Bridgeport EZ Trak-DX (1995)

[rlmomc]

Good day to all. This is my first post here and I hope I can find an answer or two.
I repaced the 3.6 V battery last week.
When I replaced the boards back (being careful)
and powered back up, I got this on my Monitor
"No Signal"
I checked all connections.
ANy idea what to look for? Am I missing something simple?
ANy help much appreciated.
Rick

[machintek]

If I was there, I would keep the electrical cabinet open and turn the main power on.
Do you see any red lights on the BMDC board?
Do you see the light on the floppy turn on for a few seconds?
Your hard drive should be floating on springs, do you see it jiggle as it spools up?
The reason I ask is I am trying to see if your logic power supply is functioning. Also if your mother board is trying to function. You did plug in P8 and P9 (logic supply power to the mother board)?
If all that is positive, then I would pull the video board out and clean the edge connector with a soft eraser and plug it back in (as well as the video cable).
Remeber that you have to set the CMOS when you replace the battery.

George

[rlmomc]

Thanks so much......but uhmmmm
Well I did it all. And it started up. Now the problem is
it reads "missing operating system"
I do have the diskette with EZ Trak program on it. (ver 3.02)
And I can access the AMIBIOS setup program.

I have the the Prog & Oper Manual and I just realized that the other manual
is for the SX model , not the DX. Only took 13 yrs to realize that!

Next step???

[machintek]

The operating system is DOS.
The SX ran from a floppy. The DX had a hard drive.
Either way, the control cannot find DOS. If you have a hard drive, are the CMOS parameters correct? Is the ribbon cable plugged in correctly? Is the IO board plugged in correctly?
Ditto for the floppy.
The 3.02 disk is probably only the machine software.

George

[rlmomc]

Correct it does have a hard drive.
On Start Up:
I have lights on all three boards. green and red lights on the
driver boards, and 2 red in the long board.
The light on the Floppy drive comes on for a few seconds then shuts off.
The Hard drive spins up and I can feel the vibrations

I have checked all connections, cleaned reinstalled.

How do I know what the correct BIOS setting are?
(I don't have the correct manual for this machine)

I've enclosed a few pics for you.
Thank you George...
between you and another friend I've learned tons and
am making progress.

Hopefully just a little more of your time.

I was also told once I restarted
insert the floppy then type A:\
then sys A:C: hit enter

But I cant seem to get any text into the screen.

[One of Many]

I would get into the bios and have it automatically find the hard drive settings. I don't think it is set properly to recognize your hard drive.


DC

[rlmomc]

How do I do that DC?
Enclosed a few more pics so you can see what I see

Thanks in advance
Rick

[One of Many]

See where it says "Auto detect hard disk"?

Try that, save and exit, then reboot.

[rlmomc]

It's up and running!!!

You all are (as the kisds say today) the bomb!!

I can't thank you all enough!!
from Tom to George to you DC.

Now for the icing on my cake......

I can connect an external Keyboard just fine.
And it works as the small keyboard on the machine does.
But I have never been able to save programs alphanumerically.
And I have read about being able to do so.

Soooo uhmmm if you're up to the challenge??!! LOL

Thanks again.
Lunch is on me.
Anytime you're in the Los Angeles area!
(any second tuesday of the week is fine)

[One of Many]

Originally Posted by rlmomc It's up and running!!! You all are (as the kisds say today) the bomb!! I can't thank you all enough!! from Tom to George to you DC. Now for the icing on my cake...... I can connect an external Keyboard just fine. And it works as the small keyboard on the machine does. But I have never been able to save programs alphanumerically. And I have read about being able to do so. Soooo uhmmm if you're up to the challenge??!! LOL Thanks again. Lunch is on me. Anytime you're in the Los Angeles area! (any second tuesday of the week is fine)

That is great news. How are you naming your programs now. I thought they were all set to alphanumric. Probably a parameter somewhere.

Dang,

I only have the 3rd Wednesday of next week open, but before I show up.

Go to DOS on your control and type DEL *.*

This is an old aged Hard Drive cleaner test utility. We aim to Please!

Doing this on the second Tuesday's periodically will also teach you how to reload all the software and paramters as a result! Kind of like removing all the furniture to paint the walls and clean the carpets. A squeaky clean hard drive has a clear conscience too!

Good luck!

DC

[machintek]

On the first page of the CMOS is a keyboard test. Turn that OFF. Then the smaller keyboard should work. Might as well set the time and date too.
Never do a DEL *.* as it will erase every file!
If you ever change the hard drive, the auto detect will not work because this old mother board will not support a hard drive bigger than 528MB. When that happens, you can be walked through it or you will purchase a flash memory disk emulator called a DISK ON A MODULE from EMI.
You can use alpha numeric file names as long as you do not break DOS rules. (See DOS FOR DUMMIES). Bridgeport decided to use the smaller keyboard to make the operator pendent smaller.

George

[One of Many]

Originally Posted by machintek Never do a DEL *.* as it will erase every file! George

Precisely why it should only be done on the second Tuesday, before I get there on the 3rd Wednesday.

I wouldn't/didn't take Rick for a fool! I thought the tongue in cheek humor was fairly obviously......not serious.


DC