Problem- A2100/NT boot error

[kentsui]

I'm in a bit of a pickle here. One of my machines is a '97 Arrow 500 running an A2100 controller. No issues to speak of other than mechanical ( new spindle a while back and tool changer probs) but the controller has been very reliable.
After a long weekend ( a trade show last week), the operator brought the machine up normally and encountered a load stop on the black screen just after it initializes/recognizes the hard drive...the screen basically says that it is unable to boot and that we should boot from the NT software to debugg.
Problem...no floppy...no software...no way. So I pulled the drive and checked it ( and backed it up) and I have no issue accessing the data on the drive. It seems the drive itself is fine at this point so I let windows ( probably a mistake) try to find the winnt boot error and fix it while hooked up to the desktop computer. I put the drive back in and now it get through the black screens, starts into the blue screens and then locks up with another "incaopable of booting" error and a screen full of ...krnl files and it recommends starting debug at startup.
I'm lost. I have replaced the harddrive years ago in this machine with an exact clone that came with it but the reason was that it would not even recognize the other drive at all ( although I can "see" it too with a cable to the desktop) and now of course I have all the settings/parameters just right for the machine and would like to avouid a "start from scratch".
Any sage advice? I could sure use some. Had several important prototypes lined up for this machine this week and my other 5 are running production. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(some other questions too...is anyone selling loaded drives for them, seems like I saw some on eBay once...also, what about software to reload onto the disks...any sources?)

Kentusi

[kentsui]

I did locate the guy selling the A2100 drives preloaded with NT and the Siemens software on eBay. I ordered a drive....will post the results when I get it. Supposedly it comes with all info to get it tweaked and running.

Kentsui

[laka]

Pretty sure you can still buy direct from Siemens

[holbieone]

check the cmos battery on your mother board

I'm guessing that is your problem

[philserveng]

please dont take this the wrong way, but this control is now redundant. Since Siemens took ownership they have done very little to support it. If the the machine is good you could consider a retro fit....if not cut your losses and get rid of it.

[kentsui]

The folks selling the drives were a big help and I thought I had it made in the shade . I installed the new drive, used the code from Siemens to enable a backup load and after some tweaking I ran for days on the new drive...and then...a new problem....every 5 minutes or so ( this just started this week after running on the new hard drive for 2 weeks) I get a level 20 ( immediate all stop) error that indicates that the axis drive is not working due to receiving an axis drive not ready signal. When I first bring the machine up I get 3 green lights on 3 drive and then 5-10 minutes later ..chunk...and the error message again. Luckily I haven't been in the cut when it has happened.
Siemens says : "The problem is one of your axis drives is failng (Kollmorgan Drives?). Which axis is the question, but since all the axis drive ready signals are all wired in series baack to the control, to figure out which one is the problem. You may want to contact Cincinnati to help troubleshoot that since they have the wiring diagrams for your machine.

The undervoltage is normal since the DC buss has shut down because of the fault I believe. The Main Power to the drives must be a balanced three phase power, there is no adjustment / tuning availabe. Incoming Voltage requirements can be changed by wiring in an Autransformer Again contact Cincinnati for specifications. Their Tel. # is 1-800-934-0735.".......
What gets me is this has never..ever ..happened until I put in the new hard drive ( which had parameters on it designed for an Arrow 750..higher spindle speed , etc.,) and I asked Siemens if there was someway to check voltage and then set the drives by software to accept that voltage +/-. As you can see they say no.

Anybody have any experience with this error?

Kentsui