cyberstorm ppc faults
Julian Cassin
Amiga, the harddrives all do their thing for a little while then I get a
blank grey screen (with the Cybervision PPC) - or a black screen with the
Amiga video port - What are the common faults with the Cyberstorm PPC cards
and what are the most likely thing that has happened to mine? ie: 060 died?
PPC died? board died? Is there a way to test?
Regards, Julian
Neil Williams
On Friday July 05 2002, Julian Cassin said to All:
JC> cyberstorm ppc 200MhzPPC/50Mhz060 card just died, when turning on the
What does the power LED do?
--
Neil Williams, ne...@zeusdev.co.uk - ICQ UINs: 18223711 & 116110052
FidoNet 2:442/107.0 - Part time BBS: telnet:tkgbbs.darktech.org
Craig Bowling
On Fri, 5 Jul 2002 04:24:03 +1000, "Julian Cassin" <ninjaturtle..REMOVETHIS..@optushome.com.au> wrote ...
--
The 604e on my board has died as well. The '060 workes fine.
Wish I knew why. Unfortunatly unless we can find a trustworthy tech with the time and know how, we are S.O.L.
Keep in touch maybe something will show up.
Craig
Oliver Hannaford-Day
> What are the common faults with the Cyberstorm PPC cards
> and what are the most likely thing that has happened to mine? ie: 060
died?
> PPC died? board died? Is there a way to test?
I have had the PPC die, the 68060 side normally stays working unless the
flash chip has been wiped or corrupted so yours is probably the latter.
As for is there any way to test it, Ermm no, If the power LED goes crazy
(flashes very fast, continusly) then its normally memory relaited, If the
LED stays low its the flash chip, If the warpup library load but no PPC
program does then its the PPC.. If the 68060 died it would also give the low
power LED but I have never known a 68K CPU die, At all.
I had a PPC card go because I saved preferences to my Oktagon card, I am
guessing it overwrote the Cyberstorms flash which would mean I could have
re-flashed it if I could connect a flash programmer up to the Cyberstorm`s
connector (or directly to the chip).
If its still in waranty then send it back (I did that and just as the
waranty ended I got a PPC card that worked good...
Hardware wise the Cyberstorm is a simple-ish card, Its power is in the
software.
Oliver Hannaford-Day
Paul Gable
anyone buys it anymore especially at $900+. It seems like a crap shoot. Every time you turn
on your computer, it may work or not.. Julian, have you tried reseating
the card? Also, have you tried running the machine without the board and
see if it boots? Beyond that, I'm afraid you have just joined the
legion of AMigaer that have been screwed over by DCE.
Paul
>
>
>
Ross Vumbaca
Is this a DCE manufactured device? Sorry to say, but I hear the majority
of those ones fail, and are very hard to fix.
Regards,
Ross..
--
*TO E-MAIL ME: Reverse the order of the domain name in my e-mail address.*
Ross Vumbaca, a 'poor' Uni student at USyd.edu.au
http://members.optushome.com.au/rossv1
Flagship: Amiga 3000 (030/25), GVP Spectrum, C= A2065,
12Mb Fast/2Mb Chip, HD FDD, 9.1G-UW-SCSI (connected to A3000 SCSI),
Kickstart 3.1 (40.68), OS 3.9, Linux m68k 2.2 (Debian 2.2r0).
A pc.
--
Mike Leavitt
I had a similar thing with my MKIII, but when I booted from an OS 3.1
Workbench floppy, the card and memory were there. I hooked up an old
50 pin SCSI drive with 3.9 on it to my native port, and it booted.
The SCSI controller had died -- that same drive would not boot with a
68 to 50 pin adapter on the UW controller. Of course I could also get
both the MKIII and the C= early bootup screens. I turned off all the
luns on the MKIII's controller, and I was up and running. Got two 50
pin 4 gig SCSI drives, and restored my backup, and I was up and
running again. If you can't get either early bootup menu, try pulling
the card, it could be the computer and not the card too. It took me a
while to figure this out, as my 68 pin HD died too, and its 68 pin
replacement from SoftWare Hut was DOA. I had both tested by a friend
in his PC with SCSI to be sure. When it quit booting my 50 pin drives
with the adapters, and they worked fine on the 50 pin buss, I knew it
was the controller. And the screen was black until I took the drives
out. Only then did I get the insert disk screen. Bad drives or a bad
controller or both can do that. Of course if you don't have an A3000
or another SCSI controller, all of this will be impossible to check,
though with an A4000, you could just try an IDE drive, and see what
happens, should be the same, really.
