Rohde Schwarz ZVR VNA repair

[Rogers_squared]

Have an old ZVC which has been sitting far too long in my attic    ,  decided to start it up, but now gets some error which seems to be transputer related. Found the following in the logs:

Link job: Error downloading C:\R_S\INSTR\TP\R4_RUN_Z.BTL

Error Code:              00210
API: Transputer timeout: 1805, delay 12000 * 10ms   

The factory service manual mentions a test routine "GR_CHECK.EXE" for checking the transputer network - does anyone know where this could be found? does not seem to be on the drive.
or only Rhode service center?

[nico0481]

Hello,


I've have a ZVRL and the HDD seems to have a problem.
Device doesn't boot (stay on boot screen), no error returned, but HDD make some creepy noise...
Does anyone have a disk image for Rohde&Schwarz ZVRL to share?

Thank you

Best regards

Nico

[Georg - PY5ZSE]

Same question from me...

has anybody a ZVx disk image to share?

some additional information: The firmware is still for download from R&S's web site, but this seems not to include the operating system., Windows NT4. However, if you get the NT running, it should be possible to install the firmware, according to the documentation that comes with the downloaded archive. here the link:

https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/lv/firmware/zvx/

I will try this approach. If I can get a disk image from a working unit, tof course things would be way easier.

And a link to the service manual:

http://eww.ko4bb.com/getsimple/index.php?id=manuals&dir=Rohde_Schwarz

Best regards, Georg

[analogRF]

Have an old ZVC which has been sitting far too long in my attic    ,  decided to start it up, but now gets some error which seems to be transputer related. Found the following in the logs:

Link job: Error downloading C:\R_S\INSTR\TP\R4_RUN_Z.BTL

Error Code:              00210
API: Transputer timeout: 1805, delay 12000 * 10ms   

The factory service manual mentions a test routine "GR_CHECK.EXE" for checking the transputer network - does anyone know where this could be found? does not seem to be on the drive.
or only Rhode service center?

did you manage to find that service floppy disk that contains the GR_CHECK.EXE and other troubleshooting routines?
I have a defective FSEA and need the same diskette 

[sixtimesseven]

Same question from me...

has anybody a ZVx disk image to share?

some additional information: The firmware is still for download from R&S's web site, but this seems not to include the operating system., Windows NT4. However, if you get the NT running, it should be possible to install the firmware, according to the documentation that comes with the downloaded archive. here the link:

https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/lv/firmware/zvx/

I will try this approach. If I can get a disk image from a working unit, tof course things would be way easier.

And a link to the service manual:

http://eww.ko4bb.com/getsimple/index.php?id=manuals&dir=Rohde_Schwarz

Best regards, Georg

I just copied / imaged my ZVR HDD drive:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ng4lur59jfkbgiw/AAD5x1PFixUfE111jsNmdgYJa?dl=0

Would be great if you could test and verify it

[sixtimesseven]

If sombody has some internal pictures of an ZVx, in particular the ETH option card, I would be really interested: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/adding-100mbps-eth-to-an-rs-zvx-network-analyzer/msg2839102/#msg2839102

[Georg - PY5ZSE]

@sixitmesseven,
grüezi ... and thanks a lot, you might have brought me much closer to having a working ZVCE on the bench.

It will, however, take some time until I get to try to install it. I am busy with another project (constructing a house...) so most of my electronics stuff is packed away. The ZVCE is anexception, stands on a shelf right behind me, covers removed. If you need any pictures, no problem to shoot them. Even better, send me PM with your Whatsapp, or check your PM.

Georg

[sixtimesseven]

It seems the HDD in my ZVR has failed. It won't respond either inside the ZVR or via IDE adapter on the PC.

I have the image mentioned above. However, if I write it to a CF card via adapter or another IDE hard drive the system still wont boot.
It takes a lot longer to display the "No boot disk found..." error then if I attach no drive but still it fails every time.

I also tried Win32DiskImager, but no luck.

I read two things: One data alignment on the disk and secondly drivers. However I have no experience with windows NT so I'm at a loss of what to try next. There seems to be no Bios integrated in NT 4.0, however some sites are a bit unclear on that. There also seems to be an option to boot into an MS_DOS via floppy but if I do so I get a IDE-CDROM driver not found error 

[analogRF]

It seems the HDD in my ZVR has failed. It won't respond either inside the ZVR or via IDE adapter on the PC.

