Weird CyberVision PPC issue (duplicate entries in the EarlyBootMenu/Boards)

[tinner]

Hello all,
This is my first post so just wanted to say hello to everyone and say that I am really glad to see so many people still interested in Amiga world.

I have a bunch of stability issues with an A4000 i bought a while ago and finally had a chance to boot it up.
The config is as follows:
- A4000D mobo in a tower, (default 150W PSU)
- CS MK3 060/50MHz
- CVPPC
- Micronik PCI board (PCI slots unused - the old style one) daughter board
Standard A4000D daughterboard (bought a new one for testing a while ago as well).
- Multiface, Toccata, VLab, Octagon (board rev working with 060 - don't remember the exact number but definitely higher than the one that causes 060 to freeze)
Ariadne II.
Scan Doubler, some SCSI drives/streamer/CDROM
ATA boot drive (340MB from the good old days that I kept from my previous A4000D back in a day)

Stability was the issue before I have managed to:
1. remove some RAM (as 4x16MB on MK3 caused errors - in one of the mem tests I've found on aminet) - so currently I have 2MB chip on the mobo + 32MB on the CS (2x16MB)
2. remove the leaking battery - done (first thing)
3. format the system and check the SCSI drives for bad sectors - done
4. install 3.1 on the first partition and update setpatch, 68040 library and... what was the first thing I did and don't remember now?
5. Removed all the boards apart from the scan doubler (as I had to bin C= 1942!!) and use the new daughter board that is definitely good.
6. System works and is stable! - everything works as expected until....
Until I plugin the CVPPC - this causes a strange error in the Early Boot Menu - when I go to "Boards" - I can see the CS 060 identified properly and then all other entries are duplicated with the ID of the CVPPC - don't have to say that booting such system causes WB 3.1 (no CGX installed at all) to crash shortly after loading...

Strange thing is that I remember booting this machine up shortly after purchase (Feb 07) and there was nothing like this going on...

My question therefore is if someone has experienced similar issues and if possible did anyone find a fix for it?

I would greatly appreciate your help - got the beast in the server room ready for testing so I can try any bit of advice shortly after work (usually around 5pm weekdays).

Well - thanks in advance.
tinner

[Robert17]

Welcome to Amiga.org :pint:  :pint:  :pint:

I think it's normal to have a few entries in the autoconfig space for a Cyberstorm III - I'm not sure if plugging the CVPPC card in would make much difference, as it's on the PCI bus and not in the Autoconfig space, but I'm not sure, my setup is broken so I can't check :-( I wonder if 3.1 is crashing due to not having the proper Libraries installed, have you done a fresh install?

A Good way to test system stability is to not load anything, just leave it sitting at the insert disk screen and see if the animation keeps running, if it doesn't, you know there's a definite hardware issue somewhere.

Robert

[tinner]

Thanks for your reply.
I am not 100% sure if it should appear or not, but surely it should not appear more than once? Currently it appears about 7 times... I will post some pictures when I get back home.

Yes the installation was a fresh install - nothing extra installed on top of 3.1

[darksun9210]

that definatly doesn't sound right.
sure have a couple of things in the early startup boards list for the cyberstorm, but plugging a CVPPC shouldn't show anything in early startup, as being a PCI device on the CS3's own bus, its invisable to the amiga system untill drivers are loaded...

shame its not exactly easy to track down another CS3 or CVPPC to nail down if you got a problem with one or t'other...  :-(

[Robert17]

Can you post in what shows in your Early boot menu board listings, so we can have a look :-)

Robert

[CLS2086]

Is your PSU good ...  :roll:

[tinner]

Thanks for your interest.

Pictures below









The power supply is the standard A4000D PSU 150W.
Which actually is a good point considering that I have done all the tests running off the SCSI drives (2 SCSI drives, SCSI streamer attached, SCSI CDROM attached)... I will disconnecting everything in a minute leaving just CV PPC and ScanDoubler in (cannot do anything without the scandoubler as I don't have any other monitors I could use).

Well - keep the ideas coming - beers on me if that works!

tinner.

[tinner]

Right - disconnecting all SCSI devices from both the controller and the PSU did not help - same issue.

The PSU is actually 145W.

bugger...

[tinner]

Some more information:
ScanDoubler is made by arXon

Amiga Hardware

CyberVision PPC is the Rev 1.1 made by Phase 5 (1998) etching on the board states "Carda/Keller"

SuperBuster v11,

Daughterboard: Rev B, 1992 (GX B-V0) 9318 (Fish, Nines, Berlin)

Mobo: A4000 Desktop rev B, 1992

Cyberstorm: "Cyberstorm PPC Carda/Keller/Knabel/Zhang" Phase 5, 1996,1997

CPU: XC68060RC50 Malaysia (possibly never overclocked - as the quatrz seems intact and never soldered out)

Memory: 2x16MB 60ns (set to 70ns in CS' EarlyBootMenu), 2MB Chip onboard (standard 2MB module).

Is there anyone living close to Watford, UK? If I could just grab the CPU+GPU and test it in the other machine - that would really help...

thanks
tinner

[Robert17]

Have you tried testing with the original 030 CPU board?

Also, if you have, or can obtain a voltmeter, maybe you could check if the PSU voltages are correct.

Robert

[tinner]

Unfortunately - bought it with the 060/50 straight away... don't have any spare CPU boards...

Voltimeter is a good idea - will give it a go... but how do I check if the amperage is right? I cannot measure it while the computer is running as I would need to cut through the cables - right? Maybe I will try a PC PSU first... (after buying the ATX adapter) (don't feel too confident about playing with live PSU)...

thanks anyway. Any other ideas though?

[Piru]

The duplicate entries are perfectly normal with the latest flash.

However, IIRC this means that you should use the latest CGX aswell.

[tinner]

Thanks Piru - this is great news. I remember flashing the firmware in 2007... However - could you confirm the source of this info? Or perhaps could someone with the latest flash confirm the duplicates in the boot menu? What worries me is that shortly after I plug cvppc in the machine it becomes unstable... hence why I've started to poke around and found the issue in the first place.
Well I will take it apart once, clean all the sockets, press-in all the chips and install the CGX. Then I will try to use the other socket on the cvppc without the scandoubler. but that might take a few days... Anyway thanks for yout help everyone - greatly appreciated.

tinner

[tinner]

I do apologise Piru - I've just found out that you are more than trustworthy source of information so no confirmation needed. However - do you happen to know if I could just flash back to older version? Reason being I remember the Amiga being more stable 2 years ago (before I've flashed it).

Kind regards
tinner

[Robert17]

The instability issues could still be a result of a bad PSU. You can measure the voltages whilst the machine is running by putting the probes into the A4000 PSU plug, there should be a small gap so you can get a reading. You'll know if it's knackered if the volts are too low.

A4000 PSU pinouts can be found at:

http://www.ntrautanen.fi/computers/hardware/misc/a4000_power.htm

Regards,

Robert