CyberStormPPC refuses to work

[x56h34]

In the CSPPC manual under REQUIREMENTS it says that kickstart roms 3.x are required but RECOMMENDED are 3.1.

I suggest you try this.

#1. Remove the memory from the motherboard. All but the 2MB chip ram. Does it work now?

#2. Install 3.1 roms and see if it works now (last ditch effort)

When you installed the card into your A4000D CPU slot, did you press down by pusing the heatsink? If you did, it is very likely that you damaged the PPC chip underneath. It is very sensitive.

[x56h34]

The website seems to be down so I can't look at the pics at the moment, however I can tell you that this type of CSPPC damage is fixable, but...only by DCE.

I've had a similar problem with my CSPPC. Cold-soldering underneath the PPC chip. The 68k side worked perfectly, but anything PPC related didn't. If I were to install WarpUP the system would immediately crash upon boot. I've contacted Hyperion and Amiga.fr and both directed me to DCE as the 604e soldering/replacement was only doable there, and Hyperion and Amiga.fr couldn't do anything about it without the sophisticated equipment required for the job, which is only available at DCE. The card is at DCE right now and I pray that Ron will see the fixing process through and get it back to me. :-) I've been waiting for about 4 months now before I sent the card there. There is one PRO for sending it to DCE in my case, which is warranty issue, as my card is still under it. If I had went to Hyperion or Amiga.fr I would have had to pay up to 200EUR for repair, so at least this is some sort of releif, however knowing DCE and all the stories I may not receive the card back at all. We'll see. :-)

[x56h34]

Patrik, the chip looks fine from the top views. That's pretty much how they all look after the heatsink is removed. The tricky part it figuring out if the pins of it which are soldered to the board have been damaged. Naturally, you can only see the front rows of all 4 sides, however the ones that are closer to the middle are invisible to the eye and thus it is hard to determine if they make good contacts anymore.

Slight pressure to the PPC chip and it's very likely to get damaged. It's that sensitive,.especially on DCE made CSPPC cards.

edit:

I think that the reason why Amiga.fr and Hyperion can't fix these 604e related failures is the fact that unlike the 68060, the PPC chip's pins don't stick out on the other end of the card since this particular spot on the CSPPC card uses double-printed (or more?) board heavily. :-(

[x56h34]

Patrik, something else just came to my attention.

Your 060 CPU is a "XC68EC060RC50". These come without FPU and MMU as per this link. Could this be possibly it? CyberstormPPC needs MMU for the MapRom function and it could be confused by this. Total speculation on my part.

Has anyone removed the original 060 and placed this one instead?

[x56h34]

@Patrik

I am not sure on the built-in hardware MapRom feature which you are reffering to.

Anyways, are you sure that the original owner is telling the truth about the card working?

[x56h34]

No flashing colours as with Blizzard boards.

Have you tried holding the ESC key at boot? Does it let you access the CSPPC boot menu?

I am suggesting new things as they come to mind...there's just so many little details which could lead to unsuccessfull installation. :-(

[x56h34]

Jumpers should be set to EXT (external) on A4000D.

It seems more and more that your card is DOA. :-(

[x56h34]

@patrik:

Glad to hear that you got it to work! :-) Such an expensive piece of hardware simply must work because the dissapointment level is very high if you find it to be defective, and I'm glad that you sorted out the problem. :-)

Great job on the cleaning. How did you do it?