magic sound
DYAXIS 2
TROUBLESHOOTING
GUIDE
1780 Chanticleer Avenue Santa Cruz, CA 95062 (831) 475-7505 info@magicsound.us
magic sound DYAXIS 2 TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE |
1780 Chanticleer Avenue Santa Cruz, CA 95062 (831) 475-7505 info@magicsound.us BACK to Dyaxis 2 page |
This document is a first edition of what will become a collection of procedures, recommendations, specific solutions and folk-lore.
It also gives information and feedback on third-party applications that can be useful in troubleshooting Dyaxis systems.
2.1.1 Dyaxis front panel LEDs
| LED1 | COMA | MAC serial port | Flashes intermittently while MultiMix™ launches and flashes steadily when finished launching. |
| LED2 | COMB | MultiDesk™ network port | If MultiDesk™ is connected, this will flash continuously after MultiDesk™ is launched and communication established. |
| LED3 | SCSI A | Mac SCSI bus | Will flash whenever MAC SCSI is active. |
| LED4 | SCSI B | Dyaxis SCSI bus | Will flash whenever Dyaxis SCSI is active. |
| LED5 | LOCK | Indicates that sample clock is locked correctly. Only one CPU in a multiple CPU system will have this LED lit. | |
| LED6 | CPU | Indicates that the main CPU is up and running. Also used to indicate boot-time errors. (See Section 2.) |
2.1.2 LEDs 3 & 4 - SCSI A & SCSI B
SCSI A is the Macintosh SCSI bus and SCSI B is the Dyaxis SCSI bus. When these are lit they indicate activity on their respective busses. If one of the LEDs comes on and stays on and the Mac appears to be hung up then their is most likely a problem with that SCSI bus. If both SCSI A and SCSI B light up and stay lit when the Mac is hung then there could be a problem with that CPU card. Don't be too hasty when it looks like the SCSI bus is hung up. If the Mac has crashed for any reason, on the subsequent reboot it will do extensive verification of the drives so the SCSI activity LEDs will remain lit for an extended period. If examined closely they will be seen to flicker slightly during this period and there should be audible drive activity although some drives are very quiet.
2.1.3 CPU on-board LEDs
| LED7-12 | 56001 debug LEDs | Function varies with firmware version. | |
| LED13-18 | 68000 debug LEDs | Function varies with firmware version. | |
| LED19 | TermPwr | SCSI A Termination power. | This should be lit at all times |
| LED21 | TermPwr | SCSI B Termination power. | This should be lit at all times |
| LED22 | Comm | COMM CPU Happy | Lights up at powerup. Blinks slowly after CPU card has booted and Comm CPU is running. Blinks faster after MultiMix™ has launched, much faster if Sync card attached to CPU. |
| LED1-5 | 56002 debug LEDs | Function varies with firmware version. | |
| LED6 | Ring signal present | Should be lit at all times. | Indicates that the Ring signal is detected. |
| LED1 | Lock | PLL lock indicator | Indicates that PLL is locked either to the internal crystal or to an incoming digital signal. Only valid if card is the system clock source. |
| LED1 | Cal | A/D calibration | Should turn on at powerup and turn off as CPU card boots. Will flash several times as MultiMix™ launches and whenever system configuration is changed. |
| Switch 1 | Must be in the OFF position to allow information to pass between the SCSI A (MAC) bus and the SCSI B (Dyaxis) bus. If this switch is ON the Macintosh will not be able to access the Dyaxis drives. |
| Switch 2 | Must be in the OFF position to enable the serial port between the CPU card and the Macintosh. If this switch is ON the serial port won't work but we can communicate directly to the 68000 through the debug port. |
| Switch 3 | Should be in the ON position to test the 68000 program memory. If this switch is OFF the CPU card will boot sooner, but it will sometimes boot before the drives have spun up so this is not recommended. |
| Switch 4 | Must be in the ON position. The OFF position is for factory programmer debugging only. With the new 2.14 firmware, turning switch 4 OFF will enable the Move Engine DRAM test. This will add about 2 minutes to the CPU card boot time. See Section 3 for details. |
| Switch 5 | Is used to indicate whether the CPU is to used with a data compression daughter card. If the CPU card has a piggy back card AND there is a data compression daughter card on the DSP or IMIX card then the switch should be in the OFF position, otherwise it should be in the ON position. |
| Switch 6 Switch 7 Switch 8 | Are not used and are left in the ON position at the factory. |
This information applies to MDESK.BIN download image version 54.02 and later.
