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Author Topic: G-Force 030 Combo hangs  (Read 3468 times)

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Offline Pat the Cat

Re: G-Force 030 Combo hangs
« Reply #14 from previous page: January 24, 2017, 07:08:32 PM »
All that stuff in the yellow box is socketed FOR A REASON. It was designed to be replaced in time. ;)

It can be difficult to source replacements in that package, at least you have all the chip numbers written on the top of them.

4.3? Yeah, time to hack it up to 6. Which was what happened at the time, some of the mods may have gone bad, and the card is actually OK.
"To recurse is human. To iterate, divine."

A1200, Vanilla, Surf Squirrel, SD Card, KS 3.0/3.z, PCMCIA dev
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Offline QuikSanz

Re: G-Force 030 Combo hangs
« Reply #15 on: January 24, 2017, 07:14:54 PM »
Can't look at mine right now but as I recall the FPU is a 25Mhz one. If that was overclocked it may have been damaged.
 

Offline jcmTopic starter

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Re: G-Force 030 Combo hangs
« Reply #16 on: January 24, 2017, 07:25:24 PM »
Quote from: QuikSanz;820639
Can't look at mine right now but as I recall the FPU is a 25Mhz one. If that was overclocked it may have been damaged.


Sounds like a reasonable explanation. I can't find any info in the documentation about disabling the FPU entirely after removing it.  Any secret jumper setting I missed or didn't understand?
 

Offline jcmTopic starter

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Re: G-Force 030 Combo hangs
« Reply #17 on: January 24, 2017, 07:26:59 PM »
Quote from: Pat the Cat;820637
All that stuff in the yellow box is socketed FOR A REASON. It was designed to be replaced in time. ;)

It can be difficult to source replacements in that package, at least you have all the chip numbers written on the top of them.

4.3? Yeah, time to hack it up to 6. Which was what happened at the time, some of the mods may have gone bad, and the card is actually OK.


Yeah the GAL/PAL chips are NOT easy to come by and they are locked so whatever code they contain can't be read off the chips.  Thanks so much, GVP.

I guess I'll just have to sell this card and the RAM and get something else for this A2000.
 

Offline Damion

Re: G-Force 030 Combo hangs
« Reply #18 on: January 24, 2017, 07:37:22 PM »
I'm sure you've already seen this, but I believe it might be more informative regarding jumper positions than what the factory provided:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~davem2/overclock/combo.html

Interestingly, seems the option to set frequencies and add a wait state are configurable by jumpers--I wonder if the PALs really were different for factory 50MHz cards?
 

Offline Pat the Cat

Re: G-Force 030 Combo hangs
« Reply #19 on: January 24, 2017, 07:45:04 PM »
You overclock any system, you add coolers, and you kiss your warranty goodbye. It goes with the territory. Having said that, ceramic 68K processor variants are generally tolerant, it's just the rest of the design that can have problems.

Overclocks are hugely individual to the specific board, and somebody else with the same board might not get the same results.

GALS (Gate array logic chips) are not common now, but they can be got, and they don't need programming. They are specific chips for specific jobs. So you CAN replace them easily, the tricky part is finding the things working and for sale (or for swap). They are socketed for ease of replacement, but the only part "exclusive" to GVP is the EPROM. Everything else is stock. PALs are different, you have to burn the gates in, so they can be made "proprietary".

Read off some chip numbers, try Google or datasheets. That should tell you if it was standard component or not. True custom gate array chips were very rare - even CBM did not make their own, they didn't have facilities to make them. Chips like Gayle, for example. Too many connections for their chip making equipment.
« Last Edit: January 24, 2017, 08:04:38 PM by Pat the Cat »
"To recurse is human. To iterate, divine."

A1200, Vanilla, Surf Squirrel, SD Card, KS 3.0/3.z, PCMCIA dev
A500, Vanilla, A570, Rev 5, KS 1.2/1.3 Testbench system
Rasp Pi, UAE4ARM, 3D laser scanner, experimental, hoping for AmigaOS4Arm, based on Watterott Fabscan Pi
 

Offline jcmTopic starter

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Re: G-Force 030 Combo hangs
« Reply #20 on: January 24, 2017, 07:59:24 PM »
Quote from: Damion;820642
I'm sure you've already seen this, but I believe it might be more informative regarding jumper positions than what the factory provided:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~davem2/overclock/combo.html

Interestingly, seems the option to set frequencies and add a wait state are configurable by jumpers--I wonder if the PALs really were different for factory 50MHz cards?


Great link, hadn't seen that.  Thanks!
 

Offline jcmTopic starter

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Re: G-Force 030 Combo hangs
« Reply #21 on: January 24, 2017, 08:00:09 PM »
Quote from: Oldsmobile_Mike;820538
Pat brings up a good point.  If you're trying it on Rev. 4 A2000 boards, any difference if you try it on a >Rev. 6 series board?  The newer models have much cleaner signals.  Slight chance but maybe worth checking out?


I don't have a rev. 6 board to try it with unfortunately.
 

Offline Pat the Cat

Re: G-Force 030 Combo hangs
« Reply #22 on: January 24, 2017, 08:09:42 PM »
Quote from: jcm;820640
Sounds like a reasonable explanation. I can't find any info in the documentation about disabling the FPU entirely after removing it.  Any secret jumper setting I missed or didn't understand?

Usually handled by the autoconfig ROM - FPUs were an option on every system. If there was one, it got picked up automatically. No need for a jumper generally.
"To recurse is human. To iterate, divine."

A1200, Vanilla, Surf Squirrel, SD Card, KS 3.0/3.z, PCMCIA dev
A500, Vanilla, A570, Rev 5, KS 1.2/1.3 Testbench system
Rasp Pi, UAE4ARM, 3D laser scanner, experimental, hoping for AmigaOS4Arm, based on Watterott Fabscan Pi