Mega needs two boots

[Erik Johnson]

Hello,

My Mega 4 just took a turn for worse and now powers up to a black screen when
it is cold. But, if I then reboot it is fine.

Could this be a power supply problem? (1st boot just primes it?)

How much trouble is it to put a GOOD power supply in an Atari?

Any help is appreciated,

Erik Johnson er...@microware.com

[William Rosenkranz]

In article <12...@mcrware.UUCP> er...@microware.com (Erik Johnson) writes:
>My Mega 4 just took a turn for worse and now powers up to a black screen when
>it is cold. But, if I then reboot it is fine.

^^^^^^^

i, too, have problems when my system is "cold". by cold here i mean powered
down for 1/2 hr or more. the room is about 75 F. i figure it might need
chip reseating (?) or might have a weak solder connection (the added
heat causes some board to warp acceptably). it could also be in my megafile
60, too. i dunno. wait 10-15 minutes, reboot, and all is well.

>Could this be a power supply problem? (1st boot just primes it?)

if you find out, please let me (and the rest of us) know.

-bill
rose...@convex.com
--
Bill Rosenkranz |UUCP: {uunet,texsun}!convex!rosenkra
Convex Computer Corp. |ARPA: rose...@convex.com

[John Henders]

In <1992Mar24.0...@convex.com>, William Rosenkranz writes:

< problems with booting to a black screen deleted >

>
>if you find out, please let me (and the rest of us) know.

I had the same problm, so I used the old 6 inch drop fix, this
worked for a while, so when it happened again, I took it apart and
reseated all the chips. Haven't had a problem since.

--
John Henders jhen...@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca
I think your "evolutionary scale" needs an adjustment. Either
that, or you've got your thumb on it. -> (le...@apple.com)

[Erik Johnson]

In article <1992Mar24.0...@convex.com> rose...@convex.com (William Rosenkranz) writes:
>In article <12...@mcrware.UUCP> er...@microware.com (Erik Johnson) writes:
>>My Mega 4 just took a turn for worse and now powers up to a black screen when
>>it is cold. But, if I then reboot it is fine.
> ^^^^^^^
>
>i, too, have problems when my system is "cold". by cold here i mean powered
>down for 1/2 hr or more. the room is about 75 F. i figure it might need
>chip reseating (?) or might have a weak solder connection (the added
>heat causes some board to warp acceptably). it could also be in my megafile
>60, too. i dunno. wait 10-15 minutes, reboot, and all is well.
>

>if you find out, please let me (and the rest of us) know.
>
>-bill
>rose...@convex.com
>--
>Bill Rosenkranz |UUCP: {uunet,texsun}!convex!rosenkra
>Convex Computer Corp. |ARPA: rose...@convex.com

Hello. Well it seems my Mega is slowly healing itself. Just lately it has
been booting first try.

I have had 2 STEs die on me. In both cases I had put 4meg of simms in the
machines. It could be possible that the RAM was some sort of high drain
simms that wore out the power supplies. The broken machine symptoms were as
follows: power light goes on (I think), but the floppy never tries to spin
up. Either that, or I am a natural at killing computers.

[Geoff Swan]

>In article <12...@mcrware.UUCP> er...@microware.com (Erik Johnson) writes:
>My Mega 4 just took a turn for worse and now powers up to a black screen when
>it is cold. But, if I then reboot it is fine.
^^^^^^^

I have recently come across this problem with an STE I borrowed. The problem
seems to be in the power up reset circuitry. I haven't (as yet) dug out the
circuits to check this hypothesis, but it also seems to be voltage sensitive.
I was fooling around with some hardware hanging off the cartridge port and
had to wind the voltage up a shade to compensate for a bit more load on the
5V rail. On the STE main board I wound the voltage from 4.77V to 5.00V and
the problem was there just about every time I turned the machine on. Hit the
reset button and the machine decided to boot. Perhaps the PUR pulse is not
long enough? Anyhow I wound the volts back down to 4.80V and it now works
a lot better, although the problem is still there. I hope to check out the
circuits later this weekend and post any findings.

Sla/n go fo/ill,
Risky B.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Geoff Swan _--_|\ swa...@megadata.oz.au
Megadata Pty Ltd / \
2/37 Waterloo Rd, North Ryde, \_.--._/ +61-2-805-0899
NSW 2113, Australia. v (AH) +61-2-477-6519

[Leon Kemna]

>In article <1992Mar24.0...@convex.com> rose...@convex.com (William Rosenkranz) writes:
>>i, too, have problems when my system is "cold". by cold here i mean powered
>>down for 1/2 hr or more. the room is about 75 F. i figure it might need
>>chip reseating (?) or might have a weak solder connection (the added
>>heat causes some board to warp acceptably). it could also be in my megafile
>>60, too. i dunno. wait 10-15 minutes, reboot, and all is well.
>>
>>if you find out, please let me (and the rest of us) know.
>>
>>-bill
>>rose...@convex.com
>>--
>>Bill Rosenkranz |UUCP: {uunet,texsun}!convex!rosenkra
>>Convex Computer Corp. |ARPA: rose...@convex.com

My MEGA ST2 has never had any quirk about staring up untill I bought a
Harddrive (a megafile 44). I have had this computer for 3 years untill I bought
the HD so I am convinced it has something to do with the HD.
It will only boot after I reset (button) the computer, NEVER straight after
power-on (no matter how long I wait after switching on the HD and waiting
for the green light (=LED)).

PETER

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P.A. Donker Faculty of Architecture University of Technology Delft
The Netherlands
EMail ke...@duteca.et.tudelft.nl Europe
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