| Switch 1 | Manufacturing Test | Should be off. |
| Switch 2 | Not used. | Should be off. |
| Switch 3 | Edit Panel/MultiDesk™ Mode. | Should be off when used in a MultiDesk™. Should be on when used in a stand-alone Edit Controller. |
| Switch 4 | Memory clear. | Should be off. Powering the unit up with this switch in the on position will clear the non-volatile RAM. The unit should then be powered up again with the switch in the off position. When MultiMix™ is launched it will reload the firmware. |
| Switch 5 | Emulator test. | Should be off. |
| Switch 6 | Should be off. | |
| Switch 7 | Should be off. | |
| Switch 8 | Should be on. |
Before powering up your Macintosh, you should verify that the Dyaxis ROMs have been installed correctly. Once the CPU cards have been replaced in the Dyaxis chassis, and the locks on either side firmly closed, turn on the power for the Dyaxis.
4.1.1 Main EPROMs
If the main EPROMs (U-33 and U-34) have been installed correctly, the yellow LEDs at the left side of the CPU card (LED 5 and LED 6) will light during the boot process. When the CPU card has finished booting, if you have a one processor system, both LEDs will be solidly lit. If you have a multi-processor system, both will be lit on the master processor, and only LED 6 will light on the slave. If the EPROMs have been installed incorrectly, neither LED will light. If this occurs, double check that the EPROMs have been installed in the proper socket, oriented in the correct direction.
If LED 5 and LED 6 light, but do not lock on solidly as described above, the EPROMs have been installed correctly, but the CPU card has encountered another problem in its booting process. See the Section on Boot-time diagnostics.
4.1.2 Com EPROM
The com EPROM (U-50) has its own LED to indicate that the communications processor has booted. This is a small red LED, LED 22, ("happy light") located near the center of the CPU card when viewed from the front. When the com EPROM has been installed correctly, this LED will begin to flash after the CPU card has booted. If the CPU card boots and this LED remains unlit, you should check that U-50 has been installed correctly, with the proper orientation.
4.1.3 Serial ROM
It is very important that the small serial ROM (U-55) be installed with the correct orientation the first time. If it is installed backwards, the chip will be destroyed, and it may damage your CPU card. If the serial ROM has been installed incorrectly, neither LED 5 nor LED 6 will light. If you discover that you have powered up the Dyaxis with this chip installed backwards, you will need to contact Studer Editech technical support.
Once the Dyaxis processor has booted, (One processor system, LED 5 & 6 solidly lit; multi-processor system, 5 & 6 will be lit on the master processor, and only LED 6 will light on the slave. On all systems, red LED 22 must flash on each CPU card.), start your Macintosh and proceed to the software installation section.
4.2 Boot-time diagnostics or "Flashin' ROMs"
When the individual CPU cards in the Dyaxis chassis boot, the front panel LEDs (LED5 & LED6) have an additional function to indicate CPU boot errors. In each of the individual CPU Cards, the 68000 booting process loads DSPs, does a RAM test, resets the SCSI bus etc. There are 14 different ways for the boot code to fail and now when one of these failures occurs a particular pattern is displayed on the front LEDs.
When there is a CPU failure in the field the LED pattern provides valuable additional information that the customer can give to Technical Support.
The best way to run the test is with the MAC shut down completely. Any SCSI transaction that takes place during the test can cause an interrupt that 1) will cause memory test errors, and 2) will cause a SCSI freeze on the processor and ultimately could crash your Macintosh. SCSI transactions can be initiated from CDEVS, Extensions, applications, drive polling, etc...