--
Mike Leavitt ac...@lafn.org + team Amiga +
David Myers
JC>t - What are the common faults with the Cyberstorm PPC cards
JC> and what are the most likely thing that has happened to mine?
JC> ie: 060 died? PPC died? board died? Is there a way to test?
JC>
JC> Regards, Julian
JC>
JC>
Julian...
I have seen two faulty PPC cards, both made by Phase 5 and both with
dry joints on the surface mount 060 socket. Try pressing your finger
firmly on the 060 and see if it now boots. If so, you will need to
get the socket resoldered. I wonder if they sent a faulty batch of
PPC cards to Melbourne?
Regards,
David Myers
www.starnet.com.au/davem/amiga.html.
***Remove numerals from email address
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted with Amiga NewsRog
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Angelo Vigliotti
"Paul Gable" <greml...@bbigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:89501...@ip68-7-2-213.sd.sd.cox.net...
So far the majority of horror stories are with the DCE version of the
Cyberstorms (all models) DCE skimped on components big time
as was attested by component matching between P5 an DCE
branded cards.
Myself I consider lucky, ALL P5 gear and all working perfectly.
Including the original Cyberstorm MK-I (ONE) no that isn't
a typo. This was the very first 060 card made for the Amiga.
Comparatively, P5 gear cost more for a reason, quality
components. The original MK-I has components rated
to 80Mhz. Don't think that holds true for the DCE gear
since no 80Mhz 060 materialized so they probably went
with much cheaper support circuitry to do the same thing.
Jim
Angelo Vigliotti
"Mike Leavitt" <ac...@lafn.org> wrote in message
news:3D24B1DE.MD-...@lafn.org...
> Hello Julian Cassin
> > my cyberstorm ppc 200MhzPPC/50Mhz060 card just died, when turning on the
> > Amiga, the harddrives all do their thing for a little while then I get a
> > blank grey screen (with the Cybervision PPC) - or a black screen with
the
> > Amiga video port - What are the common faults with the Cyberstorm PPC
cards
> > and what are the most likely thing that has happened to mine? ie: 060
died?
> > PPC died? board died? Is there a way to test?
> >
> > Regards, Julian
>
> I had a similar thing with my MKIII, but when I booted from an OS 3.1
> Workbench floppy, the card and memory were there. I hooked up an old
> 50 pin SCSI drive with 3.9 on it to my native port, and it booted.
> The SCSI controller had died -- that same drive would not boot with a
> 68 to 50 pin adapter on the UW controller.
Really odd that just the SCSI would die as the NCR chip on there
is not exactly an el cheapo component. IFIRC the MK-III as the
PPC models have a separate crystal for the SCSI portion. Have
you checked this? Accidentally placing the can in the wrong way
will instantly kill it if you had done some OC in the past.
Did this myself with a 1260, replaced the can as was back up
and running.
Jim
Adam Kowalczyk
My 604e died as well. I wonder if it's a power issue or a heat
issue...or a soldering to the bga land that is the issue. Getting
604e's are as hard to find as chicken's teeth. That's the biggest
hold up for me. If I can find a 604e, I'm going to socket my CSPPC
(now that I have my AmigaOne)
Adam
Mike Leavitt
Could be the crystal, I guess, but I have never done anything to the
card. I didn't even pull it and reseat it until after the UW
controller died. The card is functioning fine otherwise, with the
native SCSI, after I turned off all the luns on the MKIII in the CS
Early Startup Menu. The card had no visible damage, BTW. My card
even has the place for the PPC to be mounted.
Julian Cassin
Yeah, put the original 030 board and the machine works fine, I didn't notice
anything
strange about the power led either, don't know what the problem is, my guess
was
either the flash or PPC but given the boards are normally still usable if
the PPC dies
then it is probably the flash, but is there a way to reflash it?
