Need Help!- DX-32 Bridgeport Explorer

[minton]

At machine start up the following message appears on the monitor.

"Reading Param File..."

"Sector not found reading C:
Hit <R> to retry or <ESC> to continue."

Nothing happens with <R> or <ESC>.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Bob Adams
989 798 6581

[machintek]

How old is the hard drive? Maybe original? Last time some preventative maintenance was done on it? (defrag and scan disk) How is the CMOS? What is time and date that mother board thinks it is? If very wrong the CMOS battery may be bad and your hard drive parameters may be corrupted. Or files on HD may be corrupted. Maybe HD is crashing and now has sectors that are unreadable.

George

[minton]

George:

Many thanks for your reply. I believe the hard drive is original. Preventative maintenance has probably never been done. The mother board has been replaced. I will try to find a computer technician to take a look at the machine...using your information as a guideline.

George, I have read many of your replies, you are unbelievably knowledgeable and an invaluable asset to this forum. The time you devote to your many responses is greatly appreciated, I'm sure, by all those who have benefited from your generous sharing of knowledge.

Regards and Best Wishes,

Bob Adams
989 798 6581

[machintek]

Since the MB has been replaced, It still may have a CMOS battery issue. But if the hard drive is bad may I recommend that you get a solid state drive (DOM or disk on a module) preloaded with OS and the machine software from EMI. I do not get a kick back. A lot more trouble free.

And thanks for the words of appreciation. They are appreciated!

George

[minton]

George:

Many thanks again for your reply. I will call EMI Monday to find out the cost of the DOM that you suggested. If that option is to expensive is it possible to find a replacement hard drive? The only Bridgeport Disk I have is marked "Back-UP" and "BOSS DX-32".

Best Wishes!

Bob Adams
989 798 6581

[machintek]

Any IDE hard drive will work but you have to Fdisk it to 504MB making it a active dos partition. Then DOS has to be loaded, followed by the machine software which hopefully is intact on that disk.

George

[minton]

George:

Thanks for your detailed replies. As soon as I am able to check out your suggestions I would like to let you know the outcome. What is the best way to let you know? Thanks Again and Best Wishes!

Regards,

Bob Adams
989 798 6581

[tpmx57]

I just ordered a DOM for my TC-22 and the price was $250
I just ordered it but havent got it yet
EMI is great to deal with and have spent alot of time with me on the phone
lately and are in no hurry it seems when explaining issues to you.
They know these machines inside and out.
It is no problem getting a harddrive setup and loaded ,the problem comes when you dont have backups of your original parameters.
You are right George is a big help here to all of us,without him and some others our machines would be setting broke.
Sometimes its just small issues to them but we would be lost without their input.
Bridgeport had to be an excellent employer for them at one time and its sad they are no longer around.
This iron lasts forever and best of all was US built
Good luck with your mill

[minton]

tpmx57

Thanks for your reply. Where do you find the original parameters that you mentioned? I don't have any back-up disks.

Regards,

Bob Adams
989 798 6581

[tpmx57]

You can run MAKEDISK from dos and it will make you a backup floppy
For your machine for your software version
There is also an other post where one person copied his harddrive when it went out by placing it in a freezer for a short time to get it to work long enough to copy it then wrote everything to a new harddrive and this worked for him
I copied my harddrive while the machine worked then copied it to another drive but it didnt work for me
You need bmdcsys.prm and also a leadcomp file if your machine needed it
George or someone will mention if theres any others
I have vers 4.89 on mine now but couldnt get a bmdcprm.sys file that would work with it

[minton]

tpmx57

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. All of this information is very useful and greatly appreciated. I will respond with a progress report as soon as I can follow up on these suggestions.

Many Thanks and Best Wishes,

Bob Adams
989 798 6581

[machintek]

Every piece of software for a DX32 control asks if you have a disk with the BMDCPRMS.SYS file when you are installing it and if not will create a parameter file for you.
This is a great start but is not complete. Now you have to fill in some correct values. Backlash, pitch error, spindle encoder resolution and spindle speeds if applicable, tool changer height and orient position again if applicable, etc.

George