Hi,
I've searched varius threads here and elsewhere, but couldn't find more then hints, but not a solution.
I've got a QT6 in front of me and it does not realy communicate with me.
Data:
QT6 from around year 2000, with a Fusion 640T
Controller is based on the standard Mitsubishi components: CARD-586 (Card PC, PC010A).
It has a HDD, which is the FCU6-HD221-1A, OS Windows 95 'B'. On the HDD itself is written: 8944 cyl, head 15, sectors 63.
Card PC: FCA635LNYQ /w Hardware FCU6-MU515-12 'B'
Some day someone pulled the CMOS battery while the machine was powered down. I gues it was left like that for a certain period. After replacing the battery the machine does not boot any more.
When starting the controller, MEM test is proceeded, but certainly the BIOS says: no operating system found, please insert/change disc and try again.
I checked the BIOS for it's settings. The HDD (IDE) was 'disabled' so I changed this and entered the parameters of the HDD. When rebooting the only change is that the BIOS reports a 'HDD setting failure' which in the next line is 'corrected'. then it cycles back to 'no operating system'.
When entering BIOS again, you can see that the setting had been corercted to 'disabled'.
I've tried all other option: auto recognition /w and /wo LBA and so on. No change.
I guessed the MBR / SYS might be corrupt and booted via floppy and a standard bootdisc. You get a working DOS (from floppy), but even there the BIOS does not register or allow access to the HDD. (i.e. FDISK says NO HDD).
I hooked the HDD via IDE adapter to a standrd PC. You can acces the HDD and find a lot of files. It seems to be OK. Second stage I used the HDD as Master in a PC and W95 is booted.
HDD itself seems to be OK.
So the failure must be 'before' that. I formated and sys'ed a Microdrive CF and inserted it into one of the backpanel PCMCIA slots, entered BIOS and changed HDD options to PCMCIA. Here the BIOS recognizes the Microdrive (showing the cyl, heads, sec). But still does not boot.
Alternatively I hooked up a different HDD with working OS. No change.
Additionally I tried a clone of the Mazak HDD. No change.
Now searching for more information, I checked the USER ACCESSIBLE CMOS AREA. Parameters are set to '0'.
The segment ditial at the back of the controller shows: '8.' and the watchdog LED is alight. round dipswitch is set to '0'. I haven't touched the switch so far, because of not having knowledge of what I can do with this switch. The four, traffic light, LED next to it show (from top) green, green, red. BAT ALRM is OFF.
Does anybody have a idea? any documentation about this PC available somewhere?
Any workarounds that someone found, having similar problem? Any further information that I should collect and post?
Might it be the case that the HDD data has to be set to something different then the parameters which are pirnted on it? I know this from several other machines and from time when vintage IT was still 'brandnew'. This was used later on to replace old HDD with newer ones but had to set them to a smaller size.
Might it be that the BIOS is looking for a kind of serial number on the HDD, which could have been corrupted when the battery was flat?
I do have the floppy containing PLC ladder and so on, which was shipped with the machine that days. It's not a bootdisc.
Looking forward to your replies.
Cheers,
Tom
I've searched varius threads here and elsewhere, but couldn't find more then hints, but not a solution.
I've got a QT6 in front of me and it does not realy communicate with me.
Data:
QT6 from around year 2000, with a Fusion 640T
Controller is based on the standard Mitsubishi components: CARD-586 (Card PC, PC010A).
It has a HDD, which is the FCU6-HD221-1A, OS Windows 95 'B'. On the HDD itself is written: 8944 cyl, head 15, sectors 63.
Card PC: FCA635LNYQ /w Hardware FCU6-MU515-12 'B'
Some day someone pulled the CMOS battery while the machine was powered down. I gues it was left like that for a certain period. After replacing the battery the machine does not boot any more.
When starting the controller, MEM test is proceeded, but certainly the BIOS says: no operating system found, please insert/change disc and try again.
I checked the BIOS for it's settings. The HDD (IDE) was 'disabled' so I changed this and entered the parameters of the HDD. When rebooting the only change is that the BIOS reports a 'HDD setting failure' which in the next line is 'corrected'. then it cycles back to 'no operating system'.
When entering BIOS again, you can see that the setting had been corercted to 'disabled'.
I've tried all other option: auto recognition /w and /wo LBA and so on. No change.
I guessed the MBR / SYS might be corrupt and booted via floppy and a standard bootdisc. You get a working DOS (from floppy), but even there the BIOS does not register or allow access to the HDD. (i.e. FDISK says NO HDD).
I hooked the HDD via IDE adapter to a standrd PC. You can acces the HDD and find a lot of files. It seems to be OK. Second stage I used the HDD as Master in a PC and W95 is booted.
HDD itself seems to be OK.
So the failure must be 'before' that. I formated and sys'ed a Microdrive CF and inserted it into one of the backpanel PCMCIA slots, entered BIOS and changed HDD options to PCMCIA. Here the BIOS recognizes the Microdrive (showing the cyl, heads, sec). But still does not boot.
Alternatively I hooked up a different HDD with working OS. No change.
Additionally I tried a clone of the Mazak HDD. No change.
Now searching for more information, I checked the USER ACCESSIBLE CMOS AREA. Parameters are set to '0'.
The segment ditial at the back of the controller shows: '8.' and the watchdog LED is alight. round dipswitch is set to '0'. I haven't touched the switch so far, because of not having knowledge of what I can do with this switch. The four, traffic light, LED next to it show (from top) green, green, red. BAT ALRM is OFF.
Does anybody have a idea? any documentation about this PC available somewhere?
Any workarounds that someone found, having similar problem? Any further information that I should collect and post?
Might it be the case that the HDD data has to be set to something different then the parameters which are pirnted on it? I know this from several other machines and from time when vintage IT was still 'brandnew'. This was used later on to replace old HDD with newer ones but had to set them to a smaller size.
Might it be that the BIOS is looking for a kind of serial number on the HDD, which could have been corrupted when the battery was flat?
I do have the floppy containing PLC ladder and so on, which was shipped with the machine that days. It's not a bootdisc.
Looking forward to your replies.
Cheers,
Tom
