FD-4 with internal 2.5: lock-up!

[Tim Constable]

I'm probably out of date still using my FD-4, but I can't afford to upgrade yet so I press on. After several months of successful use, my machine has completely locked up. Any help would be welcome. this is what happened..
I have an internal 2.5 IDE to record on. I 'inherited' an Apple Quadra,with two internal hard-disk drives, which all communicates via SCSI. I let the FD-4 format one of the drives (ID 6, of course) to use as a backup via the SCSI port on the computer, and it worked!! The Computer didn't recognise the disk any more but the FD-4 happily dumped stuf onto it and reloaded it - until a few days ago. NOTE there is still plenty of room on both disks, I was downloading a file from BACK-UP to IDE; it looks like somehow the download didn't terminate properly. I switched off the FD-4, and on switching on again, it looks OK until the final screen. it shows the title OK, but the digits flicker almost randomly, and only a few controls register. I can access the setup menu and choose some of the options, but nothing "sticks" (eg if I try to edit name,I looks like it does, but then returns to the original name) Help would be very welcome, as I have several tracks which I need urgent access to. Email me direct if you like at tbcandjac@aol.com.

 

[A Reel Person]

That's a very tough one!!!

There's no way I could nail this one, long distance, on supposition alone, and I've never had or heard of this exact problem. However, I have the FD-4, and I'll venture a guess, sight unseen.

When a unit such as this acts randomly, flickers,goes braindead, or all of the above, it often indicates loss of a power supply voltage to some of the logic. However, that's not definitive, and there are probably other things that could cause this, that I've not thought of.

It makes me wonder, the exact configuration of your external SCSI,... if they were compatible Single Ended SCSI on both ends, and about proper SCSI termination. The way it's described, is that you had the FD-4 hooked to the drive simultaneously as the Apple computer, and that would potentially be a problem, with improper implementation of SCSI, cross-connection, a short, and/or improper SCSI termination.

THE SOLUTION??? Probably to score the best deal on a second FD-4, and try to salvage your sessions, which is not a guaranteed outcome. Another solution?? FOSTEX Factory service.

I don't know of any "hard reset" operation for the FD-4, that would reset all the logic to "scratch".

That's all I could think of, on such an unusual and tough problem.