Hi all,
With retirement approaching and long lazy days ahead, I have rediscovered my KN1000. Thanks to this site, cannot remember how I ended up here, but on reading the posts I found a supplier for the FDisc drive. Many years ago, 20+, I made enquirys for this item, but the price was prohibitive in comparison to what I had paid for the keyboard £800 and I could not justify it to her who had to be obeyed. Suffice to say I now have one installed. But now I have new problems, I can install the discs from TechNote no problems, on the other hand downloaded files from Gunners web site do not seem to work.
I have an XP os on my main CPU, and my USB floppy drive will not support 720KB, so I downloaded and copied the files to CD. The CD was then placed into an old CPU running Win98. These files were then extracted to a\: onto 720Kb discs, which this system would format. I have managed to get the Beatles one and several others, but keep getting " Other disc!!" messages or "No song" on the KN1000.
Also I get cannot write directory error messages from the a\: drive.
I have also tried the German site that Gunner recommends and again no joy.

Am I missing a move here?
Regards JohnT

Hi John
You're right about the 720kb bit with the KN1000 and therefore giving yourself a headache to start with, ain't yer.
I guess you've noticed that Gunnar's downloads are zipped and need unzipping?
Rog - Wiltshire (Retired)

Hi Roger,

Yes I used PKUNZIP to extract the files to the A\: drive.
The files appeared to be there but I still got " No song" messages.

JohnT

Hello John,

It could be that the disks you are trying to use are incompatible with the KN1000. However you could always try doing it my way (if you'll forgive the pun).

I unzip to a new file on my 'desktop' then save it to floppy which has been FORMATTED IN THE KN and not the PC. This enables the KN to easily recognise the data on the floppy.

It might be worth a try.

Good luck.

Audrey



[This message has been edited by Audrey Turner (edited 04-11-2007).]

Hello Audrey,
The discs are Keydisks, brand new and already formatted. I have tried using as recieved, reformated using the KN1000 and also the a\: drive format ut no change. Any idea as to what the message " Other disc" infers?

Will try extracting as you suggest with Gunners files, but the German downloads, which are exe files only seem to want to extract to the floppy drive.

Regards JohnT

Hello John,

It is my belief that earlier KN floppies were for specific models and could not be read by later models. Eventually, these later models could read one or two back issues of floppies i.e.: the KN65000 could read the KN6000, KN5000, and the KN3000 could read the KN20000 and even now, the KN7000 I have will only read as far back as the KN2000 and any keyboard going back further it cannot read, so with this in mind, unless your Keynote disks specifically state that it can read ALL models, this could be your problem.

Your Error Message could either refer to the fact that the disk was made for an earlier model and therefore it cannot be read OR, perhaps it was a personal setup put together by a private individual in which case, it may have a 'Password' on it to prevent it being copied.

I'm afraid I do not know enough about Passwords to be able to suggest anything on this but I am sure there are better informed members of this Forum who would be able to help, should this prove to be the problem.

Hope this helps.

Audrey

Hi Audrey,
All the files come from either Gunners download site or CA software. What I cannot understand is the inconsistancy as some of Gunners, I have managed to download no problem, and yet trouble with the some others. On my surfing prior to attempting downloads I rememer someone gave a cause for the "No song" message, but cannot recall what it was. As for the " Other disc" message, have not got a clue. Dont you just love it, when the software developer writes in "Error messages", then cannot be bothered to explain the implications to the user!
I have sent an EMail to Gunner and await a reply, but I can understand if he does not want to get involved, hence the subject title.
I started this, because I am not capable of writing my own patterns and was looking for
styles similar to Fleetwood Mac,Elton John,Beatles and all that genre, plus James Last,Percy Faith etc. Thinking this was the easy way out, how wrong can one be?

Many Regards JohnT

Hi.

I've been doing a bit testing on this matters since John contacted me.
A friend have a KN1000, and that gave us quite a surprice!

We tried a lot of diskettes, ready format and self format 720, and got
the same result as John do.
Win98 2.nd edition, no luck! That was really surpricing, or maybe it
has something to do with the PC's floppydrive who might be a bit newer
hardware than the other equipment?

Then we ended up to use 1.44HD diskettes, using the trick to put tape
over the hole who is not closeable and 720 format on a old laptop with
Win2000 SP4, and WOILAAA!!! Then things start act "normal", KN1000
could read the diskette and files.

