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Failed hard drive

Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2022 1:39 pm
by akite
The drive failed in our cnc mill and wanted to know what the options are on where do we go from here? It's an old 486 system running Dos and I believe it was running Centroid version 6. The model is SPC-486DX2-HD630 and serial 1595.

Re: Failed hard drive

Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 3:09 pm
by akite
Image
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I thought I would include pictures of the machine, it's a Supermax YCM-40 from circa 1996, I'd say it's easily the one that is the most accurate in our shop.

Re: Failed hard drive

Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 6:57 pm
by cncsnw
You will need a replacement hard drive, compatible with the computer's BIOS. It is probably IDE, and should ideally be no larger than 2.1GB.

You will need a DOS boot floppy and basic DOS utilities (FDISK, FORMAT, SYS, XCOPY, etc.).

You will need to partition and format the hard drive, and install at least a minimal DOS system onto it.

Then you will be ready to install CNC7. You could reinstall v6.03, or you could update to v7.17. Unless the PC has at least 16MB of memory, you probably do not want to try installing CNC7 v8.23 (the last DOS version).

If all of that is more than you are prepared to tackle, you could contact Centroid about having them make a replacement hard drive for you. Most likely it would be an IDE / Compact Flash drive, since those are easier to come by than small conventional IDE hard drives.

I could make such a drive also, but not until I get back to my shop at the end of this month.

It is likely that your control serial number is 5154. Check the tag on the cabinet door, and on the back of the console. "1595" is likely the serial number just of the mini-tower 486 PC.

Re: Failed hard drive

Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 8:32 pm
by akite
Right now we are looking into options for data recovery for the drive, a lot of the programs have been copied over to the other machines but there are some that are specifically on this one. I'll have to check the memory that's installed on the motherboard but working on PC's is exactly what I do. I know we still have the binders that have the manuals but I don't remember any software being included as everything was pre-installed from the factory. I remember from working on one of the newer machines it came with an ide to CF reader so I've ordered one and a cf card to go with it, I know the older machines obviously has a limit on drive size and it had a 630mb Seagate so I ordered a 512mb Sandisk card which should be more than fine as the programs themselves are basically just text files.

Actually now might be a good time to go with something a bit newer which should help with availability of parts, I can go with a Pentium or AMD system but needs to have a 16bit slot for the controller card. Honestly I'm surprised this thing has lasted as long that it has. We have a couple of ATrumps but they don't have near the accuracy that this old one has.

I need to look around at what I have but I do have older systems and parts, if I can find one that has USB and can boot with it then it would make backups a whole lot easier instead of having to deal with floppy disks all the time, I could boot off a Linux Live disk and copy the files to USB. It seems like everytime I bring out the floppy it won't read the disk so I have to take it to another PC to reformat the disk and then it works, that's basically what I've been having to do now is copy off to floppy and than copy it over using a USB floppy drive.

Re: Failed hard drive

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2022 10:15 am
by akite
I found options to replace the PC with, the most straightforward is a socket 370 Celeron but can support 256mb ram and does have 16bit ISA and PCI slots but after comparing the specs it is too old to run Linuxcnc which is the host operating system on our other machines, it would be great to just get it upgraded to at least that far and be able to share files back and forth.

We've had issues with the motherboard in another mill and sent it to Centroid who repaired it and replaced basically everything inside and in the meantime I've replaced the motherboard at least twice due to faulty capacitors, I was able to find a newer board going from socket 754 to AM2 that uses the same chipset so the drivers were all the same. I would rather go this route as it would allow us to have native USB support and without having to worry about another operating system, the only caveat would be the controller card going from ISA to PCI, is it possible to also get an updated card from Centroid that will replace the 16 bit one and be plug-n-play with the machine?

Re: Failed hard drive

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2022 11:56 am
by cncsnw
If you can find an MS-6368 motherboard, with the ISA slot populated, it will run Linux and CNC10 v2.72.

Re: Failed hard drive

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2022 12:10 pm
by akite
Thanks I'll keep my eye out, the other board I had in mind is socket AM2 and uses the K8M800 chipset but way too new to have ISA. The 370 that I have is only a Celeron and around 300-400mhz or so so while it would run what was on there before it simply cannot run the newer version. I do have a bit of experience in the past with the 370.

Re: Failed hard drive

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2022 1:45 pm
by akite
I finally found the motherboard and have a new PC built and ready to go in but just need for Centroid to contact us so I can have the CF card created.

I used the MS-6368 board with a PIII 1.4ghz, 1gb memory, and an IDE to CF adapter.

Re: Failed hard drive

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2022 10:30 am
by martyscncgarage
akite wrote: Fri Oct 14, 2022 1:45 pm I finally found the motherboard and have a new PC built and ready to go in but just need for Centroid to contact us so I can have the CF card created.

I used the MS-6368 board with a PIII 1.4ghz, 1gb memory, and an IDE to CF adapter.
Call Centroid Support directly, or are you waiting for a call back?

Re: Failed hard drive

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2022 11:32 am
by akite
I finally was able to get in touch with them on Friday and received an rma, they are supposed to respond on where we can go from here. Evidently it can be troublesome contacting them even after several days of trying by phone and emails to no avail but finally did speak with someone.