I have the image mentioned above. However, if I write it to a CF card via adapter or another IDE hard drive the system still wont boot.
It takes a lot longer to display the "No boot disk found..." error then if I attach no drive but still it fails every time.

I also tried Win32DiskImager, but no luck.

I read two things: One data alignment on the disk and secondly drivers. However I have no experience with windows NT so I'm at a loss of what to try next. There seems to be no Bios integrated in NT 4.0, however some sites are a bit unclear on that. There also seems to be an option to boot into an MS_DOS via floppy but if I do so I get a IDE-CDROM driver not found error 

I replaced the HDD in my FSEB with CF card without any problem or glitches. ZVR should be no different I assume.
How do you burn the image into the CF card (what software)? I have heard that R&S are very picky about how the image is written into the new drive. I use HDDRawCopy1.10 for all my HDD to CF/SSD upgrades and it has always worked flawlessly on many equipment.

oh, also what adapter are you using? some of them need a 5V supply (those with 40pin IDE connector I think)

[sixtimesseven]

The adapter is a 44pin 2.5 IDE to CF adapter. It seems to work fine with my IDE to USB adapter on the PC so it should in the ZVR.

The unfortunate thing is that I used Win32DiskImager and Easus Backup to make a clone of the HDD. Unfortunatly writing that back to the CF card fails to boot. Now with a defective HDD I'm screwed

I tried to boot a MS-DOS from a floppy but so far also no luck.

Another thing is that the ZVR shows "Bios Version 3.3" on startup, however I don't get into the menu. I would really like to check if the CF card is recognized.

[analogRF]

I bet the problem is with the image software that you are using. Can you burn that image with another software? Like the one I mentioned or with
SelfImage-1.2.1? These are softwares that R&S owners have had most success with. They dont manipulate any data and read/write the exact raw image byte by byte. If you read this thread and others, you see R&S owners have had the same problem with several cloning softwares...

I dont think there is any way to get into the BIOS like you do on a regular PC. This is a special secured BIOS by R&S if I am not mistaken. But the BIOS dumps a lot of messages on screen during the boot, so what messages do you get? At which point does it stop? you might be able to figure out if the CF is recognized.

[sixtimesseven]

I bet the problem is with the image software that you are using. Can you burn that image with another software? Like the one I mentioned or with
SelfImage-1.2.1? These are softwares that R&S owners have had most success with. They dont manipulate any data and read/write the exact raw image byte by byte. If you read this thread and others, you see R&S owners have had the same problem with several cloning softwares...

I dont think there is any way to get into the BIOS like you do on a regular PC. This is a special secured BIOS by R&S if I am not mistaken. But the BIOS dumps a lot of messages on screen during the boot, so what messages do you get? At which point does it stop? you might be able to figure out if the CF is recognized.

Well the problem is that I only have the proprietary files from the two cloning softwares and with a dead hdd I have no way to get an original image...
Unless someone would like to share one ?

[analogRF]

I bet the problem is with the image software that you are using. Can you burn that image with another software? Like the one I mentioned or with
SelfImage-1.2.1? These are softwares that R&S owners have had most success with. They dont manipulate any data and read/write the exact raw image byte by byte. If you read this thread and others, you see R&S owners have had the same problem with several cloning softwares...

I dont think there is any way to get into the BIOS like you do on a regular PC. This is a special secured BIOS by R&S if I am not mistaken. But the BIOS dumps a lot of messages on screen during the boot, so what messages do you get? At which point does it stop? you might be able to figure out if the CF is recognized.

Well the problem is that I only have the proprietary files from the two cloning softwares and with a dead hdd I have no way to get an original image...
Unless someone would like to share one ?

you have probably seen this thread already, but just in case, you may find some useful information or ask the people on this thread about another image of the HDD
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rohde-schwarz-fsae-30/

[Georg - PY5ZSE]

@sixtimesseven

The stuff I downloaded some time ago from your links consists of 2 zip's: one contains a file created with "EasUS_Clone" - useless. The other seems to contain, file by file, the content of the instruments C drive. As I don't know how you created that, I cannot say if files (hidden / system files) are missing. It might be possible to re - create the disk by

    - partitioning the new disk (CF or mechanical) using fdisk or whatever other tool
    - creating a MBR using the same tool
    - marking the first partition as bootable
    - formatting the first partition with (probably VFAT)
    - copying the a.m. files back into that partition.

