EZ Trak will not save programs

[Machsense]

Hello all:

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.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Kevin

[NC Cams]

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.

[Machsense]

NC Cams:

A little background on the current machine:

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.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Kevin

[NC Cams]

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.

[Machsense]

Additional info to the problem:

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.

Kevin

[NC Cams]

Throw a FDD at it - classic signs (read/write issies) of one that failed or is about to.

We prefer Teac's if at all possible as we've had exceptional transferability and/or robustness with them over the years.

[Machsense]

Would trying to boot it from a floppy show anything?

My concern is the "PGM" column title does not appear on the basic screen. Maybe booting from a floppy will correct this.

[NC Cams]

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.

[Machsense]

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.

[NC Cams]

We installed a HDD and didn't know about the formatting issue limitation with it that BPT standardized upon.

This caused the system to write/rewrite stuff in an area of HDD that it then coudn't go to to access the data.

If this happened to you, download all you can from HDD.

Run FDISK and reformat to the BPT recommended size/format.

Reinstall the O/S from known good disks.

You may have a corrupted system and this is the only fix.

OR

Get rid of unused/superfluous program files.

Run SCANDISK and then DEFRAG. If scandisk finds problems you may have a HDD going bad.

Best fix is a DOM (pure IC based hard drive). Way more reliable in a machine tool than a HDD due to NO moving parts.

Advise.

[Machsense]

Status:

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?

[Machsense]

NC Cams

Just got your last post, I will try to run the scandisk and defrag.
and then if that doesn't help I'll reformat.

I appreciate your efforts here.

Thanks,

Kevin