A4000 Working after 8 months work!

[fitzsteve]

I think it's connectivity via the busboard. I really do.

Zorro slots can be an absolute pain in the ass, could never get my Deneb working properly on my old A4000T due to the slots, thing is you can't change a busboard on the A4000T as it's built in!

If you want to borrow my ATX adapter you're welcome too, just to rule that out although it sounds like PSU issues is less likely now.

 

[RichyV]

Good grief - and I thought I'd had a struggle at times!!
I know how you feel, wanting it all to work as soon as it's plugged in - did consumers have these issues when all these things were new? If so, it's no wonder C= went down the pan!

My A4000D is certainly not stock, but after recapping and track-deterioration issues being fixed by bebek my biggest problems were trying (and failing...) to get a Fastlane Z3 SCSI card to work and then fun and games with >4GB partitions...

It had a socketed Buster, so that was easily upgraded to 11 from 9. I've added a CV64/3D video card with SD, Sunrize AD516 sound card, X-surf-100 networking & a Fast ATA - along with a WarpEngine 4040. All this together never gave me issues with the PSU, even when I fitted the 'silent' fan. Yes, it all gets a little warm, but not so bad....

I'd have to agree and say it was one of the add-ons which is overheating or, as Steve says, a bus-board connectivity issue.

Owning an A4000 - can't beat it! Would never get rid of mine now though...............

 

[roy_bates]

i dont think it is connectivity if putting a fan near it helps it.
although connectivity could be a problem.


yes,heatsinks on the gpu and ram.

 

[manic23]

Thanks for that Steve, I hear what you say and you may be right, but if it was a connection issue then I doubt that a desk fan blowing on the opened case would make any difference, I think it might be CPU or PIV overheating not 100% sure.

One thing that I thought of that might be causing this is lack of airflow. With he case open there is no suction effect going on with the PSU fan sucking air from the outside and pulling it over the components, so tomorrow I'm going to try running it with the case lid on to see if that makes any difference.

I also just brought a WarpEngine 4040 from here on AmiBay, not got it yet but It will be interesting to see if fitting that makes any difference.

Thanks as always for your help people, you guys are the best

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i dont think it is connectivity if putting a fan near it helps it.
although connectivity could be a problem.


yes,heatsinks on the gpu and ram.

Sorry to be thick Roy do you mean the motherboard ram or the BigRam Plus that I have, or both maybe? Also would you know what chip on the Picasso I would need to fit a heat sink to?

Good grief - and I thought I'd had a struggle at times!!
I know how you feel, wanting it all to work as soon as it's plugged in - did consumers have these issues when all these things were new? If so, it's no wonder C= went down the pan!

HA, yes I totally agree with you there RichyV, I often wonder how people coped with these Amiga A4000 computers back in the day when we didn't have great sites like AmiBay for help and advice.

 

[roy_bates]

yes i do mean the picasso mate.


try heatsinks on these parts,you wont need large ones..and its worth a try:
stick them to the part marked cirrus logic and the ram just to the left of it in pairs,there will be 8 of them.
there is a xilinx flat pack just under the cirrus ic you could try sticking one on there as well for good measure.

its more likely the case needs added active cooling to move the air around a bit...you never know.
bare in mind there is no cooling in that bay at all,if you have a look youll see what i mean
warm air just goes up hits the case lid and re circles..and is mostly blocked by the zorro daughter board.

 

[fitzsteve]

Have you thought about transplanting it into a Tower? The Elbox Power Tower's come with their own 6 slot Bus Board (or you can even have the PCI version which still has a Video slot so you can use your PicassoIV (the Desktop version of the Mediator doesn't have a Video slot)

I wonder how you get on with the WE040, it might well cure some issues if there is a problem with the A3640.

I just know from experience that if you don't have a solid connection between the Busboard and PicassoIV you get all sorts of graphical glitches.

 

[manic23]

A4000 Working after 8 months work!