As said, that may work, but only if nothing is missing.

What I would do first, if the rotten HD still has some life, connect it to a linux box and copy the whole disk with dd into a file, using the "conv=noerror" directive to continue after read errors. The file can then be mounted as a file system, and analyzed. Maybe with what you already have, and rescue that way, the original content can be reconstructed.

Of course, things would be much easier if somebody had an undamaged image...
And for me (also having a ZVCE with crashed HD, but the old version, 486 CPU / DOS/Windows 3.1) an image of that Version would essentially be a late Christmas gift.

What I learned from the discussion in this forum (various threads) and other sources seems to be:
1) First make sure, that your replacement disk (be it CF or a real HD) is recognized by your instrument. Boot DOS from a Floppy, and see if Drive C is present.
2) If you own any R&S instrument from that time (ZVxy, FSEx, FSIQ, probably others) back up the HD TODAY. The question is not if it will fail, only when. These disks are way beyond there expected life, have thousands of hours on them, or years of sitting around unused. I don't know, what is worse.
3) it is possible to replace the original HD with a CF in an adaptor, but not every CF and every adaptor will work.

[sixtimesseven]

@sixtimesseven
The stuff I downloaded some time ago from your links consists of 2 zip's: one contains a file created with "EasUS_Clone" - useless.

EaseUS's clone features worked fine for me for XP and up. But to be fair so does pretty much every recent cloning software.

@sixtimesseven

1) First make sure, that your replacement disk (be it CF or a real HD) is recognized by your instrument. Boot DOS from a Floppy, and see if Drive C is present.

What kind of DOS do I need? I tried some MS-DOS 5 and MS_DOS images on Floppy from some random sites but they did not boot or resulted in errors like missing CDROM driver.

[sixtimesseven]

Update, I managed to boot a floppy with DOS 5.0 http://www.me.umn.edu/courses/me2011/arduino/stamp/technotes/dosboot/
 
It wouldn't at first and report no disk error but after several retries / enters it seems to work now.

Anyway, how do I find attached devices now?
DOS references I found so far only talk about doing stuff on the current drive, eg: https://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/list-of-useful-and-frequently-used-dos-commands-317 

I also got MS-DOS 6.22 to run and with it the "scandisk /all" comand. However, it will only check the floppy disk "A:" and no mention of any other i
However, I also get a strange driver error during the DOS boot process. Some CDROM Driver for device "BANANA" is not found... Might that be the CF-Card? Nevermind, shows up even if nothing is inserted in the ide slot.

Found this little program: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=59932

It identifies the both the SANDisk 64GB as well as the Transcent 8GB CF cards as tow ide drives.
Drive 1 is reported to be about 1600MB large and should be the RS image. The second returns an error and no information is displayed, I guess because it is not implemented as a partition.

So, the CF card and the boot partition is there. Why does it not boot? I tried the Windows NT 4.0 Workstation files I found on the web, wrote them to three disks and tried to run the -R repair option but it does not find any drives / installations to repair... 

[analogRF]

you must use a DOS that does not come with CDROM support. This thing cannot recognize a CDROM driver but it is defined in the config.sys and autoexec.bat. BANANA refers to a default CDROM device. You can check the config.sys and autoexec.bat and remove all reference to the cdrom

[sixtimesseven]

Here are the screens from the ideinfo.exe program.
They are def. recognized as ide drives but still unable to boot.

[analogRF]

so did you finally boot to DOS?

why is it saying found 2 hard drives? on FSEB, which has the exact same structure as ZVR, I remember it had 2 partitions (one big ~ 440MB and one small ~ 43MB) plus a big unallocated space and only shows one hard drive. My clone software copied the exact same structure including the unallocated space on the new drive.

