Problems with G-Rex 4000, any thoughts???

[doctorq]

Hi,

Quite some time ago I bought myself a G-Rex 4000D busboard, as I was planning to have a nice little setup I could have at my parents house.

Anyway, this weekend was the first time I actually got to play around with the G-Rex. Sad thing is though, that the G-Rex doesn't seem to work :-(

This is what I have done; flashed my CSMK3 board with the latest flash from here, and installed the G-Rex busboard in the computer. Installed a Voodoo 3 3000 card, and tried to power up. All the computer did was to blink with the power LED, nothing else happend.

I have done a bit of troubleshooting, but nothing so far has worked. I have tried the G-Rex with two different motherboards (one I use with my Mediator setup and one tested with 2 x CV64/3D and 1 x CV64), tried both a CSMK3 and a CSPPC with both flashes (v1.3 and v2.2), 2 different PSUs, 2 different Voodoo cards (both tested and working); nothing has helped. The only positive experience with the G-Rex is that the zorro ports is working, but the PCI side seems dead :-(

Any experts with some brilliant thoughts?

[doctorq]

- is the G-rex daughter-board fully plugged in into the motherboard connector?
- is the G-rex daughter-board's small connector fully plugged in into CSMKIII/CSPPC's video card connector?

Yes, I have installed the G-Rex by firstly install the busboard on the CS boards and then install both cards at one time, so the small connector goes fully into the CS board. The daughterboard has been given a firm push into the socket so it is fully installed (otherwise I'm guessing that the zorro board wouldn't work anyway)

Also, does your Grex daughter-board have a wire that was hand soldered in order to fix a problem with a missing trace on the PCB? IIRC, mine does, which DCE used to fix a missing trace that was never made originally when the PCBs were printed. It will look similar to their solution for Grex 1200 new version, which makes your Grex work with DMA in two slots. :-)

The only wiring that has been done after the board has been produced is a wire, but it seems like it is in order to fix a zorro problem. My backside looks exactly like the one on www.amiga-hardware.com.

[doctorq]

I have tried two different Voodoo 3 boards in all 4 slots, and all gives the same result, unfortunately.

I have tried switching the ram from my CSPPC to the CSMK3, and it didn't help either. I will try one last time with the ram from my CSMK2, hopefully it will bring it to life.

[doctorq]

A small question; if I understood correctly, the PCIScan program would list all installed PCI cards. Will it display as well, even though it is only an ethernet card that's installed?

Would the ethernet card be seen in the boot menu of the CS board?

[doctorq]

x56h34 wrote:
What ever PCI card is inserted, it should show up in the PCI boot menu under the appropriate list name, e.g.:

VGA Display Controller
Network
Sound

Even if you insert an unsupported PCI card, it should still be detected in the PCI boot menu as the correct type.

Bugger, that points towards a dead board I'm afraid :boohoo: