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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Slash on April 18, 2011, 10:17:47 AM
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Hi all,
I have some dodgy pointer corruption occuring with my mouse pointer, even in the ESM... when the pointer is near the top of the screen a garbled pointer image is repeated down the screen.
Any ideas?
I've just installed a CF card as a HDD in my A1200; could that have something to do with it?
I'll try and get an image of the corruption tonight.
TIA
Daniel
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Hi all,
I have some dodgy pointer corruption occuring with my mouse pointer, even in the ESM... when the pointer is near the top of the screen a garbled pointer image is repeated down the screen.
Any ideas?
I've just installed a CF card as a HDD in my A1200; could that have something to do with it?
I'll try and get an image of the corruption tonight.
TIA
Daniel
What's ESM?
Ooh... that doesn't sound good. Did you take the proper ESD precautions when installing your CF HD? Was there any debris that might have fallen inside the A1200?
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If you're running on a native screen, the pointer is a hardware sprite and as such might be tricky to grab (I've never tried though, correct me if I'm wrong). That sort of corruption sounds like a memory speedup patch or something isn't quite working. When you installed the CF card, did you use the same installation you had beforehand? What other hardware do you have in there? If the CF card was preinstalled it may have patches etc. configured which don't play nicely with your CPU...
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ESM = Early Startup Menu.
There's nothing else inside, just a bog standard Commodore A1200 which I purchased on eBay. I've never noticed the pointer before at the same time, I never used it with a hard drive; just for games.
I'll have a good look inside tonight, and take a shot of the screen. I'll do it with my camera so I can get the corruption.
The CF card was installed from scratch by myself, using a StarTech adapter and a blank 4Gb Transcend CF card.
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I'm assuming by "ESM" you mean the Early StartUp Menu or Screen...
If your getting sprite corruption there, then I don't think it's anything to do with stuff you may have running in the StartUp-Sequence, nor does it appear to be faulty ROMS (where the image data for the pointer is stored) as if the ROMS were faulty this would show up on the Amigas BootStrap check... :)
Have you tried removing the CF HDD board to see if the problem still occurs when it's removed, if so and the problem still remains then it would seem that you have damaged your Amiga in some way and if not then it must be something to do with the CF adapter itself... :(
Simplest way to check is remove the CF board and power up your Amiga and check out the Early Startup Screen and see if the problem still occurs... :)
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Hi all,
I have some dodgy pointer corruption occuring with my mouse pointer, even in the ESM... when the pointer is near the top of the screen a garbled pointer image is repeated down the screen.
Daniel
Boot from floppy or an unmodified WB install? do you still get the coruption?
your getting it from early startup, is the problem there from a cold boot? or only from a reset?
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Sounds like hardware problem to me if it is happening on a hardware sprite and on the ESM. ie whichever custom chip produces the sprites I guess.
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Yeah, sorry - didn't realise that's what ESM was :p Does it still happen without the CF card in there? If so it does indeed sound like a custom chip fault (I believe Lisa is responsible for the sprites...)
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Bit of an update... the corruption only occurs when the machine has warmed up. It doesn't happen at all when first switched on.
I've managed to take a photo of the corruption on my phone to better explain what's going on...
(http://www.the-snakepit.co.uk/images/amigacorruption.jpg)
As you can see, this only happens when I drag an icon around on the screen, or like I said when I'm in the ESM.
Any ideas or should I just ebay another A1200?
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*BUMP*
Anyone seen this type of corruption before and if so, what to do to fix it?
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Hmmm... as the sprite for the pointer is drawn using a copper list then what you getting here is corrupt sprite data in the copper list. Which is making the sprite think it's length is what you are seeing on the screen and filling it with whatever data is in the memory that the sprites data is pointing too... :(
This would seem to indicate a Hardware problem (as your getting it even in the ESM), unfortunately I don't think there is any way to fix this yourself, as the problem could be either in the memory chips (unlikely) or one of the custom chips that draws the display... :(
Have you tried removing the CF Board yet to see it this solves the problem, cos otherwise it certainly looks like you'll eiether need to get someone to try and repair it or cut your losses and buy a new one... sorry but unless someone else knows better then I'd say your Amiga is broken... :(
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What franko said,
I'd check your chips for damage. Can you run the machine for a long time with apps going? If so it probably isn't ram.
