3k stopped responding!

ok so I was working on my 3k for a couple hours, I took a break, made a couple phone calls, and then when I came back to work it looked like it had froze, I couldn't do anything it wouldn't respond.. So I'm like no big deal it's just a bug.. turn it off, turn it on again, it loads, recognizes the scsi drive, main screen shows but, impossible to do anything. None of the buttons seem to work. I've checked all the connections inside the 3k with no luck.. Has this ever happened to anybody here ??

Thanks Nicole.. Don't really wanna bother him by PM for now, but Rohan, if you're reading this..

dela wrote:ok so I was working on my 3k for a couple hours, I took a break, made a couple phone calls, and then when I came back to work it looked like it had froze, I couldn't do anything it wouldn't respond.. So I'm like no big deal it's just a bug.. turn it off, turn it on again, it loads, recognizes the scsi drive, main screen shows but, impossible to do anything. None of the buttons seem to work. I've checked all the connections inside the 3k with no luck.. Has this ever happened to anybody here ??

Checking all internal connections should be done by:

A) disconnection of same.

B) re-connection of same.

Check all power line connections.

Check all data/board to board ribbon connections.

Any thing more will require a tech. ( unless you are a tech ).

Rohan.

Thanks Rohan, I will try to disconnect/reconnect everything

reconnecting didn't help

could it be a software bug ? maybe booting with another OS would help ?

dela wrote:reconnecting didn't help

could it be a software bug ? maybe booting with another OS would help ?

No harm in trying to boot from a different OS.

However; if your machine is freezing or not responding to button presses after power up then then the following could be happening.

1: SCSI port issue.

Could be that the recently added CARD drive is stalling the SCSI bus because of power supply hogging.

Disconnect it from the SCSI bus and modified power supply harness then see if the machine freeze goes away.

2: Power supply hogging caused by presence of 32 MEG of SIMM and the EXM3008/EXM3002 still installed. Causing voltage drop to all the wrong places ......

Remove the EXM3008/EXM3002 ( board to the right of your SIMM memory expansion ).

See your picture here:

http://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php ... c&start=15

3: The front panel scanner EPROM needs re-seating.

Remove the front panel board assembly and re-seat the EPROM.

4: Test the power supply.

See my post here about this process:

http://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php ... h&start=15

Any joy ?

Rohan.

Thanks a lot for your help, Rohan.

Unfortunately solutions # 1,2,3 didn't help. I'm too young to die so I didn't try #4 (I don't know much about electronics and power supplies)

There's one thing though, when I turn the mpc on, all the lights go on for less than a second. All but the "transpose" button one. I'm pretty sure it used to work so I'm thinking maybe the problem could come from here ? I've had all my switches changed a few months ago, so I thought maybe the soldering job was bad or something? I don't know if it could explain the freeze.

dela wrote:Thanks a lot for your help, Rohan..

No problem ... can only try.

dela wrote:Unfortunately solutions # 1,2,3 didn't help. I'm too young to die so I didn't try #4 (I don't know much about electronics and power supplies)..

Still ... bookmark the information for a technician who should look at your machine.

dela wrote:There's one thing though, when I turn the mpc on, all the lights go on for less than a second. All but the "transpose" button one. I'm pretty sure it used to work so I'm thinking maybe the problem could come from here ? )..

Seems pretty normal although the transpose light shouldn't be on by default.

dela wrote:I've had all my switches changed a few months ago, so I thought maybe the soldering job was bad or something? I don't know if it could explain the freeze.

Could be ...

Regardless though.

Try this one last option.

Power off the machine.

Disconnect the mains power.

Open the machine up and short momentarily, both sides of the mainboard NVRAM backup battery. Momentarily in this regard == two seconds at most.

After doing this. Reconnect the power. Power up and see what happens now.

Rohan.

rohan = guru

thanks for the help Rohan, I finally took it to a tech.. hope it won't cost me too much.

dela wrote:thanks for the help Rohan, I finally took it to a tech.. hope it won't cost me too much.

Best of luck. Hope the tech can get her going again.

Rohan,