New owner of a used D8B 56/72 - missing hard drive, what now

[zorkiii]

Aha, okay there is another page - just found it. http://www.sonido-7.com/d8b/index.html#Post6

Hopefully you can see the potentially confusing situation there with the Database downloads, but at any rate got them now and thanks again.

[zorkiii]

Getting closer:

I created the OS 3.0 Install floppies, edited the tools.ini and added format:on, saved it and launched it in the Mackie. I am seeing it gets to the loader and states Mackie OS Loader v3.0 Loading - Please Wait..., then the screen shows one blinking asterisk * on the right side of the screen and nothing else. I am not prompted with any formatting options or anything else. Reading through the instructions I am seeing that prompts should happen on the 'VFD', which is basically the LCD display on the mixer, correct? On the mixer it goes from Loading Host to the System Error 43 again. Any tips?

[goonkalonkyn]

what program are you using to extract the OS to the floppies, and
are you preformatting full erase?

[zorkiii]

To extract I am using whatever is default for Windows 7, which is showing WinImage Self Extractor. Do you have any other recommendations?

I performed a full erase of the drive according to Mackie's instructions at https://supportloudtech.netx.net/loud-p ... sset/16076

I wrote Mackie and they offered some help:

Hi Richard,

Thanks for writing!

Hi Richard,

That is very odd that there is not an internal hard drive in the d8B CPU. It is possible that the previous owner removed it. From the date code your d8B was made in Dec of 2000. You can always purchase a new hard drive and install it into the CPU. Make sure that you are looking at the power supply/CPU because the hard drive and the motherboard live in that unit not the console.

Here is a document on how to replace the hard drive on the d8B.
https://supportloudtech.netx.net/loud-p ... sset/16076

Also a common problem that causes the error 43 message is a bad motherboard battery.
https://supportloudtech.netx.net/loud-p ... sset/16063

d8B knowledge base
https://supportloudtech.netx.net/loud-p ... sset/16063

All the best,

Technical Support
Mackie/TAPCO/Ampeg/Crate
LOUD Technologies Inc.
800-258-6883 ext. 1632

Hi Rich,

Thanks for the reply.

From your description it sounds like there could be a hardware problem with the d8B or you might have corrupted/bad floppy installation disk. Unfortunately here in Tech Support we do not offer step by step bench level support because of liability. I would recommend to get the unit into one of our service centers for repair.

A great service center that is experienced with the d8B would be S&X Pro Audio.

S & X Pro Audio
Address : 938 Industry Drive
City : Tukwila
State : WA
Postal : 98188
Phone : 206-420-3452
Email : sxpaudio@sandx.comcastbiz.net

Link to service center locater.
http://mackie.com/support/service-locator

All the best,

Technical Support
Mackie/TAPCO/Ampeg/Crate
LOUD Technologies Inc.
800-258-6883 ext. 1632

[zorkiii]

Ok, bought a compact flash adapter and 4gb card, the BIOS recognizes it fine. Trying to install from floppy again and still getting system error 43....

Is there a document that details how to install the v3.0 software on a compact flash card outside of the physical Mackie machine itself? I am using PC running Windows 7 Pro and have a USB floppy drive, plus compact flash reader/writer.