GVP Spectrum defective - replacement advice?

[Michele31415]

Now that my A2000 seems to be working again I thought I'd try throwing in my GVP Spectrum EGS 28/24 so I could get some decent graphics out of it.  Sadly though the preboot expansion board diagnostics report it as "defective".  So does anyone have a recommendation for something more or less equivalent that's still available today?  I'd like to be able to drive my Samsung 1600x1200 LCD monitor in some video mode greater than the native 2000 supplies.

There's a similar thread here http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=78260 but that's six years old now and they never came to any definite conclusions there.

[Michele31415]

Thanks.  I cleaned the card edge connectors but that didn't help.  I can't easily move it to a different slot because the only free slot I have left is the leftmost Zorro+PC Bridgeboard slot.  But I did put the Deneb in that slot and it was reported as working.

Then I looked at my old post https://forum.amiga.org/index.php?topic=62988.0 where I apparently had trouble with this board incident to 2632 issues nine years ago (completely forgot about that).  Apparently, the Spectrum has 2MB of RAM on it (4x 4C16257) and reported 2M in the showconfig I did in the previous post.

So that puts me over the Zorro II 8M limit* since I already have 4M on the GVP 2000 HC+8 and 4M on the A2630,  But would that be enough to cause the preboot diagnostics to report the Spectrum as defective?  It looks like it was working enough to show up in showconfig last time around.

The ZZ9000 looks like exactly what I want.  If I can't get the Spectrum to work, that may be the solution.  There is currently nothing at all on Ebay.  Do you have a pointer to a kit for this?  My search turned up nothing.

* Maybe. http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/impact2000hc8 says about the GVP 2000:

accepts SIMMs in groups of two, giving 2, 4, 6 or 8 MB configurations
this memory is technically not Zorro II memory - data is DMA-d from the HD as normal, but not via the Zorro bus for added speed

so then I'd only have 6 MB (4 on the 2630 and 2 on the Specturm).

[Michele31415]

Thanks.  I cleaned the card edge connectors but that didn't help.  I can't easily move it to a different slot because the only free slot I have left is the leftmost Zorro+PC Bridgeboard slot.  But I did put the Deneb in that slot and it was reported as working.

Then I looked at my old post https://forum.amiga.org/index.php?topic=62988.0 where I apparently had trouble with this board incident to 2632 issues nine years ago (completely forgot about that).  Apparently, the Spectrum has 2MB of RAM on it (4x 4C16257) and reported 2M in the showconfig I did in the previous post.

So that puts me over the Zorro II 8M limit* since I already have 4M on the GVP 2000 HC+8 and 4M on the A2630,  But would that be enough to cause the preboot diagnostics to report the Spectrum as defective?  It looks like it was working enough to show up in showconfig last time around.

The ZZ9000 looks like exactly what I want.  If I can't get the Spectrum to work, that may be the solution.  There is currently nothing at all on Ebay.  Do you have a pointer to a kit for this?  My search turned up nothing.

* Maybe. http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/impact2000hc8 says about the GVP 2000:

accepts SIMMs in groups of two, giving 2, 4, 6 or 8 MB configurations
this memory is technically not Zorro II memory - data is DMA-d from the HD as normal, but not via the Zorro bus for added speed

so then I'd only have 6 MB (4 on the 2630 and 2 on the Specturm).

UPDATE:
I thought maybe the expansion board diagnostics are confused so I tried booting the system with the Spectrum in it, and it worked:

1.FS3:> showconfig
PROCESSOR:      CPU 68030/68882fpu/68030mmu
CUSTOM CHIPS:   ECS NTSC Agnus (id=$0030), ECS Denise (id=$00FC)
VERS:   Kickstart version 40.63, Exec version 40.10, Disk version 45.3
RAM:    Node type $A, Attributes $605 (FAST), at $200000-$9FFFFF (8.0 meg)
        Node type $A, Attributes $703 (CHIP), at $400-$1FFFFF (~2.0 meg)
BOARDS:
 CBM A2630 68030/RAM card:   Prod=514/81($202/$51) (@$200000 4meg Mem)
 Board + ROM (HD?) (Great Valley Products):   Prod=2017/11($7E1/$B) (@$E90000 64K)
 RAM (Great Valley Products):   Prod=2017/10($7E1/$A) (@$600000 4meg Mem)
 Board (Individual Computers):   Prod=4626/23($1212/$17) (@$EA0000 64K)
 Board (unidentified):   Prod=3643/18($E3B/$12) (@$EB0000 64K)
 Board + ROM (HD?) (unidentified):   Prod=3643/19($E3B/$13) (@$EC0000 64K)
 Board (Viona Development):   Prod=2193/1($891/$1) (@$0 2meg)
1.FS3:>

