Sob. Is my a4000 DYING??

[dandelion]

Switched on my A4000 over the weekend and was rather shocked to see the screen (TV screen, outputted via an RGB->scart) breaking up, rolling so a few seconds before presenting my with "Software Failure". I thought perhaps it was my potentially dodgy Cybervision so I whipped that out, along with all other cards, and made sure every trace of its software was gone from sys. I turned the power back on and all seemed fine. I wanted to test it so used it for a good 6-7 hours and it performed faultlessly.

However, I turned it on again yesterday morning and almost immediately the screen started to flicker, the break up and roll. It would then cease to output completely before returning back to a shakey screen. Often the running software would crash at this stage (either with a completel black screen softawre failure or a software failure presented within Workbench). Resetting would bring the machine back as if nothing had happened, the problem would recur after a few minutes.

I haven't turned it on since. I removed the battery when I first got the a4000, and there was some minor corrosion around some of the near by pins. I tried removing this with JUST an old toothbrush and air supply. Could it be that this corrosion is spreading WITHOUT the battery and causing things to short?

Is my A4000 (which i've only had for a few months!) dying??!

Please give me some good news!!

Worriedly,

Dandelion

[restore2003]

hmmm...could be the aga chipset that is about to burst.

What does the software failure tell?

[Framiga]

Ciao dandelion

naaa!! . . he only needs a "lifting".

First check, the SIMMs, reseats ALL the boards and as i'm thinking could be a PSU related problem.

Don't worry . . .your Amiga is only sick not died :-)

Good luck

[Effy]

Did you recently add any Simm memory that might not be fully compatible

[dandelion]

All the simms in the machine were the ones that came with it - so I presume they're all alright. However, I have a feeling the amount of fast ram might change from time to time - i.e. loose connections. When the ram chips are in place there is some free movement in them (i.e. you can push them back slightly but they spring up on their own). I don't know if this is normal but i've read that the simm holders can break and cause problems and that glue is the answer here!

I forgot to mention that it did present a colour code screen after one of these flake-out periods. This was a Yellow screen, which I believe is an uncaught error - not indicating anything specific like the roms or anything.

Could someone give me the correct instructions for installing the ram in the a4k? At the moment I am inserting the chips - trying to make sure that all the pins are at the same level - then I push them back gently until they won't go any further where they seem to be held in place at an angle. There is no firm click however so it's hard to tell if they're in perfectly correctly. Might try running it without any fast ram and seeing if this solves the problem.

[Cass]

Have a look on TjLaZer's post here.

Might try running it without any fast ram and seeing if this solves the problem.

A thing you have to do, just to exclude the faulty ram socket possibility. In case you see any improvement, you may try to clean the socket with a contact cleaning spray.

________
Mercury Villager

[amigamad]

The a4000 i have has all memory slots damaged except chip ram slot which has been replaced with a higher quality socket ive used double sided tape type stuff to stick the sims down by sticking it to the sim in the good socket then puting next sim in and repeating the process of double sided tape for all the sims .Im thinking of sticking a bit of glue from a glue gun to hold them a bit better unless my cyberstorm mark1 060 works ok in it. :-)

[zipper]

My A4000 has 128+16MB; from cold it boots 99% OK, but after a crash it may show only 128 (stable) or 132 (very  unstable), which only a total cold reset may cure.

[dandelion]

Thanks for the advice on the RAM issue. But do you think dodgy RAM connections could be causing the symptoms I described? Has anyone else ever experienced something like this?

[dandelion]

Ok..this morning after a long break I decided to take a look at the a4k again. Pulled out all the simms apart from the chip ram and started again. Working through all the simms and replacing them one by one (without the HD as well, booting from floppy) i realised that one of the simms wasn't working. I'm now trying again with just 3x4meg simms and so far no trouble. Hopefully this was it!

[Acill]

I hope your  A4000 is okay. Are things still working well? I am so glad I never got one. I love my A3000. I think it was the best built of all the big box systems to date. Keep us all updated!