The sequence is:
a) At start of test, both LED5 and LED6 flash rapidly for about 2 seconds.
b) LED5 flashes slowly once for each of the 14 tests.
c) Each time LED5 flashes, LED6 signifies that an error occurred if it lights.
d) On completion, the cycle repeats.
| # LED5 Flash # | Meaning when LED6 lights | |
| # 1 | Move Engine bootstrap load failed | This means that the base code in the move engine didn't get loaded. Critical pieces in this data flow path are the host processor address/data buses, the move engine host port and 68k memory. This is isolated to the CPU card. |
| # 2 | DSP A bootstrap load failed | This means that the base code in the DSP X didn't get loaded. Critical pieces in this data flow path are the host processor address/data buses, DSP X's host port and 68k memory. The signaling in this case moves out over the backplane and DSP X is on the DSP/IMIX cards so the scope of potential problem areas has expanded. Reseating cards is a good first idea. |
| # 3 | DSP B bootstrap load failed | |
| # 4 | DSP C bootstrap load failed | |
| # 5 | DSP D bootstrap load failed | |
| # 10 | Mix DSP bootstrap load failed | |
| # 6 | Dolby DSP 1 bootstrap load failed | This means that the base code in the DSP X didn't get loaded. Critical pieces in this data flow path are the host processor address/data buses, DSP X's host port and 68k memory. The signaling in this case moves out over the backplane, through the DSP/IMIX cards and Dolby daughter card. Since these DSPs are on the daughter card, a prime candidate is the connection between the DSP/IMIX card and the Dolby daughter card. |
| # 7 | Dolby DSP 2 bootstrap load failed | |
| # 8 | Dolby DSP 3 bootstrap load failed | |
| # 9 | Dolby DSP 4 bootstrap load failed | |
| # 11 | SCSI Bus deassert failed | This a bad SCSI microcontroller or SCSI setup (termination, etc.). All of your SCSI troubleshooting skills come into play on this one. Reseating the CPU card is a good first idea. |
| # 12 | SCSI Bus reassert failed | |
| # 14 | SCSI Bus reset failed | |
| # 13 | 68000 RAM test failed | Pretty self explanatory. There is most likely a problem with a SIMM (U24-U27). Note that you need to have DIP switch 3 set to have this test execute. |
| # 15 | Move Engine memory test failed | Pretty self explanatory. There is most likely a problem with a SIMM (U57,U58). Note that you need to unset DIP switch 4 to have this test execute. |
This means that the Macintosh didn't receive a reply when trying to communicate with Dyaxis. This can have several causes:
1) Serial cable not plugged in or plugged into the wrong port.
2) Serial port not configured correctly. This can be checked by holding the <Option> key down while launching MultiMix™. This will bring up the dialog box for configuring the serial ports. Check that the setup matches the physical connections.
3) If you are using the Printer Port, check that AppleTalk is OFF. It is also possible that another program or System Extension is interfering with the serial port.
4) If for any reason the computer crashes or is forced to quit an application while the serial port is active, the port will be hosed (non-functional) from that point on and the Mac won't know it. The only way to get it working again is to restart the Macintosh.
5) The Comm processor is not working. This can be determined by looking at LED22 which should be flashing about once a second after the Lock and CPU LEDs have come on. This is a small red LED in the center of the CPU card about an inch behind another small red LED (LED16). If LED22 is lit but not flashing it's possible that DIP switch 2 is in the ON position instead of OFF. If LED22 never comes on it could be that there is a bad contact in one of the IC sockets. The ones to check are U50, 51, 52, 53, and 56. Only U50, 51 and 56 are socketed on later CPU cards.
This message is usually found when using a IIi or multiple Dyaxis II system. It means that it found a Dyaxis processor on one serial port but there is a Dyaxis drive mounted on the desktop and a serial connection to its processor was not found. The causes are the same as in no. 1 above.
This means that a serial connection was found but that processor did not have an associated drive mounted on the desktop. Once again, several causes:
1) There's no SCSI connection between the Mac and the Dyaxis drives. Check the cables and termination.
2) The Dyaxis was powered up after the Mac was booted and the Dyaxis drives are not mounted on the desktop. In this case you can run Studer Disk Utilities to scan for drives and mount them.
