Boot problems on modded a4000

[tormedhammaren]

I've bought an A4000 that seems to be not perfectly healthy. It's modded to use an ATX psu and placed in
a tower (very elegantly done). The machine worked after the first owner had modded it and then one day...

First some specs:
A4000D (modded to use full tower with ATX psu)
Kick 3.1
WarpEngine 4040
AmigaNet Z2
Spectrum 24
mark: The tabs on the WarpEngine's ram sockets are broken - so I must mechanicaly strap the SIMMs to them.

Now I've got some problems with it. I'll describe them, and maybe someone have got any clues:

- If I switch the machine on without floppy, keyorboard, hdd or mouse - the cpu fan spins up
else no sign of life (no video, Caps Lock light, ...).

- If I switch the machine on with floppy, keyboard and mouse - the cpu fan spins up, a black screen
comes to sight, the Caps Lock light works. It seems that it's the floppy that's critical for this to happen
compared to the one over. But the black screen wont disapear. If I CTRL-A-A, the machine cold boots
just like my other A4000, but the black screen remains.

I don't know if the WarpEngine detects or uses my SIMMs since I've got a ram socket tab problem.
What will happen if you boot an A4000/WarpEngine with no fast mem?

What does the black screen that doesn't go away mean?

Why is there no video display when booting if there's no floppy installed?

Any clues?

I've tried solutions on online hardware docs but the problem remains. And, the solution in the
WarpEngine manual is: "Check the computer and monitor power cables"...

Regards

Tor

[tormedhammaren]

Try pressing a couple of times -for 5/10 secs- the Caps Lock, and notice if the light gets blocked on the on-off state (not changing/modifying its state by repetitive pressing).

I will try that when I get back home. Currently no internet access there. What does it mean if it gets
blocked?

What monitor do you have? A standard VGA goes "out of scan range" by default on turning on the AMiGA (until the devs/monitors get loaded).

Oh, I should have stated it. I tested this on a standard PAL TV since I don't have any Amiga
monitors any more. Got a flicker fixer on my other A4000.

Regards

Tor

[tormedhammaren]

That the system is really dead! You might notice certain system-locks when your mouse or everything on screen has freezed, BUT your TCP/IP stack may be functional (ping responce), and the Caps Lock blinks if you press it (typical when you have low mem, chip particularly).

Turning on the amiga with a black screen might be an early fault (can't do the system check -the normal greys on screen, or the red/green/blue/yellow error codes- ).

-Check the CPU board (that is well seated on the CPU slot).

-Check the ROMS (if they're missing or burnt you get a black screen, same as above -CPU- ).

I will try that. But I did press the Caps Lock some times yesterday, and something like that happened -
the Caps Lock wouldn't lite any more... I rebooted, and it would.

The CPU board is well seated and the ROMs are there and they look ok.

What I think is weird is that there's no video if the  floppy isn't connected. Is that normal?

Will the kick ROM image show if there's no fast mem on the A4000 cpu card? (I'm not sure that the
SIMMs get detected since I have this mechanical problem on my WarpEngine)?

ps: I could maybe create another thread: "Mechanical problem in Amiga 4000" or "Mechanical problem in my WarpEngine"? :-)

What if the psu doesn't supply enough amps to the mother board and/or it supplys it at the wrong
voltage. Could that be the case?

Thanks for the quick response by the way!

Regards

Tor

[tormedhammaren]

One more note: The "Early startup menu" wont show up when pressing both mouse buttons at startup.

[tormedhammaren]

@Cass:

Someone told me that the kickstart disk will show even when there's no fastmem on the WarpEngine. The manual doesn't say anything about this.

That's right, this is an ATX psu. I will test the voltages with my multimeter this evening!

@doctorq:
In my case the computer wont give any video if there isn't any floppy connected (it doesn't matter if the floppy controller cable is connected right/wrong). I'll test the system with a floppy that I know works tonight. The floppy I've tested with gives out a beep (of the pc-speaker type..) when the machine is switched on. Framiga's response explains why my machine wont boot without a floppy. Thanks!

@Jagabot:
No 030 on my card, but I have ha Cyberstorm MKI 040 in my other A4000. I don't know if I dare putting it in - a little afraid to destroy old hardware. I'll give you a note if I'm interested in one of the 4000cr mobo's. I'll have to error seek a bit more. But thanks for the offer!

@Doobrey:
Mr. Chip Ram resides in his 45 degree angle on the mobo ram socket. I think I'll check important jumper settings on my card.  Thanks for the tip! The machine behaves the same way with or without the AmigaNet and the Spectrum. Thanks for good responses, guys!

Regards,
Tor

[tormedhammaren]

After pulling my machine entirely apart last night and putting it all together, it looks like neither the CPU card nor the ROM is
broken.  I also threw out the Zorro cards and put in a floppy drive that I knew was working.

What happens is that when I switch on my machine the power LED brightens up after about half a second, the CAPS
lock light works the way it should (no freeze after 10 events) and the floppy starts to tick after some time. If I then insert the
Workbench disk, Workbench loads from the disk. This means that the CPU card and the ROM are working.

But - the machine still gives out just a black screen. I've got a video --> scart cable connected to the "RGB port". I've
tested the cable with another machine - so I am certain that it works. What can be the reason for an A4000 giving just a black screen when the machine (CPU card, ROM, floppy controller, chip RAM) is working and programs are loading?

Regards,
Tor

[tormedhammaren]

@Framiga:

This is beginning to be a thread with lots of specs and info making it easy to misunderstand. :-) The problem is that I can't see any video output (I've pulled out the Spectrum). And I am just trying to get normal PAL display from the "RGB port" but there is just a black screen. There is no hd in the machine at the moment.

Regards,
Tor

[tormedhammaren]

@Framiga:
Not even the purple screen with the workbench disk beeing inserted is shown. So i supose there is a malfunction in the hardware. But the machine is working (the OS loads).

Not an easy situation :-(

Luckily I haven't paid yet, and wont do it either if I can't fix the machine.

Regards,
Tor

[tormedhammaren]

@Amiga4k:
I have allready pulled out every card. Just sitting on the basic mother board with a floppy drive. I have stated this before :-)

@Cass:

Could have been the monitor definitions (devs:monitors/) to redirect the video-out to the card, but since you don't see any "early-startup-menu", that means you have an RGB out problem.

- Check the pins on the RGB-out plug (AMiGA)

- Check the plug on the mobo side, and the first electronic components between LISA and RGB-out plug (resistors, capacitors, motherboard traces).

If here was a custom chip fault, you could not boot and the CapsLock is blocked with no floppy ticks.

I will check these things. Can I test resistors, motherboard traces and capacitors with a multimeter?

Regards,
Tor