Vailixi 3.5 MPC3K CF card stall

Hey all. I have a 3K with Vailixi 3.5 and what appears to be an internal McDisk 2-slot PCMCIA reader. I use CF cards with PCMCIA adapters. Got the unit, worked fine with this setup. Pad sensors needed replacing - did so, and now the card reader doesn't reliably work. To the point, it often stalls on reads - and possibly writes. I can sometimes load small things like a single sound or sequence, but it'll crap out while loading anything like a PGM or long sample. Basically it'll be loading and just freeze on the screen and I have to reboot the machine. I had headphones in and you can hear the SCSI transfer buzzing stop upon the freeze.

Could be coincidental re: sensor change, but hard to believe the timing would be that the reader dies at the very moment I replace the sensors. Assuming I messed something up. Can't find anything wrong. The generous Mr. Forat advised me over the phone to disconnect and reconnect everything, which I did - it looks like very sloppy hack-job install inside, with a gender-changer coming from the SCSI etc.

Thoughts? For the time being I can use an external ZIP off the rear SCSI port but not ideal considering I wanted to use the CFs. Thank you.

Is the card reader at the end of the internal ribbon cable?

Is the SCSI termination on, and SCSI termination power off, on the reader?

Maybe try Set Multi Sector Transfer Mode to OFF in the MPC, was suggested for the MCDisk readers by the OS developer.

In...
Disk - Copy, Format, Other - Make a SCSI Hard Disk Active

Simon, thanks, I will try checking these things next time I'm at the studio. The only thing I'm worried about it that everything worked at one point with hardware set-up (term, power, SCSI internal ribbon position) as it was. But maybe that software option could help.

you don't say if you've tried other cards. that MCDisk is finnicky.

kraftywerk wrote:Simon, thanks, I will try checking these things next time I'm at the studio. The only thing I'm worried about it that everything worked at one point with hardware set-up (term, power, SCSI internal ribbon position) as it was. But maybe that software option could help.

Sounds to me like it is probably the software setting, give that a go first.

Unless you have accidentally knocked the Acard SCSI termination jumper lose when changing pads.

Had one card that worked fine and stopped. Bought another (Sandisk Extreme 4 GB) and same behavior. Inclined to not think it's the cards...also just reading the forum I got the impression they either work or they don't (barring a CF card going bad). It seems to be a communication issue - partial loads and saves, stalling out, etc.

Still haven't been back to the studio but will be Monday. Thanks all.

Rohan/mpc3000le is the programmer who wrote Vailixi/3.50.

This was his recommendation.

Maybe also try re-formatting the card, as he suggests, after setting multi-sector transfer to off...

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=136573&p=1266254&hilit=Multi+Sector+Transfer+Mode#p1266254

mpc3000le wrote:

flextone wrote:My MCDISK II is behaving strangely. It does not allow me to save programs and samples, although I can read them just fine. Whenever I try to save a sample I get an [FF80] error, saying that there's no disk in the floppy drive.

MPL MC-DISKS "drop out" while receiving SCSI 1 commands and muti sector bursts of data when working in write mode with non cached storage media.

By default these drives do not cache data transfer to storage media when processing SCSI 1 commands whilst working in write mode.

As the MPC3000 uses SCSI 1 commands for file read/load and write/save operations.

With this in mind.

DISK, 9, 5.

Set Multi Sector Transfer Mode to OFF.

Re-format the card.

Try saving now.

Any success this time ?

Rohan

Bad news. Multi-sector transfer to off was the default on my machine. So I don't think I ever used the machine with it set to "on." Nonetheless I turned it to on and then off, then reformatted a card. Still stalled out on reads. Seemed to write OK.

I'm not positive it's at the end of the ribbon cable, but again, it seemed to work fine until this last surgery. I am curious, how can I check these issues?

is the SCSI termination on, and SCSI termination power off, on the reader?

I admit ignorance. Thank you for the help so far!

I should also note the ribbon has a gender-switcher in the middle of it (wrapped in what looks like clear packing tape, presumably to prevent shorts) and it really long and folded over. It looks fairly hacked together, which is odd since the machine was otherwise immaculately maintained and I'm pretty sure it belonged to an engineer of a large studio (based on the name in the Vaixili start-up window). I reseated all the connections but wonder if it's just a shitty cable. I can provide photos if that would help.

Don't know. The adapters on the SCSI cable are fairly standard, as the SCSI is not designed to be internal, it has a 26 pin ribbon cable connector on the MPC SCSI board, connected to the rear panel DB25 connector as standard, which is normally rerouted to an internal 50 pin ribbon cable for internal SCSI devices, through those adapters, and back again to DB25 for the rear SCSI port.

Have you tried the internal CF card while the Zip is connected, and with the Zip termination switch in both the on and off positions?

Always shutdown the MPC when connecting/disconnecting SCSI devices from the rear SCSI port, as it is easy to short out the SCSI termination power if connected/disconnected while the MPC is powered up.