So at least something is working.  Now I have to make a jumper cable to connect it to the Amiga's video out since I can't find the one that supposedly came with the Spectrum.

[Michele31415]

Heads up, the ZZ9000 has 4MB mem in Zorro2 mode.

Chris

Thanks, that's good to know.  I guess I could just pull the 4MB out of the GVP 2000 in that case.

[Michele31415]

IF you have a PC Bridgeboard, that would also require some 4mb free Zorro II memory space.

Anh, I should update my profile.   I do have a Bridgeboard but it is not currently installed.

I think that you have 4mb + 4mb + 4mb + 2mb, wich is way too much 100% sure would cause troubles.

Right now I *think* I have 4MB on the 2630 and 4MB on the GVP 2000.  The 2MB on the Spectrum is supposedly not Z-II RAM.  If I'm reading the showconfig right, the "(@$0 2meg)" there means 2MB starting at address 0.  Then there are three chunks of 64K from the Denise and x-surf at $EA0000, $EB0000, and $EC0000.  I'm going to solder up a connector and try installing the Spectrum software.  If that doesn't work, I'll remove the GVP 2000 RAM.

[Michele31415]

I think that first thing you should do it test it only with 2630.

If you mean "don't enable the 2632" then yes, that's the plan.

Just out of curiosity, can I use the Spectrum without that 23 - 9 pin jumper cable?  It's not clear form the manual.  They talk about a "multi-monitor" setup but they seem to mean more than one Spectrum in the same machine, not a VGA monitor on the Spectrum and my NTSC CRT on the Amiga video port.

[Michele31415]

Oh, that's good to know so I decided to try it without the jumper.  I have my CRT connected to the Amiga 23 pin port and my LCD connected to the Spectrum VGA out.   I installed the software and it said it was successful.  But when I rebooted I got a pop-up on teh CRT about "Only half LEGS installed" and an error in the startup-sequence:

Error: unknown video node in: LINK  LEGSa:mux.map2video LEGSa.monitor

There's no signal at all on the LCD.  The startup-sequence now looks like this:

FS3:S> type startup-sequence
PsdLoadModule DEVS:input.device QUIET ;Added by Poseidon-Installer
; $VER: Startup-Sequence_HardDrive 45.1 (25.11.00)
; Startup-Sequence for hard drive systems

If Exists C:IDEFix
  C:IDEFix
EndIf

C:SetPatch QUIET ;  NOROMUPDATE

C:Version >NIL:
C:AddBuffers >NIL: DF0: 15
FailAt 21

C:MakeDir RAM:T RAM:Clipboards RAM:ENV RAM:ENV/Sys
C:Copy >NIL: ENVARC: RAM:ENV ALL NOREQ

Resident >NIL: C:Assign PURE
Resident >NIL: C:Execute PURE

Assign >NIL: ENV: RAM:ENV
Assign >NIL: T: RAM:T
Assign >NIL: CLIPS: RAM:Clipboards
Assign >NIL: REXX: S:
Assign >NIL: PRINTERS: DEVS:Printers
Assign >NIL: KEYMAPS: DEVS:Keymaps
Assign >NIL: LOCALE: SYS:Locale
Assign >NIL: LIBS: SYS:Classes ADD
Assign >NIL: HELP: LOCALE:Help DEFER


BindDrivers
C:Mount >NIL: DEVS:DOSDrivers/~(#?.info)

C:LoadMonDrvs

;IF EXISTS DEVS:Monitors
;  IF EXISTS DEVS:Monitors/VGAOnly
;    DEVS:Monitors/VGAOnly
;  EndIF