Launch the latest Studer Disk Utilities (V2.61) which was installed with MultiMix™ 3.0. If a drive in your system does not appear in the Studer Disk Utilities screen, check that drive's SCSI connection, and click the mouse on the picture of the Macintosh to re-scan the SCSI bus. If all the drives in your system appear in the Disk Utilities graphic, press the "Mount All" button. If a drive does not appear on the Desktop after using the Mount All command, select that drive and press the "Install / Update Driver" button on the Studer Disk Utilities screen.
If MultiMix™ hangs up while starting main CPUs there may be a problem with the firmware file(s). One possibility is that the ROM versions on the CPU card aren't correct for the system configuration or the MultiMix™ version. CPU cards can't be swapped between II and IIi systems without changing ROMs. Another possibility is that the firmware file on the Dyaxis drive has gotten corrupted. In this case the firmware file(s) on the Dyaxis drive (COMCPU.BIN, COMCPU2.BIN, DYAXIS.BIN, or DII Firmware) should be dragged into the trash. The trash should then be emptied and the CPUs should be reset by pressing the white reset button on the right hand side of the CPU cards. When the CPU finishes the reset cycle, MultiMix™ can be launched again and it will then copy the firmware files onto the Dyaxis drives and then they will be loaded into the Dyaxis CPU.
If MultiMix™ comes up with an error message while loading DSPs and then quits there could be a problem with one of the sockets holding a DSP chip or if there is a Dolby (AC-2) daughter card it may not be seated well on the DSP or IMIX card. Socket problems can usually be fixed by pressing on the frame that holds the DSP chip onto the socket. Do not press on the DSP chip itself!
There are several ways the ADA card can fail. If both the input and output are dead the DC/DC converter at U20 has probably failed. In a IIi system one ADA card with a bad converter can bring down the power supply for all 3 ADA cards. If only inputs 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 are dead this could be one of the A/D converters or their associated power supply. If just the outputs are dead that is also powered by a separate circuit.
If all inputs seem to be dead and the input meters are frozen in some strange pattern the problem is most likely the socket for U19 on the DSP card. Pressing on the retaining frame and not the chip should fix this. This problem shouldn't be seen with IIi systems since they use surface mounted DSP chips on the IMIX card.
The System Configuration window shows that you are locked to either AES or SPDIF but there is no audio. The DIO card may not be compatible with the software or the system. There are three generations of DIO card; beta, first release (through artwork version G), and second release (artwork H and later). Beta DIO cards won't work in a IIi and need a special unreleased SPROM to work in a II running MultiMix™ 2.3 or later. First and second release DIO cards each have a separate SPROM version for the II or the IIi and if they're no correct the input will lock but be muted. Some older DIO cards worked with MultiMix™ 2.2 but not 2.3 and this was due to more stringent error detection in 2.3. MultiMix™ 2.3 included an alternate firmware file using the older DIO loads in case this happened. An adjustment of the inductor in the AES/SPDIF input circuit will also fix this.
Sometimes SPDIF input 3/4 of the Dyaxis II has trouble with random muting or indicating lock even when nothing is plugged into the input. This is due to crosstalk between the SPDIF input 3/4 and the other digital outputs and this usually only happens if there are cables attached to the AES outputs but not plugged into anything. This will clear up if the AES outputs are plugged into a load or by unplugging the output cables or by turning off the AES outputs by configuring the outputs to SDIF or Yamaha. Selecting SPDIF out or even OFF won't turn off the AES outputs. This crosstalk does not occur in the IIi.
Similar crosstalk problems can cause an AES input of older DIO cards to indicate lock even when no signal is present and it is also possible for the AES inputs to develop an audio feedback loop. There is a modification that decreases the input sensitivity of the AES input and prevents false locking and feedback loops.
Mysterious problem when recording using data compression in Plug & Play systems. Sometimes quitting MultiMix™, resetting the CPU and relaunching will clear up the problem. If not, there may be defects in the media and formatting around the defects doesn't help as an additional head seek is incurred and this can cause the error to appear. Sometimes there will be a glitch in the resulting recording and sometimes not. Usually there is nothing wrong with the Dyaxis hardware.
