Bridgeport EZ Trak control upgrade.

[mailloux]

Hello,

Since my last post concerning a DX 2 that needs a new display and keypad it now also appears a new video or monitor driver card is needed also. Anyway since the old crt went out we hooked up a seperate monitor which works for a while then goes out until I reset the machine. What I need is starting to look like an upgrade for this machine, its only about 9 years old and job shop environment usage. What companies can I contact that can help with these issues.

I had recieved some previous answers to part of this issue and I am still trying to figure out how to answer back to those who replied. I'm new here and not very pc literate.

Thanks in advance

[NC Cams]

Check your other post.

You may be running into a motherboard failure problem.

The easiest albeit not the cheapest sollution is to call EMI. They sell industrial grade replacement computers that will replace most any of the OEM computer motherboards. Otherwise, any local service tech who knows how to service DOS based computers should be able to service your computer - if you can find parts.

Your upgrade options are EXTREMELY limited. Why? Because of the need to have an ISA slot in order to fit the BMDC card which is the heart of the Eztrak system.

ISA based AT motherboards are readily installable into the machine. Make sure you you use a 386, 486 or a Pentium but do NOT exceed 133mhz in speed in anything you get. Also, make sure the BIOS is properly reset to match your current system.

DO NOT GET FANCY WITH NEW PC BIOS SETTINGS!!! Make sure that you do NOT engage the LBA option in a new motherboard if you install it.

You might want to check your power supply and hard drive. A funky power supply and a hard drive that are going south can cause all kinds of wierd problems.

BTW: 9 years on the same motherboard and hard drive are an ETERNITY for PC based systems. Be thankful you got 9 essentially trouble free years from the machine.

[machintek]

may be a thermal or logic power supply issue.
Check air filter, clean edge connector on video card, and see if fan on power supply is running. Lastly it could be a software issue. Meaning that accesssing the hard drive may eventually fail. This could be a CMOS issue or as in any PC, when was the last time you ran SCANDISK or DEFRAG?

George

[NC Cams]

If you are starting to get read/write issues, I'd start planning to do some service, AND DO IT FAST.

First: back up ALL your part programs to floppy disk.

Second: find your probably misplaced system disks - you might need them for a system re-install

Third: plan on some new hardware (HDD/FDD controller, M/B, etc) - see prior post about speed limitations.

Fourth: hard drives don't last forever either. Instead of HDD replacement if it is faulty, consider replacing with DOM flash drive - much more reliable.

Fifth: download ANY/ALL unused programs. YOu need space for the cache that the machine uses for "look ahead" purposes. If you're out of space on HDD, the system could be crashing.

Sixth: check out the stuff George mentioned above.

If SCANDISK or DEFRAG have not been run in 9 years of operation, you might simply have gotten things so corrupted/hodge podged via writes/rewrites that only a disk reformat and system reinstall can straighten things out. However, run SCANDISK first then DEFRAG (they should be in the DOS directory on the HDD). These simple diagnostics could solve a lot of problems.

To get to them, exit to DOS and first type SCANDISK then ENTER at the C:\ prompt. When this is done, type DEFRAG then ENTER.

Or you can hit F8 while the system is booting and say NO to any of the questions that involve executing of the EZTRAK or BMDC programs. This will boot the system to DOS and then you run SCANDISK and DEFRAG.