;  C:List >NIL: DEVS:Monitors/~(#?.info|VGAOnly) TO T:M LFORMAT "DEVS:Monitors/%s"
;  Execute T:M
;  C:Delete >NIL: T:M
;EndIF

SetEnv Language "english"
SetEnv Workbench $Workbench
SetEnv Kickstart $Kickstart
UnSet Workbench
UnSet Kickstart

C:AddDataTypes REFRESH QUIET
;BEGIN EGS
stack 20000
c:assign egs: FS3:egs
c:assign  libs: egs:libs add
; call EGS config program
egs:c/NoCacheZorro3 >nil:
egs:c/egsconfig file egs:s/EGS.config
;END EGS
C:IPrefs

; echo "starting 2632..."
; C:2632 -r
; echo "Back from 2632"
C:ConClip

Path >NIL: RAM: C: SYS:Utilities SYS:Rexxc SYS:System S: SYS:Prefs SYS:WBStartup SYS:Tools SYS:Tools/Commodities

SYS:System/REXXMast >NIL:

echo "STart user-startup..."
IF EXISTS S:User-Startup
  Execute S:User-Startup
EndIF

Resident Execute REMOVE
Resident Assign REMOVE

C:LoadWB
EndCLI >NIL:
6.FS3:S>

I have a devs/monitors directory but it's empty.

Here's my installation log:

6.FS3:EGS> type install_log_file
******* Installation Log *******
User Level: AVERAGE
Pretend: No

Run Program: "c:cpu nocache nofastrom noburst nocopyback >ram:env/cpu"
Run Program: "c:cpu >nil: nodatacache "

>
 On which PARTITION should the EGS drawer be installed?

Ask Drawer: Result was "FS3:".
Copy file "bin" to "T:".

>Which pieces of EGS do you wish to install?
Ask Options: User selected following options...
  EGS-Basics            900K
  EGS-Prefs             500K
  EGS-Utilities/Tools   300K
  EGS-Extras            200K
  EGS-Pictures          900K
  EGS-Hooks             150K
  EGS-Paint             250K
  EGS-RecoverDisk       1 Disk
Run Program: "T:Bin/lz -2 -m e Spectrum_Disk_1:EGSSys.LHA FS3:"
Run Program: "T:Bin/lz -2 -m e Spectrum_Disk_1:EGSColon.LHA FS3:"
Run Program: "T:Bin/lz -2 -m e Spectrum_Disk_2:EGSBlanker.LHA FS3:"

>
How many Monitors are you using ?

Ask Choice: User selected "One Monitor - connected to Spectrum. ".
Run Program: "copy SYS:WBStartup/#?EGS#?.info SYS:WBStartup.backup all"
Run Program: "delete SYS:WBStartup/#?EGS#?.info"

>
 Which Monitor you are using for the Spectrum-Board ?

Ask Choice: User selected "Standard S-VGA".
Run Program: "copy T:bin/SVGA to FS3:egs/monitors/Prefs/LEGSa.mux.map2video"
Run Program: "copy T:bin/EGS-Amiga.info SYS:WBStartup/"
Run Program: "echo ";*N; $VER: EGS.config 5.0 (22.9.93) by MvK *N;*N" >FS3:egs/s/EGS.Config"
Run Program: "echo FILE egs:s/LEGSa.config >>FS3:egs/s/EGS.Config"
Run Program: "echo FILE egs:s/LEGSa+AMIGA.config >>FS3:egs/s/EGS.Config"
Run Program: "echo FILE egs:s/EGSWB.config >>FS3:egs/s/EGS.Config"
Run Program: "copy T:bin/#?.config to FS3:egs/s"
Run Program: "T:Bin/lz -2 -m e Spectrum_Disk_2:EGSPrefs.LHA FS3:"
Run Program: "T:Bin/lz -2 -m e Spectrum_Disk_3:EGSUtilities.LHA FS3:"
Run Program: "T:Bin/lz -2 -m e Spectrum_Disk_3:EGSTools.LHA FS3:"
Run Program: "T:Bin/lz -2 -m e Spectrum_Disk_3:EGSEnv-Archive.LHA sys:Prefs/"
Run Program: "T:Bin/lz -2 -m e Spectrum_Disk_3:EGSPresets.LHA sys:Prefs/"
Run Program: "T:Bin/lz -2 -m e Spectrum_Disk_3:EGSExtras.LHA FS3:"
Run Program: "T:Bin/lz -2 -m e Spectrum_Disk_3:EGSPaint.LHA FS3:"
Run Program: "T:Bin/lz -2 -m e Spectrum_Disk_4:EGSHooks.LHA FS3:"
Run Program: "T:Bin/lz -2 -m e Spectrum_Disk_4:EGSPictures.LHA FS3:"
Run Program: "copy T:bin/EGS.info to FS3:"
Run Program: "copy T:bin/ECON#? SYS:devs/DOSDrivers/"

