E6400 Ultra: slow death within 2 hours
Posted:
Mon Aug 24, 2009 3:33 am
by joumbie
Switched on my 6400 Ultra a month ago after 10 years of problem-free joy and started getting FATAL ERROR messages during editing ETC. Powered off and came back 2 hours later with floppy of EOS 4.61 to reload. Powering up now resulted in fragmented text in all modes, but not in a faulty LCD kind of way. Diagnostics via front panel all came up OK, from what I could still read. Could not reload various versions of EOS over various floppys: floppy would either just 'hang' or display would read (to best of my memory) 'Loading EOS to Flash' but that just hung as well. Took the unit to a technician that did EMU warranty work back in the day. After replacing the front panel and getting no joy he believes there is a fault in the FLASH DIMM but cannot source a replacement. Can anyone shed any light on any other possible fixes? Does anyone know where I could source a replacement FLASH DIMM? Many, many thanks for your time, J Sydney Australia
Re: E6400 Ultra: slow death within 2 hours
Posted:
Thu Aug 27, 2009 12:28 am
by joumbie
Update: Persisted in trying re-load EOS via different floppy's, floppy drive and LCD just froze. Installed E-Loader on my PC in the hope of installing EOS 4.7 via MIDI. Everything was going well, E-Loader could 'see' and track my Ultra, it would 'receive' the request from Ultra to load OS when I powered on with Enter held down, but then at the crucial moment of starting the dump the Ultra just froze.
It COULD be a faulty Flash Rom. It COULD be a fault on the montherboard. As my Tech said "either way we're screwed", the parts situation being the ghost town of depravity that it is. It COULD be that ever buying an EMU was the biggest mistake, the worst 'FATAL ERROR' of all.
What do I use my Ultra for now?? It's too big for a paper-weight or door-stop, yet it's too light for a boat anchor. Maybe a techno-esq ant farm?
When I bought it new back in 98 or 99 they retailed in Australia for AUD $5000., over USD $4000. at the time. Add to that the external SCSI stuff, a few extra sounds, and it was a major investment.
Surely when the original EMU company sold to Creative it was not due to financial problems, they must have been rolling in it after all the Ultra series of units sold and all their other products. They just designed equipment with as many 'EMU' electronic components as possible to keep it in the family, and then took the money and ran!
If he's still alive and I ever run into the original EMU main man, I'm gona tie some sturdy Yamaha and Akai gear to his limbs and then drop him in the ocean, he can drown weighed down by the gravity of good equipment.
When Mr Roland has family celebrations he can relax, look into his children's eyes and say "I have made A LOT of people very happy with my musical creations", the family could then proceed to chow down some top grade sashimi, and feel very proud. Yet when Mr EMU has a family thing, he can only say to his kids "ya know guys, I've really upset A LOT of musicians and tech guys, but look at the MONEY we've made!!! Now lets go down to the valley and smoke some crack".
Thanks for listening, I needed that