I just recently started using a 1993 EZ Trak SX that I purchased. When writing a program and trying to save it, the computer spits out an error and the program is not saved. Also, is there a list of what the F1-F5 keys do.
Is your machine a CIB or a PC based unit? DX32 or Southwest Reasearch based system???
If PC based, chances are that the HDD/FDD card is bad or is intermittant or is going bad. Either way, change it.
When ours went bad, shortly afterwards the motherboard started acting up and then failed as well. You may want to plan on getting a new bullet there too.
F1~F5 on my system varies from screen to screen - the F keys are identified on screen as to what they do for that particular "page"/screen.
The motherboard has been replaced in the unit by the previous owner. It is a Pentium 133. Also a harddrive has been installed. Therefore using the 3.5" discs are not required to boot the machine.
I don't know the acronym CIB. But according to the Bridgeport manual that came with the machine the computer is PC-based Numerical Control.
And as for DX32 or Southwest Research system, I'm unsure.
Also I am unfamiliar with a HDD/FDD card.
I went back and reviewed the manuals that came with the machine. Comparing the picture of the basic monitor screen to actual screen on the machine, on the right side of the screen, the row that should start "PGM" just shows " : ". I am assuming this is related but don't know. Is there a toggle feature on the machine that would affect this?
If I use the "Do Event" feature, the machine will perform each machine line as I write it so there doesn't seem to be a problem there.
Would the version of EXTraksoftware have any bearing on this? I recieved versions 2.25/4.43, 3.08, 6.20 when I purchased the machine.
My questions on the "F" keys was to find out if they had any functions for diagnostic work on the computer itself not related to any particular machining screen.
1. Would any "F" keys toggle the programming features?
2. How would I determine if the machine is DX32 or Southwest Research?
Thanks for taking the time to review and respond to this posting.
My original machine had FDD/HDD (floppy and hard disc drive) operating card. They used to plug them into the ISA slot for either to work. New m/b's have built in HDD/FDD methods and you just plug the cables into the m/b someplace.
Yes, it does make a BIG difference if it is DX32 vs S/W Research. My info is DX32 based and doesn't really pertain to S/WR.
F key useage in DX32 are explained on-screen - I dunno how they work on S/WR.
You may want to hit DEL while the machine is booting. This should get you to the BIOS settings. Check there first to see if the machine is recognizing the existance of A: and C:.
First make sure the PC is functioning and the BIOS is properly programmed - heck, a dead CMOS battery may be causing the machine to lose CMOS settings each time you shut off the machine.
When using the Utility feature, I tried to "View all other files on EZTrak". The message "Path not found" came back. The Utility feature does read the 3.5 floppy.
I received a disk that had Programs already on it from the previous owner. The machine recognized the programs but had an error trying to load the programs.
The message was " Error opening prgm temp.txt"
then "Error -- prgm load failed"
The BMDC message that appears as the computer boots says it is running on Ver.3.08. Please note that the program is loading from a hard drive that was installed after the machine was bought.
Trying to boot from a floppy will confirm if the floppy is bad or not. Make sure you have a properly bootable disk.
A bootable disk has to be turned into a "system disk" (not just merely copy some files) or else you'll chase your tail. Once it is a system disk, then you copy the files. DOS manual shows how to make system disk
BTW, floppy disk drives (FDD) do simply go bad - they work fine and then one day they puke. Don't be surprised.
You might also need to properly reformat your HDD.
Bridgeport at one time standardized on a standard small HDD format - was 520mb or something like that (machintek can help here).
Simply installing a huge HDD is essentially worthless - the machine software can't read or use it all. If it is a big one, the machine will scatter data all over and thus put it where it can't go back and find it.
Might be a good time to recover what you can, reformat the HDD properly to the expected size and re-install the entire O/S.
Be sure to save any parameter and/or programming files or else you'll have to retune the whole machine.
I rebooted from the floppy. The system loaded in same as before.
I can read the floppy using the utilities function. Do that tells me the FDD is good.
I still cannot read the hard drive. However the machine has booted from the hard drive.
The mother board was replaced at some point with a TYAN S1590S 100 AT.
Pentium 133. It appears that the HDD and the FDD plug directly into this board.
One thing that still bothers me is that I do not see the "PGM" title on the menu on the right side of the screen. All I see is a colon " : " for the title. All the other titles show up as described.
To date, I have rebooted the system twice with two different disks both with version 3.08. (This does not include booting from the hard drive.) So far they have all booted them same.
After each boot, I checked the Utilities feature and the FDD could be read while the HDD resulted in a "Path not Found". I tried to load the programs from the FDD but received "Error opening PRGM temp.txt" and "Error--PRGM load failed".
Correction from an earlier posting: I do not have a 6.20 version of the EZTrak software. The 6.20 version is a DOS disk. Therefore the highest version of the program that I have is Ver. 3.08
Was there ever a Programming problem with Ver. 3.08?
When/if you reformat, make sure you re format the disk size properly. THIS IS IMPORTANT.
There are other Extrak service threads on the Zone wherein the proper disk size for to reformat was specified by Machintek - I don't recall the size BUT it is critical that the right size format be spec'd.
My OEM factory HDD which is sitting here from my Eztrak (replaced with DOM) is:
C: user type = 47,
CYL: 91024,
HD: 16,
SEC: 63,
LZN: 1024 and
PDMP: 0
On version 5 (my version), no.