Julian
Julian Cassin
> dry joints on the surface mount 060 socket. Try pressing your finger
> firmly on the 060 and see if it now boots. If so, you will need to
> get the socket resoldered. I wonder if they sent a faulty batch of
> PPC cards to Melbourne?
>
> Regards,
> David Myers
Hi David, nice to see you in this group - it was actually Kevin Futter's
card before
I bought the machine from him - it worked fine for a few days, then I
figured I liked
his machine better than mine, I'd swap PPC cards (put my 233Mhz card in his
old
machine and the 200Mhz card in my old machine) - strange thing, just
swapping
the two cards seemed to kill the 200Mhz one - I have tried swapping what I
can
around (I really don't want to kill the 233Mhz one also), so am a bit in the
dark
as what to do. Do you know of anywhere in Melbourne (or Australia) that
can repair the card?
regards, Julian
Ant
> his machine better than mine, I'd swap PPC cards (put my 233Mhz card in
his
> old
> machine and the 200Mhz card in my old machine) - strange thing, just
> swapping
> the two cards seemed to kill the 200Mhz one
It's not something as simple as mucky connections or static damage, is it?
Julian Cassin
Ant <spam_m...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3d26c...@mk-nntp-1.news.uk.worldonline.com...
could be, can't static erase a flashrom?
Craig Bowling
On Sat, 6 Jul 2002 22:03:39 +1000, "Julian Cassin" <ninjaturtle..REMOVETHIS..@optushome.com.au> wrote ...
--
could be, can't static erase a flashrom?
I wonder if this could be the case with my dead 604e. Maybe just
re-flashing might do it. I might try it here.
Craig
Neil Williams
On Thursday July 04 2002, Craig Bowling said to All:
CB> The 604e on my board has died as well. The '060 workes fine. Wish I
CB> knew why. Unfortunatly unless we can find a trustworthy tech with the
Death through heat?
I replaced the fan with something with decent air flow and there's also a big
case fan cooling the entire card, which will hopefully also keep the PPC alive
should its fan fail.
CB> time and know how, we are S.O.L. Keep in touch maybe something will
CB> show up.
If you can work out how to repair CS-PPCs which have failed in this way, you
could make loadsa cash!
Neil Williams
On Friday July 05 2002, Paul Gable said to Julian Cassin:
PG> There have been so many horror stories with this card, I am amazed
PG> anyone buys it anymore especially at $900+. It seems like a crap shoot.
Because when it works, it's the best thing you can currently get to run
AmigaOS.
PG> Every time you turn on your computer, it may work or not.. Julian, have
Mine works, although it's the third card I've had and only the first two SIMMs
work.
Hmm.
Doobrey
>> It's not something as simple as mucky connections or static damage, is
it?
>
> could be, can't static erase a flashrom?
Erase a flashrom? More like fried/deceased/ gone to the great chip maker in
the sky..
If it is static damage, then it might not be the flash, but any of the chips
on the board (inc PPC or 68k) :((
I hope you were taking anti static precautions...
Johnny C. Kitchens
> 222 267132 <3d26dbf6$0$27303$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au> article retrieved - body follows
David Myers
Hi Julian..
JC> Hi David, nice to see you in this group - it was actually Kevin
JC> Futter's card before I bought the machine from him - it worked
JC> fine for a few days, then I figured I liked
Kevin's was one of those with dry joints. There may be more dry
joints on it now, or the problem could be something else.
JC> his machine better than mine, I'd swap PPC cards (put my 233Mhz
JC> card in his old machine and the 200Mhz card in my old machine) -
JC> strange thing, just swapping the two cards seemed to kill the
JC> 200Mhz one - I have tried swapping what I can around (I really
JC> don't want to kill the 233Mhz one also), so am a bit in the dark
JC> as what to do. Do you know of anywhere in Melbourne (or
JC> Australia) that can repair the card?
No. Unfortunately Amiga Technology in Mill Park has closed it's
service dept. All I can suggest is to bring your machine to the next
MAUG meeting (July 18th) an I can have a bit of a look at it. I can't
promise anything.
