Troubleshooting flaky bootup (and other) issues

[sxuser]

Hi folks,

I'd like your input on a couple of issues I'm trying to resolve with my SX-1.

First issue is with booting up. It doesn't always happen; probably half the time it does (every second bootup on average). What happens is, the machine hangs at "Mounting completed". According to what I've read, this indicates a problem with loading the last active project, and the workaround is to reboot into Safe Mode (which bypasses loading of last active project). This works every time, booting into Safe Mode, which does make it seem as if it's a problem with the project. However, it doesn't matter which project was the last active, and therefore attempts to load on the next boot. It even happens with the "Default Project".

To try and rule out the hard disk as the issue, I've reinstalled the SX-1 software (v1.52). No change. I next figured I'd low-level format the disk and then reinstall again. To my amazement, the "low level format" took less than five seconds. I've been working in IT professionally for over 20 years and have done LLFs before (although not since I was new to the biz and working a repair bench) and they are a lengthy, time-consuming process. What gives with the built-in low-level format option in the SX-1? And a related question: is there any reason not to boot the machine from a Western Digital diagnostic disc and do a "real" low-level format?

Basically I want to rule out everything I can before I feel compelled to open the machine up and start reseating cards, memory, etc. Note that I have run the Diagnostics from the SX-1 software disc and everything checks out fine. How reliable are these diagnostics, anyone know?

The second issue I experience, which is much less frequent, but somehow more disturbing, has to do with playback. On several occasions the machine has locked up midway through playback. It's happened while playing back multiple tracks (i.e. while mixing) and while playing back finished mixdowns. What happens is, the audio just stops. Nothing changes on the displays, and the green playback button remains lit. If I press Stop, the yellow Stop LED flashes. If I click anything on the display, I get no response -- hung hard. At this point I have no choice but to reboot.

I know this is a long post -- if you've made it this far, thanks for reading. I picked this machine up cheap in supposedly good working order, and I am very impressed with the results I've gotten so far, but these issues are bothersome. I'm particularly worried that the thing will hang not during playback, but during tracking at some point, which would be much worse. I welcome any input, ideas, etc.

Thanks,
Peter

EDIT: Deeper reading of the reference manual has clarified that low-level format only applies to SCSI drives, which mine is not. So I'm at least clear now on why the format was so quick: it wasn't low-level.

 

[Dice]

I've sometimes had to slave an SX-1 drive to a PC and run Check Disk to repair corrupted/illegal file headers. How full is your hard drive?

 

[sxuser]

Not very full... It's a 125GB drive, with 114GB free. Doing as you suggest will involve opening up the machine and removing the drive, which I'd like to avoid until it seems absolutely necessary. But I agree that checking the disk for errors would be a good idea. I'm currently looking into creating a BeOS boot CD to do just that. If I can't figure that out I will probably try to boot it from a Western Digital diags disc.

So when you say, "run Check Disk", you mean the Microsoft CHKDSK utility? Can it read/repair the BFS filesystem? Or do you refer to some other utility (which?)

EDIT: I believe that MS CHKDSK can only deal with FAT and NTFS, but I could be mistaken.

 

[Dice]

I thought we had to partition our drives to 70 gigs max.... but as long as it works, it's all good.

Yeah, the Microsoft utility. I'm simply right-clicking the volume>properties>check for errors or some such thing. Vista and newer OS had no problems repairing problems.

File systems are NTFS internal and FAT on my external SCSI drives, so it all works. Beyond that, resetting RAM cards and/or options cards, starting with the graphics card is the next thing to try.

 

[sxuser]

>> I thought we had to partition our drives to 70 gigs max

I don't recall having read this in any of the docs (but may have missed it). The drive and the way it's configured is how I received the machine. Although if it's not partitioned correctly perhaps that explains the flakiness. Can you point me at a source for the 70GB max thing? I'll try and find it in the docs meanwhile. Thanks for your input!