A2000 Self-Destructing!!!!! :(

[shayes1981]

Help!  My A2000 had a meltdown tonight.

Here's the configuration at the time of crash -
GVP 030/Scsi/Ram Card, Video Toaster 4000, TCB IV.
270 MG SCSI HD (connected to the GVP), 12x SCSI CDRom (Connected to the GVP), and one floppy.  KS 2.04

Here's what happened:

1.  I turned on the thing, and all I got was a white screen, with the HD led blinking in a regular interval, and after a few minutes, it went to the OS disk prompt.

2.  I fooled around with it a bit, and it booted up from the HD.  I figured that I just had a loose connection somewhere.  

3.  Put the thing back together, turned it on, and back to the white screen.

4.  Took it apart again, took the floppy cable out (as the clip on the back of it had fallen off, and really should be replaced).  Tried again, and it booted from the HD.

5.  Replaced the floppy cable, tried again, and back to the white screen.  

6.  Removed the floppy cable again, and now nothing!

7.  Replaced the floppy cable with an extra one from the PC in my closet.

8.  Can't get anything out of it!  I've tried about every set up I can have.  I even had the original A2091 that came with it, hooked up to the original 50mg HD, and it won't boot either!  The only way I can get it to boot is from the floppy, and when I run the HDTools, it can't find the HD (even on the A2091, I know I need the library to find the HD through the GVP card.)

Any suggestions?

Scott

[shayes1981]

Dumb - or just dumb luck?

I switched J300 on the 2000 motherboard, which effects CIA timing (either drawing from the AC or from video timing).  I really don't know a thing about this - but could this be something that was affecting it?  Come to think of it, my 4000 was acting strangely as well tonight, and wouldn't start right up either.  

Any ideas?  The 2000 seems to be working now, with that jumper changed.

SGH

[shayes1981]

Spoke too soon - after a few resets, I'm back to my white screen.

[shayes1981]

OK - New Update

I got the thing working again - but it seems pretty precarious.  I can put the HD in, and booting, then I put everything else in, no problems.  I hook up the Cd-Rom, and everything goes back to the white screen on power up.  

I'm thinking now that it all has something to do with the cable to the floppy, or the floppy itself, because that's been a problem before.

I'm not sure why the CD-Rom is throwing it for a loop.  I installed it last week, and it seemed to be working wonderfully.  

[Castellen]

Sounds like you might have intermittent problems with the ribbon cables.  The IDC connectors can go dodgy after they've been yanked in and out multiple times.

Replace them with new cables, or just make your own, that way you can get the exact lengths you require.  You just need a vice to crimp on the new connectors.  Avoid recycling connectors from old cables as they might not provide a reliable connection.

[shayes1981]

Anybody else got suggestions?

[Castellen]

Yep.  There's lots of DIL sockets on the A2000 motherboard from what I remember, and it's common knowledge about how reliable they are...  Often the cause of many intermittent problems.

Remove and reinsert all the socketed devices.  Same applies for memory devices, Zorro cards.  All the connectors in general.  You can get contact cleaner specifically for gold plated computer contacts.

[shayes1981]

Ok - Here's whats happening now.

I can get the entire thing to work, sort of!  If I hook up the 030 card to the 270mg HD that it was working on originally, it will boot to WB.  If I remove that HD and replace it with another known working Amiga formatted SCSI HD, all it does is sit there with the HD led on with a white screen.

The third thing is - if I have the 270 mg HD hooked up, and I put the cd-rom on, it just sits there with the HD LED on.

Weird, huh?

Thanks for your help so far!

[Will-i-am]

"The third thing is - if I have the 270 mg HD hooked up, and I put the cd-rom on, it just sits there with the HD LED on."

hmmm. Let me know what you find out. I have a very similar problem with my A4KD. One CD drive refuses to allow the machine to boot up even though it works fine on another nearly identical Amiga A4K. I get the led light, blank screen, everything. Can you boot from a floppy?

[shayes1981]

Weird thing is that it worked fine for about a week. . .

[Castellen]

I gather you've checked obvious things like SCSI termination is correct?

My A3000D would do similar things with certain hard disks, in particular a 9Gb Seagate Barracuda.  Enabling Fast SCSI 2 mode in the controller preferences made it work OK.

Maybe see what options are available on your SCSI controller nd that they're all set up correctly.

[orange]

I'd check PSU-voltages (especially power connector), maybe that other HDD&CDROM are consuming more power.

[shayes1981]

Yep - had that idea about the power!  I hooked the HD & CdRom up to an external power source, and got the same results.

Everything that I've done ends up working sporadically - things will work for a bit, and then everything quits working for no reason.  

 So - does this sound like a motherboard problem or powersupply problem?  

Since the SCSI controller is on a accelerator, I'm not sure if the Buster chip would have anything to do with it.  Could this be a possibility?

Thanks again!