OK, X48-ers - who's had a recent "failure to boot" issue?

[HellvisPresley]

After safe, dry, warm storage in its flight case for about 5 months, my X48 won't boot. Tech support was vague and evasive, suggesting that even a battery change was a "repair issue". Also muttered under his breath about capacitor replacement. There are some Gearslutz threads about similar problems - anyone got a story to tell??

 

[mrjim]

Similar story here.... in storage for 3 months in a dry safe roadcase & yesterday.... NUTHIN.

I suspect corrupted sys files but can't be sure. Says something like, "Checksum Error" on initial boot, "F1 or F10 for setup"
Neither helped.
Eventually got to a MAC address with a whole bunch of 'FFFFF's" on the end. (I doubt programmers have much of a sense of humour but I was saying a whole bunch of FFFfff's).....

Anyone got any clues please ??

 

[HellvisPresley]

Indeed, the threat of faulty caps having been used on the motherboard just stinks, and is SO unlike what I've come to expect from Teac Pro. The good news is, some progress was had yesterday - with NO help from the firm, by dint of necessity.

The motherboard is located on the bottom (naturally!), adjacent to all the USB, serial, IE1394, keyboard, mouse, LAN, etc. ports. To gain access to the battery, I removed the A/D/A converter board without disturbing any of the IDE cables. The battery is held by a spring-loaded retaining clip; a little squeeze and out she pops.

With a new 2032 installed, the unit sprang to life - and running the boot disc seemed to put me in the final stretch home.....BUT it won't format the drive. I notice that during the DOS scroll the "0" slot is recognized as "Tascam", and the "1" slot vacant. A message appears about a drive not recognized ("check cable", they say!). I think the main drive IS there, but the BIOS configuration was lost with the battery failure.

Opening the BIOS (not possible until the battery was replaced), I see two default configs, but neither has yielded a successful boot and reload of the OS from the DVD. The disc drive is working fine, and the contents of the system disc DO boot WinXPpro (again, never ran at all until battery replacement).

So, off we go to a friend's computer repair shop today to screw around with the BIOS, since no one at Tascam is willing to discuss the correct config procedure. On the off chance that the IDE drive cable bounced loose (HIGHLY unlikely), we'll check that also. If you have a clue how to bring this home, please share!
Hellvis

 

[mrjim]

yuk... very interested in this...
As for my issues, I contacted the only agent here in Australia (in Melbourne) & they assure me it's my system drive. They have requested I send it to them to be "fixed".
I sent it yesterday morning so they should have it today & we'll see what happens.
My problem is different to yours in that mine at least attempts to power up.... just doesn't get very far.
The saga continues...

 

[HellvisPresley]

The problem here in the Midwest is that NONE of the "authorized" Tascam repair offices have even heard of an X48 (seriously!!). I'm about to call CA on this issue, with full authority of one of my "local agents" to impersonate on their behalf.
....a saga indeed!

 

[mrjim]

The fact that the machine has been discontinued aint gonna help either.... goodluck.

 

[HellvisPresley]

Not certain that's entirely accurate - aside from some capacity, processor, and connectivity "improvements" the MKII X48 is the same physical beast. Plenty still being sold by a box shop near you!

There is a SINGLE fellow, named David Farrell, who's been assigned the task of X48 product specialist support for the entire country. Tascam service informed me that he may be reached through the following office: (323) 726-0303. When we chatted, he seemed quite up to speed on the unit.

Scheduling has thus far kept me from chatting with his bench tech for a real-time bios poking, but he seemed to think the issues I'm having are purely configuration at this point. Time will tell.....
Hellvis

 

[mrjim]

OK drive is back, new bios battery & new CPU & still nothing.
I realise the BIOS needs resetting so does anyone know what those settings are supposed to be please ??
I've enabled boot other device & it's seeing the SATA drive... but what else is there ??

taa
jim

 

[HellvisPresley]

Suspicions confirmed: it's a bios issue. The folks in Cali know how to reset it, and Mr. Farrell's bench tech Gary was pleased to fly me through it over the phone. It's quite complex, and MANY parameters are proprietary to this box. I've put in my plea to have them provide a set of screenshots, or a pdf documenting this setup, but they seem intent on keeping a bloody state secret.

