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MegaST 4 will not boot, but looks fine with diagnostics

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:03 pm
by guus.assmann
Hello,

Today I've found a strange puzzle.
A MegaST 4 board will not boot, no display and no floppy activity.
Looks like an impropper reset.

So I conected a diagnostics cartridge.
Display, Ram, Timing, Blitter and also Floppy work just fine.
All tests ok.
Yet the board will not boot without the diagnostics.
I've reseated all IC's. The board looks very good and has no corrosion.

Any idea's ?

BR/
Guus

Re: MegaST 4 will not boot, but looks fine with diagnostics

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:25 pm
by exxos
ROM ? Have you left floppy on speed test for 5mins to see what happens ? machine got blitter ?

Re: MegaST 4 will not boot, but looks fine with diagnostics

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:37 pm
by troed
In my experience for some reason some of the first chips to suddenly die in an ST are the TOS chips. I've had more than one "white blank screen" ST where I just replaced TOS and that was it.

The diag cart only needs a tiny part of TOS to be read correctly to execute.

/Troed

Re: MegaST 4 will not boot, but looks fine with diagnostics

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:04 am
by guus.assmann
Hello,

Yes, the board has a blitter. I'll swap that one as well to see.
And I've replaced the Tos, MMU, Glue, Shifter, DMA. All those are on a socket.

One thing that's strange, in diagnostics doing the OS-Check.
It may work one time, and give an error the next time. Either CRC-check or 4 addresses bad.
After reset, sometimes a couple of times needed, it will display the diagnostics again.

The power supply is from Exxos, with a nice transformer.
And the board is totally bare, nothing on it is modified.
Also nothing is hot.

BR/
Guus

Re: MegaST 4 will not boot, but looks fine with diagnostics

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:11 am
by exxos
blitter patch installed ? if its not, maybe cut trace under CPU ? If its a national blitter then you likely dont need the patch.

I would do RAM test for half hour , see if anything shows up, also do the floppy speed test for half an hour, the you can see any pattern to crashing neither of those tests.

They could just be noise on the clock lines if it seems unstable. I had a lot of issues with that... If chips are IMP then you likely will have issues I think..


http://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/last/MEGAST/index.htm

Re: MegaST 4 will not boot, but looks fine with diagnostics

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 2:07 pm
by guus.assmann
Hello,
Ram test keeps working just fine. As does the floppy test.
Replacing the CPU has not helped, and removing the blitter is not a solution.
I've replaced MCU, Glue, DMA, Floppy controller and Blitter.
Using the two-tosses (Exxos) also doesn't work.
And the Shifter buffer doesn't help either.
There's no damaged traces to be found.

Then I placed a Tos 2.06 (Compo TAA4)
With this unit, the computer works just fine. :o
And the Tos test is also OK.
This shows it's relates to the OS, but I cannot understand what's going on

So I replaced the 74LS11. And due to lack of time, I've not tested with that yet.
I will also test with 6 Eproms instead of 2 Rom's

BR/
Guus

Re: MegaST 4 will not boot, but looks fine with diagnostics

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 3:22 pm
by exxos
what is speed on ROMs which work ?

Re: MegaST 4 will not boot, but looks fine with diagnostics

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 9:12 pm
by guus.assmann
Hello,
The working one has 120nS Eproms.
I have yet not tested with faster 29F010 Flash, 90nS. Will do that as well.
Of course this card has a Gal. 16V8 25LNC.

I have tested with 6 Eproms, Tos 1.04NL in 200nS Eproms. Not ok.
Then I took Tos 1.04UK in 6 Eproms 100nS. Also not ok. (Yes, I changed W2- W3 and W4)

Also tested with Flash-Tos in 29F040 90nS. Also not ok.

Replacing the 74LS11 with a 74HCT11 doesn't work either.

BR/
Guus

Re: MegaST 4 will not boot, but looks fine with diagnostics

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 9:21 pm
by exxos
I would change the first 2 ROM sockets and try again with 2 chips TOS...

Re: MegaST 4 will not boot, but looks fine with diagnostics

Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 9:23 pm
by guus.assmann
Have replaced the sockets, now two quality sockets with round contacts are in.
Still with these it doesn't work either. :( :shock:

However it was a very good idea. :)