Regards,
David Myers
www.starnet.com.au/davem/amiga.html
***Remove numerals from email address.
Julian Cassin
Julian Cassin
David Myers <da...@1234starnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:rE.oE.PK2IDT...@1234starnet.com.au...
> "JC" == "Julian Cassin" writes:
>
> Hi Julian..
>
> JC> Hi David, nice to see you in this group - it was actually Kevin
> JC> Futter's card before I bought the machine from him - it worked
> JC> fine for a few days, then I figured I liked
>
> Kevin's was one of those with dry joints. There may be more dry
> joints on it now, or the problem could be something else.
>
> JC> his machine better than mine, I'd swap PPC cards (put my 233Mhz
> JC> card in his old machine and the 200Mhz card in my old machine) -
> JC> strange thing, just swapping the two cards seemed to kill the
> JC> 200Mhz one - I have tried swapping what I can around (I really
> JC> don't want to kill the 233Mhz one also), so am a bit in the dark
> JC> as what to do. Do you know of anywhere in Melbourne (or
> JC> Australia) that can repair the card?
>
>
> No. Unfortunately Amiga Technology in Mill Park has closed it's
> service dept. All I can suggest is to bring your machine to the next
> MAUG meeting (July 18th) an I can have a bit of a look at it. I can't
> promise anything.
>
> Regards,
>
> David Myers
That's a nice gesture anyway :)
Regards, Julian
SG
> "JC" == "Julian Cassin" writes:
>
> JC>t - What are the common faults with the Cyberstorm PPC cards
> JC> and what are the most likely thing that has happened to mine?
> JC> ie: 060 died? PPC died? board died? Is there a way to test?
> JC>
> JC> Regards, Julian
> JC>
> JC>
>
> Julian...
>
> I have seen two faulty PPC cards, both made by Phase 5 and both with
> dry joints on the surface mount 060 socket. Try pressing your finger
> firmly on the 060 and see if it now boots. If so, you will need to
> get the socket resoldered. I wonder if they sent a faulty batch of
> PPC cards to Melbourne?
Nope, thats a common problem everywhere.
--
-Steve
SG
Have you been screwing with the heatsink/fan? The vast, vast
majority (all?) of CS-PPC 604e deaths I've seen have been 100%
user induced. If you don't properly shim the 604e before you pop
the heatsink off, you've got about a 25% chance chipping/cracking
the surface and never seeing that puppy alive again.
--
-Steve
Julian Cassin
SG <s...@erols.com> wrote in message news:3D28413F.M...@erols.com...
How do you fix dry joints? I have a feeling my 233Mhz card may have this
same problem
- it sometimes powers up, sometimes doesn't - I wobble something (can be a
different thing
each time) and it'll boot. I thought at one stage it was the gfx card, then
the ide cables,
then the scsi cable, but I cannot find a fault in anything.
Julian
Julian Cassin
Thanks for the tip regarding pressing the 060, what I did, was put two
fingers near the SCSI port, and my thumb on the 060
effectively bending the board upward (ever so slightly) and the thing
managed to work - with gfx card and all, so does that
mean it is a dry joint? Some solder loose somewhere?
I suspect my 233Mhz board suffers a similar problem as I find if I put a
tiny bit of pressure on the SIMMs sometimes it works
and the fault is definately not the memory - I suspect this is the effects
of dry joints? Is that correct?
What is your suggestion regarding fixing or having them fixed? (at least I
know the boards are not completely stuffed - well I hope).
Regards, Julian
Angelo Vigliotti
"Julian Cassin" <ninjaturtle..REMOVETHIS..@optushome.com.au> wrote in
message news:3d295cc5$0$27307$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
It's probably not the accelerator at all but the prone to flexing
fast slot on the Amiga. Quite often with age this slot can bow
in the middle. This is more pronounced with users that had the
incorrect height PCB plugs that shipped with quite a few
Cyberstorms and A3640's, they're off just enough to allow
the card to loosen in the fast slot or not have a fully seated
contact. Pressing down on any part of the Cyberstorm can
fix this but may lead you to believe something is loose on the
Cyberstorm. Look for the most likely component to flex/fail/contact
and that is the fast slot connection.
My setup is a CyberstormPPC/060 233 with screwed down standoffs
that fit the height exactly. Never had a problem.
Jim