Since it's not possible to format 720kb DD in XP anymore, (I seem to
remeber it could be done in XP earlier version, and worked?), older OS
and equipment maybe has to be used?

But, why it's so tricky to make it work nowadays I don't have any good
ideas about.
Can it be that so simple that some of the floppydrives can have updated
firmware who are not compatible?

Happy Playing
GJ

Hi all,
Who was it said CPU's would make things easier,
Bill Gates?
Thanks for your efforts Gunner, if I read you correctly, I need Win 2000 SP4 or win95 to download these files, niether of which are to hand. I can take it that emulation is a non starter in this case?
Looks as if I will have to wait until No1 son visits me again, he uses MS-Dos and linux and see if he can find a way round this problem.
In the interim I'll try to get back up to speed on the keyboard, been at least 10 yrs since I touched it. The reason was I got hooked into Flight Sims, but lately have been have become dissallusioned with guess what, expensive software that does not do what it says on the can.
Must say I am relieved to find that you encountered the same problems as me, thought I was an imbecile and could not do a simple save to disc.
Will just have to hope there is a CPU buff out there who can come up with an answer.

Many regards to all,

JohnT

Hello John,

I've just read Gunner's reply and he might have hit on the problem here because when the first floppies came out they were 2DD and not 2HD. One of our Club members bought himself a very old but in excellent condition organ with a floppy drive and he couldn't even save his own settings so called me for help. Not knowing much (if anything at all) about organs I went over to his house just to see what his problem was and of course I discovered on reading the manual that it would only work with 2DD floppies and fortunately for him, I had one or two in my stockpile that I had used on earlier KN Keyboards. I gave them to him, he formatted them in his organ and hey presto! they worked. So like I said, maybe Gunner has hit on the reason for your problems.

However, if this isn't the case I think your son WILL be able to help for again, way back when I had my first PC it used the DOS system and although I am no expert - (but I know a man who is) and he could get my PC to do anything he liked and to this day, he still uses a DOS system simply because "the system is constant and doesn't keep changing involving more and more expense" his words not mine.

I hope you will keep us posted on this one as I am intrigued as to what the anwer is.

Good luck!

Audrey

[This message has been edited by Audrey Turner (edited 04-14-2007).]

[This message has been edited by clover_kid (edited 04-16-2007).]

This might be of some help. In order to format a 720KB disk under XP do the following.

First go to a command prompt (start, run, cmd)

enter the following command:
Format a: /t:80 /n:9 /a:1024 & cover 1.44 hole if needed

The disk will be formatted to 720 kb.

Bill

Thanks all,
for the info, but unfortunately I am now back at work for the next three days, ie long hours,
0530-2000 so it does'nt leave any play time.
Just to recap for Audrey, the Keydiscs that I am using, as supplied by Musiczone, are DD ready formatted. As I mentioned earlier, my son did manage to grab a few of Gunners files, before the novelty wore off, but I suspect he used DOS to do it. If he did, the little B##### did'nt let me into the secret of how.
So to summarise, I dont think the problem is the formatting of the discs, nor the fact the files have come across via XP on a CD to the WIN98 machine. Because I have got some of the files working. Anybody retrieved the files from the German site CA, as extracting them results in an exe. application which directs them straight to the floppy drive?
Will resume testing on Thursday all being well.

Regards to all,

JohnT

Hi John.

The CA files are as you say .exe file. (Self-extractor file) and will
be directed stright to the A:\ drive.
But, you can also i.e. choose to put the files as unpacked single files
into a folder by change the adress where you want it to be "unzipped"
when run the exefile.
Or you can i.e. rightclick the .exe files and choose the option "open
with WinZip" or WinRar or whatever zipsoftware you use, because most all
"Zipsoftware" have the option to do this.

Happy Playing
GJ

Use this programme, ExtractNow, here, http://www.extractnow.com/ to unzip, easy, effective, free. Unzips most files. Walter.

Hi all,

I found CPU's at work running Win2000(SP?), and placed my CD's into them and transfered across to some of the KEYdisc's I have. Using them straight out of the box preformatted.
The CA file went across and one of gunners Yamaha conversions also. Had trouble with a KN1000 file, origin I cant remember. But it looks as if Win2000 is good as Gunner found.
Just to complicate matters I now have a KN7000 to learn as well.
To summarise, I will persevere with ths problem, if only to be able to give the new owner of my KN1000 all the arrangements I can muster. Plus justify installing the Disc drive to myself.

Regards to all
JohnT