Bricked MPC 2500 - Help!

Hello MPC Forum,

I'm not really one forums, this is actually the first post I've put up on this site, but I could really do with some help right now.
I recently installed an upgraded version of JJOS XL on my MPC 2500. After the software installation was complete it prompted me to reboot the machine. When I turned the machine back on the power turned on, the screen lit up, and the hard drive started spinning, but no information came up on the screen. The MPC just sits there and does nothing. I've tried turning it on while holding the erase button, that did nothing. I've tried putting the akai os on the root directory of the cf card and powering on while holding the window button, that also did nothing.
At this stage I've pretty much given up. I think I may have somehow overwritten the bootloader in the flash memory and thats why it's not responding to anything.
Anybody help at this stage would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Have you tried to adjust the contrast with [stop]+[wheel]? If you place the akai os or free jj os to the cf root you need to hold [erase] while booting to get to the bootloader.

Hi. Thanks for the reply. I've tried the jog wheel for contrast trick, and I just tried powering on while holding erase with os on the cf card. Still no response though.

I think I've heard couple people on here mention they were able to recover from similar situation using original akai cf card and os

I heard this too but I think in their cases their MPCs were freezing during bootup at the stage where it tells you how much ram is on your machine. My machine isn't starting the bootup at all, the only thing that happens is that the display light turns on and the hard drive starts spinning, but this just means that the power supply is working. Does anyone have any idea why using the original akai c.f.card would be any different to using a standard one.

Shane O'Donovan wrote:Does anyone have any idea why using the original akai c.f.card would be any different to using a standard one.

this is an unsolved mistery noone ever was able to truly figure out, yet.

all we know is that we observed some cases when third party cf-cards did not work but the original akai cf-cards did work on the same machine.

we also do not know if maybe there was a format error on that third party cf-cards, if they were not formated from the mpc os but from a computer. as akai recommends formating the cf-card (and hdd) from the mpc and do so after every os update, there may be some difference in the format even if it is just a fat filesystem like on the windows machines.

peace, jo

Hi. Thanks for the reply. If my cf card wasn't correctly formatted for my mpc should I still not get some kind of an error message when I try to access the cf card during bootup? Would it be possible to format my cf card, not the original akai cf card, from another mpc and then repeat the process?

Have you tried waiting a few seconds before trying to adjust the contrast? I got that problem on mine and it was just the contrast, which came as a great relief.

Also, I had problems with the CF card only with Akai OS. If its going from Akai OS or loading Akai OS it seemed to be very fussy, only recognising the Akai cards. After that no problem with CFs.

Also I wonder if taking the Hard Drive out might force your MP to use the CF. Just a stab in the dark there. And perhaps check the CF pins are still ok.

Good Luck.

Hi LZ Roberts,

Thanks for the reply. I have tried all your suggestions but still no joy. I think the only hope I have now is to try and find an original akai cf card, I unfortunately don't have mine anymore. I realy hope I haven't somehow damaged the bootloader as this probably isn't fixable.

I just had an idea. Does anybody know if disconnecting the backup battery on the motherboard might wipe the bad os that was written to flash memory and then maybe the bootloader might work again.

wouldnt hurt to try, worst case you might lose some configuration settings...I dont even recall seeing battery on there, but wasnt exactly looking for it neither.

Would there not have to be some kinds of backup power source to keep the os in flash memory when the machine is switched off.

Flash memory doesn't use a battery.

Is the bootloader on the flash memory? Could the flash memory be replaced?