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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: paup on February 21, 2014, 11:38:58 PM
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hello amiga friends,
i'm really excited to be on here and EXCITED to own an Amiga. i finally tracked down an amiga 2500 with a video toaster 2.0 in great condition. i got it up and running and wound up with some serious issues not addressed in any troubleshooting documentation. at first all was fine and dandy… i'd say for 8-9 boots, (aside from some weird signal strength issues that made no sense considering i'm using TBCs), and then something curious would happen. I'd be a couple of minutes in to switching or color processing a simple setup…. one video camera on input one, a preview out and a program out (the three monitor setup)… then upon switching between two channels with the fader (t-bar) or upon rendering an effect in the color processing section……. the amiga UI would go absolutely berserk, the program out would lose synch and go crazy and then upon pressing return sometimes it would go back to normal… only to do it again a minute later. by returning back to normal i mean the amiga screen would look fine but my program out would have a slightly scrambled feed of input 1 with the video toaster UI posterized/juxtaposed over top of it. major bummer. if I could manage to close out of the toaster upon opening it back up the program out would still be messed up. reboot would temporarily fix everything.
and video!!!!!
http://youtu.be/IB2TK_2Y4XQ
i tried adjusting the frequency pot to no avail (that just made it harder to successfully load the video toaster UI)
haunting side note… i just had the computer freeze on a greyscreen (i only use the monochrome out for my monitor… could be blue) after trying to open something simple like notepad. this looks bad. hmmmm.
what would you attack first? buy another video toaster board, swap it out and see if i still have the same troubles? or replace a processor or something? not sure where to go from here… but i won't stop til she is in tip top shape. so much fun…
hey, thanks everybody, thanks for reading, :pint:
take care,
drew
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WOW!! That is hot! That is super, super hot...:D One thing I hate about emulators...they never break...but with real hardware they go apart...like it...much better :D
Sorry it did not solve your problem of course...
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@paup,
Please re-seat anything with contacts on it and see if there is a change. May have some dirty/unseated contacts there.
Chris
PS: may want to clean them a bit, may have been sitting a while.
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@AmigaClassicRule
....it's funny you mention it but i break video for a living. http://circuitbentvideo.com typically i get very excited when this happens.
@QuikSanz
.....thank you, I will make that my weekend project. I'll let you know how things go.
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ehhhh.... i opened 'er up, took the toaster out, disassembled it and put it back together, cleaning as i went along my way. no luck.
it appears to have deeper issues... if I just leave it on the workbench for 3-10 minutes some times it will just go to a blank screen (once again, no color monitor to figure out what color it actually is).
i didn't notice this until today but my hard drive only has 722k free (on a 50mb drive) which seems curious being that not much is on it... well, i guess video toaster is huge, but still, can't find much to get rid of..
i'm also confused as to why my RAM disk appears to say 100% full, 0k free, 15k in use. at least i think that is what it says, my monitor situation is poor... i just won a 1084s so that should help make things more decipherable.
thanks everybody for your time,
cheers
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@ paup
That's normal for the RAM disk - nothing to worry about there.
722K free on the hard drive isn't unusual for a drive that size, either. I'd suggest replacing/adding a new drive rather than trying to free up space. That way you don't risk deleting something important.
Did you check the clock battery while the machine was apart? Those things tend to leak and cause all sorts of damage. If it hasn't been removed already, do so as soon as possible.
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@paup,
Try running it for extended period of time with no toaster and see how a bare machine runs. Start from there. May not be a toaster problem at all.
Chris
PS: if this has been sitting for a long time the caps may need replacing. Bad caps can give timing/signal issues.
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thanks Matt for the RAM and HD reassurance, very helpful. I removed the battery as a preventative measure as well, it still was intact.
Quiksanz.... excellent suggestion. Upon removing the toaster the 2500 had no issues. It ran smoothly at extended lengths with no crashes. Nice to know it's the toaster at least. There are no visual signs of ruptured caps or anything.
Perhaps I will keep my eyes on ebay for another one to test against this one. Let me know if anybody thinks of anything else to try. Once again, thanks for all your help.
Cheers.
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Hello,
You can try NewTek, they offer a lifetime warranty on the video toaster. They fixed my flyer 4000 3 years ago. But i don't know if they still do it.
-Rick
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Yup, I also had them repair a Toaster 4000 a number of years ago. Definitely give them a call (better than email).
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what a great company!!
i will give them a call for sure. you know they're going to roll their eyes as soon as i say "video toaster." hahaha
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That could very possibly be a faulty Agnus.
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oh man....
the post is back!!!! still chasing ghosts.....
to summarize: amiga 2500 w a video toaster 2000, had intense graphical glitch-ing after running the video toaster program for a very short period of time. determined it seemed to be the toaster because the amiga worked smoothly without it installed...
so i managed to nab another video toaster off of ebay (for way too much money, ugh) and i've been getting even worse results with this one. opened video toaster and right off the bat after attempting a fade between two channels (with no sources) bam... same graphical glitches. I booted back up and went to run video toaster again and it seemed to crash and freeze the whole system. such a bummer. left it alone for a hill and got back in to toaster... but that did not last long.
Am I at the point of replacing chips and components? It could be anything at this point right? *Sigh* I might put 'er up for adoption, I'm just not sure I have the skills to pay the bills on this one. There are other cards installed on this thing and I have no idea what most of them do... could they be creating conflicts? Running out of ideas.
You guys have been really great, thanks in advance...
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I have a VT2000 on my A2000. First time I got it, it did not work correctly, i forgot what was the problem, but I do remember what I did. I saw some oxidation on my board, some white stuff all over the board. I cleaned all of it with an alcohol.
I worked after I did that, so try to clean the board and the contacts real good and see if it helps. Take the board apart, so you can clean both sides of all the boards.
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24 year old power supply with old dead capacitors.
A stacked Toaster setup is sensitive to power issues.
Pretty sure Newtek will still repair your Toaster if they are able. They are still fond of what they call "Gen 1/2". Just go to their website, register you card, then request an RMA.
I'd still go for a new or refurbished PS first and see if that does it. And don't settle for another used worn out 20+ year old one. Good Luck.
Plaz
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What version of the software are you using? if you are actually using 2.0 you might want to try a newer version, you can still get the latest version from Newtek for around $25-$30 or you can download it from a few sites on the web.
Dave