$fff|1-+ A4000 update + $fbe|1-+ by Amida + $fbd A4000 problems ============== The A4000 was unboxed since the last time in Easter. I decided to test and use this 410MB SCSI hard drive (just as a boot partition) which was given to me by last year's tenants, they said the hard drive could not be formatted on their PCs but I had no such problem with my A4000 :), only the odd bad blocks was detected. WB3.0 and Dopus was installed which was fully loaded on boot up in only a matter of a split second. It was impossible to tell if the hard drive was actually doing something whilst booting! But yes its FAST! A SCSI hard drive makes all the difference! Later after configuring my WB the entire screen crashed before changing to red. This experience has happened before which only occurs when the 040 processor board is unseated from the main CPU slot. On the following day the 040 board was disconnected then reconnected which normally solves the problem. But once powered, the same red screen was displayed! It wasn't what I expected! No matter how many times the 040 was reseated into it's slot the red screen could not be bypassed. I exchanged the 040 board for the 030 (which I treasured for years for backward compatibility - although it had no use to me whatsoever), the 030 booted with no problems, that quickly revealed that the 040 processor board was damaged but how?! The SCSI Hard drive was removed immediately and never to be used ever again! I didn't think the SCSI HD could cause any problem as my A4000 has the lastest revision of the Buster chip onboard. This also meant that the chip can cope with any device plugged into the Zorro slots with no bugs, unlike the previous revision. A test was conducted to ensure that the motherboard was working, all devices have been stripped, even the duughter board (Zorro slots) was disconnected, all power cables, all RAM, everything disconnected leaving only the 030 CPU, 2MB chip, df0:. About 5-10 seconds from powering the machine crashes even during the Kickstart screen!! The system crash was not normal and happens at random intervals! It behaved in the same manner as the A600. The A600 had problems of the overheated 020 chip onboard the A620. This could not be the cause of system crash on the A4000! I got out of order before leaving the A4000 untouched for days. Note: The buster chip plays a vital part for controlling the Zorro III daugter board. There were two versions since CBM released the A4000 desktops. Initial release was version 9 (contains bugs), second release was version 11. A4000s with V9 had to be returned for the chip replacement. "Depression" ============ I left the A4000 to one side knowing that nothing could be done about it, the A4000 and the 040 was dead, the A600 still functions but has already served what it had to offer during my year in London, now I only view it as a back up device if the A4000 fails. I need the A4000 back and running! It was depressing because it leads towards thinking about repairs, costs, locating spare parts, support, buying a new A4000, selling my old A4000, its just a pain in the arse! Being an A4000 owner can be burdening, requires greater responsibility and maintaining, breakdown for A4000s is very common. Sometimes I wished I kept my A1200. At these times I can only think of giving up computers and go elsewhere... That way could relieve some depression. Tests and more tests ==================== Days have passed, the A4000 was powered on, I booted into WB from floppy and the A4000 has managed to work without failing. I left the Amiga as it were attempting to have it working for hours recharging the internal clock battery. I saved the clock config. to the current time which crashes! Everytime I booted the machine from cold the date/system clock always displays 10-Aug-97 00:00:28. Even no matter how many times I have saved to the clock, to allow the clock to operate I had to leave the Amiga switched on, but that makes it no different to a computer with no clock! Once the A4000 is powered off the clock reverts back to 10-Aug-97.... The clock was always the worrying factor in rechargining and operating, I always remembered this fact "Never leave your clock battery uncharged" (i.e. never to leave your machine switched off so long that the internal clock battery dies!). On the following day I examined the physical condition of the clock battery - and on one of the sides there appeared to be some formation, a crust (or sugar like) but green residue crumbling along the side! It came to no big surprise, but I still can't understand how an internal clock/batt. could cause system crashes and killed the 040! I ripped it out (as gently AP) from the main motherboard. Fair enough I can find a new and replacement clock battery from a PC battery manufacture. I was still not convinced that the battery alone could cause all this damage (only if it leaks), I wouldn't expect the system to work at 100% (though it was worth a try). A4000 not working very satisfactory =================================== The clock battery was removed, every device was plugged in which did not result in anymore errors but it survived longer than opposed to leaving the clk/batt. plugged in, a few extra minutes of survival until crashed again! Hope has faded! I had no disk based software to test apart from Workbench, some utils etc. I tested one of my old favourites "Tower of Babel". The demo was then left on for over 5 hours