Amiga 3000 - 7 LED Flashes and Reboot - bad Cyberstorm?

[matt3k]

I think my CS MKIII is on the fritz but not sure, was hoping someone out there had knowledge of this.  

It looks like the system will boot normally after you turn it on, it querys the 3000 SCSI with the scsi led flashing multiple times and then the 3000 will flash the power LED 7 times and after a delay would repeat the sequence.  You cannot double mouse click into the roms.

This happened a month ago and I replaced the 68060 and all seemed fine again.  Now it is doing it again.

If it is the CS, is it repairable?

[salax54]

Why don't you remove the CS and check if the A3000 can work normally? The machine has an onboard CPU logically. If all goes well that way, you have your first answer..

[matt3k]

Must be getting old.  I thought the 68060 was bad and forgot about the terrible 68060 sockets on card itself (thanks phase 5 .  Sure enough, the socket went bad like they always do on the MK III and the PPC.

The one thing I learned is that if the power led flashes  7 times it means bad 68060 socket.

FYI the way to test for a bad socket is to push down on the 68060 and boot the machine.

[kirk_m]

Wow...glad you figured it out.  How does the socket go bad, just out of curiosity?  Solder joints break?

[Acill]

Wow...glad you figured it out.  How does the socket go bad, just out of curiosity?  Solder joints break?

Yup, and unlike the one on your MKII, the MKIII is a strange solder ball SMD type mount that requires specialized gear to fix correctly and not trash the plastic on the socket. The way i have fixed them in the past was to remove the CPU, clamp down the socket as best you can, then take a soldering iron to every single pin from the top and try to reflow the ball under it and not melt the socket in the process. Its time consuming and tedious as all hell.

[kirk_m]

Glad I don't have a MK3, then

[Whaka]

Glad I don't have a MK3, then

it's not a so common fault because of the design.
usually this happen because of extraction of the cpu. this require a special extractor to not apply force on the socket. with screwdrivers... you have to be really careful.
or if you really badly bent the pcb

[matt3k]

it's not a so common fault because of the design.
usually this happen because of extraction of the cpu. this require a special extractor to not apply force on the socket. with screwdrivers... you have to be really careful.
or if you really badly bent the pcb

That isn't my experience.  I have a MKIII that was in a system for years without removing the CPU or touching it and it failed.  Similarly I have a PPC that was just sitting in a machine running happily then decided to fail.  My best guess would be heat and years is the problem...

I know many people that had similar failures.  The truly crappy way that Phase 5 socketed their chips, described by Acill, is the culprit imho.

[Whaka]

i said usually. of course, everything can simply fail...  
i have an mk3 too, the socket failed because i did multiple extractions. i fixed it the same way as Acill describe, near 10 years now.
 
and cpld are running really hot on those cards, this doesn't help.