A3000 - Cyberstorm MkIII problems

[AmireX]

Hi, yesterday I put a Cyberstorm MkIII 060/50 into my A3000 and strange things happened. If I start the machine without any Zorro card then sometimes :-( is starting up. But in some cases the power LED keeps half bright or I get a software failure (kick rom 3.1 crash's ??) two times I had a green boot screen (CHIP RAM Failure).

If I put my Ariadne I and Cybervision in the Zorro daughterboard then the power LED always keeps half bright and the machine is freezed. On the Cyberstorm card there is a SCSI UW controller (not connected).

On my A3000 motherboard is a Super Buster 07 (really old) but before the Cyberstorm MkIII I had a MkII 060/50 running in the same machine, with the same configuration What is the different ? Is it the integrated SCSI controller on the MkIII (and so the additional DMA request) ?

Here the whole configuration:

A3000 25 Mhz, 2MB Chip, 16 MB Fast, Kick 3.1 / 40.68
Board Rev. 9/03, 08 Onboard SCSI chip
Super Buster 07
INT2 modification
Ariadne I
2GB SCSI Quantum
CyberVision 64 (4MB)
Buddha IDE controller + 160 GB IDE

Hope anybody could help, best regards ReX

[orange]

maybe your power supply is weak, check it and its connector.

[alexh]

I *think* the CS MKIII requires different motherboard jumpers to the CS MKII?

"For the operation of the CYBERSTORM MKIII in the AMIGA 3000 three jumpers on the A3000 mainboard must be set as follows: Jumper (J102)BRDCLK to position EXT, jumper (J104)CPUCLK to position INT, and jumper (J100)QUADCLK to position EXT."

I know that not all of the cyberstorm 060 cards use the same jumper settings, check them out.

[AmireX]

Sorry, I forgot. The jumper settings are correct. This was my first mistake :-)

But the power supply could be weak. I'll try to check it.

[PaSha]

Edit: removed by myself, wasn't applicable to the problem after all.

[alexh]

He's put in his first post that his A3k already HAS the INT2 mod!

[x56h34]

This sounds to me like a conflict between the on-board SCSI stuff and CSMKIII scsi controller.
I'd remove everything from the on-board SCSI chain and use only CSMKIII SCSI and see if it works.

CSPPC and MKIII are known to sometimes not behave well with A3000 units that are using the on-board motherboard SCSI.

[AmireX]

Does anybody know the real different between the Buster revisions (07 / 09 / 11).

My first idea was that the number of extension in the zorro slots and the additional SCSI controller of the CSMKIII (not so on the CSMKII) produce these strange effects.

It seems that the the machine is really instable. Without any card it boots up OFTEN but not EVER. Adding other expansions freezes the machine at boot time.  :-? Eject the CSMKIII everything is working well (after correcting the jumpers).

Tommorow I'll get an Super Buster 11 and will change the '07.

There is always hope  :-)

[Noster]

Hi,

are you really shure that the MK III is Ok?
Sounds to me for a problem with the MK III itself.
Do you have any RAM on this accelerator board? If so, try to remove this and see if the system is running now.

Noster

[PaSha]

alexh wrote:
He's put in his first post that his A3k already HAS the INT2 mod!

oops... :roll: missed that one  

Anyways, then I can do nothing but wish you good luck. Hope you get it working, nothing is more annoying than stuff that refuses to work for no obvious reasons.

-Paul

[alexh]

Be careful when changing chips over. I think the Buster is a PLCC chip and the plastic that makes up the sockets gets brittle with age. ALWAYS use a real PLCC extractor tool (costs a few bucks).

[AmireX]

alexh wrote:
Be careful when changing chips over. I think the Buster is a PLCC chip and the plastic that makes up the sockets gets brittle with age. ALWAYS use a real PLCC extractor tool (costs a few bucks).

Ok, I used the extractor and changed the Buster 07 to Buster 11, but no success. The problem still remains :-(

I also used complete other SIMM modules and configured 2 or 4 SIMM's ... no effect. When I switch back to my Cyberstorm MkII, everything is working well. I hope that the new CSMKIII is not defect !

There seems to be one more different between MKII and MKIII. For the MKII I don't have to change any jumper on the A3k motherboard. But for the MkIII I have to change 2 jumper positions (QUADCLK to EXT, BRDCLK to EXT). The other jumper (CPUCLK) is INT for both cards  Seems to me that they changed the whole design.

[alexh]

he other jumper (CPUCLK) is INT for both cards

Yes

Seems to me that they changed the whole design

I'm sure they had to for the Dual CPU / 233MHz clock rates.

Apparently the SCSI on the MKIII has to be terminated whether you are using it or not.

[bigpoppa]

There is a known problem with the ROM that was flashed on a batch of the Cyberstorm MK III's that Phase 5 put out.  I spent a LONNNNGGGG time sending mine back to DCE who did eventually fix it for a pretty decent price (conidering it wasn't their unit)

Mine tending to act up as it got warmer.  It may be just the unit but I'm not sure who works on them anymore.

[AmireX]

Seems to me that they changed the whole design

I'm sure they had to for the Dual CPU / 233MHz clock rates.

Apparently the SCSI on the MKIII has to be terminated whether you are using it or not.[/quote]

Dual CPU mean PPC and 060 ? There is an empty PPC place on the card. Unfortunately I have no terminator for UW SCSI. I'm getting more and more crazy :-)

The reason why I try to run the MKIII is that in my A3k are to systems, AOS 3.9 and Amix on an extra hdisk. Amix is running only with 030 CPU and so I wanted to switch of the 060 via software and then reboot to amix. Up to now I had two A3k's running one with Amix, the other one with AOS 3.9. The MkII isn't switchable via software.

If anybody knows a trick how to switch of a CSMKII .. all my problems are solved :-) I tried to make the voltage regulator make switchable. But when you turn it of then the CSMkII is running anyway and takes the needed current via CPU Fast slot (so my theory ..)

One card isn'nt to stop, the other one wont run  :boohoo: