Dead Amiga 4000 Please Help!
Robert A. Waters
All I get is a black screen. Power Light, HD Light comes on, Floppy Drives
click once and power supply fan works. Has been running great for awhile and
all of a sudden black screen?
System spec:
Amiga 4000/030/25mhz (soldiered on mb)/3.1 ROMs/rev D motherboard/Super
Buster 11
2mbCHIP
16mbFAST
2 HD Floppies
Couple of IDE HDs
I had it maxed when it happened, but have stripped all but the above and
still no luck?
Any help to diagnose and fix would be greatly appreciated as this is the
second one to do this.
Thanks,
Robert
Mike Woods
>All I get is a black screen. Power Light, HD Light comes on, Floppy Drives
>click once and power supply fan works. Has been running great for awhile and
>all of a sudden black screen?
>System spec:
>Amiga 4000/030/25mhz (soldiered on mb)/3.1 ROMs/rev D motherboard/Super
>Buster 11
>2mbCHIP
>16mbFAST
>2 HD Floppies
>Couple of IDE HDs
Make sure all the socketed chips are in place as chips tend to work loose
over time.
Mike Woods
Mike Leavitt
If you are running OS 3.1 pull the roms and try your old 3.0 ones.
Also, if you have access to a 3640 card or accelerator, put it in the
cpu slot and see if it fires up. Roms and 030's don't usually fail, but
if either does, the symptoms you describe can take place, and stripping
the machine down won't help. It could also be your chip or fast ram, in
fact, that is more likely.
--
Mike Leavitt ac...@lafn.org + team Amiga +
Marcel DeVoe
> My Amiga 4000 has suddenly stopped working and cannot figure out what it is.
> All I get is a black screen. Power Light, HD Light comes on, Floppy Drives
> click once and power supply fan works. Has been running great for awhile and
> all of a sudden black screen?
> System spec:
> Amiga 4000/030/25mhz (soldiered on mb)/3.1 ROMs/rev D motherboard/Super
> Buster 11
> 2mbCHIP
> 16mbFAST
> 2 HD Floppies
> Couple of IDE HDs
> I had it maxed when it happened, but have stripped all but the above and
> still no luck?
You *still* didn't strip it down to the minimum.
I've had hard drives hang the system, especially IDE's.
Remove all hard drives and see if you can boot from floppy.
--
Marcel J. DeVoe - mde...@shore.net - Team *AMIGA*
A4091scsi CV64 96 megs CDRW M1764-17" Catweasel FUSION/Emplant
A4000/060 CyberStorm MKII overclocked 66mhz - see "How to Overclock!"
and "DIY A4000 Tower for $45" @ http://www.shore.net/~mdevoe
Robert A. Waters
Marcel DeVoe <mde...@shore.net> wrote in message
news:UhCs6.127$xf1....@news.shore.net...
> You *still* didn't strip it down to the minimum.
>
> I've had hard drives hang the system, especially IDE's.
>
> Remove all hard drives and see if you can boot from floppy.
>
Robert A. Waters
Mike Leavitt <ac...@lafn.org> wrote in message
news:3AB26FDF.MD...@lafn.org...
> Hello Robert A. Waters
> If you are running OS 3.1 pull the roms and try your old 3.0 ones.
> Also, if you have access to a 3640 card or accelerator, put it in the
> cpu slot and see if it fires up.
Don't have access to a 3640, but my MKII doesn't boot it. It acknowledges
the MKII on the screen by showing the rainbow for a split second, but goes
no further than a black screen after the rainbow?
> Roms and 030's don't usually fail, but
> if either does, the symptoms you describe can take place, and stripping
> the machine down won't help. It could also be your chip or fast ram, in
> fact, that is more likely.
>
ChipRAM is soldered to the motherboard on this one and have taking all
FastRAM out and still does the same thing.
Todd Bruner
> >All I get is a black screen. Power Light, HD Light comes on, Floppy Drives
> >click once and power supply fan works. Has been running great for awhile and
> >all of a sudden black screen?
> >
> over time.
>
> Mike Woods
>
my 4000 was experiencing similar problems. My configuration is very
similar as far as thermal layout, but I have two more boards in mine.