and the A4000 was running cool. But confusion strucked as the system crashed during boot up from the master copy of WB. Different errors occur at different stages, sometimes WB boots, and sometimes it doesn't. Effectively meaning its behaving like a PC. So! Tower of Babel fully works for hours. Workbench and the Kickstart screen does not!? Where to find problems ====================== Many consideration are needed to take into account when dealing with A4000 faults. The following can cause faults: 040 CPU: The 040 CPU board is easily unseated from the CPU slot. Overheating: Is there anything preventing the air to escape? Check the fan and ventillation. Overheating causes system errors, if problem is left unsolved then you could easily fry the chips! Jumpers: Some jumpers, if not set correctly could cause system crashes. If the settings are not set correctly for the 040 processor, you can permanantly damage the motherboard. Clock Battery: Making sure that the battery is not underused when your machine is left unused for a long period of time. Power Supply: Is there enough internal power to drive all the devices and peripherals? Zorro devices: Check the Zorro devices/connectors and even the zorro card itself for defects. Theres many more such as the Hard disk and floppy controllers, memory SIMMS, physical defects - loose crystals and so on... Are the problems fully solved? ============================== Just contacted Wizard Developments about offering to repair my A4000. I talked to the receptionist on my cordless phone whilst dismantling the A4000. The techs. were busy I left them my contact details as they said they will call back but didn't, it is now after 18:00. I was quite patient as I will allow more time to make further tests on the Amiga. Now with all the A4000 peripheral and devices removed, only left was motherboard, fan, df0:, keyboard, mouse, 2MB chip, so far it was left with the kickstart screen visible as it was a common failure. I made sure that the FDD clicked constantly, monitoring the screen without causing GURU. Nothing had happened for the past hour on KS. I booted into WB, removed the floppy. Returned in two hours and the the monitor showed the same WB screen with the windows arranged, unchanged as it were two hours ago. That convinced me that the A4000 is now in good working order. You can forget about repairs with a big sigh of relief! But how could I gaurantee this fault will not reoccur? Well soon I will ordering a 6.5GB hard drive to see my A4000 back into order. With a hard drive this test will prove more effective as more time will be spent on the A4000 alone. So then! My only possible suspect would be the fault of the FASTRAM. It became more convincing when I tested each individual SIMM which resulted in the crashes on certain SIMMs. The clue of bad memory could trace the cause of why the 040 died but who knows why? And technically how did the clock/batt. do to cause problems? But it's not over yet! ====================== Few days later by using some utils which I extracted from the Aminet: Amnesia, Memcheck and Memtest showed no signs of memory errors!? Am I really testing the memory correctly? How come now with all the SIMMS in place my A4000 is not dying? But once the SCSI II controller card is inserted back into the Zorro now it crashes, how come? I then stripped out all RAM but leaving the SCSI controller in place, it dies!! Solution? ========= The RAM and/or SCSI controller could now be the fault. Unfortunately my current 040 has no slots for SIMMs. SIMMS must be placed on the motherboard. The possible solution (if only the motherboard has no faults) is to buy myself a Cyberstorm II or PPC, by a new 32MB SIMM to be situated on the processor board. The Cyberstorm/PPC will also have an optional or already equipped with a SCSI controller to run my Tape drive. But what are the prices? The minimum cost is £500+ for a PPC, 604e/150Mhz not including 68k CPU. Shame the 603e/150Mhz is unavilable for the A4000 (or is it?). The prices seem reasonable on all the PPCs only if I'm actually working, now that I don't it seem too dear. I had already planned for a Cybervision PPC but the Hard drive comes first, what next? A new processor upgrade with RAM? Its very depressing, I had no plans to buy a processor upgrade but no my 040 stopped working, all 4x4MB SIMMS (16MBs) are not working properly, then the SCSI II controller, don't you think the main motherboard is the cause to all problems? Money will be a major problem this year as I have a £1500 overdraft to cover by end of July 1998. The money which was made during my industrial work only barely helped me survive, considering the costs of living in London. Now my room is completely filled with chips, circuit boards, media devices, CDROM drives, ribbons, power leads screws, mounting brackets etc. Now I've moved everything into one pile as I need to get some rest now... Good news or bad news, more updates in the next month... Amida/CrN. $ff0[Trust Amida to make a story out of a hardware problem. Hehe. Seriously though, we all encounter hardware problems at some point which make us want to scream and pull our hair out. I seem to experience it every day when my PC's boots up. So why not share your experiences and hardware tips with us? Alternatively, if you have any reviews of hardware such as computers, electronic gadgets and household devices, then please feel free to share. Kei] $bf0 end