Problem with the video slot? (Solved)

[Ross1]

Hi, My toaster in my A4000 has been acting up recently and I would like to know if there is a way to make sure that the video slot is functioning properly.
I have tried my spare toaster card as well and that makes no difference. The video output is all garbled and I know the card works fine.
Could using an ATX power supply with an adapter be causing the problem?

Thanks

[amiga92570]

Atx has more than enough power. I would look at adapter and see that all pins have a good connection and that goes for all video cables as well.

[Ross1]

Thanks for the quick reply,
So the ATX adapter could be the problem, I wonder if the pins are in the right spots for the toaster to work. The Amiga runs fine it boots up great and runs all programs fine. the only issue seems to be when I start up the toaster (that uses the video slot) wont pass video through properly the picture seems all out of sync.

[Tigger]

Some things to try.  

1) do you have a non-NTSC monitor selected?   If so at least some of them wont allow the Toaster to sync.    

2) Unplug anything but a moniter from the 23 pin video plug, unplug anything from the Parallel port or the audio ports, be sure you have a sync strainer if you are using a multi sync moniter

3) Autohue the toaster is not a bad idea either.  

4) Give me a better idea what happens when the toaster boots, and also tell me what version of software.  Do you get a toaster video output but the amiga output is bad, vice versa, both of them bad?
     -Toastin Tigger

[rkauer]

Two little suggerstions:

- Swap the PSU for a brand new one (they come to be faulty);

- If you have enough skills, change the caps in the Toaster board. Change ALL electrolitics caps, they become faulty after some little time (~10 years):-D....

Do you use a Flyer? Check if the SCSI disks are working properly (format all disks, they are used for temporally store, anyway).

[Tigger]

rkauer wrote:
Two little suggerstions:

- Swap the PSU for a brand new one (they come to be faulty);

Thats a good idea, but I'd try mine first because its free.

- If you have enough skills, change the caps in the Toaster board. Change ALL electrolitics caps, they become faulty after some little time (~10 years):-D....

Thats a TERRIBLE IDEA, please do not do this.  First of all since it happens on both toasters, its most likely the computer or a setting, second of all, since Newtek will fix a broken toaster for almost nothing, making there job harder by soldering on it is silly.  If the toaster is broken, Newtek will fix it, the issue is that since it works the same with 2 toasters, its likely not the toasters problem, so we need to help him figure out whats wrong with his computer or setup.
      -Toastin Tigger

[Ral-Clan]

Here's another thing you can do that is free.

Clean the edge connector on the toaster cards with alcohol and swab.  

Then clean the gold connectors inside the video card with a fine cloth, saturated with alcohol folded over an old credit card.  

Most Amigas are over 15 years old now that these connectors get dirty.

Okay....it's probably unlikely that this is the cause of your problem, but it MIGHT be, and it's a good thing to do anyway.

[keropi]

I was getting garbled AGA because of faulty/dirty chipram ...
try clean the simm connectors, and if it still fails, try another simm for chipram...

[Tron2k2]

Well it has been a number of years, but I recall having this problem with Toaster systems I used to fix.  First, the clean connector suggestion is a great one.  Do that, and if you still get the garbled output, there's a small potentiometer on the board which you can very slowly turn while watching the garbled output, which should adjust the garble out. Tigger I'm sure will remember what this pot is called, sorry I don't, I just remember firing up the jittery toaster, and if I didn't get a TNR (Toaster Not Responding) error, quitting the toaster.  Then the output was garbled till I very gently adjusted that pot, usually about a tenth of a turn would do it.  Then once I got it running, time to autohue it. Sometimes we had to autohue it a bunch of times.  Newtek told us to do it a lot if we had to.

Back then, it wasn't 'next to nothing' to get Newtek to fix a Toaster, we had to gat an RMA for each one.  It could go up to $600 depending on the problem!  So we'd basically mix n match the bits of various Toasters till we had one with all three boards bad, then send it in for repairs.  Once we got the new, known good board we'd either sell it whole as a refurbished board (we weren't unethical to call them 'new' when we knew they'd been overhauled, but some places, cough, AG, cough, were so..) or use its parts for repairing customer's units without the two to three week turnaround of sending it in to Newtek.  Newtek were, however, very nice to deal with and I always liked calling them.  Keep in mind that this was before everyone had a Mac with Final Cut Pro and firewire digital camcorders.  The Toaster was still a very common profesional system.  Lots of places made their living with the Toaster for a long time :-)  

I remember lots of A2000s full of TBC IVs or Kitchen Syncs. Very cool gear back in the day!