This can also be seen when playing back multiple non-compressed ingredients from a 1.3GB MO disk. Normally the software will know that it can't play a given number of ingredients in real time and will premix those sections but this doesn't always work correctly . The workaround is to put the cursors around the problem area and then holding down the Command and Shift while clicking on the Mix button on the edit desk will force a premix of the area between the cursors.
This is seen during either recording or playback of data compressed material. It can usually be attributed to the AC-2 card and can often be fixed by installing the latest SPROM or a clock termination resistor.
Sometimes seen with 0x57 errors. The same fixes apply here.
The SCSI sub-system is the backbone of Dyaxis. Performance and reliability are crucially dependent on this sub-system. However, in many cases, this vital part is not under the control of Studer, the client may change or add to the system that was supplied by the factory.
For this reason, we request your understanding in the following. If Technical Support identify a problem that may be related to the SCSI sub-system, the first task is to accurately determine the components and connections used.
If asked by Studer Technical Support please fill in the attached forms. Only with this information in writing, can Studer offer you the support you need.
Use the Checklist at the end of this Section to track down problems and assist with communication if you call SEC Technical Support. The following notes apply to each question in turn:
Note the MultiMix™ software version. If you suspect that previous upgrades have not been done correctly, check your Release Notes which describe the particular release. This document covers specific Revision Levels for Main EPROMs, Com EPROM and Serial ROM. Also, refer to "Verifying ROM installation" in this Manual.
Problems during Dyaxis boot are generally associated with a CPU card. Refer to the section "Boot-time diagnostics".
Note the exact MAC model and system software level. Problems booting the Mac can be quickly isolated. Some problems occur during boot that point at particular INITs or problems with !Studer INIT. First, disconnect the Dyaxis and boot the Mac on its own. If it still does not boot there is a problem with the Mac. Boot from a boot floppy and run a disk utilities program such as: Disk First Aid, Norton, Mac Tools, FWB etc. Š
Next reconnect Dyaxis and boot Mac with Extensions off, by holding the Shift key down. Launch Studer Disk Utilities and Mount all drives. Launch MultiMix™ (note: if you have a GreenSpring Serial Port Card you will not be able to run with Extensions Off. For testing purposes use the Modem and/or Printer Port.)
Problems with Studer Disk Utilities can indicate SCSI ID conflicts or termination problems. If a drive is not recognized, be sure the caddy is well seated in the chassis. Then shutdown and reconnect the SCSI A Cable from your Mac to the External Disks Port on the back of the Dyaxis. Boot the Mac and launch Studer Disk Utilities. If the drive is recognized this may indicate a problem with the Dyaxis CPU Card.
Generally, you can tell a lot about the SCSI problem by where it occurs in the launch process. Problems during MultiMix™ launch tend to be straight SCSI A freezes during a passthrough transaction. Note the message where the failure occurred. Is it consistent?
Use the Form at the end of this Section to build a complete description of the SCSI chain. You should be very skeptical and search for problems in any of the following areas:
8.6.1 Excessive cable length or poor cable design.
Check that Studer Editech cables are being used. The SCSI specification calls for a maximum total length of 6 meters (roughly 19.5 feet) and this figure must include the cabling inside the chassis as well as the external cabling. In practice even this length is achieved only under ideal circumstances. Every connector in the SCSI chain degrades the signal as does every transition from round external cable to flat internal cable. The construction of the cable itself is critical to minimize crosstalk and maintain the proper characteristic impedance. Some cables sold as high performance SCSI cables have been proven to be pure junk.
8.6.2 Improper termination.
There should be a termination network at each end of the SCSI chain, no more and no less. Are Studer active terminators being used?
In a simple setup this would mean that the drive in the Mac would have terminators installed and there would be a terminator at the Dyaxis where the Mac SCSI loops through. If there were additional drives on this SCSI bus they can be placed between the Mac and the Dyaxis and be unterminated or the Dyaxis can be in after the middle of the chain and the last drive in the chain should be terminated. The Dyaxis II also has its own internal SCSI bus and this also needs to be terminated properly. One end of this bus is on the CPU card and is terminated by RP3, RP6 and RP12. The other end of this bus is at the rear of the Dyaxis and labeled either Aux SCSI or Expansion SCSI and a terminator should be installed there if no other drives are being used. If there are additional drives they would be plugged in in place of the terminator and then they themselves would be terminated. Some of the newer Macs also have a separate internal SCSI bus. In this case the external bus may be terminated on the main logic board of the Mac and the internal bus would have one termination on the main logic board and one at the end of an internal cable and the drives would not be terminated. It not always easy to tell if a drive in the Mac is terminated and often a SCSI bus will operate just fine with not enough or too much termination and then when another device or cable is added or removed it may stop working. This can and will drive you nuts.
