A3000 with yellow screen

[Winona2k]

Hi,

I recently received an A3000 that was supposed to be working. Its had a battery change to a slot style one. When I try to start it I only get a yellow flashing screen. If I enter an A3630 instead of the integrated cpu all i get is a quick flash and a black screen.

So far ive tried:

Removing memory chip and fast.
Refitting oscillirator
Downclocking internal cpu to 16Mhz
Installed an A3630. Tried both all switches to INT and EXT.
Tried 2 daughterboard.
Refitted a few socketed chips. Applied preassure and rocked the rest since they were to hard to remove.

I noticed the legs to the paula chips looking slightly oxidized on one side. Though not a good sign I think that shouldnt cause a yellow flashing screen?

Help?

Also, could someone tell me the proper jumper setting for an A3640 card in an A3000?

 

[bdb]

Not off my head, but it is easily Googled. The wrong settings (for the 3 jumpers) just gives a black screen with no attempt to boot. My best recollection is that to install an A3640, the BRD is internal, CPU is external, and the FPU (68882) is set off. But just check the "White Paper."

 

[Winona2k]

Sorry, white paper?

I did try to google quite a lot. Couldnt find any good documentation for the A3630. I did find a lot on the yellow screen, but none of the quick fixes mentioned worked.

My A3630 comes wit a FPU btw.

Edit: noticed I posted this in the wrong section. Help moving?

 

[matt3k]

I wouldn't even play with the 3630 until you resolve the yellow screens. Set everything to internal and leave it out of the system for testing.

I just dealt with a 3000 with this exact issue. I fixed it by buying electronic component cleaner from radio shack and all the board slot connectors and slots. It clearly was the daughterboard dealing with a bad connection in my case.

It wouldn't hurt to remove, clean, and reseat all socket chips.

Black screens can mean a dead cpu. Was it shipped with a 3630? Did the prior owner tell you why?

Hi,

I recently received an A3000 that was supposed to be working. Its had a battery change to a slot style one. When I try to start it I only get a yellow flashing screen. If I enter an A3630 instead of the integrated cpu all i get is a quick flash and a black screen.

So far ive tried:

Removing memory chip and fast.
Refitting oscillirator
Downclocking internal cpu to 16Mhz
Installed an A3630. Tried both all switches to INT and EXT.
Tried 2 daughterboard.
Refitted a few socketed chips. Applied preassure and rocked the rest since they were to hard to remove.

I noticed the legs to the paula chips looking slightly oxidized on one side. Though not a good sign I think that shouldnt cause a yellow flashing screen?

Help?

Also, could someone tell me the proper jumper setting for an A3640 card in an A3000?

 

[Winona2k]

Hi,

No, it came with the internal cpu only. Ill have a go at cleaning the daughterboard connectors and let you know how that works out.

 

[Winona2k]

Well, no progress really. With the Daughterboard cleaned it still dead. Screen is dark, appears to do a few quick reboots and then just stops.
Ill have to get a extractor tool to continue resetting chips. They are firmly stuck to the Mobo so im afraid I'll damage them if I try to remove them.

Sucks, this was supposed to be a working computer with no hazzle involved.

 

[hooverphonique]

yes.. beware that, unlike the A4000, the A3000 doesn't work without the daughterboard..

 

[Marmes]

get a new daughterboard . You can allways sell it later. Or replace the ICs on daughterboard.

 

[matt3k]

Interesting that it is a black screen now and not a yellow one. I think you fixed the issue with the daughter board and need to move onto other items.

One good thing it that is it getting beyond post, so the cpu is working.

So there is no video and the it begins reading the hard drive and reboots.

Try holding down both mouse buttons to get to the early startup and see if that works.

 

[Winona2k]

I actually have a spare 3000 daughterboard but the problem remained. Ill try out the boot option later. Right now its packed away so it wont frustrate me further.The original owner will come by at some point and have ago at it aswell.

 

[Merlin]

Thread moved to AmiOracle, as a more suitable place.

 

[bdb]

In replacing my A3000 PALS with GALS I burned, I tried booting the machine without each one in place and found that U203 gave a green screen and the rest a black screen -- U 202/701/714.

This may be a red herring, too.

In addition, I replaced a blown D800 diode and due to not knowing which was it should actually go (black stripe points toward the motherboard) when soldered backwards I got a yellow screen a couple of times. Then would boot only from floppy.

More fuel to the fire.

 

[matt3k]

What is the status? I wouldn't chase red herrings on this one ... If your at a black screen and not a yellow, how far in the boot cycle will it go? Can you get the early boot screen by pressing both mouse buttons? From my experience with 3k's, cleaning the MB, reseating chips are a quick test to see if it is simple. If not then could be a trace by the battery or a dead cpu, these are the lionshare of issues that I have encountered. Traces can be worked around with patience, bad cpus I haven't found a good fix for yet...

 

[Winona2k]

As I just bought another working A3000 I decided to try swapping PSU. No progress. The old one worked with the new PSU and the other way around.

Also checked all jumpers and they were identical.

Next step is to reset all socketed chips. Im waiting for a tool to arrive first though. If that dosent work Ill swap roms and chips one by one untill I find the faulty one.

 

[bdb]

You know, you can try Retr0brite on that yellow screen to get it to a grey

 

[BLTCON0]

You know, you can try Retr0brite on that yellow screen to get it to a grey

:wooha: :ROTFLOL2:

 

[Winona2k]

Har har...

Anyway, I have now removed every single removable chip and refitted. Still no luck. Just black screen and then one or two blinks of the front light.
Pressing two mousebuttons at boot dosent work either. I suppose next step is to switch chips between my working A3000 the dead one to determine if one might be faulty.

Both are the same REV motherboards. I noticed diffrent busterchips though. Should all chip be comaptible? Or do I need to get exactly the same version chips despite the boards beeing the same?

Also, what chips do you recommend switching first? I.E most prone to failure.

 

[Winona2k]

Just tried to switch 3.1 roms for working original 1.5 roms. Now get a white screen instead of black. Still reboots though. Tried the cpaslock trick. The lamp stops so a dead cpu?

 

[BLTCON0]

If it was (just) a dead CPU wouldn't it have worked when you installed the A3630?
As for chips, I don't think any of the chips are notorious for frequent failing, maybe just the 8520A CIAs have a "bad" fame. Since IIRC the timers in one of them are used, you can try swapping them (it's doubtful that both would have failed simultaneously). Or replace them if you have a spare working set. But I don't think that's it.
I got a similar problem in appearance (white screen, constant rebooting) testing a GVP harddisk controller I got for spares on an 1.3 KS A500, although with the 3.1 ROMs I could enter the bootup menu and see there was a defective card present.
If there's any relation there, I guess it would mean Zorro-related trouble, but I don't know a lot on the A3000 to say anything more specific. You could try swapping the Buster from the other A3000 and see how it goes, there's no problem with different revisions of the chip for a simple bootup test.

 

[Winona2k]

I suppose it should. then again. I dont know how to properly jumper the motheboard. Ive noticed several posts claiming that no jumpers hould need to be changed like for other boards. But I havent been able to verify it.

I guess Ill have a go at changing the busters and CIA. After that I might just sell it and try to cut my losses.