Error : Surface Control Not Ready : Last Known State : Reset

[doktor1360]

Hey Gang...

Subject says it all. To preface this, I had a spike in the room where my studio is, and the desk went down momentarily and now I get this message. The desk itself has channels 1-12 with some intermittent lights on, same with the meter bridge and various lights in the transport and control section. I looked thru everything here I could find related and I don't really think that it's a 'rail cap' issue, nothing spinning or arbitrary displays of lights, etc. I've had this problem in the past every now and then... reseating the DB25 & BFC connectors and a reboot or two has normally taken care of this (as same as a few others here). I've recently had the desk open cleaned and reseated the cabling, and that cleaned up another minor issue or two while doing the 5.1 update work around - had everything working really well, too. However, I don't think any of this is relevant to the issue at hand... anything else I should be aware of or anyone can add here?!? I really don't wanna have to go replacing parts on this again...

In the interim, I'm gonna reset the BIOS and give it another go...

Thanx in advance for any/all input...

Peace

[doktor1360]

I had a spike in the room where my studio is, and the desk went down momentarily and now I get this message. The desk itself has channels 1-12 with some intermittent lights on, same with the meter bridge and various lights in the transport and control section. I looked thru everything here I could find related and I don't really think that it's a 'rail cap' issue, nothing spinning or arbitrary displays of lights, etc. I've had this problem in the past every now and then... reseating the DB25 & BFC connectors and a reboot or two has normally taken care of this (as same as a few others here). I've recently had the desk open cleaned and reseated the cabling, and that cleaned up another minor issue or two while doing the 5.1 update work around - had everything working really well, too. However, I don't think any of this is relevant to the issue at hand... anything else I should be aware of or anyone can add here?!? I really don't wanna have to go replacing parts on this again...

In the interim, I'm gonna reset the BIOS and give it another go...

Well, alrighty then...

1) Open desk, reseat ALL power cables. *
2) Reseat any/all MFX/UFX cards.
3) Delete the MackieOS default startup file on the flash card. *

Batta-bing, batta-boom... back in business...

As an aside, if anyone is interested or for forum search terms - I think the ultimate issue is one of the two asterisk-d above. My $$$ is on the startup file, however if that's not the case it very well may be that the 'reset state' of the surface card may be latched to a voltage (cap) that's discharged when removing contact from the power source (ie power supply). Otherwise, the spike issue corrupted the startup file which is again where I'm leaning...

Anyone that wants to add anything for any future forum searches or anything else for that matter, please have at it...

Of course, you knew it was coming, so here it is :
[Standard Mgmt Disclaimer] - "Your Actual Mileage May Vary..."

At any rate... all's well in Mudville...

Peace

[Bruce Graham]

Hey Dok;

Completely not related but....I had the same message on my d8b a while back. I was recording a band in a remote location and wound up with a bent pin in the DATA cable in the male db25 connector on the CPU. Straightened the pin back (gently) and all worked.

Now when I remove that cable I put un-wired db25 connectors on the d8b CPU and join together the connectors of the DATA cable to protect both ends.

Just other thoughts to add to the pile.

Cheers
Bruce

[doktor1360]

Completely not related but....I had the same message on my d8b a while back. I was recording a band in a remote location and wound up with a bent pin in the DATA cable in the male db25 connector on the CPU. Straightened the pin back (gently) and all worked.

Now when I remove that cable I put un-wired db25 connectors on the d8b CPU and join together the connectors of the DATA cable to protect both ends.

Just other thoughts to add to the pile.

Awesome, Bruce - payin' it forward! I'm gonna keep this in mind myself. The D8B & HDR are like vintage autos... really just have to work with the quirkiness. This forum and it's community are an outstanding resource for all users anywhere, it really is a plethora of information regarding these retired, but still formidable, Mackie products...

Just as an aside, I wonder if they've gotten wind of the v5.1 workaround. Would still be nice to have the OS open-sourced, if only for reference. But I'll take what we got, this desk is a real sleeper and damn flexible too...

Thanx for contributing to this thread...

Peace

[Bruce Graham]

Hey Dok;

Not sure that Mackie cares but I think Bob Tutor would be proud!.

Very flexible, but I'd loved to have analog Inserts on the L&R Outputs!

Thanks for all you do!

Cheers
Bruce

[Mikeytred]

Hello Doktor1360, I have the Surface control card not ready problem as well. Can you please explain in detail your 3rd step of the 3 you listed. 1st step means open up the desk & reseat any cables I see that can be reseated? Thank you so much for the help!

[Phil.c]

Go to desktop, click HD, Project files will show, drag "Startup" to Toilet.

When you re-boot, a new "Startup" will be created.

Phil