Do you get this corruption in games that use sprites etc? If you do, it points more to the custom chips.
Bit of a bugger either way :(
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Hmm, Not good. Check all the socketed chips are secure. I think that's Roms only in an A1200. As Franko says try it w/o the CFCard inside. Also look for any loose bits on the MB. Do a bit of praying and try again...
Alice or Lisa might be out to dinner..
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No idea what type of CFcard/board he's using but it could very well be that it's interfering somehow with the data paths/bus for the sprite display, before consigning the Amiga to the bin it would be wise to remove it first and see if the problem still persists... :)
@Gertsy, yup... the only socketed chips in an A1200 are the ROMs... :)
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No idea what type of CFcard/board he's using but it could very well be that it's interfering somehow with the data paths/bus for the sprite display, before consigning the Amiga to the bin it would be wise to remove it first and see if the problem still persists... :)
@Gertsy, yup... the only socketed chips in an A1200 are the ROMs... :)
2 right. How come ur profile ON light is never glowing Franko. Is that a CP thing.?
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2 right. How come ur profile ON light is never glowing Franko. Is that a CP thing.?
I haven't paid the bill so me electricity's been cut off, I'll try sticking a wee birthday cake candle behind it and see if that helps... ;)
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Easy fix, hot gun glue a heat sink on the Lisa chip. It is known issue and since it only occurs after the Amiga warms up, it is definitely heat related.
In the 1200 rack project, my lisa chip had a heat sink on it that was put there by a third party for this very reason!
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@tasmanial_guy
Er, you might want to clarify the hot gun glue bit - using a normal hot glue gun isn't going to help your cooling *at all*, as the plastic glue is quite a good insulator. You need special heat conducting glue, or heatsinks with this special glue already applied. Normal glue, sticky pads and the likes are only going to make it worse...
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Do you have any Accelrator?
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@tasmanial_guy
Er, you might want to clarify the hot gun glue bit - using a normal hot glue gun isn't going to help your cooling *at all*, as the plastic glue is quite a good insulator. You need special heat conducting glue, or heatsinks with this special glue already applied. Normal glue, sticky pads and the likes are only going to make it worse...
Also note that isn't really glue, it is a thermal grease (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_grease). Which means that the OP needs figure out a way to fasten that heatsink as well.
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@tasmanial_guy
Er, you might want to clarify the hot gun glue bit - using a normal hot glue gun isn't going to help your cooling *at all*, as the plastic glue is quite a good insulator. You need special heat conducting glue, or heatsinks with this special glue already applied. Normal glue, sticky pads and the likes are only going to make it worse...
You're right of course, I didn't get much thought, but with my 1200 rack they did use a type of glue (it looks like a hot gun glue) around the side to fasten the heat sink to the chip.
Anyway it is worth a try to try and fasten a heat sink to see if it does make any difference as it does sound like an overheating issue.
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Yep, it does seem like common sense when you deal with chips a lot, but I'm always wary of people who mightn't be so sure. I remember working in a computer parts shop (God, it's nearly 10 years ago now! and had a guy ring up and say the new Athlon CPU he'd bought had failed after a half an hour. We asked him to bring the machine into us, opened it up... And the CPU heatsink was stuck on with a nice, fat piece of sticky foam - the kind used for putting up signs, hooks etc! He said he did it because the cooler clips were too tight to get on properly! :o
Anyway, back on topic, thermal grease (I've always called it thermal compound myself) is the best for heatsinks, though it's not an adhesive. You can get small coolers with thermal adhesive on them, and thermal transfer adhesive itself, though it's rare and not as efficient as the compound. Still, it probably wouldn't take all that much cooling to get the chip working properly again if heat is an issue...
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Just an update for the people who posted suggestions etc.
I have fitted three RAM heat sinks onto the Lisa chip and moved the CF adapter to another location in the case and everything seems to be back to normal. I had it runninlg for a couple of hours last night and couldn't replicate the corruption so I guess I can call that fixed now.
Thanks for help everyone!
Daniel
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ahh wicked, you better leave it on for a day just in case ;)