Any Computer Wizards Out there?

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disabled

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I would like to find out if there are any computer wizards out there who can help me fix up my E4K Emu Sampling SynthesisController
The workings are the same as a computer, the problem I think is the floppy drive has said good bye and I cannot use the E4K until I can load OS onto the sampler and the only way is with the floppy drive.
The problem with the floppy drive is that it differs from the computers, I.E. the wiring etc, so if I can get someone who can connect a floppy drive pref slimline one and get it to boot up the OS into the Flash RAM then the problem is solved.

I have been told that a SCSI Floppy drive might do the trick...Anybody out there please! I really need to get it going...If you think you can help please PM me thanks
 
In what way has the floppy drive said goodbye? Does it power up? If so, have you tried cleaning its heads? Those old floppy drives were made of cast iron and can work forever. How is the wiring different? Is it full or half height? Have you fiddled with the jumpers ( drive select etc - dangerous! ).
 
Can you read the E4K os disk on a PC (ie just see a file at least?)
What happens when you attach a normal pc drive to the emu? Nothing or does it light up, or something else?
I seem to remember having a similar prob but with an Atari st and its drive and I managed to get one from a PC to work but had to reverse leads (ie the ide cable i think) There was an issue with single and double sided and 720k and 1.4mb formating.
 
pip said:
In what way has the floppy drive said goodbye? Does it power up? If so, have you tried cleaning its heads? Those old floppy drives were made of cast iron and can work forever. How is the wiring different? Is it full or half height? Have you fiddled with the jumpers ( drive select etc - dangerous! ).
Click to expand...

When you put a stiffy into the drive it goes round and round for awhile then stopsthen stops it does not boot up

It is actually a 28-pin slim line floppy drive.
 
Tommygun said:
Can you read the E4K os disk on a PC (ie just see a file at least?)
What happens when you attach a normal pc drive to the emu? Nothing or does it light up, or something else?
I seem to remember having a similar prob but with an Atari st and its drive and I managed to get one from a PC to work but had to reverse leads (ie the ide cable i think) There was an issue with single and double sided and 720k and 1.4mb formating.
Click to expand...

The standard PC drives are a 34pin the (E4K and E-synth) take a 28-pin slim line floppy

The leads from what I recall are only on the HDD it's self when fitting another HDD it depends, but either way the E4k is not even showing signs when a floppy is put into the drive, and it's definitely not the discs themselves as someone in the UK sent me a few and he tested them first before sending them over

I think what I'm actually looking for here is a 28-pin slim line floppy drive
 
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Just a thought here, I am assuming you are reffering to the stiffies they used to use in laptops. There is an adaptor you get for an IDE low profile HDD which converted it into a standard IDE interface cable. It is possible a similar one exists for a normal sized floppy which can convert down to a laptop size FDD which means you may be able to use a standard stiffy drive instead. There are of course different sized stiffies out there (720KB, 1.44MB, hard sectored, soft sectored etc) which may also be an issue. I suggest you contact a laptop specialist who may keep them. Off the top of my head I cant think of who is repairing laptops nowadays, although I dont have a heap of faith in the repair centres in SA. Good luck.
 
bekdik said:
Is this your device?

http://www.keyboardmuseum.org/ar/e/emu/e4k.html

It doesn't say anything about a special floppy, but it does talk abput SCSI

Maybe you can upload a picture of the interface end of the drive as well as the cable.

That may help someone to identify it better.

Here are specs for a floppy:

http://www.interfacebus.com/PC_Floppy_Drive_PinOut.html
Click to expand...

We are not talking about the SCSI we are strictly talking about the units floppy drive where you put in a stiffy to either upload the OS to the flash RAM or upload sounds

Yes this is the instrument that I have it's quite old and I don't think there are many here in S.A.

If you look at the specs of the Emulator you will see the specs of the floppy drive..i.e.
Floppy Drive:

'3.5" high density 1.44MB, Reads EOS, Sound Banks' over here http://www.keyboardmuseum.org/ar/e/emu/e4k.html

I will try to upload a Pic of it
 
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disabled said:
When you put a stiffy into the drive it goes round and round for awhile then stopsthen stops it does not boot up

It is actually a 28-pin slim line floppy drive.
Click to expand...

You probably need to clean the heads ( some shops still sell stiffy head cleaners ) and exercise the drive a bit ( put in a blank stiffy a few times ) to clear the cobwebs out of the cogs and motors. One just hopes that any accumulated gunk on the heads has not wrecked your floppies. If it powers up as expected and tries to read, it probably means it cannot read, which could be dirty heads.

PS Is this of any use:

http://www.hometown.aol.com/mishon66/Drives1.html
 
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pip said:
You probably need to clean the heads ( some shops still sell stiffy head cleaners ) and exercise the drive a bit ( put in a blank stiffy a few times ) to clear the cobwebs out of the cogs and motors. One just hopes that any accumulated gunk on the heads has not wrecked your floppies. If it powers up as expected and tries to read, it probably means it cannot read, which could be dirty heads.

PS Is this of any use:

http://www.hometown.aol.com/mishon66/Drives1.html
Click to expand...

Thanks pip that is something I least expected, I don't know where to get the head cleaner from I suppose your local computer store...If by what I say that when you put in a stiffy and it goes round all the time, does this mean it is trying to read it? Although it does not show anything on the LCD screen it just shows an error code. The actual stiffies are not faulty as they where tried and tested by a friend of mine in the UK who has the same machine.
 
disabled said:
Thanks pip that is something I least expected, I don't know where to get the head cleaner from I suppose your local computer store...If by what I say that when you put in a stiffy and it goes round all the time, does this mean it is trying to read it? Although it does not show anything on the LCD screen it just shows an error code. The actual stiffies are not faulty as they where tried and tested by a friend of mine in the UK who has the same machine.
Click to expand...

I see you are having ongoing troubles trying to get the stiffy to work. I really am not a hardware boffin, but some points:

1. *If* the heads were very dirty or a bit corroded, they could have wrecked your stiffies, all of them. If you, in good light, pull back the gate on the stiffy disk and slowly rotate the stiffy in its case looking on both sides, you might see some smeared gunge, or even concentric circles where the dirty head has stripped the magnetic coating. DON'T touch the magnetic surfaces! If none of this they are probably OK.

2. If the stiffy drive spins an inserted diskette and you hear the stepper-motor trying to advance the heads, it is trying to read. If it can't read, the stiffy disk might be shot, the heads might be dirty ( get a head cleaner from your PC store ), the drive might be out of alignment or aligned differently to the drive that created the disk. To re-align heads ( anyone with an Amiga???? ) you need someone with specialised equipment and an alignment diskette. You are likely to find such a person only as the "old" tech at some long-running big computer company ( like IBM or NCR ), and you would be lucky. A few old drives in my experience have had the heads "stuck" too far back or forward, and a gentle push with the cover off can help. But be careful!

3. To clean the contacts on the blurry cable give it a good rub with pure isopropyl alcohol ( often available as CD cleaning fluid ). You can use this to clean the heads too ( gently! ). But be careful it makes good contact when re-inserting it.

I have only worked most of this out when "imaging" all my old floppies and stiffies a few years back. I fould floppies to be MUCH more reliable than stiffies, but the coatings on the old XT days' floppies were beginning to go, and also a few were mouldy, requiring head cleans every few minutes to get the loose gunge off the heads.

Other hardware boffs might have better advice for you.

Other than that I see such drives are available for purchase.
 
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