#A2000 crashes!
26 messages in this thread
Been having problems with my recently purchased (used) A2000. On two
separate occasions, the computer crashed randomly. I would come back to it
to find the video output completely black (including the composite video
output) and the computer not doing what it was doing (to the best I could
determine, being that the screen was black).
The first time this happened, I tried to reboot using the three-fingered
salute. This time it booted up with a black screen. So I turned
everything off, took the cpu apart, and reseated all the chips. When I
rebooted, it seemed to be alive. Used it for a while the next day, and
then in the middle of a hard disk backup, it did the same thing. I again
took off the power supply and cards, and poked the chips inthis time paying
particular attention to the buster chip (which I had heard may be
responsible for a black monitor output). Booted again, and no problem…so
far.
Anyone have any idea what caused this? I'm using a Conner CP-340 HD, C=
2090 (non-A) controller, Microbotics 8-up with 2 meg. installed, and also
have a Konica 10.7 floppy on-board. I never experienced this with my A500,
where I used these cards/peripherals in a Subsystem expansion chassis. Oh-
I have the old Agnus chip, kickstart 1.3, and the motherboard is modified
to rev. 4.5 level.
On a slightly related note: the utility "HandyWB", which puts a menu of
executable programs on the title bar, doesn't seem to run on the 2000. It
bows out with an error message something like "HandyWB failed, requires
Workbench 1.2 ver. 33! returncode 20". I've never had this problem with WB
1.3 installed on my A500. Could it be the kickstart 1.3 rom that it's
reacting to?
Thanks in advance for any pointers.
+ Phil +
As to handywb, you have an old version, that has been replaced. The 1.3
version works fine. If I understand right, under 2.0 the menu type
utilities will be a lot different.
Ron
Aha..figured I might have had an old version. Thanks for the tip.
+ Phil +
Phil,
I am all too familiar with the black screen you describe. It has
followed my A2000 through a motherboard revision and still comes back to
haunt me. I get it mostly when using SID, a file manager type-program. I
have a GVP controller and a 40 meg Quantum, a Live!2000 board and, like
you, a Microbotics 8-Up DIP. The only thing I can figure is that possibly
the 8-UP is very sensitive to noise and that harddisk activity can
sometimes make it go bananas. The only way I can even use the Live!2000 is
by putting the 8-UP in the leftmost slot and putting the Live! in the
rightmost slot, with the hardcard in the middle -taking up 3 slots!- :^(
The clincher is that back when I had a REV 3.9 motherboard, the three
cards coexisted peacefully and I had no blackout problems. Even then,
though, I would sometimes have gurus while doing ray traces with Turbo
Silver. That is when I first suspected a memory/noise problem and, indeed,
segregating the memory board as far as possible from the other boards
seemed to do the trick.
Anyone else care to comment? I'd love to find a way to run my machine
without having to play musical slots to get everything to work.
Nick
The author of SID has admitted a problem with the current ShareWare version
that causes the screen blackout. If you have sent in your Share$$ you can
access his BBS and get the info.
John
Thanks for the information. I have not sent in the Shareware fee because I
have heard that SID is not 2.0 compatible. Do you know anything about
this?
Nick
I haven't tried SID yet on a 2.0 machine, so I'm not sure if it is
compatible or not. I do know that he is working on SID 2.0 which he claims
will work with 1.3 and 2.0. But it has been quite a few months that he
started the project and no update yet. So it probably would be best to wait
and see if he releases the upgrade.
John
Thanks for the info on SID, John.
Nick
Upgrade to an A500 🙂
As a matter of fact, I have an A500 as well as the 2000. Never had a
single problem with it, now that you mention it ;^)
Nick
Nick,
There was a rash of bad power supplies that gave-out when adding an A501
and external floppy, but that has passed and doesn't reflect on the actual
expansion capabilities of the machine.
Chris,
BTW, can you tell me what size torx screwdriver is needed for the those
screws in the A500 case?
Nick
T10
Craig
Thanks. I've got a spare 1.3 rom lying around…guess I'll break down and
buy T10 and install it into the A500.
Nick
You would use a TORX T-10 driver, Nick.
Thanks, Chris. Guess I'll have to pay Radio Shack a visit and buy one. My
A500 has a 1.2 rom and I have a 1.3 just collecting dust.
Nick
You can also pick one up at Sears which carries Torx drivers in their
Craftsman line.
Truly an interesting experience. Thought maybe you isolated the 8-up
because that was the common piece between us, but it looks like you
narrowed it down to that far before I came along. One of the things I paid
a lot of attention to, in my selection of A2000, was the motherboard rev.
number. Wanted to have at least 4.4…based on some transcripts of various
problems documented here in the past. Looks like there may be some
detriment to the newer rev., at least with the 8-up. Hmm.
+ Phil +
I am not 100% sure that the 8-UP is the culprit here, but it seems the most
likely candidate at this point. Everything is working, after a fashion, so
I have no pressing desire to invest in a new mem board, although I have
been tempted to upgrade my GVP IMPACT 2000 hardcard for a new series II
hardcard with capacity for 8 meg onboard. The trouble there is I don't
think I could use my 1meg x1 drams with it.
You are lucky to have gotten a 4.4 rev motherboard. I started out with
a 3.9 , found that it wouldn't support the 1 meg Agnes, and upgraded to a
6.2B. Soon after that, one of the 8520's went bad and instead of replacing
just the chip, my dealer said that it was Commodore's policy to replace the
whole motherboard when it fails while under warranty. The replacement board
that Commodore sent him was only a rev 6, but at least the clock worked and
it seemed a bit more stable than the 6.2B I had. All in all, quite an
adventure.
Let me know if you find a solution, ok? I have saved your name and id
and will pass along anything I might come up with.
Nick
Thanks Nick for your interest. Things seem to have stabilized moreor-less
after I reseated all the chips the second time. I still don't understand
why I can't turn it on and have something running for a length of time
without something crashing though. For testing purposes, I had a couple of
nights I turned it on using Mostra to go through my picture file
directories and show pictures while I slept. On both occasions I woke up
to a crashed computer. The second time GOMF told me that it had something
to do with corrupt memory or something. I tried just leaving it on a
graphics demo (no hard disk activity) and it seemed to work, at least for
the few hours it was doing it.
At one point it be less than funny when I had saved some important text I'd
captured off of Usenet, and did a dir command, only to get a "HD1: has a
read-write error"…ack! The most dreaded message! Luckily, most of it
was backed up. I opened up the box, re-seated some SCSI cables, and it
booted up as if nothing had happened. Sigh. Hope that's all THAT was. I
just wish I could feel comfortable leaving the thing on all the time
without having it always crash. Among other things, I was entertaining
ideas of a small BBS.
+ Phil +
What brand/type of SCSI interface do you have?
I have an ICD Advantage 2000 now. Although, it appears that the crashes
have become a thing of the past, at least for now.
+ Phil +
Phil,
Have you tried moving the 8-up as far away from the HD controller as is
physically possible? I remember that did the trick for me when I had the
Rev 3.9 board and was experiencing crashes while rendering with Turbo
Silver. If you do that and it works, then I'd bet that the culprit is the
8-UP, which is somehow overly sensitive to rf.
Nick
Well, luckily, I haven't experienced the crashes at all in the last week or
so. I think pushing all the chips in did the trick. It's been running
beautifully. Thanks for the tip though!
+ Phil +
That's easy.. The A500 is more reliable 🙂
Awwwww…c'mon now!
+ Phil +