EZ-Trak start-up error

[jfm]

When we power up our 2 axis EZ-Trak we get the following on the screen, and that's as far as it goes. Several power-ups produce the same result. Checked all cable connections. We bought the mill used and do not have any set-up disks. We purchased the manuals from Bridgeport but although they show the error type (non-fatal they say!) we can't find any info on what to do about it.
None of the display/keyboard buttons have any effect.

what the screen says:

CMOS checksum failure
KEYBOARD ERROR
RUN SETUP UTILITY
PRESS <F1> to RESUME

[machintek]

Your CMOS back up battery is bad. All of your errors relate to that.
I do not know what is inside your machine but the possibilities are:
NI-CAD battery soldered onto the mother board.
Cr2032 in a battery holder.
Dallas Real time clock IC.
Needs to be replaced and CMOS set.
Because the EZTRAK does not have a full size keyboard, this keyboard test/error is disabled in CMOS.

George

[jfm]

Tried using a full sized keyboard as described to "Lairdog" in "DX help" post, re-set CMOS and the machine will boot with the full sized keyboard jumpered in. Console keyboard still gives error message. Do you still think it's the battery or could it be the the console keyboard? Checked continuity of the cable from the plug to the keyboard/card and cleaned / blew off the keyboard, no change...
The machine will run and boot numerous times with the full sized keyboard jumpered in...

There is a 3KT60 3.6v NiCad battery on the motherboard, that's the CMOS battery?

[machintek]

You have found the CMOS battery. Before you turn the machine back on the following morning measure the voltage of this battery. You do need the full voltage to keep the values. We typically get these calls on a Monday morning as weak batteries give out and cannot hold these values.

On the bottom of the first page of the CMOS there is on the older Mother Boards a keyboard test that you turn ON or OFF. This should be OFF.
The next generation of MB asked on what errors is the MB supposed to halt. You can set this to "all but keyboard" or "no errors".
Either one of these will get you past this keyboard error.

George

[jfm]

Thanks again George, will any 3.6 volt NiCad battery work or does it need to be the exact replacement? Would a NiMh or lithium battery be OK... I guess I'm asking if there is an upgrade?

[machintek]

Any Nicad, 3 cell, will do. The critical thing is to remove the old battery. Mark the MB so you know which side is plus and minus. The old batteries have a habit of leaking and eating the traces (wires) off the MB rendering it useless.

In my learning curve, I at first just moved the battery/CMOS jumper to external and hooked up a lithium battery sold by Radio Shack for this purpose. Very soon I learned to unsolder the old battery. A solder sucker is a great tool for this.

George

[cnctools]

I'm Having simular problems with booting up. the program hangs up after calling the TrueFFS-Bios program. I think this is the disk on a chip setup. the machine has a uttler hammer control system. My question is what setting do i need to save from the setup screen?

please advise,

CNCtools

[PTComputing]

Did you just replace your CMOS battery? I replaced the CMOS on a EZ Trak DX two axis and received the same message. I got around it by plugging in an external PS2 keyboard with a AT adapter. F1 responded on the external and accessed BIOS. Set everything up (time, date, drive boot sequence, etc.) Unfortunately, I had to use the backup floppy disk to get the machine working again. The only way the machine can start up without the floppy disk boot is through a very painstaking way, which I'm still trying to resolve.... I hope this helps a bit.

[machintek]

You may have a bad Flash memory board. It is a 8MB board plugged into the mother board and replaces the hard drive. These do not last forever as they are first generation devices.
You can replace this with a DOM (disk on a module) which is a new generation mass storage device that emulates a hard drive. It can be purchased from EMI-INC.net loaded with DOS and machine software.
When using the original flash board C and D need to be set to NONE in CMOS. There is a special floppy from M-SYSTEMS that formats and loads the original flash board. there are jumpers on it that configure it to only 2 specific mother boards that Bridgeport used.

George

[colin1544]

Hello George just looking at your replies as a friend of mine has just bought a 2 axis Eztrak with a Pentium 75 motherboard, it has been standing a few weeks since it was last powered up and has come up with the same errors, it has a Lithium battery which looks to be soldered onto the board but it is covered by one of the boards plugged into one of the slot's so without stripping it down could you please give me the correct Cmos settings so that if we plug a keyboard in as described in previous threads we can reset the system and if need be reload the software. Talking about the software would it still be OK if we loaded a later version 5.00 from an EZPLUS machine or are they not compatable. Hope you can help cheers Colin

[PTComputing]

George, would there be an 8MB flash board connected if there is already an IDE Harddrive connected to the motherboard. The BIOS recognizes the hard drive. This kind of contradicts the purpose of having a flash board in the first place. After replacing the 3.6V battery, I still receive the cmos error, batt low error messages, but I know for a fact that the battery is outputting 3.6V after doing a voltage check. The red LED on the motherboard lights up after hooking the power supply back to the motherboard, with the machine unplugged. The machine runs without the need of the floppy disk, but only after tweeking setting several settings on the CMOS setup, then loading the settings. It's a very big pain to have to go through this every time to start up the machine to the home in screen. Any comments or suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated!

-Philip

[machintek]

PTComputing: I am still guessing what motherboard is in your machine. Because you are plugging in a PS2 style keyboard, you must have a newer all in one half size mother board.
It came with a flash memory board piggy backed onto it or a disk on a chip on it. Either one of these requires that CMOS be set to none for the C drive as mentioned before. These were 8 MB devices which under normal conditions is more than enough. If more storage is required, you could plug in a IDE hard drive but make it a SLAVE so it does not interfere with booting from the flash memory.
I have seen typically a coin type CMOS battery on these or a Dallas Real Time Clock,
Is there a jumper for internal or external battery? Or is the CMOS clear in the wrong position?

George