- not zorro so they are under the HD and the Floppy. Worked fine for a
year or more but now it is only reliable if I keep the cover off. (I
am working on a better solution as even withthe cover off the flow of
air is not good - at least some heat can escape! And my computer room
is 55 F!)
Good luck
Patrick Ford
When my A3000 was over hwating from overcrowding and Seagate drives. I
mounted a 90mm fan on top of the hottest HD. The resulting turbulence all
through the case caused enough dilution to cool the whole thing down.
There seemed to have already been enough air movement in and out of the
case, but several areas had stagnant hot air until I stirred it all up.
--
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Jerry Conwell
"Robert A. Waters" <RA_W...@email.msn.com> wrote in message
news:eVyX7KsrAHA.299@cpmsnbbsa09...
Please let us know if replacing the ROM chips help things for you.
I have an A4000 that is doing the exact same thing that yours is doing and I
can't get it to work.
But I never tried replacing the ROM chip. I did however replace every other
"easily replaceable"
component including the CPU card. But no luck.
I did not replace any socketed chips because I don't have access to copies
of any of those chips.
Nor did I replace the daughterboard.
I tested the power supply with a multimeter and it is working within spec.
I pressed down on every socketed chip and none of them seemed loose.
My A4000 broke down after being left on all night long in a very hot room
with no air conditioning. Also, the power in that house was very unstable
and
there were many brownouts per day.
Does anyone have any info on what piece of a computer would fry first due to
electrical brownouts?
If anyone has some old v3.0 ROM chips for A4000 they would like to donate to
me
(or v3.1 :-) then please contact me via Email at
JamesNeverS...@yahoo.com
I'm in the USA. If replacing the ROMs works, I'll notify the group of
success.
As you can guess, delete the never spam me part of the address before
mailing me.
Mike Woods
>risen. It can even be "bowed" upwards in the middle of the long
>socket. Press that card down very firmly, using something like an
>eraser between your thumb and the card to avoid perforating your
>skin :-) If you don't understand that, try it without!
Yeah i have the same problem with my Cyberstorm MKII ERC every second sunday
of the month when i take it to the Amiga North Thames meetings, although
thankfully it's the only part of my system that can works it's way loose since
i have an a1200 with a z3i board (which has an a4k fast slot).
Mike Woods
Robert A. Waters
Jerry Conwell <jerr...@swbell.net> wrote in message
news:j0Os6.49$Wm2....@nnrp2.sbc.net...
>
> Please let us know if replacing the ROM chips help things for you.
>
> I have an A4000 that is doing the exact same thing that yours is doing and
I
> can't get it to work.
> But I never tried replacing the ROM chip. I did however replace every
other
> "easily replaceable"
> component including the CPU card. But no luck.
>
Have had no luck in going back to 3.0 ROMs.
> I did not replace any socketed chips because I don't have access to copies
> of any of those chips.
> Nor did I replace the daughterboard.
>
> I tested the power supply with a multimeter and it is working within spec.
>
> I pressed down on every socketed chip and none of them seemed loose.
>
> My A4000 broke down after being left on all night long in a very hot room
> with no air conditioning. Also, the power in that house was very unstable
> and
> there were many brownouts per day.
>
My first 4000 did exactly the same thing. It was in a fairly warm room and
left
on for a long period of time and the next day would not come on.
> Does anyone have any info on what piece of a computer would fry first due
to
> electrical brownouts?
>
Exactly my question as well. What exactly does Gary do?
For everyones information, I originally had this A4000 almost full with a
PicassoIV, MKII 060/66mhz/119mb RAM/Heatsink & Fan, Emplant,
DataFlyer SCSI Controller, 3gb HD, 300mb HD, 2 HD Floppies, 3.1 ROMs,
Buster 11, 2mb CHIP soldered to motherboard, 16mb FAST on mb, 68030
is also soldered to the mb, no fpu on mb.
The thing is with this one, I was in the process of fixing to Tower it in an
ATX PC case and tried out the freshly wired ATX to Amiga PS Connector
and all seemed to be ok, no cracks/explosions or anything. But needed to
get some work done and put the 4000 desktop back together and upon
booting, she wouldn't boot, and after rechecking my wiring of the ATX to
Amiga connector, I found I had pin 1 (Power Good) & pin 3 (+12V) swapped.