Memories...

[Ross1]

Hi guys, Thanks for all the advice so far.

I have tried both toaster cards in the amiga and both do the same ting. I then swaped out the Daughter board with another one, same problem.
I then switched monitors to my old 1084 and still the same problem.
just for clarification the Amigas video out (workbench etc) works fine its the video though the Toaster card thats garbled. I did the adjustment on the "center frequency on the toaster card but it is not the problem. It is staying at 2.54 olts no matter where i put it, it should be at -2.1 volts. so thats why i am thinking the the ATX power supply adapter is not wired properly or something like that But again the Amiga its self runs fine. The toaster software boots up properly and i do get the switcher screen i just do not se any framestores loaded onto the two digital inputs and the video is all garbled or none at all.
By the way i am running a toaster flyer system but have also disconected the flyer card just to see if that helps. no difference.

[Tomas]

And you do have a NTSC monitor like someone else asked?

[Ross1]

Yes is a NTSC monitor, This system worked for a long time and now it is not and I have done no changes to it.

[Ross1]

Tigger wrote:
Some things to try.  

1) do you have a non-NTSC monitor selected?   If so at least some of them wont allow the Toaster to sync.

Using a toastscan hooked up to an LCD monitor but have also connected a 1084 directly to the RGB out of the amiga and no change.    

2) Unplug anything but a moniter from the 23 pin video plug, unplug anything from the Parallel port or the audio ports, be sure you have a sync strainer if you are using a multi sync moniter

Did that and no change,

3) Autohue the toaster is not a bad idea either.

 Yup did that and it wouldn't do an auto Hue as it says to have a video signal hooked up to the input #1 (which I do) but it wont sysnc because the video through the toaster is all garbled.

4) Give me a better idea what happens when the toaster boots, and also tell me what version of software.  Do you get a toaster video output but the amiga output is bad, vice versa, both of them bad?
     -Toastin Tigger

The Amiga boots up with no issues and the display on the RGB out is solid and all icons are present. I see a distorted black video image on the program monitor and when i boot up the toaster software the program screen goes all nuts but the switcher screen does load but no images (bars and toaster logo load up into the frame buffers. I'm running Version 4.3 with the millennium package installed. I have even done a reinstall of the software.

[rkauer]

Do you have a leaked battery on the system? Or even caps leak anywhere?

Remember what I said: Search for leaking caps over the Toaster and MB itself.

Get a multimeter in the PSU to see what happens when you starts the Toaster.

Looks very like you have bad caps somewhere who causes "ripple" in the force lines.

 Or even some SIMM going bad.

 It's not a bad idea plug a oscilloscope in the power line to see if there are any ripple in those lines

[Tigger]

Ross1 wrote:

The Amiga boots up with no issues and the display on the RGB out is solid and all icons are present. I see a distorted black video image on the program monitor and when i boot up the toaster software the program screen goes all nuts but the switcher screen does load but no images (bars and toaster logo load up into the frame buffers. I'm running Version 4.3 with the millennium package installed. I have even done a reinstall of the software.

Ok, this is on a A4000 so we have possible short of the toaster to the memory, though that shouldnt be the issue.  Power supply is probably still the likeliest problem.  You have verified that NTSC is your monitor selected correct (or 1084) because that will definitely cause the issue you are talking about.  Check preview out as well as program out, to be sure both have the problem, also does the toaster software change from one input to another?    Run a camera is you have one live into input 1 and see if you can see it.   Try an effect to see if that appears on your program screen or just on the amiga screen.  Do verify that the A4000 batter if its still present isnt leaking onto the motherboard.   You can get the toaster fixed for the price of shipping these days if its broken, but with two of them showing the same symptoms, I just dont think thats likely.    
   -Tig