8.6.3 No termination power.
SCSI terminators need to be powered in order to work and this power is supplied through the SCSI cable and can come from the Mac main logic board, the Dyaxis CPU card or the drives on the bus or all the above. Most devices supply this power through a fuse and if the SCSI cables are plugged and unplugged while the system is powered up these fuses could blow and you would not be aware of it. For this reason there are 2 LEDs on the CPU card that indicate the presence of termination power. LED19 indicates termination power on the Mac SCSI bus and LED21 indicates power on the Dyaxis SCSI bus. With the Dyaxis turned off and the Mac turned on LED19 should be brightly lit and LED21 should also be lit but slightly dimmer since it is being back powered through the other set of SCSI terminators. If these LEDs are not lit either the fuse in the Mac is blown or the SCSI cable between the rear panel of the Dyaxis and the motherboard is not plugged in. If the Mac fuse is blown all is not lost since the Dyaxis can supply power to both SCSI busses. If the LEDs were lit with the Dyaxis turned off then when it is turned on LED 21 should get a bit brighter. If they were not lit they should both light brightly when the Dyaxis is turned on. If not, check that the circuit breaker on the CPU card hasn't popped out. This is a red button in the center of the CPU card.
8.6.4 SCSI ID conflict
If two device on the same SCSI bus are set to the same ID chances are that the bus will get hung up and the Mac will crash while booting. Only 8 SCSI devices can exist on one SCSI bus and the valid ID nos. are 0-7. There is a SCSI bus for the Mac and an additional SCSI bus for each of the CPU cards so the Dyaxis drives are isolated from the Mac SCSI bus. The Mac sees the Dyaxis drives as partitions within the Dyaxis SCSI ID no. The Mac uses ID 7 and its internal drive is usually set to 0.
The Dyaxis processors have a switch on the front that displays their SCSI ID but it is not always obvious what the IDs of any additional drives on the bus are. In this case it is best to attach one drive at a time and query it through the Mac to verify its SCSI ID and then add drives until the conflict is found. Studer Disk Utilities does not recognize tape drives so it is best to use some other utility like SCSI Probe to scan the Mac SCSI bus. On the other hand, most utilities won't see the Dyaxis drives so Studer Disk Utilities should be used to scan for Dyaxis drives. When Studer Disk Utilities scans the SCSI bus it displays the ID nos. as it searches. When it recognizes a Dyaxis on the bus it will then scan for drives within this ID and it shows this by putting a decimal point after the Dyaxis ID no. and then scans through the sub IDs, i.e. 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. If it gets to a Dyaxis ID and doesn't display the decimal point then it hasn't recognized the Dyaxis on the bus. This could be a problem with the CPU card or with the cabling. If DIP switch 1 on the CPU is in the ON position the SCSI interface on the CPU card will be disabled.
8.6.5 Unmounted or removable media
There are a few other things to be aware of when dealing with SCSI. If you have drives with removable media such as MO drives they must be plugged in and powered up when the Mac is booted in order for the platters to be automatically mounted on the desktop whenever new ones are inserted. They don't need to be inserted at bootup but the drives do need to be on.
If you have hard drives in removable caddies or if you're foolhardy enough to remove and replace drives by hot plugging them into the SCSI chain be sure to unmount the drives by dragging them into the trash before you unplug them. Better yet, shut down the Macintosh and all SCSI devices before making any changes to the SCSI connections. The Mac keeps a copy of the drive directory in memory and if you replace a drive with another using the same SCSI ID without first unmounting it the Mac may think that it's still the same drive and overwrite the directory with the old directory still in memory and also rename the drive in the process.
Is it on a passthrough transaction?