I still think your problem is with the way the image was made. R&S is very fussy about that perhaps because of that RMX (or DOSRMX ?) crap which I never understood how it works...

one crazy suggestion, make a clone of FSEA or FSEB image (you can find it on the forum) and boot your ZVR, it will complain but since the basic OS is there it will boot to something first before complaining I guess.

[sixtimesseven]

so did you finally boot to DOS?

Yes, I used a new floppy and pressed enter several times to retry booting and now it works every time...

why is it saying found 2 hard drives? on FSEB, which has the exact same structure as ZVR, I remember it had 2 partitions (one big ~ 440MB and one small ~ 43MB) plus a big unallocated space and only shows one hard drive. My clone software copied the exact same structure including the unallocated space on the new drive.

No idea why it found two drives. maybe because there is empty space on the disk? Or it found the floppy drive as well?
When I cloned it I saw only one partition (about 2000MB) on the drive, nothing else. Unless it was somehow hidden...

one crazy suggestion, make a clone of FSEA or FSEB image (you can find it on the forum) and boot your ZVR, it will complain but since the basic OS is there it will boot to something first before complaining I guess.

Hmm I will try that next. Do you remember in which thread that was in?

[Georg - PY5ZSE]

@analogRF
good idea (FSEA image). That should give a drive with a bootable OS, onto which he can copy the ZVR files he has. Might be a way.

another idea: run FDISK from the DOS Floppy, check if the partition with the OS is bootable. You also can use FDISK to write a MBR, in case that does not exist or is damaged.

Third idea: Apparently it is possible to boot from Floppy. Instead of using DOS, boot from the (set of 3) NT4 installation diskettes. Then install The OS on your CF, letting the NT4 setup do all the work - including partitioning and formatting. What you will need is an IDE CD drive,  and an adaptor to connect both the CD and CF to the one IDE the instrument has.

In case you don't find these diskette's images on the net, I have them - It just will take some time until I can read them. None of my computers has a floppy drive anymore...

[sixtimesseven]

good idea (FSEA image). That should give a drive with a bootable OS, onto which he can copy the ZVR files he has. Might be a way.

Agreed

another idea: run FDISK from the DOS Floppy, check if the partition with the OS is bootable. You also can use FDISK to write a MBR, in case that does not exist or is damaged.

I did run FDISK but it only finds the floppy disk A ... I don't see how I could chang into the CF card disk

Third idea: Apparently it is possible to boot from Floppy. Instead of using DOS, boot from the (set of 3) NT4 installation diskettes. Then install The OS on your CF, letting the NT4 setup do all the work - including partitioning and formatting. What you will need is an IDE CD drive,  and an adaptor to connect both the CD and CF to the one IDE the instrument has.

In case you don't find these diskette's images on the net, I have them - It just will take some time until I can read them. None of my computers has a floppy drive anymore...

I have found windows nt 4 installation images for floppy disks https://winworldpc.com/download/879e10c1-b7ac-11e7-b8e6-fa163e9022f0
Installation will start but the installer only finds a IDE CDROM drive and no IDE disk onto which I could intall NT. Same for the -R repair option


As I have written above. The CF card seems to be recognizable because if I boot with the DOS 6.22 floppy and run IDEINFO.exe I get the correct information. However, everything else does not find the card...

[analogRF]

No idea why it found two drives. maybe because there is empty space on the disk? Or it found the floppy drive as well?
When I cloned it I saw only one partition (about 2000MB) on the drive, nothing else. Unless it was somehow hidden...

i think that might be the problem, if the clone software works correctly, you must have two partitions, one of them has winnt and the other
has this RMX stuff on it. if it didn't recognize two partitons, then something is not right in my opinion

installing standalone NT and then trying to install R&S software does not work. cannot say why but it just doesn't

however if you boot to FSEB and then try to copy the zvr files, it might work. at least you will find out that your cf card boots and
all you need is a good image of the hdd

[analogRF]

i am uploading fseb30 image, give me a few minutes...

[analogRF]

this is FSEB30 image created by HDDRawCopy1.10

https://www.dropbox.com/s/j63qeolkqukwe7h/FSEB30.img?dl=0

I have cloned HDD on a transcend CF card with this couple of times for FSEA and FSEB myself