TriCaster slow to or not starting up at all

[UnCommonGrafx]

We (ISD) have a 3-month-to-us TC. The class has been preparing for a multi-state tournament for the past two weeks with the tournament beginning tomorrow.
TC won't start for us today. :cursin:
As the title says, it is VERY slow on the locating of drives; in the time that I was in front of it, it would either only get to a black screen or made it to the TC screen but then stayed there.
On my VT, I'd just change out a drive... not possible here.
What might we do to salvage our weekend of video producing?? What can we do to make this thing work, or given what I've shared, is it going to be possible to salvage this by then?

The machine is not in a hot room, was not on for more that 6 hours and hasn't seen that much action yet as they like the little baby.
Thanks for any and all thoughts on this.

[SBowie]

Of course the first suggestion would be to check with support, Robert, but there would seem to be a couple of possibilities. One is a hardware issue - a drive failure or corruption of some sort. Another is that for some reason the drive got kicked down into a slower protocol, like PIO. You could check that in the Windows Device Manager, I think. A cable issue can do that, too. Another possibility is that for some reason the system is seeking a storage device that is no longer connected. There are likely other possibilities ...

I'm really sorry this happened with such a short period of time before a deadline. :(

[UnCommonGrafx]

Yeah, that was my thought, too, Steve.
I've checked on the drive thought. Doesn't seem to be the case but it does bring up this question: would a flash drive plugged in cause the system to pick it up as the main drive and change settings of the system?
Shooting for anything that might get this back up and going. 8:00 am. All kinds of fun thoughts a goin'...

[SBowie]

Doesn't seem to be the case but it does bring up this question: would a flash drive plugged in cause the system to pick it up as the main drive and change settings of the system?I've seen a few reports that seem to indicate the system can be left searching for a missing external, network, or thumb drive, yes. I'm not clear on why that would be so, or how to get past it. TS might have comments, and a search here might also turn something up.

[UnCommonGrafx]

TS?
Will be calling tech support in the morn. And on a day that I'm wearing a snazzy NewTek shirt...(head hanging, nodding side to side...)
Thanks.

**TS = Tech Support. Got it.

[Paul Lara]

Are you connected to the network on power-up? If yes, you may want to try unplugging the network jack and see if it powers up normally. It can negotiate network connections after you've launched TriCaster, Robert.

[UnCommonGrafx]

Hey Paul,
Thanks for the note.

Yeah, seems to be a dead hard drive. RMA in the process.
Let's hope my lil'old VT can manage the task. lol

[SBowie]

Dang, sorry to hear that Robert. :(