Since my X48 is now back to work, and running OS v2.02 flawlessly, I'll make it my duty tomorrow to put a full court press on the right honorable Farrell to make this information public. It's outrageous to have been told that I'd have to send the unit 2000 miles for a battery change! Talk about job security.......
HellvisP.

 

[mrjim]

I would very much appreciate any findings.... thank you Sir.

I've made enquiries here in Australia & met a similar cone of silence.
Can't for the life of me work out why they'd want to keep it such a secret.....

 

[Jarno]

Says something like, "Checksum Error" on initial boot, "F1 or F10 for setup"

This is very frequent problem with PC hardware (X48 is just a custom PC) caused by failed motherboard battery. I recommend to call someone with experience on building PCs to replace the battery. Then ask HellvisPresley to send you photos of BIOS setup screens. With this information you should have your X48 up and running in no time.

 

[mrjim]

That's probably a lot easier than getting an answer out of Tascam.

In fact it ANYONE on here has the time (& a working X48 of course...
Photos of ALL the Bios pages would be VERY much appreciated...

Thanks in advance someone...

 

[HellvisPresley]

Greetings, all: Yeah, I had another lovely chat with the fine product support fellows in Montebello, CA and I now have received a detailed .pdf download on the bios setup issue.

This isn't some reprint from the service manual, no way - it's a HANDWRITTEN set of instructions from Ed (the bench tech), with subsequent screen shots of the actual settings desired. Because the order in which bios is reset is important, the screen shots are labeled with numbers, and the notes prompt the actions required.
I read the whole thing, and it does seem to match what we did on the phone. If anyone trying to do this gets confused, just calm down and start over - you can't blow the thing up if you hit the wrong key. I find re-reading the words often helps; sometimes it doesn't correctly register in the brain-pan the first time....Cheerio!
HellvisP.

X48 Bios Set Up.pdf

 

[Jarno]

Thanks for the PDF. I copied it to the 'Documentation and Manuals' subforum.

 

[djt]

Similar vane issue, but my X48 was also dormant for quite a while, was very little used before, worked perfectly last use couple years ago, and now will not power up at all. Any ideas? Is there an internal battery that may be bad? It can't be anything major. Please advise-any help would be appreciated.

 

[djt]

I think my answer is listed in one of the above posts re a battery, so it looks like there is a battery on the motherboard. Does anyone have instructions or pics on the internal component layout of the X48? I haven't had the need to look into mine until now and don't want to just start removing every external screw in sight if not necessary as well as would like to have some advance knowledge of what's inside and where. Thanks much.

DJT

 

[HellvisPresley]

Greetings X-48-er! You'll need a pair of long tweezers or a hemostat to reach the bugger, but it's clearly visible on the topside of the motherboard. Once the new battery is installed, follow the prompts on your OS install disc to get the basic one in (update once bios settings are reset). Use the posted .pdf earlier in this thread to perform the bios mods for X48 config. Happy poking!
HP

 

[djt]

Thank you very much HP! I just bought the 2032 battery so I most likely give it a shot tomorrow. Sure is a big pain though, ain't it? Thanks again.!

DJT

 

[djt]

One more quick question for HP. Is it only the top cover that needs to be removed and not the sides which is much more of a pain in the neck. It looks like only 5 screws hold down the top cover (1 on each corner and 1 more in the middle). Please confirm as I would rather not learn the hard way and remove stuff that's not necessary. Thanks,
DJT

 

[djt]

Just wanted to let everyone know that battery installation is pretty easy and accessible from the top. Simply remove the 5 screws on top of the cover plate and 1 in the back. Once the cover is off the battery is immediately visible looking directly down on the motherboard but just a bit hard to get to. Take a pointed flat object like a rigid knife blade and pry-out the battery where the spring loaded detent holds it down; it pops right up. Then just remove it and push the new one in 'till it snaps in place. Pretty simple. Haven't started-up the unit yet as I wanted to wait until I was ready to do the BIOS reset, but I fully expect the unit will fire-up as the old battery was totally dead when checked on a meter.

DJT