>
Your startup-sequence will be stored as startup-sequence.backup and a
new one will be installed in its place.

This is necessary because EGS
must register its screenmodes in the Display Database *BEFORE* the first
screen display is generated.

The main change will be to execute EGS
initialization programs right beforethe IPrefs program is run and any
screens are generated.

Ask Question: Result was "Yes".
Run Program: "T:Bin/mkscript  FS3: NOFA"
Run Program: "c:echo  > T:bin/startup-sequence  stack  20000 "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  ECHO  EGS-Recover Disk   "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  assign t:  ram: "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  assign envarc:  FS3:prefs/env-archive  "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  assign LOCALE:  FS3:locale  "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  assign FONTS:   FS3:fonts  "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  ECHO  Reset the WB-Screenmode ? (Y/N)"
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  ASK -------------------------------:  "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  IF WARN "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  delete  >nil: envarc:sys/Screenmode.prefs"
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  ENDIF "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  ECHO  Reset the EGS-Screenmode ? (Y/N)  "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  ASK --------------------------------:  "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  delete >nil: envarc:egs/Screenmode.Prefs"
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  ENDIF"
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  ECHO  Please REMOVE the floppy disk "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  ECHO  and REBOOT your machine OR hit RETURN for WB !"
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  execute Como.startup "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  ECHO  "
Run Program: "c:echo >> T:bin/startup-sequence  ECHO  "
Run Program: "copy T:bin/startup-sequence to QDH0:s"

>
        It is possible to start EGS now!


Select Start!

If not EGS will be installed
automatically after
            you reboot your machine.


               Select Quit!

Ask Question: Result was "Start".
Run Program: "assign  EGS: FS3:egs"
Run Program: "assign libs: egs:libs add"
Run Program: "copy envarc:EGS to env:egs all"
Run Program: "egs:c/EGSConfig FILE egs:s/EGS.Config"
Run Program: "egs:c/EGSConfig LOAD egs:driver/EGSAmigaDriver"
Run Program: "delete T:bin all"
Exiting script...
6.FS3:EGS>

What am I doing wrong?

[Michele31415]

One thing you are clearly doing is relying on the bundled EGS software for RTG rather than Picasso 96.

OK, so I downloaded and installed Picasso96.  Still doesn't work.  It doesn't throw any errors, just nothing happens - my usual WB appears on the CRT but no video on the LCD.  I rebooted and opened Picasso96Mode in Prefs but all the settings in there are grayed out no matter what resolution I choose.  So I figured maybe I'm missing a monitor definition.  I installed LCD-Monitor too but the first thing the readme file there says  ". Copy "monitor.LCDs" in your PicassoModeTNG-directory."  Uh, well I haven't got a "PicassoModeTNG-directory".  Now what?

I think what I really need is a Picasso96 for Dummies book.  The documentation that's included just isn't doing it for me.

[Michele31415]

Thinking about it, Spectrum cards are a bit long in the tooth, caps maybe?

Chris

From what I can tell looking at the card, the caps are not the failure-prone electrolytic kind. So while it’s possible, I think it’s unlikely they’re the failure point. This looks like a software config problem now.

Yes, they're plastic.  There's a post somewhere where someone showed a photo where C57 had literally exploded off the board.  There was nothing left in that spot but two solder pads.  I checked both of mine.  They're neither shorted nor open and my capacitance meter seems to be trying to read them but it doesn't work very well in-circuit.  I don't think they're bad.

