MS300 power supply

[fritzcurtis]

Larry...quick question for you on the BIOS info. One of my MS750's works fine other than the fact that it will not go out and retrieve CD cover info when I request it. When I put a CD in it will recognize eventually the cover art so anything new I put in is okay, however I am not able to manually go out and get info. First question low or high level BIOS info? Second, if it is high level and I have the golden CD, how would I flash to update without loosing info. I do have a clone of my music on a duplicate HD. Thanks in advance for advice.

[fritzcurtis]

Panurgy and Escient. Damn spell correct is terrible on this computer!!!

[fritzcurtis]

Last post on this I promise. Another selling point to McIntosh on Ft Worth Audio. Mouser, the huge electronics supplier, is 20 min from Ft Worth. I mention this because they are the one where I bought the video displays for both my MS750's and had Otis at Ft Audio ut the in when he was rebuilding my power supplies. They might be a great place for us to source PC boards and supplies for our units. We need a parts list for a complete rebuild with part number, etc. I suggest this as a start. I really do think McIntosh would gladly give the reigns over to Ft Worth Audio on this given their experience level and satisfaction level of their service. I will go to work on this and be back guys, cross the fingers. By the way, McIntosh owes me this one as I was suckered into my crappy MB100!

[sgbroimp]

Originally Posted by fritzcurtis

Guys...as I was the one who introduced Ft Worth Audio to the forum, I will make a visit to Otis over in Ft Worth (about 15 min from the house) and sit down with him and ask if he might be able to do some pc work for us. These guys are true experts in music and have a very good working relationship with the folks at McIntosh as they have been authorized repair for them for quite a quite. This leads me to my next point of maybe asking Otis to connect with the service guys at McIntosh and see if they might take the MS service problems "off their hands" so to speak. I will make sure Otis knows that he will need BIOS info from them in order to be able to perform a full rebuild of the MS unit. They already can rebuild everything else on the unit but the PC boards with the BIOS info. Will give it a whirl and see if we can replace Penury with Ft Worth Audio. FYI, both Otis and Les, know Penury guys as well as Ascent guys from way back. They are old school bench technicians who really get into these types of restorative situations.

Worth a try for sure! Best of luck. Otis has an MS300 that he is going to try to resurrect according to what he told me last week.

[sgbroimp]

Just got my E2 Escient. Lights up, seems to find music and radio files, so assume the main board is probably ok. What I am getting on standby is 3 flashing lights like it is trying to write to the hard drive. When I tried to open the CD tray, it showed it was recording and started counting down. Got to zero, but tray did not open. Does not bother me as I do not plan to use the unit, but keep it for parts. One thing I did notice: This unit's cover vents on top and both sides. MSXXX none of those, so this unit may run cooler. Wonder why Mc took a cover with no venting (dust control???)

[fritzcurtis]

Gents..quick reply from my buddy Chuck Hinton and John Messemer. They are forwarding our suggestion to both the President and Senior Management for consideration. Wheels are now in motion. Please reach out to anyone you know within McIntosh to help the effort. Ivan...this means you, we need the 800 pd gorilla to push the pile. (no pun intended)

[fritzcurtis]

Hopefully they hand the keys to the MS300 and MS750 to Ft Worth Audio away from Panury, I mentioned that this would include low level BIOS info as well as that is the last step need for a complete rebuild assuming we can get boards from Mouser. They said they will consider it.

[lwschwartz]

Originally Posted by fritzcurtis

Larry...quick question for you on the BIOS info. One of my MS750's works fine other than the fact that it will not go out and retrieve CD cover info when I request it. When I put a CD in it will recognize eventually the cover art so anything new I put in is okay, however I am not able to manually go out and get info. First question low or high level BIOS info? Second, if it is high level and I have the golden CD, how would I flash to update without loosing info. I do have a clone of my music on a duplicate HD. Thanks in advance for advice.

The ability to go out and retrieve the cover art depends on all three levels. If it will retrieve the track names, then the MS is working and the cover art issue lies with the reply it gets from Gracenote. If the response doesn't come in a certain amount of time, the timeout causes it to think no cover art is available. When you retry later, the Gracenote server responds within the timeout period.

Gracenote only licenses its data base to the large players. It is controlled by Sony. Apple uses Gracenote. It seems to be the best that I have found.

I have not been able to flash the BIOS without the music being wiped out unless I substitute a different HDD. You can take a spare drive, put it on top of the one you have and use the golden disc to reflash the BIOS and load that hard drive. Then go back to your original hard drive. You have then flashed the high level BIOS. I would be sure to do a current backup just in case.

[lwschwartz]

Originally Posted by fritzcurtis

Gents..quick reply from my buddy Chuck Hinton and John Messemer. They are forwarding our suggestion to both the President and Senior Management for consideration. Wheels are now in motion. Please reach out to anyone you know within McIntosh to help the effort. Ivan...this means you, we need the 800 pd gorilla to push the pile. (no pun intended)

I am glad to hear that you have taken the first step. It sounds to me that the solution you are proposing would be good for McIntosh and for all of us. Ft Worth audio should be able to make our systems better with the attention to detail that they pay to our repair work.

Thanks for your dedication to the MS community.

[Masterlu]