GVP HD8+ problems

[sim085]

Hello, I was using my A500+ when all of a sudden I got an error that a file could not be accessed on disk. I restarted my A500+ and it did not boot...

The GVP HD8+ does seem to get power but there is no disk activity. The A500+ does get power and the keyboard LED stays blinking. I get no color on the screen.

Does anyone know what it might be?

I was thinking this might be a power problem and therefore I was wondering if anyone knows from where I can find how to hack the GVP HD8+ to take power from the A500+

[paul1981]

What happens if you cold boot and hold both mouse buttons down to get into the startup-menu?

[sim085]

What happens if you cold boot and hold both mouse buttons down to get into the startup-menu?

What does cold boot mean? If I hold both mouse buttons down nothing happens. The A500+ works fine when I pull the GVP HD8+ off...

[paul1981]

What does cold boot mean? If I hold both mouse buttons down nothing happens. The A500+ works fine when I pull the GVP HD8+ off...

I didn't know it was working with the HD removed, but a cold boot is a boot from power being off.
If it's a 500+ (kick 2) then there should be a boot menu if you hold down both mouse buttons whilst powering on (or after rebooting).
You could still attach the hard drive and see if you can get into this bootmenu.

[sim085]

I didn't know it was working with the HD removed, but a cold boot is a boot from power being off.
If it's a 500+ (kick 2) then there should be a boot menu if you hold down both mouse buttons whilst powering on (or after rebooting).
You could still attach the hard drive and see if you can get into this bootmenu.

I have kickstart 3.1 and with the GVP HD8+ attached I get no boot menu when holding down both mouse buttons.

[paul1981]

I have kickstart 3.1 and with the GVP HD8+ attached I get no boot menu when holding down both mouse buttons.

Okay...so that rules out a corrupted (software wise) hard drive. Definitely dealing with a hardware issue here (providing you attempted to go into bootmenu from powerdown). The reason I  say that is because it could have been an RDB virus... but not so I believe, if you can't even get into the bootmenu from a cold reset (maybe someone can correct me here as the RDB is read upon power on).

Can you hear the hard drive spin up? Or doesn't it get that far? (black screen and flashing caps)

[sim085]

Can you hear the hard drive spin up? Or doesn't it get that far? (black screen and flashing caps)

My hard disk is a CF card. I changed this with a normal SCSI hard disk and I still have the same problem. Hard disk does start spinning but does not boot. I already had this problem with normal SCSI hard disks and I was told (don't know if here) that it could be because of PSU. At the moment even when I put the switch to 'Game' I still have problems (black screen, LED flashes for around 7 times then pause, then again).

[motrucker]

You are a bit stingy with your info, but - assuming you have the GVP PSU unit, and suspect it as a problem, why not take a multimeter to the outputs and see what it says? Could be a bad PSU, or corrosion on the contacts? (Just a couple of wild ideas)

[sim085]

You are a bit stingy with your info, but - assuming you have the GVP PSU unit, and suspect it as a problem, why not take a multimeter to the outputs and see what it says? Could be a bad PSU, or corrosion on the contacts? (Just a couple of wild ideas)

I do have a multimeter but don't really know how to use it where do I put the black and red pin? and what would consist a correct value? I am sure the PSU is still outputting some power but not sure if it is enough to make the GVP work...

[Motormouth]

My hard disk is a CF card. I changed this with a normal SCSI hard disk and I still have the same problem. Hard disk does start spinning but does not boot. I already had this problem with normal SCSI hard disks and I was told (don't know if here) that it could be because of PSU. At the moment even when I put the switch to 'Game' I still have problems (black screen, LED flashes for around 7 times then pause, then again).

I had a problem with my GVP HD8+ PSU.  The solder joints on the female IEC plug became loose.  I had to re-solder them.

[Etherweet]

(remember this thing has a small fan that can sound like a disk drive - allthough quantums have a unique noise of their own)

(( fan running could be an indication 12 volts is there at least))

if you do open the case you can disconnect the hard drive power lead and measure the voltage safely there.  the 2 inner conductors are both ground and it wont matter which one of those you use.

you should see 5 volts and 12 volts.  should be in 5 to 10% tolerance to get a hard drive to unpark and do internal diagnostics.

if the supply voltages are wrong the fan could possibly still run.. too fast or too slow...

im almost willing to bet the green power led is on the 5 volt supply and the fan is on the 12 volt supply. so if you have the green power light lit and the fan spinning, you have a good idea whether you want to go inside or not.

- just plugging my .02 in -

[sim085]

you should see 5 volts and 12 volts.  should be in 5 to 10% tolerance to get a hard drive to unpark and do internal diagnostics.

I used the multimeter as suggested and it seems the voltage to the hard drive is right +5V (orrange) and +12V (yellow). I removed the GVP and connected a GrandSlam (from which only the fastRAM part still works) and the A500+ booted without any issue. I also tested the CF card on the PC and this also worked fine.

Therefore it seems that the problem is either with the GVP or with the ACARD SCSI > IDE adapter. However given that other hard disks also don't boot, I think it is safe to belive hat the problem is with the GVP HD8+.

Does anyone know what might have gone bad and what other tests I can do to find out??

Note that the A500+ does not boot (i.e. LED stays blinking) even when the GVP switch is set to Game.

[sim085]

Does anyone know what might have gone bad and what other tests I can do to find out??

Does anyone know how I can test if a chip (LS244 and LS245) is working? I used a multimeter and it seems that these chips are getting the needed supply. However I do not know how to use a multimeter to see if these chips are actually doing what they should be doing? or this is not done with a multimeter?

[Etherweet]

at this point i would say disconnect the scsi cable from the hard drive.

then boot up with the hd8 connected.

this will prove the disk drive is not coming up ready and is holding tee scsi bus up.

the hd8 probably does a scan from device 0 to 6, giving each unit time to come up.

if it detects the hard drive but the hard drive is broken then it waits for a ready repsonse that may never ever come.

booting with the drive physically disconnected shouold prove this...

[motrucker]

Here is the data sheet for the LS74LS244 chip.

http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/46211/SLS/LS244.html

If you search the other number, I am sure you'll find it too.
Could easily be one of the "jelly bean" chips...