATAPI will show up in that menu and you will be able to choose it.

If your device/jumpers aren't correct your mpc will never recognize ATAPI and you won't see it in the menu.
By georgeoner Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:07 pm
Cheers Lampdog
the first reader i had, the one that worked, only has one jumper, and its on for master and off for slave, and neither are working. Another thing i just realised with the scsicardreaders drive that hasnt worked yet, if i attach the IDE cable in either orientation, with a card inserted, I get the same all lights on and blank screen when I fire the MP up.
User avatar
By Lampdog Sat Oct 22, 2011 2:21 am
If the drive itself is fine I know for sure all lights on means the cable is backwards.

Maybe you just haven't run across the correct jumper settings yet. Not all drives share the same master/slave/master no slave present jumper settings. Other than that, I am at a loss for advice to give you. Have you tried plugging the drive into a desktop ide channel to verify that it indeed does work?

Or maybe try one of those IDE to usb cables to plug it into your usb on computer and see if it works.

Image