[trevj1]

Alright, I got this going on, exactly http://www.cnczone.com/forums/milltr...file_path.html at least the part in bold below.

A:\>call b:\ram\init
Bad command or file name
Loading CNC ...

A:\>b:

B:\>cd \ram

B:\RAM>a:cnc\cnc

Then just a cursor, blinking.

Looking at the Mobo, there is a Varta Nicad cell, 3.6v, 60 mah cell marked (on the mobo) BT1.

Beside it is the internal/external battery jumper, J11. Fairly obvious. switch the jumper from the two that it is on, to the other one, and the middle pin. Right?

What are the pins supposed to be on J10? 4 Pins, not marked for polarity. Is this where the external battery is supposed to be installed, and what pins are pos/neg?

Thanks.

It quit, right in the middle of homing after a batch of parts was finished. Not happy about it quitting, but finished this set anyway.

Cheers
Trev

[ZZZZ]

The Invalid Graphfile Path error tells you that the control can't find the location for the graphic file that is specified on the 4th line of the PATH.DAT file. This is usually the volatile memory-based Ram drive created in the CONFIG.SYS file at bootup.

Anything that disrupts the normal drive assignments made by the Simdisk chip can give you the error.

If your motherboard battery has died, the CMOS settings are probably incorrect. The memory values may be wrong, it may not recognize your floppy drive, etc.

Replace the battery, re-set the CMOS settings, and you should be okay.

[trevj1]

Long story short...

Pulled the SimDisk. Found a crater in the substrate where a trace had popped, between pins 3-4 of chip U12. Looked like a little white chunk of bird poop, until you got in close with the magnification.

Booted up the computer without the SimDisk installed. It POSTed and asked for a boot disk in the A: drive. Seems to be OK as far as the computer itself is concerned.

Had the blown trace soldered. Installed card. No joy. No boot-up at all now, where before, it had posted the error message as posted in bold in my first post. Just got a flashing "no video input" error from the monitor

Back and forth around the machine (really should grab a monitor to face behind the machine!) a half dozen times, removing and replacing the SimDisk.

Seems the blown trace may have been effect, rather than cause, of this kerfuffle.

Management has OK'd a Motherboard Upgrade. Waiting on a written quote and shipping instructions. Was told $1850 plus shipping the card cage there and back, and about a week on the ground at Milltronics. New SimDisk was quoted at $12-something.

Very impressed with the guy I dealt with by email over the course of two days.

Gonna pull the card cage, and pack it, on Monday. Shipping it as soon as I get the address and instructions.
All in, I think it's a pretty good value in the way of a cheap fix. Don't think we could get a tech out here for that for a day.

Then I can get back to makin' parts.

Unless you got something else I should be checking?

Cheers
Trev