Error message fatal errors?

[haywirepc]

My trusty 1200 is ailing and I'm not sure what the problem is.
 
It is failing to boot from the hard drive....
 
I keep getting error 8000 004 and different tasks listed.

Error 8000  004  Task :7800(998
 
Does anyone know what that error is?
 
Eventually seems like the system boots, but taking longer and longer lately to get through the error mess and boot properly. Other times, system boots, then screen freezes, oh oh time to reboot again. I'm beginning to think there is a cold solder joint somewhere because I think the hard drive and software are fine.
 
Any thoughts?
 
Steven
 
Steven

[Franko]

Guru/Error 8000 0004 is ILLEGAL INSTRUCTION

Could be one of the ROMS is failing and causing this error if it's intermittent (doubtful though)

or a loose ROM chip on the MB, or on the trapdoor expansion board if you have one, but then it could something as simple as the PSU or HD failing...

To trace such problems I generally remove all add ons from the A1200 and start with a bare system (ie: just the floppy drive installed), I know this may seem a pain and time consuming but it usually narrows the problem down and save you a lot of mucking about in the long run...

[haywirepc]

Thanks Franko...
 
Not sure if its just warmed up now or something... After reading your post,I reseated the rom chips and it booted right up without errors.
 
I will try it again later, I'll turn it off for a few hours and back on and see if it still has problems.
 
Right now, I'm just glad it booted. Today I am definitely ordering a pcmcia cf card adapter so I can copy my stuff off just in case of a major system meltdown. I don't want to lose anything on the hard drive in case it is that...
 
Steven

[Franko]

I've always found it best to give everything a good look over, loose chips, connectors etc.. while they may look fine to the naked eye, a lot of the time things just need reseated or pressed firmly into place, you generally find it save a lot of head scratching and time wasting trying to figure out just what could be wrong...

Hopefully your problem is solved but if not I'll be only too glad to try and help you solve this little problem...

[haywirepc]

Well seems like more than a little problem now.
 
Still was having problems booting...
 
I took out the accellerator and it booted straight up no problems but of course nothing can run, because its booting to os3.9 and has 0 ram without the accellerators ram. I tried reseating the accellerator and the problems booting come back. I'd hate to think its a blown accellerator...
 
I don't remember the brand but its a 50mhz 68030 I probably won't be able to replace for a long time. Just got back to work after a LONG period of unemployment and I'll be catching up on old debts for a long time.
 
I'm going to try cleaning the accellerator contacts with rubbing alcohol and the contacts in too. I remember that worked back in the day with a a500 problem.
 
gggrrrr... There is something to be said for emulation.
 
EDIT - I may also remove the rf shield and try reseating all the chips and looking for any other cause of problems...
 
Steven

[Franko]

Sorry to hear that...

From what you say though, first give the accellerator a good check over, remove and re-seat any RAM or FPU chips on it if possible, if you can check with a magnifying glass the edge connectors of the accellerator board as these can sometimes lose their "springyness" over time and sometimes need gentle bending with a large needle to get them to make good contact again...

However from what you say, I personally reckon it's your PSU that's failing to supply enough juice to the whole set up as I went through all this myself with one of my 060 boards and in the end a new PC power supply solved all the problems, this to me now sounds like the same problem your having...

[haywirepc]

A pc power supply? My a1200 is in its original case not a tower, but it does have an accellerator and a 2.5 inch ide hard drive, so maybe the power supply isn't supplying enough juice?
 
I'm using a A500 power supply. I have many extras, so I will try and switch out this one for another one and see if that makes any difference.
 
Except for the sim ram chip, I don't see anything on the accellerator board that looks like it can be reseated, but I'll check again.
 
The strange thing is this has worked great for about 6 months now. I restored this a1200 to working condition from a donation from someone here. He got a morphos machine and didn't need it anymore.
 
Steven

[Franko]

It's quite easy to wire up a PC power supply to use with a standard A1200, and it give you all the power you need to run as much as you can cram in an A1200 case...

But from what you have said so far I reckon even the A500 PSU is not supplying enough juice now, the caps in the PSU may have begun to dry out after all this time and this could be the cause of the problems...

[haywirepc]

Franko,
 
This problem appears to be intermittent. What I mean is it takes a long time to keep rebooting through tons of errors before it finally comes up to workbench. Then it seems to run fine for hours. Shut it down for a while and restart it and the problems booting return.
 
This is why I think its a bad connection or a cold solder joint. Tomorrow when I have more time I will rip her down, take off the rf shield, reseat all the chips I can, clean all the contacts, replace the power supply and build her back up. If that dosn't do it I'll have to wait probably a long while to buy a replacement accellerator if thats the cause.
 
Its working... for the moment.
 
I hate stuff like this, makes me feel very uneasy. I have 1800 amiga games on a hard drive that may be dying, and no way to transfer them off or back them up right now.
 
Steven

[Franko]

Exactly the same problem I had with my A1200 & 060 board, I spent days checking everything and in the end I even desoldered the edge connector on the 060 board and fitted a new one (no mean feat that was)...

But after all that I had the exact same problems as your describing, sometimes it wouldn't boot, other times it would only be on for a short time and other times it lasted hours...

Problem was solved when I added a PC power supply and has never re-occurred since. It's not a pretty solution I know but you can safely remove or disconnect the PCs PSU fan to eliminate the fan noise as no amount of stuff you can cram into an A1200 desktop case will cause it to overheat...

[haywirepc]

Allright I'll bite, can you give me the wiring diagram or pinout and some instructions on how to wire a pc power supply to amiga 1200?

Might come in handy if I ever towerize anyway I guess...
 
Steven

[Retro_71]

Try this Site http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/Amiga_Power_supplies/body_amiga_power_supplies.html#ATXAdaptor