Passthrough transactions are requests from the Mac to the internal Dyaxis drives. "Playback" transactions are from the 68000 on the CPU card to the internal drives and out the Move Engine. The Mac does not know about these internal "playback" transactions. Browser operations, waveform draws, and several other queries by MultiMix™ to the internal drives make up the bulk of the passthrough transactions. Internal transactions consist of playback and record of audio, automation and thermal recal of the HP drives. When a freeze occurs, differentiating between these two types is very helpful for troubleshooting. If the SCSI A light freezes, a passthrough transaction was involved even if you don't know why.
A "bad block" on the drive can cause SCSI problems. We generally can recover from a bad block error without crashing but several asyncs such as "SCSI Busy" will be posted. If a problem occurs consistently at the same place in a single ingredient then it is typically a bad block. This is usually easy to isolate.
Getting some measure of how frequent intermittent errors occur is very helpful. Isolating a procedure down that can be reproduced rapidly also really helps. We can nail problems that are couched like "he got a SCSI Busy error 2 out of 4 times when popping an ingredient from the tracklist into the view pane."
Hold down the control key while booting MultiMix™. Messages appear in the boot display indicating the firmware is being "installed on the drive." If in doubt do this. It's fast, easy and has solved problems in the past.
Whenever you have drive problems and especially if you cannot mount a drive try running Norton Utilities. Apple's Disk First Aid has resurrected some drives in the past. FWB's hard disk toolkit also has a nice tool suite.
We have seen some problems with Plug and Play with Intermix cards that have gotten too hot. This is very unlikely to be your problem but it is often easy to try. Ask the customer where they have their system stored and remove the front panel from the IIi if you are in doubt.
_____ 1) MultiMix™ software level ? __________
_____ 2) Dyaxis Boot?
_____ a) ROMs installed correctly? Are any hot?_____ b) Any CPU lights flashing?
_____ c) COMM ROM happy light (LED 22) happy?
_____ d) Is the SCSI A light stuck on?
_____ 3) Macintosh Boot?
_____ a) What Mac model is it?_____ b) What is the system software level?
_____ c) Get the happy face?
_____ d) Get Studer INIT icons at INIT?
_____ e) Drives on Desk Top?
_____ 4) Does Studer Disk Utilities run?
_____ 5) Does MultiMix™ launch?
_____ a) What is the message it stops at?_____ b) Is the SCSI A light stuck on?
_____ 6) SCSI Audit - What is on the customer's SCSI chain? (Be skeptical)
_____ 7) If MultiMix™ boots and there is a freeze, is it on a passthrough transaction?
_____ 8) Problem occur during playback at the same place in a single ingredient? (try to isolate)
_____ 9) Is the problem intermittent? How frequent?
_____ 10) Have you tried reinstalling the DII Firmware files?
_____ 11) Have you run Norton?, SCSI Probe?, Disk First Aid?, FWB?
_____ 12) Could it be thermally related?
_____ a) Where is the Dyaxis stored?_____ b) Is it a IIi? Remove the front panel if it is.
MultiMix™ V3.X contains a new automation scanning feature that will greatly lower the risk of losing work when using automation. In a nutshell, this scanning feature can be used to check the integrity of automation passes whenever you like. It performs many tests, among them: agreement between the nowline table and start nowline in gain file blocks, ascending nowlines, invalid automation moves, correct size information for gain file blocks, EQ high level parameter fitting within bounds, etc.
This performs the series of tests on all the selected automation passes on the topmost edit desk in MultiMix™ as soon as the menu item "Scan Selected Automation" in the "Studer" menu is chosen. If the scanner finds any errors it posts a dialog box to the user informing them that the pass failed. More detailed information about the errors is posted to the host window.
This feature is enabled/disabled by typing a command into the host window. When the feature is enabled, MultiMix™ automatically scans each new automation pass as soon as it is created.
To enable Scan New Automation bring up the host window and type:
scanauto on (Note that you have to hit ENTER not RETURN to make this work.)
If you enable the feature you get the response:
"new automation passes will be scanned."
To turn the feature off (you guessed it) type:
scanauto off (Note that you have to hit ENTER not RETURN to make this work.)
