Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: shaf on August 08, 2003, 03:37:55 AM
-
Hello,
I just bought the Elbox Mirage A4000 Pro W Mediator Tower kit.
I was shipped an Power Computing Power Tower Mark II.
The Documentation of the Tower is horrendous., most of the instructions don't make sense or have parts missing.
Has anyone else had problems setting up the Power Tower Mark II.
Thanks
Shaf
-
Not familiar with the Power Tower Mark II. Are they like the Mirage Pro?
If they are, you can use the installation guide HERE (http://www.elbox.com/manuals/mirage_4000_pro_folder/mirage_4000_pro_ig_1.html).
-
connect it to this screen
www.fogscreen.com
-
Looks like someone is in for some fun! :-D
-
I have also bought the Mirage 4000 Pro tower, but I didn't have any problems installing my motherboard in the tower.
But I have a problem with my audio sockets. The sound is very low when I use the PSU from the Tower, but when I use my original PSU from my A4000 desktop, there are no problems. Have anyone done a hack on this tower, to make their audio listenable?
-
I have the older (pre-mirage) Power Tower 4000. I had absolutely no trouble installing it (apart from the PCI cards not quite lining up, which is fixed in the Mark II, IIRC).
I think the Mirage is called the "Power Tower 4000 MkII" if you buy it from Power Computing.
-
shaf wrote:
Hello,
I just bought the Elbox Mirage A4000 Pro W Mediator Tower kit.
I was shipped an Power Computing Power Tower Mark II.
The Documentation of the Tower is horrendous., most of the instructions don't make sense or have parts missing.
Has anyone else had problems setting up the Power Tower Mark II.
Thanks
Shaf
I have the Power Tower MK-II for my A4000. You can see my setup at the following link - http://mikerye.homeip.net/about_my_computers.html (http://mikerye.homeip.net/about_my_computers.html).
I had no trouble installing my A4000 into that tower case, with the exception of the CyberVision PPC video card. The 3.5 inch internal drive bays get in the way of installing that gfx card. I had to do some hacking with my trusty hack saw to get it to fit.
What specific questions do you have?
-
Oh wait... it is a MkII that I have. I didn't have any problems.
-
doctorq wrote:
But I have a problem with my audio sockets. The sound is very low when I use the PSU from the Tower, but when I use my original PSU from my A4000 desktop, there are no problems. Have anyone done a hack on this tower, to make their audio listenable?
I had this exact same problem with my Power Tower MK-II and sound. It took an entire day of searching for it with multiple disassemblings and re-assemblings involved. My dealer (Raymond Computer in St. Paul, Minnesota) tore down the machine all the way to replacing the motherboard with a spare board at least four times. The problem happened every time, even with changing the motherboard. Finally, the girlfriend of his (Ray, the owner of Raymond Computer) son, who happens to be quite adept with electronics, suggested that the grounding for one of the power sources could be gone or intermittent.
Sidebar: Sound from the Amiga motherboard is produced by operational amplifiers (Op-Amps). The Amiga sound Op-Amps require both + voltage and (-) voltage, with their respective grounding, in order to work properly. So, after the final disassembly and re-assembly, Ray and I started tracing power lines on the motherboard.
Back to the main story, and the solution. It turns out that the -12 volt ground line was 99% intermittent on my motherboard. Very rarely sound would work properly, but usually it would not. We traced the intermittence all the way back to the main motherboard power connector. It's the rectangular one with either six or eight wires (I think six). The connector provided from the power supply in the Power Tower MK-II is a cheap piece of plastic junk. The wires in the connector, if they encounter any resistance, can be pushed backwards out of the connector itself if it's being plugged in awkwardly (i.e. not pushed exactly straight in). That would cause the wire itself to not be physically connected to the motherboard.
Since your computer otherwise works normally with the exception of the sound, most likely your -12 volt ground line has become disconnected like mine did. Here's another tidbit of information. The sound and the Amiga motherboard built-in serial port are linked to the same -12 volt power and ground lines. If your sound doesn't work, then your built-in serial port should not work either, or it will be very unreliable. Even the parallel port might be affected, too, but I'm not sure on that one. I don't know how reliable of a test that is, but on my machine, the serial port did not work at all either along with the sound. Once I fixed the -12 volt ground problem, both the sound and the serial port are working again.
To sum up, disassemble your Power Tower MK-II down to the point where you can get at the main power connector for the motherboard. Use a pair of needle nose pliers to grab onto each of the power connector's wires individually. Gently wiggle and shove the wires back into the connector (and, hence, back into the motherboard receptacles). Make sure you don't slip and bounce the pliers off the motherboard itself cause you might damage something if you do. My bet is that you will feel and see one of the wires moving into the connector/board farther than the others. If so, then that's likely the cause of your sound problem. Re-assemble the tower and give it a try.
Please let us all know if the above information helped you out. Thanks! :-)
-
FYI: -12VDC is a power source, not a ground. There IS a big difference to that. Ground is simply 0 volts.
-
Thank you very much for your information.
After I posted the subject, I also started pulling everything apart and reassemble everything all over. I came to the same conclusion as you, that one of the wires aren't working correct. My problems are with a yellow and blue wire in the ATX-AT adaptor from Elbox. I have written an email to them because it's their responsiblility to get it working.
I can't see anything broken in the adaptor, and I can't get the plugs out :-( If I could I would have used the old connector.
Anyone knows how much a new adaptor costs?
-
DanDude wrote:
FYI: -12VDC is a power source, not a ground. There IS a big difference to that. Ground is simply 0 volts.
Yah.... I know that, but each individual power source in the Amiga has its own ground. +5 has its own ground, +12 has its own ground, and -12 has its own ground. That is why I specifically said the -12 volt ground line in my previous post. :-)
-
doctorq wrote:
Thank you very much for your information.
After I posted the subject, I also started pulling everything apart and reassemble everything all over. I came to the same conclusion as you, that one of the wires aren't working correct. My problems are with a yellow and blue wire in the ATX-AT adaptor from Elbox. I have written an email to them because it's their responsiblility to get it working.
I can't see anything broken in the adaptor, and I can't get the plugs out :-( If I could I would have used the old connector.
Anyone knows how much a new adaptor costs?
Did you try wiggling each individual wire back into the connector like I suggested in my original post ??? Or is the problem somewhere else not in the connector? Is the problem in the power supply itself ???
-
I can't get the wires any further down the sockets, so I'm sure it's a problem with the PSU and/or the ATX-AT converter...
BTW, is the audio lower in A4000 than in A1200? I have an A1200, and as i forgot to turn my speakers down I got a chock when I started an MP3 on the A1200. It sounds to me as if the sound on the A1200 is way higher than on the A4000, even though I wriggled my wires and got the highest sound possible on the A4000?
-
Following u my Original post. I did get an answer from Power Computing. There were steps missing in my copy of the Documentation.
It seens that SoftwareHut is shipping Marige Pro Kits with the Power Tower Mark II because they are not getting the Mirage Towers soon enough from elbox.
I actually prefer the Power Tower Mark II because it seems to have more internal bays.
-
doctorq wrote:
I can't get the wires any further down the sockets, so I'm sure it's a problem with the PSU and/or the ATX-AT converter...
BTW, is the audio lower in A4000 than in A1200? I have an A1200, and as i forgot to turn my speakers down I got a chock when I started an MP3 on the A1200. It sounds to me as if the sound on the A1200 is way higher than on the A4000, even though I wriggled my wires and got the highest sound possible on the A4000?
No, the audio from the A4000 should not be "lower" than the A1200. It probably is on yours because of the audio problem you have in the first place with the A4000.