Arrrgh! (FastATA 4000 MK-VI 8.0 and issues with keyboard.)

[yurif74]

Hello i do not have a mediator pci, i'm using it on a standard a4000 daughterboard. As far as i know (reading on elbox site) v8.0 have better support for cf drives.

[yurif74]

@slaapliedje:
Hello! Any news?
Juri

[slaapliedje]

Well, finally recieved my ATX converter for my A4000, put the PSU in, connected it all up... and nothing.

When I push the power button the fan comes on, I see the IDE to CF Card thing light up for a second, as long as the CD-ROM light (so it gets at least a second of power) and then nothing.  I put the Amiga power supply back in and it boots up just as it did before...

Any suggestions?  I have read a few things about the PSUs being hit and miss, and something about newer PSUs concentrate on having good 3.3v power lines vs the 5v the Amiga uses.

Either way, my Amiga is still working (as much as it did before) with the original PSU.  

Any suggestions?

slaapliedje

[yurif74]

Do you use an adaptor to connect the psu to a4000 mainboard or have you simply connected +5,+12, -12, GND and FAIL lines?

[slaapliedje]

I am using the adapter that amigakit sells.

slaapliedje

[yurif74]

...When I push the power button the fan comes on, I see the IDE to CF Card thing light up for a second, as long as the CD-ROM light (so it gets at least a second of power) and then nothing.

what exactly mean "and then nothing"? the psu turn off? or it simply stays on with amiga black screen?

some new psu have a 24 pin connector instead 20 pin atx connector, afaik the amigakit adaptor has 20 pin connector, have you connected it correctly? (24 <-> 20 pin)

Juri

[slaapliedje]

This PSU has a 20+4 pin (so the extra 4 pins are off to the side).  

It seems like the Amiga never even starts up.  The lights flash for the devices, like I said, but then the only thing that remains doing anything is the PSU's fan.  

Now I'm starting to wonder if it fried the CF card adapter.  It's really hot when I turn it on with the A4000's PSU, and it's not detected at all in the Boot Options screen.  

When I get home from work I'm going to test the CF adapter on my PC to see if still works or not.  I don't recall it getting that hot before....

slaapliedje

[yurif74]

at this point i suggest you to unplug the power connector from a4000 mb and check voltages on pins, original psu and atx psu (with adaptor)
maybe it have some sort of protection if there is no energy drain from the 3.3v it shut down, i guess.

[slaapliedje]

Just the individual pins?  I do have a volt meter laying around somewhere.  Ha ha, the Amiga, be an electronics expert to fix your own stuff, you'll save tons of money.

slaapliedje

[danbeaver]

A multimeter WITH a continuity mode will set you back $12, but you need to test the PSU under load (connected to the motherboard).  The new PSU sounds bad, as even the cheap ones connected with the Amigakit adapter should work fine.  As I've said before, a spot check of a PSU does not reflect variances (wild fluctuations) over time.  The CF adapter should not get hot unless something shorted.

[Ancalimon]

What high quality PSU would you recommend to use with the adapter from Amigakit? I will receive my A4000T soon and would like to use the highest quality suitable ATX psu.

[slaapliedje]

I have a system with a Mini-ITX board in it that I'll try connecting the PSU to, for testing whether or not it's bad.  It's a Silverstone, which I don't have any previous experience with, but it definitely should be one of the higher quality ones, I know Silverstone is mostly known for their cases though.

I'm going to guess it probably is something to do with not detecting anything on the 3.3v line, but I'll figure that out once I get home from work and can test it.

slaapliedje

[danbeaver]

I have the same setup for testing motherboards: a mATX (Hercules 500W ~ $25 eBay) plus the Amigakit A4000D adapter with push switch, and it works fine.  I do remember that my PSU that died early was a Silverstone (subcontract?).  Ya might want to check the PSU in a PC setup, or short the green wire with a ground wire and then check the voltages.  They won't be accurate without a load, but they ought to be present.

[slaapliedje]

Okay, so I checked the voltages;

A4000


O  U  O     1   2   3

U  O  U     4   5   6

Is the basic layout.  I put the numbers there as reference.

Two and three are ground, black on the adapter, blue on the A4000 PSU.

Pin 1 is 5v, pin 4 is 12v, and pin 5 is -12v.  Pin 6 is at 4.33v, but according to this page; http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/Amiga_Power_supplies/amiga_power_supplies.html#OrigPSURate it only shows a +12v, -12v and +5v...

The actual ratings I got with my A4000 PSU was 5.01v, 11.45v and -11.98v.  pin 6 gave me 4.33v.  There wasn't much fluctuation, except when it first powered on.  Also of note, I had left the hard drive, floppy drive and CDrom plugged in at this point to draw a little current.

The Silverstone PSU I don't have anything else plugged into, and it was a pretty solid 5v, 12.11v, -11.53~54 and 3.66v

By the way, the CF-IDE adapter is either completely fried, or the CF card is bad.  It really does overheat (to the point where it could burn you if you left it on for more than 5-10 minutes.  Even if I just plug power into it, it gets really hot.  As you mentioned earlier, sounds like there's a short, but I don't see one anywhere, I'll try to look closer, could be that I loosened something under where the power connects that made a connection somewhere.)

I'm about to try swapping out the PSU again and see if it boots (could be the newer PSU detected the short and shut down, where as the A4000's original PSU doesn't have such a feature...)

slaapliedje

[slaapliedje]

Wow, so I hooked it all up and ran it... both the 12v and the 5v... they'll go up to about 3 volts, then it powers off.  Fan stops spinning etc.  I removed each device one by one to see if something was causing it, and removed the motherboard last... the motherboard is where the power drain happened.  Anyone have any ideas there?

It's obviously not doing the same thing with the A4000D PSU.  Though someone mentioned earlier in this thread that maybe the newer PSU needs a 3.3v connection somewhere?

slaapliedje

[danbeaver]

Sounds like you may need someone to either fully test or repair the motherboard, cause something ain't quite right.  Anyone near you with an A4000D you could do a swapsies with and test out their PSU with your MB and then your PSU with their MB?  Or ya could just send the MB to Anthony Hoffman; his turn around time is damn quick despite the distance.