If you correctly disable the feature you get the response:
"automation scanning OFF"
The option to scan is off by default. Note that using this option may slow down the responsiveness of MultiMix™ depending on how many processors and how big the automation passes are. If this becomes excessive, a viable alternative is to manually scan every N passes.
ROM diagnostics are entered by holding down push-buttons M2 and F2 simultaneously at power-on. If there is a problem with the push-button circuitry, diagnostics may also be entered by setting DIP switch SW!-1 to ON at power-up.
When diagnostics are entered, the following happens:
€ All pixels of the Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD) are turned on at maximum brightness.
€ All push-button LEDs are turned ON.
€ All 9 faders enter a sine wave test
To test a switch, push it. It's LED should alternately go on and off.
Touch test. If you touch a fader at any time, the rest of the faders should follow that fader's position. If you touch more than one fader, the one on the left dominates. If you touch the fader but don't move it, the other faders won't follow.
11.1.1 Mix panel test options
| F5 | Controls the screen saver. If F5 is ON (the default), then the VFD display will turn OFF after 5 minutes if no push-button has been pushed. If F5 is OFF, then the VFD display will stay ON indefinitely. |
| F6 | ON = Fader sine wave and touch tests active. OFF = Only touch test active. |
| F7 | ON = Normal sine wave speed. OFF = Slower sine wave speed. |
| F8 | ON = Much faster sine wave speed. OFF = Normal sine wave speed. |
| F9 | ON = Normal sine wave. OFF = Zoomed in sine wave. |
| F10 | ON = Sine wave. OFF = Ruler mode. |
To test all LEDs on the Edit Panel, enter diagnostic mode by pressing:
Set Left, Get Left, Zoom Out, Copy
simultaneously on power up. The panel will revert to normal operation after 2 seconds when these keys are released.
Analyzes an OMF file. This requires some knowledge of OMF structure to get useful information, but it can be used to check two things quickly:
If it can't open the file in question, the file is not recognized as being even close to legal as an OMF file.
If the file does not contain an object of type "AIFC", it has no actual audio sample data in it.
A little app that tells you briefly what Apple's numbered system errors refer to.
Dumpster is an Apple utility that allows you to examine the header of a QuickTime file, such as our VideoMix™ clips. It's a good test of whether a clip is legal or if the file is damaged.
-If you check the "stts" (time to sample) field, it will tell you the length of every frame, so you can see if frames were dropped from the recording, and where (in absolute number of frames) the dropped frames lie. The denominator for an NTSC clip is 100, so a frame with length 100 is good. A frame with length 200 indicates that a frame was dropped and the previous frame was copied to cover the gap.
This version contains a SEC macro that very easily saves a log of the current state of the MAC. While in Mascbug (usually after crashing) type in:
buglog [return]
This opens a MacsBug log, goes through the stack crawls, gathers other system information, and closes the log. A text file will be created on the desktop named "VideoMix™.Buglog". This file can be read later to gather information about the crash.
Note: If you do this a second time, it will write over the existing "VideoMix™.Buglog" file with the new information, trashing the original.
Experience has shown me that the best way to use this feature is to rename the text file immediately after restarting, preferably with a descriptive name (i.e. CrashRecVideo.log). If you rename the text file, MacsBug will not write over it, but instead create a new file named "VideoMix™.Buglog" next time you use the macro.
A shareware program. Simple to use and useful for identifying SCSI 'A' devices and firmware version numbers.
We found version 1.09 of tech tool on the internet. BTW, tech tool is way cool. It's superior PRAM zapping capabilities did wonders for my quadra. V 1.09 boasts a new "analyze system" button. You can purchase one editor to personalize your version of tech tool and freely distribute it amongst all your clientele.
Swatch's features like heap location, more details on memory allocation, instant shortcut to Mac's bug, etc. have proven to be useful to the SQA department, but I'm not sure how useful it would be in the field. You can get most of this information by selecting About This Macintosh in the Apple menu.
Slots is great but it may be overkill. It's the only slot utility that recognizes the built-in video which actually exists in the NuBus address space. It's from Apple and is a little better than Board Monitor. Slotlook doesn't seem to provide much that Mac check or tech tool doesn't tell you in its system diagnostic.