Dead Apollo 1240 - What to try next?

Hi Guys,

My Apollo 1240 recently starting freezing and then after a few times it decided to never boot again :(

I was planning to have the card upgraded to 060 so I sent it off as planned to Stachu100 to see if he could make a simple repair & upgrade the card, but the problem seems to be quite serious.

The card produces just a black screen on boot, Stan has tried the following:

Replace the Xtal
clean MACH chips sockets
re-soldered 74F74 (this small chip close to battery area)

The card still produces the black screen and will not boot.

Where to check next? Stan is sending the card back to me as we agreed not to proceed with the upgrade whilst the card is not working.

(By the way if you are reading thank you Stan for all your help on this I really do appreciate it :thumbsup:)

Zetr0 is sorting me out with a socket and a working 040 CPU :bowdown: but I need to try to find a repair shop or someone local to fit this for me, but before I undertake what will probably be expensive work, is there anything else I can try?

Any suggestions welcomed, Thanks.

Steve.

If Stan is willing, it might be best to send the '040 and bits straight to him, rather than send the card back and forth?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AndyLandy

If Stan is willing, it might be best to send the '040 and bits straight to him, rather than send the card back and forth?

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The card is already on the way back (posted yesterday) Stan really wanted to get the card booting before undertaking the CPU removal.

Steve.

I had the very same issue with my old '040, I sent mine to PG and he said to me "chances are it's one of the chips near the connector". Or at-least words to that effect.

I had same symptoms on my Apollo in mid 90's. Turned out that connector was poor quality and some pins had bended towards the connector. Fixed it with needle, bending connector pins carefully outwards. It's a long shot, but check the connector too!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AndyLandy

If Stan is willing, it might be best to send the '040 and bits straight to him, rather than send the card back and forth?

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The card is already on the way back (posted yesterday) Stan really wanted to get the card booting before undertaking the CPU removal.

Steve.

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BGA sockets are know to fail, especially on 040's as they run hotter than 060's. Replacing the socket might actually resolve the issue.

Kin

Apollo 1240/1260's and Blizzard 1240/60's are PGA not BGA.

Infact the only BGA i know of is the PPC chip on the PPC cards

Steve,
My suspicion is that acid from leaking accumulator destroyed several cooper tracks on PCB.
I've even found signs of damage on RAM sockets:

I haven't done more pictures, but signs of corrosions are under 040 CPU as well. You will find corrosion signs (green incrursions - I don't know how to call it properly in English) on CPU pins. And in other PCB areas unfortunately.

So in short:
Acid from accumulator is still eating cooper tracks on PCB - even if accumulator was removed long time ago.

@stachu100

Thanks for the added info, and again I really appraciate everything you've done.

So it sound like its time for this card to go tho the Big Amiga Box in the sky :(

Steve.

I hope you don't think of throwing it out ;-)

alittle OT:
stan = stachu100 ?