Apollo 1240 memory not showing up in Workbench

[Danoo]

Hi all,
I have been repairing an old Apollo 1240 card that has been in storage for sometime.
Some of the pads, and a few of the traces of the dual flip flop chip used to half the oscillator frequency in the 040 position were simply gone. All the vias that supported this chip were also cactus, and needed some form of repair. Typical damage on these cards as the dual flip flop chip is right next to the battery.

Anyways to cut a long story short, I managed to get the chip back in place with a few kynar mods attached.
Plugged it into a 1200 MB with Diagrom in place, and it booted first go . Run a few test including the memory test (16M simm), and everything seems to work fine in Diagrom.
Thought I had a winner so I removed Diagrom and put in my ROMS, and it booted to the insert disk screen. Now for workbench, plugged the IDE device in and yes Workbench booted, but the 16M fastram is not showing up
It shows up in Diagrom but not in workbench ??
So I have tried everything I can think of as follows:

Different ROMS, have tried both 3.0 and 3.1 (different versions of Workbench as well)
Cleaned all the contact mating surfaces a few times (eg. simm connector, edge connector etc.)
Re-seated the MAC chips and cleaned the sockets.
A variety of different 040 libraries.

I have ordered another simm chip, but it has not arrived yet, and I would be surprised if this was the problem as the memory is showing up in Diagrom. (Still I need to try it and it was a low cost item).

Maybe someone has seen this before and can give me a few possible clues what else needs investigating

thanks,

[terriblefire]

Which KS are you using... i think there is an issue with pre 3.0 systems.

[Danoo]

Which KS are you using... i think there is an issue with pre 3.0 systems.

I tried with both KS 3 & 3.1, I did read somewhere that even 3.1 can cause some issues with the Apollo cards.
When I initially purchased the Apollo back in 2002 it worked well with KS3, but life then took over raising 3 sons and all my Amigas were put into storage for the next 16 years. Removed most of the batteries back in 2002, but missed the Apollo card somehow hence the leakage damage.

[terriblefire]

I tried with both KS 3 & 3.1, I did read somewhere that even 3.1 can cause some issues with the Apollo cards.
When I initially purchased the Apollo back in 2002 it worked well with KS3, but life then took over raising 3 sons and all my Amigas were put into storage for the next 16 years. Removed most of the batteries back in 2002, but missed the Apollo card somehow hence the leakage damage.

What address range does the apollo put the ram in? can diagrom tell you that?

[terriblefire]

This is the manual for the board..

I'm sure you have the RAM jumper closed but...

http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/downloads/A ... Manual.pdf

Would prefer to upload is but pdf's arent allowed.

[Danoo]

After mid-night time for bed, diagrom did give the range of the fastram, but I can not recall it off the top of the head, will check it out tomorrow, too cold out in the shed ATM to check it out.
Yes the Ram option jumper is shorted, I have the manual for the Apollo, the same one as the link above. Thanks for that link it is always good to have a electronic copy as well.

Thanks for your suggestions, will provide some more information on the memory range of the fastram.

Enjoy your day, and the nice warm weather (heard on the radio today it was above 30 in parts of the Isles today)

[Danoo]

What address range does the apollo put the ram in? can diagrom tell you that?

$01000000 - $02000000 let the test run to about 8M without any issues.

Fastmem

mem_range2.jpg (84.69 KiB) Viewed 4073 times

I probably still have clock issues somewhere I removed the Fastram and the Ram Jumper, and WhichAmiga shows the 040 running at 0.0Mhz
Maybe still have a trace or via that is open somewhere in the leakage area. Not sure how diagrom tests the memory if there is a clock signal issue?

WhichAmiga

Which.jpg (67.83 KiB) Viewed 4073 times

Time to pull the oscilloscope out and see what is happening with the clock

[terriblefire]

What address range does the apollo put the ram in? can diagrom tell you that?

$01000000 - $02000000 let the test run to about 8M without any issues.
mem_range2.jpg

I probably still have clock issues somewhere I removed the Fastram and the Ram Jumper, and WhichAmiga shows the 040 running at 0.0Mhz
Maybe still have a trace or via that is open somewhere in the leakage area. Not sure how diagrom tests the memory if there is a clock signal issue?
Which.jpg
Time to pull the oscilloscope out and see what is happening with the clock

Try using the addmem util in Wb to add it and see if it crashes...

https://aminet.net/util/cli/AddMem.lha

Code: Select all

AddMem START 1000000 TO 2000000

WhichAmiga never gets my clock speed right and without fastram its not going to show very fast. For clock speed only trust AIBB

[Danoo]

Cheers, will give that a whirl tomorrow.

[Danoo]

Try using the addmem util in Wb to add it and see if it crashes...

Well that worked I read the documentation for AddMem, put it in the startup before SetPatch and what do you know

All good now

Working2.jpg (137.19 KiB) Viewed 4023 times

I checked the old Seagate 40Meg HD (still serviceable) that was in this machine when the card worked years ago, and there was nothing required in startup previously, bit of a mystery but who cares it is working well again

Run the Apollo for about 40 min with various bits of software did not miss a beat, yes it got a little warm around 50c according to the laser temp gun, but all I have is a passive heatsink on top and the 040 chips are known to run hot.

@terriblefire great suggestions, another piece of old kit alive again.

The repair, yes it is a little bodgy, but it works. Will cover it with some PCB lacquer to give it some more support

Repaired 74F74

repair.jpg (61.61 KiB) Viewed 4023 times

I have already de-soldered the CPU on this board and fitted a 060/040 socket, also did the same for the ROM. Have the new ROM and 060 ready to go, just need to fit a voltage reg and hopefully I will then have a 1260