[Michele31415]

First thing to do with P96 is choose attach to board from top of its screen.

Here, it is german, but it show to do it.

https://youtu.be/6HM1qUZGQig?t=589

Thanks - that helped a lot.  However, when I run Picasso96Mode, it opens with "not attached: Village-64" in the Settings panel.  I followed the video and dragged a new setting into the Seetings panel, then went to the right-click "Attach setting to" drop-down menu.  But the drop-down in the video lists three items, "No Board, Board 0, and Board 1".  Mine only has "No board".

But when I do showconfig, it has
Board (Viona Development):   Prod=2193/1($891/$1) (@$0 2meg)
in it, so at least that seems to think a Picasso board is there.

So something is screwy here.  Say, am I supposed to have a "spectrum.device" or some similar name somewhere?  Because I looked in SYS:Devs and see nothing at all like that there.

UPDATE:
Answering my own question, I see a thread here https://forum.amiga.org/index.php?topic=70917.90 where someone says "Went back thru all my procedure.... had the GBAPII++.card file in Libs:
Should be in LIBS:Picasso96/"

So I looked in SYS:Libs/Picasso96 and sure enough, there *is* a Spectrum.card file there.  But still nothing in the Picasso96Prefs drop-down.

[Michele31415]

Anyone near by and could test it to you? Generally, this kind of hardware doesn't get binned, they get repaired.

If this is in fact a hardware problem then I'd dearly love to see it repaired, not even so much for my financial investment in it as for its value as an historical artifact in the Amiga ecosystem.  Unfortunately I don't know anyone personally who still has an Amiga who could help me with this :-(  I'm open to suggestions.

[Michele31415]

Where are you located? If somebody here is near?

Upstate NY.

*However* - today having finally run out of other ideas I jumpered out 2MB of the RAM on the GVP 2000 controller, leaving it with just 2MB active.  Then I did a L+R boot and checked the Expansion Diagnostics.  This time the Spectrum was listed as "Working"!  So I booted the disk, ran Picasso96Prefs, and this time the board showed up the the "Attach to" drop-down menu!  I had to fiddle around with the multitude of options there to find a mode that didn't generate a "mode not supported" message on my LCD but I finally got it to display a beautiful color test pattern in 640x480.

Now I need to figure out how to see anything more than that test pattern there.

So I'm a doofus.  I was advised very early on here that it was an 8 MB RAM limit problem but for some reason I didn't investigate that.  With 2 MB of RAM removed elsewhere, the board now seems to be working fine.  It's always the last thing you check, isn't it.  I'm still kicking myself.

Bottom line: a GVP EGS 28/24 Spectrum board will be reported as Defective in the pre-boot diagnostics even if there's nothing wrong with it at all, if you don't have enough Zorro-II space free to avoid going over 8 MB.  The Spectrum has either 1 or 2 MB on board (depending on if you got the economy or deluxe version) and it *does* count as Zorro-II RAM.

Many thanks to everyone who helped on this one.

[Michele31415]

I think I'm getting close here.  I went into Prefs -> ScreenMode.  All of the new Spectrum modes are there now but if I select any of them and click "Use" I get a pop-up "Intuition is attempting to reset the Workbench screen.  Please close all windows, except drawers."  Well all I have open is enough drawers to run the Prefs tool.  I closed everything that I could close but when I say Retry I get the same message.  All I can do is select Cancel which leaves me right back where I started.

[Michele31415]

Ah ha - thanks.  It was ClickToFront.  (I found it by running Exchange and then removing items one at a time until it worked).   I now have a real full-color Workbench running on my LCD.  I'm still playing around with modes,sizes, centering, etc. but by God it's working.  Yay!

UPDATE:
I now have 1024x768 16 color working and it boots directly to the LCD.  I must say this is extremely cool :-)

[Michele31415]

Ah ha - thanks.  It was ClickToFront.

As far as I'm aware, that's not possible. ClickToFront doesn't create a window. It must have been something else. Great that it's working now, but be prepared to encounter that message again in the future.

It's possible I was mistaken.  In any case it's only an issue if I want to change resolutions.  Once I have something to my liking I won't need to do that again.