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floppy drive causing reboots


djc007

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We've recently purchased a Bull Frog for our theatre and it seems to have a problem with the floppy drive. we have version 10 of the OS and every time i try to load a fixture file from the Zero 88 floppy disk provided with the desk it crashes the desk and reboots the system. the only time it doesn't reset the desk is where i put in the original operating system disk and it loads the OS from the floppy. Apart from that it reset the desk every time i try to load, save or access a fixture from a floppy. I've formatted several 1.44mb brand new floppy disks and tried saving the show.

the serial number of the desk is as follows -

0073601 xxxxxxxx

any help much appriciated!!!

thanks

Dan

 

Moderation: serial number removed from public forum (we have noted it here though).

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i've been able to assign a user fixture template i made on a brand new floppy disk but only after the desk has reset twice in sucesstion from not being able to access the disk. I can also save and load a show from the floppy but when first inserted it resets the desk. if i keep the floppy in the drive whilst rebooting it lets me load and save the shows to and from the disk.

dan

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  • 11 months later...

First of all I'm new on this forum, but have been 'lurking' for a while. I must say the information here already proved to be very useful. We recently purchased a LeapFrog for our Dutch coverband. I'm not the lampie but 'just' the bassplayer. Nevertheless I like to be involved in all of the technical stuff and I already spent a lot of time with our new console, together with our light-technician.

 

We run 10 Robe moving heads and 4 scanners of the same brand along with some conventional stuff (blinders, aircrafts, fourbars, etc.). Minding the fact that we ran the show on a Celco Navigator console for years you could say that we made a giant leap for mankind ;-) After a few weeks of shows we can say that the desk is great. Everything we want is possible and with te intensive use of palettes and fixture-tagging, our Lampie saves a lot of time on programming time before a concert! Just what we were looking for.

 

From the beginning we sadly ran into some problems concerning the floppy disk. In this post somebody mentioned a similar problem, but I decided to post a new topic. The other topic is a year old, so maybe we're missing something:

 

When we want to save or load a show, the desk suddenly reboots. This also happens when we want to load fixtures ('official' or homemade). You could say that all actions involving the diskdrive cause this reboot. Not all the time, but at least nine out of ten times it's not possible to complete an action. Before our very first show we did some pre-programming at home on the PhantomFrog (assigning fixtures, DMX-patching, naming palettes, etc.) but we never were able to load this show in the desk. The floppy was formatted in the desk since we already heard that PC-formatted disks could cause trouble. This didn't change the problems. We still can't save or load shows the way it's obviously supposed to be.

 

Simple question: Is this a familiar problem (with a known solution) or is it possible that our desk encounters some kind of unique bug and needs to be returned for service?

 

Edit: Added the word "Dutch" to cover myself for weird English phrasing ;-)

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

The problem I had was that my power supply wasn't supplying enough current on the 5V line. Floppy actions draw quite a bit, it seems. I had a power supply that came with my desk which was not a Zero88 one, which only supplied 2.8A on 5V, and the floppy apparently needs more than that (Manual says 5A).

 

Ooh, that's a point, I still haven't sent that other power supply in, sorry guys (school holidays meant I could get in to get it, and you know how things distract you your first week or two back!), will get it to you the top end of next week!

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  • 4 months later...

comment from darkness merged into this topic...

 

Hi,

 

I've been trying to assign some fixtures to a fat frog from the fixture library disk. When im access the floppy drive the desk seems to reboot itself. Sometimes as soon as i click the button to load a fixture from a floppy disk, other times it lets me browse through the fixture makes/groups but then when i try to pick out a fixture the desk seems to reboot.

 

Does anyone know of anything i can do to try and fix this?

 

Thanks

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  • 5 months later...

I am new to this so I don't know if this has been covered or not! I have recently bought a second hand Fatfrog which has been checked and software "updated." When I try to save a show the desk reboots and has a message "checking for update disc." My show disappears and then after a time everything comes back. If I then try and save the show to disc it will work. It is very disconserting watching my hard work vanish before my eyes, not knowing if it will still be there.

Thanks for any help

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Indeed reseting while saving is a strange behavior. So if the desk was checked and is in best condition, maybe some of the peripherals are not. I had some weeks ago an unlockable palette screen and found out after a while, that some stupid spilled a drink over the external keyboard, which caused this behavior. After disconnecting the keyboard and powercycling the desk everything was fine again.

Remove the peripherals and try to reproduce the error. If everything works fine buy a new keyboard or monitor. :-) If not I guess your Frog is kind of damaged and need service.

 

BTW Checking for an update disk is normal behavior of the desk, when powering up with an inserted disk in floppy drive. Just remove disk before booting and the desk will skip this check.

It is also normal behavior that the desk is empty when powering up. The showfile it loaded automatically as last step of the bootstrap from the non-volatile (battery powered) memory of the Frog.

So, if you don't start drinking...I'm gonna leave!!!

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  • 3 months later...

Fat Frog - 2-3 years old - just upgraded from 10.4 (probably as delivered) to 10.9.

 

Thanks to the forum - the upgrade to the OS worked and I spent quite a few hours playing with the Mac 550s - I had saved the show several times but just before lunch I pushed a disc into the drive selected save show - monitor goes black and Frog restarted - it went into a loop - removed power and the desk restarted show intact.

 

Each time I try to do anything with a disc the Frog crashes - sometimes going into a starting up loop - sometimes just restarting.

 

Any thoughts.

 

Bill

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  • 1 year later...

Everytime I go to assign a fixture from the floppy drive on my works Fat Frog 48 the desk restarts itself when once I select a manufacturer. I've not yet updated the OS on the desk as the Frog is the only thing in the building with a Floppy Drive. Any suggestions for why this fault has occured?

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