CF-Card Problem

Hi guys,
so I got my MPC 2500 the other day and bought a CF-Card a few days later: http://www.amazon.de/Transcend-Ultra-Speed-Compact-Flash-Speicherkarte/dp/B000W05O5O.
So here is the problem:
I corrupted the OS (the MPC is stuck on the loading screen/displays ram and restarts continuously), so I tried to load the original Akai OS off the CF-Cards root directory (copied the .bin file on there, had to get a card reader just for that), but it's still telling me that I'm using the wrong card. I tried formatting it several times (to FAT32 and even exFAT), but it still doesn't work. Does anybody know whats wrong? I really don't want to buy the original Akai CF-Card as I can't wait another 2-3 days (my MPC is starting to gather dust..)

Thanks in advance.

quoth

Edit: The CF-card used to work without any problems. I used it for transferring the JJOSXL file (corrupted it seems) on the MPC, so it used to work when the OS was still intact. I just tried booting it via the JJOS 3.10 bin file, same result. (this is starting to piss me off) All the pins in the MPC are intact aswell.

just try another cf card...

Yeah, I'm going to. Can you recommend me one that is guaranteed to work (ideally one that solved the same problem for someone else)? It's not like I have a bunch lying around here ^^

quoth wrote:Yeah, I'm going to. Can you recommend me one that is guaranteed to work (ideally one that solved the same problem for someone else)? It's not like I have a bunch lying around here ^^

I looked your link and I have no issues on the Transcend, mine are 2GB and 4GB though.

I have Lexar Platinum II 200x ones working, Sandisk Ultra 15/MB/s* and the Transcends are labeled 133x.

Once I had 3 working brands/types I just stuck with those. I have had them all work fine on every JJOS from Free to OS3. But I have in the past had to for whatever reason use the Akai OEM 32MB or 128MB to start again from Akai OS (not to use it... ...just to check something for a poster here...) or JJFree to start the XL install.

But it's been over two years since I had to use the Akai ones on either the 1k or 2500 here.

And I'm assuming you're holding the erase button as you power up to force the OS load prompt screen? Just trying to check all the possibilities.

Metatron72 wrote:And I'm assuming you're holding the erase button as you power up to force the OS load prompt screen? Just trying to check all the possibilities.

Don't you mean the Window button? I'm holding that for loading up the OS prompt screen. The Erase button is for the factory settings as far as I'm concerned.

In terms of CF-cards, I'm going to get ones by Sandisk or Lexar Platinum now (4GB), hope it works.

Yeah sorry meant window button. I sleep like 30 hours a week and am on here after (and during) all nighters too often.

But yeah I never had issues with those 2 cards. The 2GB Sandisks go on sale for like $10-15USD, which is nice.

Metatron72 wrote:Yeah sorry meant window button. I sleep like 30 hours a week and am on here after (and during) all nighters too often.

No problem

Just bought another CF-card. Still doesn't work. Having a great time so far.

Sorry to hear that man. Nothing worse than a new acquisition not working.

Did the MPC work right prior to the OS flash attempt with whatever OS was in there to start with?

There's a thread here where a guys MPC got stuck on the initial screen but his was RAM check related. He ended up up emailing MPCStuff on a reply suggestion and sadly his main board on the inside of the unit was dying/dead.

In the event your issue is serious like that can you return to the seller?

I'm far from an expert (you can up your post count/member status off cracking jokes in off topic here). But I have a really weird memory. So I'll dig out the threads I glanced at last night and see if any can give some clues.

Maybe try to see if the RAM is seated firmly, and also take out the RAM and try to boot with just the stock 16MB to rule out a RAM issue.

Start here - viewtopic.php?f=25&t=141201

viewtopic.php?t=50556&highlight=system+test

I'll see what else I find.

whether or not the actual AKAI CF card is needed in these cases is still up for debate... but i think you can get away with it by simply using a smaller CF card [64mb or 128mb] and by renaming the OS file to simply: mpc2500.BIN...

here's a post from triple-x regarding that:

I just came across this issue today attempting to update from 3.08 to 3.10.
It failed writing to flash at around 40%, at which point I swallowed my tongue, and felt my heart drop. Screen said Flash memory write failure or something to that effect, I was too mortified to recall the exact wording. Although I do recall turning it on and off and seeing :
==== MPC2500 OS UPDATE ====
WRONG CARD !



A quick search yielded a fix.

Using a generic 64MB CF card, I popped it into my pc, deleted its contents (did not format) and put just the 1.23 Akai OS on it, nothing else.

Then I popped it into the 2500 (prior to even turning off the mpc with it still displayed the error msg above, and it instanly recognized the mpc2500.bin file, and F6 displayed "DO IT".. so i "DID IT"... and VOILA!
back up and running via Akai 1.23.

I then copied JJOSFREE 3.10, and todays updated version of OSXL 3.10 onto the same CF card via my pc, and installed both the free and osxl operating systems without a hitch. I TRULY Hope everyone else has the same luck/outcome.

God I phuckin love this forum.

from this thread here:

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=141201&start=15


EDIT: meta just posted the same thread...

Yeah like I said I have a bizarre memory and remember almost every thread I've read here since 2006.

I just peeped that whole one we both linked and as in other threads there's no clear answer on the need for the Akai OEM low volume cards. I haven't had to fall back to using the Akai card after OS2XL came out, but prior to that I did a few times.

Even recently flashing OS3 in it took me a day and a half to get it to work. I had one freeze I remember now, but it was easily alleviated by doing something similar to the thread we linked talking about going back to Akai and starting over.

Just mulling over how the order of the flashes might occasionally be a factor and a potential pitfall/issue.

Solved it. I tried again formatting the CF-card to FAT16, this time it worked because it's a 4GB card. Put the OS on it, booted, selected the .bin-file and everything works now! Thanks for your effort
I'm so **** happy right now.

glad you were able to figure it out... surely someone else will dig this here thread up when they have the same issue a couple years from now...

Dope.

And yeah crossings is right you've added on to the ongoing resource these archives are. So we all won.

Have a blast on that 2500, it's a great machine as I'm sure you know qouth.

crossings wrote:glad you were able to figure it out... surely someone else will dig this here thread up when they have the same issue a couple years from now...

Yeah hopefully. I checked every thread there was in this forum about this problem, until I revisited this thread:
http://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=139366&start=0
I already tried formatting it to FAT16, but it didn't work, as my CF-card was 8GB big (FAT16 only works for 4GB cards and lower).
Realised the new card i got was 4GB big and gave it another shot, turns out the MPC doesn't like FAT32 all that much.

Metatron72 wrote:Have a blast on that 2500, it's a great machine as I'm sure you know qouth.

Thanks, I will surely