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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: duesi on May 13, 2003, 08:30:32 PM

Title: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: duesi on May 13, 2003, 08:30:32 PM
My A4000 recognizes my A4091 the CV64 and the X-Surf no more ! (in the early startup menu I see only the Cyberstorm) now...
Damn !  What happened to my main computer ?

Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: Zadoc on May 13, 2003, 08:36:11 PM
Ummm...do you have another Z2/3 Amiga to check those boards out?

I don't wan't to be a scaremonger, but I used to own an A4000 but I got rid of it after it destroyed a friend's Picasso II and my brand new GVP Spectrum...

My A4000 was pretty faulty and cost me alot of headaches and damages.  I moved to an A1200 tower setup and haven't looked back.

I hope your A4000 trouble isn't the same as mine was...
Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: on May 13, 2003, 08:41:26 PM
Hi.,

almost the same happend to me, only the turbo was present in the early startup; turned out to be the cybergraphics which was broke and somehow 'blocked' the remaining boards. after the CV removal everything was ok again...
Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: duesi on May 13, 2003, 08:44:36 PM
I have tested all Boards on a 1200 with Zorro
they have (Working) Status :-)
In my 4000 none of them is recognized :-(

Which chip controls the Zorro-Slots ?
Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: Effy on May 13, 2003, 08:44:52 PM
Try to remove your gfx card and Xsurf one by one and see what happens ...
Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: Zadoc on May 13, 2003, 08:51:08 PM
Quote
Which chip controls the Zorro-Slots ?


I may be wrong, but I think it's the Buster chip.

Revision 9 is a bad Buster revision for an A4000, the upgrade to a Revision 11 is recommended for better Z3 handling.
Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: seer on May 13, 2003, 09:08:08 PM
Try cleaning the contacts of the cards and the busboard (The contacts that connect to the motherboard and the zorro slots themselves)

Also reseat (sp?) the busboard maybe it has become lose (Usually only happens (rarely) if you open up your Miggy lots of times), and make sure all socketed chips on the motherboard and expansion cards are well seated.

If all else fails (offcourse do try one card at a time) remove the cyberstorm and replace it with the original CPU card if you still have it.
Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: duesi on May 13, 2003, 09:23:38 PM
All still done

I tried with my original 030 CPU-Board
removed the busboard reseated it...
The state now is:
 I removed all cards
And have the Kickstart Screen
Using 030 or CS060.


Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: seer on May 13, 2003, 09:26:45 PM
Well, could be that the buster is faulty, or the busboard itself... Only way to try that out is to swap those with another A4000...

None of the cards work alone in the A4000 in any slot ?
Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: duesi on May 13, 2003, 09:35:08 PM
@seer
Well interpreted .

The other strange thing is that:
When I power on and press the Mousebuttons
I takes about 30 Sec. until the Early startup screen appears and the Picture is grey at this moment
I have never seen this effect before !


Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: patrik on May 13, 2003, 09:50:27 PM
Check out this page where another guy has quite the same problem: http://wonkity.com/~wblock/a4000hard/excrdnot.html

Good luck!


/Patrik
Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: seer on May 13, 2003, 09:50:28 PM
Not sure if this can be done, never tried it, but if you boot the A4000 without the busboard, and you press both mouse buttons does the Early Boot Menu appear faster ?

If it still takes 30 seconds, I guess the problem is the motherboard and then the Buster chip (Bus contoller chip as said before).. Not sure how expensive Busters are these days, but I reckon they are hard to come by nowadays...  

What reb. Buster you have inside the Amy ?
Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: duesi on May 13, 2003, 09:52:49 PM
@seer
I have (or possibly had :-(  Rev.11 Buster
Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: seer on May 13, 2003, 09:59:05 PM
Have a look at Patrik's link, but if I had to, I send my A4000 in for repair, not dowhat's in the link myself... (Except I would replace the Buster myself and the busboard as well before sending her to a repair shop)
Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: Piru on May 13, 2003, 10:07:17 PM
Quote
When I power on and press the Mousebuttons
I takes about 30 Sec. until the Early startup screen appears and the Picture is grey at this moment
I have never seen this effect before !

I have. The system is probing for IDE devices. Plug in a IDE hd and the delay should be gone.
Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: Effy on May 14, 2003, 07:09:36 AM
I also have got an A4000 with all stuff on it but I don't use it now. The thing I wanna say dates from my dead A1200. It also needed 25 seconds to boot up and then show the OS 3.1 screen asking for a disc, even when the hd was connected with everything on it. I tried to use the easy way of finding the cause and tried disconnecting everything one by one until I finally ended up with a bare naked A1200 motherboard with no hd and no floppy and kickstart replaced by the original 3.0 and the powersupply from my tower replaced by a heavy duty A500 one. Result : still 25 seconds delay and then still the screen asking for a floppy. Now I noticed the following strange thing : I used a Blizzard 1230 with scsi and found out that, when everything was connected in the tower including Z4 and scsi hd's, that the scsi hd's were recognized in early startup (but they didn't have any boot priority) but not my ide hd. So in theory I could  still use my scsi hd's to run my computer keeping in mind that every reset will take at least 25 seconds ... I didn't want to take any risc and just got me another motherboard ...
Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: duesi on May 14, 2003, 07:40:25 AM
I will send my miggy out for repair..
Title: Re: A4000 sees my Zorro Boards no more !
Post by: destro on May 14, 2003, 09:17:52 AM
Hello there. My amiga is an a-4000, I had a similair
problem, it turn out that the version 9 Super Buster was dying on me, i replaced it with a version 11 super buster,
fixed my problem and have been fine ever since.

Check your Super Buster Chip fto see what version it is
and probably should replace it.

Take care.