With your version I dunno.
To troubleshoot computers, you have to prevent the Bridgeport control program from loading or get out of it and to a DOS prompt ( C: prompt on black DOS screem).
I don't know how to bail out on your version BUT to prevent loading, you simply hit F8 as soon as you turn it on and then the machine will prompt you as it tries to sequentiall load the Bridgeport operating system program(s).
All you do after F8 is say NO to anything that resembles a Bridgeport program. These can be found/identified in the autoexec.bat or config.sys files. DOn't know what I'm talking about? Get a DOS geek in and they can show you - mere childs play, once you learn.
From DOS, run SCANDISK then DEFRAG then move stuff to save then FDISK and reload the control system/files.
Remember: the computer is basically and foremost a DOS box. The machine control is nothing more than a very elaborate group of programs that run in concert CONSECUTIVELY and in concert with each other (recall, DOS is not a multitasking environnment).
First you deal with/troubleshoot the basic computer and its O/S (DOS), then you deal with the computer program it is running in order to run your machine.
FORGET WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT WINDOWS!!!
This is a "one thing at a time" system that came BEFORE even Win 3.1. If you don't have a DOS manual, GET ONE as it will help troubleshoot the DOS side of the machine.
The computer isn't gonna be WYSIWYG unless you run DOSSHELL and this won't work with your machine control system. We're talking real basic, some say primitive computer stuff here. Not really but you have to talk to it and work with it differently than Windose.
When in DOS, you'll need a traditional keyboard - I dunno if the key pad will work properly in DOS, mine doesn't.
Everything looks good to this point with the disk.
Here's a new twist. I booted the machine on the original program disk (ver 2.25/4.43) The only problem was the computer was trying to write to the original disk and could not because the disk was locked (resulting in write protected statue) I aborted the write procedure and kept loading. After getting the machine running, the programs would load and save. I could view and edit and save. Then machine would lock up and I would try to restart without the disk but the machine was looking for something on the C: drive and could not find it. I tried to boot off the Ver. 3.08 once I shut down but had the same problem as earlier today.
It seems the software is part of the problem.
Is the new software missing a file?
Is the new software and the new motherboard not playing well together?
I would guess at this point the hardware is not solely to blame.
First and foremest, make sure that the floppy disk you're trying to boot from is a bootable disk (find the "creating a system disk" procedure in a DOS manual).
Simply copying the O/S files to any old disk WON'T make it bootable - see "creating a system disk" in a DOS manual.
If the disk isn't properly formatted or is not a system disk, the machine won't ever boot.
YOu may have several little, threshold things wrong.
Only by making sure the computer is A-OK first and then eliminating possibilities will you find the problem.
If you have an intermittant electrical problem, they can be a real SOB to find. First, go thru the computer and remove each board and polish the bus contacts with a soft eraser - make sure they are all reseated properly. Dirty contacts can cause the intermittant problems you're having.
There is no magic bullet fix here. Purely a process of elimination with the basic computer the first target to investigate.
"Then machine would lock up and I would try to restart without the disk but the machine was looking for something on the C: drive and could not find it"
This happens (lockup et al) when/if the HDD is formatted to an improper size. The machine will write anywhere it finds space - it will only look in the area of the disk where it is preprogrammed to look.
If the HDD is bigger than it's supposed to be, data could be placed someplace where the thing can/will never look - it doesn't know the area exists even though it put it there in the first place.
We had this issue on our Eztrak.
Only fix: first download all you can do via DOS
Run FDISK and properly reformat the drive.
Let the machine auto re-install the O/S from a properly copied set of backup disks.
I'm confused - what's the deal with ver 2 versus ver 3 software??? Did I miss something or is this a new wrinkle?
Will the machine run as its supposed to on ver 2 with a writeable disk? If yes (some software MUST be run off of disk, PERIOD), then the machine is functioning properly and you move on to the next challenge.
If the machine runs on ver 2 but won't run on a new software variant ver 3, where did you get it and are you sure ver 3 is even compatible with your machine?
If the vendor says it is, maybe they need to get involved in the problem solving process. Howeger, if the software was downloaded and the software was designed to be loaded from FDD, then make sure the floppy disk is a system disk.
Simply copying files to the first clean disk you have WON'T EVER WORK/LOAD PROPERLY - IT HAS TO BE A SYSTEM DISK - see prior comments on how to create system disk (I say this because I spent hours messing around only to learn the system disk issue - learn how or else you're in for unsurmountable grief).
If you can get the thing to boot the "new" software to load from a properly formatted system disk. WOO HOOO. However, you may or may not be able to transfer it to a HDD and get it to work.
REASON: Some softwares only boot from FDD, no matter what you try to do - as strange as it may seem, there was a time when hard disks did NOT exist and every computer ran off of 5.5" or 3.25" floppys - no kidding.
Sadly, some BPT software is simply that primitive.
EDIT: get the thing to run properly on ver 2 software first with a non- write protected disk. This will verify that the hardware and iron work and you'll at least have a operable machine.
THEN AND ONLY then start messing with ver 3 software. You can't hop skotch back and forth and expect the thing to work - ver 2 and ver 3 may not be compatible with each other and one may simply not upgrade the other..
EZ Trak will not save programs
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