d8b stuck on boot

[raggirays]

First of all, thanks to all of this powerful forum. My restoration of a friend D8B flooded (with mud!) was really long and started a long time ago.
Since then I bought a floppy usb emulator (not ipcas branded, i think it's a gotek one..) and with correct jumper placement I installed Os 5.1 and plugins SP3 thanks to this forum threads. But.... now I'm stuck with the OS not booting.
I tried 2 different HDD, changed EIDE cable, changed and tried different RAM sticks, replaced original PSU, followed BIOS settings guide for the MB (DFI PB-50 bx).... extracted the cards from back of the Mackie but no luck.
Now the mixer is stuck with a red light "RUDE SOLO LIGHT" and on display the msg "Loading Host. Please wait...".
My next step would be replacing parallel cable and re-opening and cleaning all connectors... am I correct? Sorry for bad english and hope to get It working again.. regards from Italy!
Daniele

[Bruce Graham]

Hi Daniele;

Usually if a d8b (or HDR or that matter), gets stuck like this it is a communication error between the CPU and the console. There is no Diagnostics so you have to clean every connection you can. All ribbon cables in the console and CPU. Remove any chips clean those contacts, and it will usually come to life at some point.

As the console came in contact with MUD, I'm think there could be a bit still hanging around somewhere.

Couple of questions to help me and other help you,
Do you ever get any "ERROR " messages?
I see your screen says Mackie OS Loader V3.0. I will check my console to see if that is what I get (I also run 5.1), but I don't recall seeing that before. I could also say I haven't paid that close of attention.
It also says on your screen to "remove disk and press ESC to reboot". I'm assuming you did both those things?

Post back

Cheers
Bruce

[raggirays]

Hi Bruce,
Thanks for reply. The screen "remove disk and press ESC to reboot" appears for a fraction of second and then starts loading and get stuck in "Mackie OS loading... please wait".
I've also noticed another fault... the OLD MB battery on motherboard completely ruined the plastic holder with contacts. I carefully desoldered it and replaced with another one from a spare MB but still It doesn't hold bios settings after power down... next days I'll start with ribbon cables.

[FrankH]

You didn't answer Bruce's last question: did you check to see if there was a disk in the drive and remove it and pressing ESC? I too would like to know those answers.

On the matter of the battery...if you say it won't hold Bios settings, then it means one of two things: the battery is bad or you screwed up somewhere in the replacement process. Bad solder connection? Broken trace? These all need to be checked. And Bruce's suggestion to go in and double check for more mud damage is a good one. Couldn't hurt.

[raggirays]

Hi FrankH, thanks for reply.
Yes, no disk in the floppy drive (now is not connected at all but same messages...). The battery (a common CR2032) isn't bad, I tried different batteries.
Maybe bad solder connection.... another isopropylic clean is needed I know.

[Crash]

A wonky RAM stick can cause issues as well. Just another avenue to check.

[raggirays]

Ok now I've an update... error 43. Since I read many posts regarding this I guess is a video card issue (wrong pci slot..) or some other slot in wrong order (I downloaded OS 5.1 pdf manual and shows all...)

[Bruce Graham]

You're getting closer to having a working console!

Error 43, although a troublesome message, is usually a communication problem. Generally the error is between the CPU and the console, but not always. Make sure you clean the DATA cable connections, The BFC connector and once again (sorry) the edge connectors (cables and cards), inside the console and CPU.

I know it continues to sound daunting, but you are getting closer to solving it!

Cheers
Bruce

[raggirays]

That sounds nice for me
It's like a fight... Me vs. d8b, and I'm not the owner!
Thanks again
Daniele

[Old School]

Hi all,
Don't know if this is related but the same thing happened to me when I loaded the TC electronics plug-in with a floppy I got from Bruce. The D8B would boot, start downloading MFX package and then start booting all over again. Nothing helped. I had to switch the CF card with another one pre-loaded with 5.1. Then I had to get the session files off the original CF card and transfer them to the new one. I don't know if your loading service pack 3 had anything to do with your problem, but if you have another drive loaded with the OS, I would give it a try.

Have a blessed day in Christ,
Mike W.