So I don't know if this fried something or if it was something else
entirely?
Visual and smell inspection has found nothing? So I'm completely stumped.
I am now down to only 2mb CHIP, 3.0 ROMs, 1 HD Floppy, Onboard 030
and still no luck??
Thanks much for all the replies and suggestions,
Robert
Marcel DeVoe
> Jerry Conwell <jerr...@swbell.net> wrote in message
> Have had no luck in going back to 3.0 ROMs.
[snip]
> For everyones information, I originally had this A4000 almost full with a
> PicassoIV, MKII 060/66mhz/119mb RAM/Heatsink & Fan, Emplant,
> DataFlyer SCSI Controller, 3gb HD, 300mb HD, 2 HD Floppies, 3.1 ROMs,
> Buster 11, 2mb CHIP soldered to motherboard, 16mb FAST on mb, 68030
> is also soldered to the mb, no fpu on mb.
> The thing is with this one, I was in the process of fixing to Tower it in an
> ATX PC case and tried out the freshly wired ATX to Amiga PS Connector
> and all seemed to be ok, no cracks/explosions or anything. But needed to
> get some work done and put the 4000 desktop back together and upon
> booting, she wouldn't boot, and after rechecking my wiring of the ATX to
> Amiga connector, I found I had pin 1 (Power Good) & pin 3 (+12V) swapped.
Uh oh, that doesn't sound good. I believe power good is sensing for +5
volts? Not sure.
> So I don't know if this fried something or if it was something else
> entirely?
> Visual and smell inspection has found nothing? So I'm completely stumped.
> I am now down to only 2mb CHIP, 3.0 ROMs, 1 HD Floppy, Onboard 030
> and still no luck??
Smelling and looking are not always good indicators. It only takes a
fraction of a second to blow a chip internally. Even static electricity
from your shoes on a rug on a dry winter's day can do this.
If stripping all parts, boards and drives out of the case and reseating
and pushing firmly down on your MKII card, and inspecting the socket pins
to make sure they are not bent, doesn't at least produce the "insert
disk" animated screen, it's possible something might be gone.
JL
> it in an ATX PC case and tried out the freshly wired ATX to Amiga
> PS Connector and all seemed to be ok, no cracks/explosions or
> anything. But needed to get some work done and put the 4000 desktop
> back together and upon booting, she wouldn't boot, and after
> rechecking my wiring of the ATX to Amiga connector, I found I had
> pin 1 (Power Good) & pin 3 (+12V) swapped. So I don't know if this
> fried something or if it was something else entirely?
I killed my Amiga 4000 when I connected new 350W AT-PSU to it (damn
those colours). So far I've been able to test all socketed chips,
ROMs, SIMMs, CPU card, daughterboard, oscs, etc. I also have tried
both CIAs, GARY, RP5C01, ALICE, PAULA, LISA, BUSTER, RAMSEY and some
other chips with the ones from my A3000 and A1200, I'm not sure from
those chips that I took from my A1200 because it is faulty
- it wont boot with any cpu card, dont know how it has gone broken,
because I traded it with hand scanner..back to A4000, fuses are ok,
diodes are ok, foils that I've measured are ok. I'm running out of
ideas soon and I dont have any spare BRIDGETTEs.
Janne Lumikanta - jel # netti.fi
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted with Amiga NewsRog
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Robert A. Waters
The only chips socketed on this mb are the ROMs, SuperBuster and SIMMs,
which makes it difficult to try any troubleshooting, so I guess I'm gonna
try and piece out what I don't need and see if I can get another and start
over once again.
Its beyond me and my time, :-(
Robert
Marcel DeVoe
> JL <j...@ROSKA.fi> wrote in message news:n0.k0.pC2Z7B...@ROSKA.fi...
> The only chips socketed on this mb are the ROMs, SuperBuster and SIMMs,
> which makes it difficult to try any troubleshooting, so I guess I'm gonna
> try and piece out what I don't need and see if I can get another and start
> over once again.
> Its beyond me and my time, :-(
Depending what it's worth to you and where you are located, there are
still some Amiga outfits that will troubleshoot motherboards down to the
component level.
And you don't have to ship the whole Amiga, just the motherboard to save
shipping costs.