Hi all,
first, I apologize if this has been covered already.
I have a GVP G-Force 030 Combo with a 68030 at 40Mhz. I got it used and it worked fine for 7-8 months when the A2000 started to hang. First, it was maybe once a week, then once a day and then once an hour. And then, it would not boot at all. A couple of friends had a look at it and when we changed the clock crystal from 40MHz to 25MHz, it boots but hangs after 5-10 seconds. Changing the CPU produces the same result.
Since there are not schematics to get for this card a friend who is quite competent when it comes to electronics has had a look and has guessed that it's the PAL circuits are damaged, which apparantly happens after a while when you overclock the thing. Another friend suggested it may be the MACH circuit that's damaged.
Anyone have any idea what the problem may be?
Thanks,
Joacim
If the card has been overclocked, you might be right about the PALs. At least regarding the A530, the factory 50MHz version had different PALs with an additional memory wait state. Some GVP engineers warned about "cooking the PALs" if choosing to overclock the 40MHz A530. (There's more in the usenet archive if you want to dig a bit. The A1200 "Jaws" series also follows a similar pattern, where the 40MHz card actually has slightly better memory performance than its 50MHz successor, due to an added wait state).
You might get lucky and find it's something else, but I'm sure the card was checked the for anything obvious (poorly seated PAL, RAM, or jumper, bad solder joints, etc).
