Prototrak LX2 can't see floppy disk

steelie1955 · Jan 2, 2013

On starting the lathe up after the Christmas break, I find that I can't load any programs.

The computer boots up ok from the boot-up floppy, but comes up with '7003 floppy error' when I try to load a program.

Advice gratefully received

charlie gary · Jan 2, 2013

When is the last time the floppy drive had a cleaning disk run through it?

casement · Jan 2, 2013

Tried different floppy disks? Tried a spare floppy drive?

(Older PCs have better quality drives, as do servers where they are only used for loading drivers or perhaps a BIOS flash.)

HuFlungDung · Jan 2, 2013

From a google search:
7003 The specified protocol driver was not found in the system path

Maybe a low battery has caused your system to lose some settings?

Toolznthings · Jan 2, 2013

Hi,

Have had problems reading the disc with my programs before so I got another floppy and it corrected the problem. Has happened more the once over time.

Brian

FranH · Jan 2, 2013

To the point of sounding foolish, will the drive need a 720K floppy rather than the newer disks. My Prototrak MX2 will accept only 720k disks. I believe the front left corner is a slide for read/write protect and the front right corner being blocked will format to 720K.

steelie1955 · Jan 3, 2013

I've tried a few floppys, none of them worked in the Prototrak, but they worked ok when I tried them in another PC.

They're regular 1.44 disks

FranH · Jan 3, 2013

steelie1955 said:
I've tried a few floppys, none of them worked in the Prototrak, but they worked ok when I tried them in another PC.

They're regular 1.44 disks

Your PC is engineered to be able to read 720K and 1.4M.

My prototrak explains nothing (as 1.4M had not yet been made) as to the capacity of the disk. After a bit of screaming at myself as the program was post processed via a cad/cam to a 1.4M a half dozen times, a half dozen disks, dozens of refusals to be read, it dawned on me to perhaps to reformat to 720K, save the program on a 720K and then it loaded.

I know I'm comparing a MX2 mill to a lathe but sometimes 'silly' oversites can kick us in the shins.

escott · Jan 3, 2013

Had similar issue with a different 80s vintage machine, required 720k disks to function. I was able to reformat off the shelf 1.4 to 720k and then everything was fine. I have an LX2 but I never bother to program that offline. I'll have to see if that is the case with mine as well.

Teedub · Jan 3, 2013

There should be two floppy drives on your proto trak (at least mine does).. Try swapping cables from the back of the floppy drives. Then try saving programs...If they save then you need a new floppy drive for your programs.....I stole one from an old computer laying around and it worked fine...probably an hour to an hour and a half job

spope14 · Jan 5, 2013

May be the bios on the PC, dead battery like mentioned above. If the bios settings are changed, you have to re-set them to read the floppy or the floppy size. Yoiu may want to go into this anyway on the boot-up and see if your system supports the 1.44 floppy drives. I was able to set-up 1988 vintage IBM PC's to 1.44 drives with a bios update as well, there may be some out there on the internet.

steelie1955 · Jan 8, 2013

Thanks Guys
The problems sorted, our maintenance man put another floppy disk read/write unit in, and so far everything's ok

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