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

[x56h34]

You seem to be doing everything right. A few things come to mind that you could check, just as a last resort.

- 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?

Using taller spacers (such as the original ones for Escom A4000T units) or custom made ones that are a few mm taller than the regular sized ones will push the CSPPC/MKIII a little better into the Grex and make a better fit. Perhaps that is it...just guessing.

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. :-)

[x56h34]

Hmmm...

Have you tried switching Voodoo around in different PCI slots? Have you tried using different simms in your CSPPC/MKIII, just to see if the introduction of Grex to the mix makes them go crazy (try it, you never know)?

If it works, Voodoo 3 should show 31khz display on any VGA monitor, just like on A1200 Grex, shortly after powering up the system. That's the easiest way of knowing that the setup works.

[x56h34]

In the past I've had experiences such as having a set of four 32mb simms working fine with one CSPPC card and not with the other, but a totally different set of modules worked fine with both...so you never know what a different set of two or four simms may do. :-) It's worth a try.

Furthermore, if you use boardtype tool with CSPPC and MKIII cards you'll see that they also range in logic-firmware revisions, just like BPPC. For example, Phase 5 cards I've seen in revision 1 so far, and DCE made cards all seem to be revision 4. Could this be another reason? Who knows. :-)

[x56h34]

Look at the BBOAH picture of Grex 4000D (back) and you will see from the left-hand side there are some wires soldered to the PCB.

I'm not sure if it's detailed enough in order to show exactly what is connected to where, but it's a start.

[x56h34]

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.

[x56h34]

I'll take a look on mine when I get a chance and see what exactly has been "patched". I know that there is some wireing installed, but just can't remember exactly where.