Oh you mean the ram on the Picasso yes OK I understand now thank Roy. I will look into that. And Steve thanks for the idea of a tower but I don't really want to do that if I can avoid it I really like the look of the A4000 desktop case and would really like to keep it all as was

 

[Buzzfuzz]

Micronik tower would be my choice, these offer great space to a 4000D board.
The 4000D case was never designed for such an expanded system, we all know it ;-)

Have you thought about transplanting it into a Tower? The Elbox Power Tower's come with their own 6 slot Bus Board (or you can even have the PCI version which still has a Video slot so you can use your PicassoIV (the Desktop version of the Mediator doesn't have a Video slot)

If you insert the WE040, make sure to also remove the fast ram from the board and only leave the chipram in it manic.
But this is a good point, 3640's are chief trouble makers ;-)

I wonder how you get on with the WE040, it might well cure some issues if there is a problem with the A3640

Some isopropyl alcohol spray will do the trick, just be sure to leave it off for at least 2 days and dry off the most of it just after cleaning manic, you might also want to clean the daughter board connector and Picasso IV.

I just know from experience that if you don't have a solid connection between the Busboard and PicassoIV you get all sorts of graphical glitches.

Now is the adapter at fault or the pins on the board that supply power ?
Might also be the solder joints on the back of the board, I know the board was checked by Bebek, but maybe it got loose after that.

Just trying to think along with you guys ;-)

 

[manic23]

Thanks for your thoughts Buzzfuzz rather annoyingly after all the singing and dancing the damn thing went funny again yesterday same old issue screen corruption freezing and mouse only working up down, no left right movement odd. I am going to try a heat sink and fan on the PIV GPU.

Just out of interest what is the reason for removing the mainboard Ram? I had been previously advised to leave it in place.

 

[fitzsteve]

That's awful news mate

I think the issue is somewhere on the main board, maybe CIA's if you have mouse issues.

You're not having the best of luck with this A4000 are you.

As for Ram on the main board, I've left mine on and it's never caused me any issues, I think manufacturers said to remove it and place it on the accelerators as it was faster and because Ram was not cheap back in the day.

There's no need to remove it with Ram being so cheap these days and the faster accelerator Ram will always be used first.

 

[manic23]

Are CIA's easy to replace? Are they socketed?

Thanks for your support Steve no I have not had luck with this blooming A4K at all. I am going to try the fan on the PIV GPU if that doesn't work I'll try some more case cooling (intake fans on one of the card slots). Failing that I'll start thinking about CIA chips.

 

[roy_bates]

cia's are easy if you have the skill and smd rework station.

obviously,it would be pretty hard to do for the average person.
you or the person doing it needs to find out if they are faulty first.

 

[manic23]

Thanks Roy if I get no joy with the cooling I may ask bebek to take a look for me he is a genius as far as I'm concerned

 

[Buzzfuzz]

The access times are much faster to the memory on the WE040 than on the board and if it has 128MB, than that 16MB on the mainboard will slow it down a bit, but if I am reading the signature correctly you also have a Big Ram Z3 in there with 256 MB.
So if you also have that 256MB it makes no sense to leave it in there, I have done this in all my Amiga's that have a CPU card with memory on it.

In case of 1 of the 4000T's it even yellow screened, but I think the simm is at fault or the simm connector is damaged, I got a few more simms now, so I can test if it's the simmsocket.
But with a CS PPC and 128MB, I don't need it and the last couple of days I used it to prep other SCSI drives, it must have transfered well over 20GB of data without even turning hot ;-)

Just out of interest what is the reason for removing the mainboard Ram? I had been previously advised to leave it in place.

 

[edd_jedi]

Have you tried putting in either an 030 or 060 card? As you probably know 040s run very hot, I imagine even more so with loads of other cards in there.

 

[manic23]

I haven't tried that edd_jedi no, sadly I only have access to my original A3640 and my new WarpEngine.

 

[fitzsteve]

I opened my A4000 today as I had to change a jumper, anyway I can confirm my WE040 has a heat sink and fan installed.

 

[manic23]

Ok thanks steve

 

[RichyV]

Mine came with a HS. The chip runs hot, so I wouldn't want to run it without.

I added a quiet fan later, just to move some air over it... Never had an issue.