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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Artin on November 14, 2005, 03:22:25 AM
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Hi, I'm new to this, so please excuse me if I seem totally ignorant. I recently got an old Amiga 2000 with a Video Toaster and a G-force combo030 card with a bootable hard drive installed in it. It was kind of dusty and it took a few attempts to start up, but it finally booted up an started up the Toaster. Everything seemed to be working when I foolishly tried to reboot the system and now the thing will not start up while the card is installed. I can remove the card or remove the j2 jumper, disabling the card, and start up from a workbench disk, but nothing I have tried will allow the computer to boot with the card activated. Did I somehow fry the card by attempting to reboot? Is there a way to disable the autobooting function of the card or the hard drive. I'm pretty new to this, so I don't really know my way around too well. Thanks to anyone who might be able to help me out.
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Ahh dust... Likely a contributing factor in your troubles. Were it me, I would suggest taking the system apart and using a couple of cans of air on everything. Reseating the chips would also be helpful. Also make sure the RTC battery isn't showing the green fuzz of death. Clean all the board contacts with alcohol. Reassemble and see what happens. Since it worked once, a little cleanup and reseating should do the trick.
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Try reseating the autoboot rom on the lower right hand corner of the GForce030. You might also give a gently push on any dip chips on the board you see to make sure they are seated firmly in their sockets. Sometimes the best method is to use a small screwdrive and gently pry up dip-style chips and then reseat them in their sockets thereby making better contact. Also, the 86-pin edge connector on the GForce is a bit on the short side; make sure it seats itself fully in the cpu slot. A2000s are notorious for the rather flimsy case; perhaps yours shifted in transit and therefore the cpu card doesn't seat fully. Worth a shot.
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When it doesn't boot, exactly what is going on? Do you get a black screen, or another color? And, when you reset the machine = what was going on, if anything.
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First of all, I want to thank everybody for their replies. It's really great that people are willing to help out.
Originally, I had the Toaster booted up and it froze on me for some reason so I tried rebooting by pressing control and the 2 Amiga keys. Then the system refused to boot again unless I disabled the G-force.When I try to boot the system I get a black screen. I did try a few of the suggestions that I got from this forum and another one and I had a few glimpses of hope. I removed the ram chip and when I tried to boot I got a series of different colors on the screen starting with green, but then nothing else happened and when I tried to boot again I was back to the black screen so I replaced the ram chip. Then I tried reseating a couple of the DIP chips in the lower right corner of the card and pressing on a few of the other chips, and I reseated the scsi cable connecting the hard drive to the card. When I tried to boot up, it actually worked, and the Toaster started up, but it was frozen, so I shut the system down again and now it doesn't boot again. I think that on one attempt I got a few collors on the screen, but mostly it just goes black when it tries to boot. I've tried cleaning alot of the contacts with contact cleaner, but so far my success has been small. It was amazing to see that the information was still there in the hard drive though, and that the G-force had the potential of reviving. I thought that I had probably wiped it out. I am still trying. Thanks again for your help.