Hello. Was trying to upgrade the SA firmware after the memory upgrade but the system will not start the ESALOADR disc.
Now that the flash is erased, the SA is a dead duck. What can I do??? Please help!
Hello. Was trying to upgrade the SA firmware after the memory upgrade but the system will not start the ESALOADR disc.
Now that the flash is erased, the SA is a dead duck. What can I do??? Please help!
Well, I did NOT see this!
The upgrades listed below do not work on all Spectrum Analyzers. Find the serial prefix on the Spectrum Analyzers to determine if it is compatible. The serial prefix is the first six alpha-numeric characters of the serial number.
Instruments with serial prefix < US/MY/SG4144 and without option B72.
Mine is US39380293. That explains a lot. Boot ROM is revision 310.
How can I get this back to working condition???
Hi Mark,
I think you can still install the firmware onto your instrument. Be sure to follow the installation instructions very precisely, as the firmware expects the upgrade files to be in very specific locations on the floppy disks. I would start by doing a long format to the drive with ESALOADR on it and loading the disk again from the downloaded files.
I see where you found that note about incompatibility, but the way I interpret it is that the upgrade wouldn't be compatible with your instrument if it has that prefix like US (as yours does) AND doesn't have option B72 (which apparently is included on instruments with the prefix US). Since you should already have option B72, your box should be compatible.
Hi Scott,
I sure hope I can! I did the long format but didn't change a thing. I also found another ESA unit here at work and tried the disc on that unit... also does not load/run. (that unit also has a s/n prefix below that given in the incompatibility note)
Two things to note here that I did not mention:
1) using an external USB floppy drive
2) using Windows 10
Not sure if these make a difference.
Mark
Hmm.. I would expect Windows 10 to handle floppies the same way as 8. The USB floppy drive should be fine. Are you using 1.44 MB HD floppy disks? Maybe try a different one?
I am using 1.44 HD floppies but will try another one. I ran out and had to order a box! (not here yet)
Was reading about a similar unit with similar problem (EB5AGV's Workbench: Agilent E7401A repair )
and noticed he has the same bootrom version as mine (310) and it loaded & ran from the floppy, so maybe
it's a disk issue. This is keeping me awake at night!
Well, new floppies came, but no help. Have tried this on a few ESA's we have at work and NONE of them read/run the ESALOADR program. This is ridiculous! There must be a way to load the flash, but how???
I found the problem! I located another ESA here at work (with a more recent s/n) and the ESALOADR would STILL not start!
So I used that ESA to format the floppy and copied the ESALOADR to that disk… IT WORKS!!!
For some reason using my PC to format the floppy was the issue. Formatting with an ESA did the trick.
And only needed to do that one the ESALOADR disk – the others were fine.
WHO KNEW?
But I am SO relieved that I have my unit back – and with upgraded firmware to boot.
That's great you figured it out. I was just about to suggest trying a format with Win7 or 8 if you have a machine running one of those, but I suppose there is no need now. Someone here mentioned that certain previous Windows OSes (before 7) would not write the ESALOADR file into the first sector as is expected by the ESA. Perhaps Windows 10 also has this issue.
Yes! I have an old XP machine at home and was going to try that but this worked so no need. I'm surprised this has not come up before.
I found the problem! I located another ESA here at work (with a more recent s/n) and the ESALOADR would STILL not start!
So I used that ESA to format the floppy and copied the ESALOADR to that disk… IT WORKS!!!
For some reason using my PC to format the floppy was the issue. Formatting with an ESA did the trick.
And only needed to do that one the ESALOADR disk – the others were fine.
WHO KNEW?
But I am SO relieved that I have my unit back – and with upgraded firmware to boot.