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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: efrenmgp on July 13, 2010, 08:42:41 PM

Title: Strange behavior Picasso IV
Post by: efrenmgp on July 13, 2010, 08:42:41 PM
Hello!

I have been trying to figure out a strange behavior I'm experiencing with the flicker fixer of my Picasso IV.

I have configured the PAL & NTSC modes as follows:

PAL 50Hz. It displays OK.
NTSC 60 Hz. It does not display at all.

The monitor goes blank as it does when an unsupported frequency comes in. Strange because it is supposed to support from 50Hz up to 160 Hz (according to the manual, it is a Samsung SyncMaster 753 DFX), it should not have problems with 60Hz. Also, this only happens in early startup or when trying to use WB in an NTSC mode, not when configuring / testing the mode using Picasso Mode TNG, there the test screen displays fine.

When in early startup I can press the spacebar and switch from NTSC to PAL and the display comes (PAL) and goes (NTSC).

I tried and changed NTSC to 120 Hz. Now I can see the early startup in both modes, but NTSC sometimes looks stretched to half in horizontal size with no color and sometimes looks OK. If I repeatedly press space bar to switch in early startup, PAL always looks OK but NTSC looks sometimes OK, sometimes stretched and without color, randomly.

Does anyone have any idea why this could be happening? All RTG modes work great from 640x480@85 to 1024x768@75, PAL works great @50Hz... only NTSC is weird... BTW, my A4000D is NTSC.

Any clues?

Thanks!!!
Title: Re: Strange behavior Picasso IV
Post by: mechy on July 13, 2010, 11:23:45 PM
not sure why the 60hz is not working on the PIV(have you checked that its got the latest flash?) but if i recall there was a setting on the cyberstorm ppc menu that promotes 31khz or some such,might check the csppc menu at startup and toggle that setting,see if you get anything?

you might also check the pal/ntsc jumper in the 4000 and the sync on green jumper(i've had odd stuff happen when sync on green was on with some monitors).jumpers 212 and 500 respectively.

barring that it may be something on the flicker fixer that can be adjusted with the  picassomode or tng programs(my memory suxx,sorry).
search here for some threads on the PIV flickerfixer stuff

mike


Quote from: efrenmgp;570192
Hello!

I have been trying to figure out a strange behavior I'm experiencing with the flicker fixer of my Picasso IV.

I have configured the PAL & NTSC modes as follows:

PAL 50Hz. It displays OK.
NTSC 60 Hz. It does not display at all.

The monitor goes blank as it does when an unsupported frequency comes in. Strange because it is supposed to support from 50Hz up to 160 Hz (according to the manual, it is a Samsung SyncMaster 753 DFX), it should not have problems with 60Hz. Also, this only happens in early startup or when trying to use WB in an NTSC mode, not when configuring / testing the mode using Picasso Mode TNG, there the test screen displays fine.

When in early startup I can press the spacebar and switch from NTSC to PAL and the display comes (PAL) and goes (NTSC).

I tried and changed NTSC to 120 Hz. Now I can see the early startup in both modes, but NTSC sometimes looks stretched to half in horizontal size with no color and sometimes looks OK. If I repeatedly press space bar to switch in early startup, PAL always looks OK but NTSC looks sometimes OK, sometimes stretched and without color, randomly.

Does anyone have any idea why this could be happening? All RTG modes work great from 640x480@85 to 1024x768@75, PAL works great @50Hz... only NTSC is weird... BTW, my A4000D is NTSC.

Any clues?

Thanks!!!
Title: Re: Strange behavior Picasso IV
Post by: efrenmgp on July 14, 2010, 12:47:40 AM
Quote from: mechy;570205
not sure why the 60hz is not working on the PIV(have you checked that its got the latest flash?) but if i recall there was a setting on the cyberstorm ppc menu that promotes 31khz or some such,might check the csppc menu at startup and toggle that setting,see if you get anything?

you might also check the pal/ntsc jumper in the 4000 and the sync on green jumper(i've had odd stuff happen when sync on green was on with some monitors).jumpers 212 and 500 respectively.

barring that it may be something on the flicker fixer that can be adjusted with the  picassomode or tng programs(my memory suxx,sorry).
search here for some threads on the PIV flickerfixer stuff


Hi Thanks for you advice!

The flash is the latest (7.4) and I just checked the jumpers, 212 is in NTSC position, 500 is 1-2 (SoG disabled). All others are OK too. I double checked using this (http://www.amigafuture.de/downloads.php?view=detail&df_id=740) and this (http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/cbm/amiga/a4000jumpers.html).

I still have to check the cyberstorm but if I´m not mistaken, I think I have it configured not to promote video to 31Khz.

If the cyberstorm setting does nothing to fix this, I guess I´ll have to live with that :(

Regards,
Efren
Title: Re: Strange behavior Picasso IV
Post by: efrenmgp on July 14, 2010, 04:18:15 PM
Well... The cyberstorm setting didn't help here... I changed them to promote and not promote... both cases same results. :(

I'll leave that way...

Thanks mechy!
Title: Re: Strange behavior Picasso IV
Post by: zipper on July 14, 2010, 04:44:32 PM
You could fine tune NTSC with PicassoModeTNG - perhaps it just needs a little alteration to be acceptable in every case. Just some tenths of 60 Hz up or down.
Title: Re: Strange behavior Picasso IV
Post by: Dragster on July 18, 2010, 07:59:51 PM
Quote from: zipper;570308
You could fine tune NTSC with PicassoModeTNG - perhaps it just needs a little alteration to be acceptable in every case. Just some tenths of 60 Hz up or down.



He fixed it last night with my help when I went over his place ;)

I'll let him explain what the problem was...

Cheers,

Dragster
Title: Re: Strange behavior Picasso IV
Post by: efrenmgp on July 19, 2010, 03:36:40 PM
Quote from: Dragster;570922
He fixed it last night with my help when I went over his place ;)

I'll let him explain what the problem was...


Yes... it turned out to be a dirty chip. There is a very small one in a socket. We just extracted it with a needle, cleaned it and put it back...

Now everything works fine, no problem at all.

Thanks to all!
Title: Re: Strange behavior Picasso IV
Post by: Dragster on July 19, 2010, 03:56:01 PM
Quote from: efrenmgp;571012
Yes... it turned out to be a dirty chip. There is a very small one in a socket. We just extracted it with a needle, cleaned it and put it back...

Now everything works fine, no problem at all.

Thanks to all!


hehe... rite.. lucky man!