Apollo 1240 Issues

[pan1k]

Hey guys,

My Apollo 1240 just up and died. My A1200 boots fine without the turbo card in. What are some troubleshooting steps with the card? I just put a new crystal in earlier this spring, and one day I turn on the 1200 and I get a black screen, no HD or Floppy access attempts. Any info is appreciated!

[Franko]

Did you overclock it with the new crystal ?

Obvious checks are, check the RAM is seated ok, dunno if you had to solder the new crystal in but if you did check the solder joints, check the edge connecter (sometimes these can become a less springy over time & not make contact correctly), not sure if any of the chips on the Apollo are socketed but it's worth re-seating them if they are...

[pan1k]

It's got a socketed crystal, no overclocking. I did check and reseat the ram. I will look at the edge connector. That could be the issue..

[stefcep2]

I had a similar problem http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=37909&highlight=apollo+stefcep2

the solution was

1. a 40 mhz crystal got the 68040 to work at 40 mhz (strange as it worked with an 80 mhz crsytal before)

2.  Sent it to PG and upgraded it to a 68060, which also runs at 40 mhz.  

Wierd i know but its worked for more than a year now faultlessly with the 68060.

[Franko]

It's got a socketed crystal, no overclocking. I did check and reseat the ram. I will look at the edge connector. That could be the issue..

When I changed the crystal on my Blizzard060/PPC I added a socket for the crystal instead of soldering it. Quite often it would neither boot up of mysteriously crashed, turned out the crystals 4 pins were not making a good connection in the socket, after putting a little kink in the pins it's worked fine ever since.

[smf]

Checking your powersupply might also be an idea.
Mine A1200 with apollo1240 also boots with a black screen sometimes and it happend more and more often until i switched the PSU, now it boots most of the times again.
The voltage is still a little low if i check it at the floppy power connector but ok if i check it at the main power connector so i guess thats the problem when it doesn't boot.

[utri007]

If you use 40mhz chrystal with 040 your card will run 20mhz

40mhz 040 has a 80mhz chrystal

Allways check power issues, even if your amiga works without turbocard with current psu

If your amiga is towered your mouslikely need to feed mobo throught floppy power connector

[fitzsteve]

Thats what happened to my Apollo 1240, one day just died.  I'm yet to find the problem which we think was down to battery damage slowly eating away tracks over time.  The Battery was removed and replaced with coin a long time ago however some of the acid probably remained if it wasn't cleaned properly.
 
Does you card have any Battery leakage now or in the past?
 
We have re worked the components near the battery and cleaned the socket, adjusted the connector, tried another Oscilator and still no joy.
 
Only thing left is either track damage or CPU failure, mine never had a fan only a small heatsink so is possible mine overheated.
 
However the CPU's are usually soldered on these Accelerators so the biggest job is removing the old and fitting a socket.
 
Hope you can get it sorted, do check about the battery leakage.
 
Steve.

[Damion]

I'd check the motherboard caps. My Apollo must have power at the floppy port otherwise it's very unstable.  

Also, what fitzsteve said. If the IC near the battery is toast, I've got an entire unused tube of them and would be happy to send you one for free.

[amigadave]

Send it off to get fixed and upgraded to an 060/50MHz.  It will run cooler and much faster.

[stefcep2]

If you use 40mhz chrystal with 040 your card will run 20mhz

40mhz 040 has a 80mhz chrystal

Yes, but not in the case when the card has some sort of fault.  Like I said, I had the exact same symptoms as the OP.  Put a 40 mhz crystal and the 040 ran at 40 mhz (AIBB) benchmarks), whereas with the original 80 mhz it just black screened.  It SHOULDN'T work that way but it did.  When I decide to upgrade it to a 68060, the card would black screen with the 50 mhz crystal, but works fine with a 40 mhz crystal and is (on AIBB) about 25% faster than 40 mhz 68040.

Apollo 1240's did not solder the crystal to the board, and it could easily come loose.  I've been told that its possible to fry the CPU if the crystal has worked loose and you power up.  I know in my case I did power the board with the crystal not properly inserted, more than once, and we put the board failure down to that.

Allways check power issues, even if your amiga works without turbocard with current psu

Thats sensible advice.

However, I was running it on an A500 power supply for years, I then swapped power supplies for another A500 which ran a friends Apollo 1240 so we knew it wasn't the power supply.

s

[amiga92570]

Get a multimeter and logic probe at the very least, Osciliscope is best. Guessing is no way to troubleshoot. Guessing can also result in major fixes when a minor fix was all that is necessary. Find a friend with the required tools and knowledge.