Opinions about amiga68k.com

[steveski]

I recently bought an A4000D which has been operating perfectly. I did have my own 68060 which I bought from https://amiga68k.com/ It’s apparently genuine 71E41J mask rev 6. Has the green dot in the top left corner, looks legit from the signs when I lookup how sites on how to identify them. The seller of the 4000 gave me a BFG9060 with the machine and I’ve had the kickstart screen show a few times and also booted of the floppy once. But it’s inconsistent and it will kickstart with no floppy or ide connected but then if of attach a floppy canle to the board then it grey screens. Even once if I connected the floppy drive power connector it would grey screens, then unplug and it would kickstart. But that’s not consistent either. Now I’m just getting a permanent grey screen. I’ve reseated the BFG 9060, checked pin condition on the CPU but still nothing.

Is it likely that amiga68k have sold me bodgy chip and if so is that common from them?

 

[amienslaver]

I did buy a few times from the owner privately, and personally I cannot imagine he would scam anybody.

 

[fitzsteve]

Of all the issues I've had with Amigas and accelerators over the years it's never been the CPU, you'd be pretty unlucky if that's where the issue lies, it's likely somewhere else. I'm assuming you don't have another 68060 to rule out though?

 

[steveski]

Of all the issues I've had with Amigas and accelerators over the years it's never been the CPU, you'd be pretty unlucky if that's where the issue lies, it's likely somewhere else. I'm assuming you don't have another 68060 to rule out though?

I did some diagnosis with the previous owner over the weekend via phone. He had his own 060 in the machine on the BFG 9060 board I’m using and said it was working fine. He is mailing me the stock 040 board that was originally in the machine and a few other options to test with so I’ll know in a few days if there is actually something wrong with the machine.

 

[dalek]

Sounds like power issues - check what the BFG receives on it's 5V input on the card itself - it should be minimum 4.95V. Ideally a bit higher. Cleaning PSU connector can help, recapping PSU and depending on the model you can change resistors to boost the 5V rail a bit.... You can also measure the 3.3V on the CPU side of the BFG (schematics on gitlab) to see if it could be an issue.

But need more info - what clock speed is the BFG set to? What PSU do you have? Has the 4000D been recapped? Which KS ROM version?

Do you have any IDE drive connected and how long are you waiting after powering on before deciding there is no KS screen?

Spraying some contact cleaner on the mobo KEL connector can help. Some people advise only ever using IPA on it but I've always used the contact cleaner from Jaycar if I've had any contact issues and it works for me.

It is unlikely to be the CPU based on what you have described so far.

 

[steveski]

Sounds like power issues - check what the BFG receives on it's 5V input on the card itself - it should be minimum 4.95V. Ideally a bit higher. Cleaning PSU connector can help, recapping PSU and depending on the model you can change resistors to boost the 5V rail a bit.... You can also measure the 3.3V on the CPU side of the BFG (schematics on gitlab) to see if it could be an issue.

But need more info - what clock speed is the BFG set to? What PSU do you have? Has the 4000D been recapped? Which KS ROM version?

Do you have any IDE drive connected and how long are you waiting after powering on before deciding there is no KS screen?

Spraying some contact cleaner on the mobo KEL connector can help. Some people advise only ever using IPA on it but I've always used the contact cleaner from Jaycar if I've had any contact issues and it works for me.

It is unlikely to be the CPU based on what you have described so far.

Hi, thanks for the reply.
So the BFG is set to 50MHz.
Original PSU that has had some capacitors replaced.
There is a sticker on the the board stating it's been recapped.
Kickstart 3.2
No floppy or IDE connected. I see some multi coloured horizontal lines appear for a second, then grey for a second then the kickstart screen. If I only connect the board end of the floppy cable or just the floppy power then I get grey. But then even without connecting anything at all, I can turn off and on again a few times and I'll get lock up on grey screen, have waited over two minutes and nothing changes. It's inconsistent, nothing I do replicates it predictably.

The original owner has posted a 3640 card and alternate roms so I'll see if any combination gets a stable setup.

 

[dalek]

Hi, thanks for the reply.
So the BFG is set to 50MHz.
Original PSU that has had some capacitors replaced.
There is a sticker on the the board stating it's been recapped.
Kickstart 3.2

That's all a good start. At 50MHz the Rev6 will be quite comfortable and should do 100MHz when everything else is stable. Also do you have any idea what BFG firmware version it is?
It's still worth measuring 5V and cleaning PSU plug and mobo socket.

No floppy or IDE connected. I see some multi coloured horizontal lines appear for a second, then grey for a second then the kickstart screen. If I only connect the board end of the floppy cable or just the floppy power then I get grey. But then even without connecting anything at all, I can turn off and on again a few times and I'll get lock up on grey screen, have waited over two minutes and nothing changes. It's inconsistent, nothing I do replicates it predictably.

That really makes no sense. If you can get a hold of diagrom and run CIA tests that would be a place to start diagnosing the floppy issue.
Do you have another floppy cable to try?
Do you have another floppy drive to try?
Can you measure +5V and +12V at the floppy connector as well?
Any other cards installed while you are testing?
Any cracked solder joints on the bottom of the motherboard on the floppy or power connectors? Don't discount mechanical changes like flexing the board when plugging in cables to change behavior - might be worth trying it on the bench as well if you haven't already.

Also - how long are you waiting between resets? The memory on the BFG is reset proof and there are large caps around - give it a good number of seconds >10 between power off and power on and see if it is still consistently failing to grey screen. You can get weird issues with a quick off/on.

With what you have at the moment if the above doesn't get you any further I think you have a good chance of booting from IDE. Make an image in WinUAE of Vanilla OS 3.2 and see if it boots. From there you can run Amiga Test Kit and check things out a bit more.

The original owner has posted a 3640 card and alternate roms so I'll see if any combination gets a stable setup.

Sounds like the seller has gone above and beyond. It's not unusual for things of this age to go flaky in transit, or after a few power on/offs after being stored.

 

[steveski]

Sounds like power issues - check what the BFG receives on it's 5V input on the card itself - it should be minimum 4.95V. Ideally a bit higher. Cleaning PSU connector can help, recapping PSU and depending on the model you can change resistors to boost the 5V rail a bit.... You can also measure the 3.3V on the CPU side of the BFG (schematics on gitlab) to see if it could be an issue.

But need more info - what clock speed is the BFG set to? What PSU do you have? Has the 4000D been recapped? Which KS ROM version?

Do you have any IDE drive connected and how long are you waiting after powering on before deciding there is no KS screen?

Spraying some contact cleaner on the mobo KEL connector can help. Some people advise only ever using IPA on it but I've always used the contact cleaner from Jaycar if I've had any contact issues and it works for me.

It is unlikely to be the CPU based on what you have described so far.

That's all a good start. At 50MHz the Rev6 will be quite comfortable and should do 100MHz when everything else is stable. Also do you have any idea what BFG firmware version it is?
It's still worth measuring 5V and cleaning PSU plug and mobo socket.



That really makes no sense. If you can get a hold of diagrom and run CIA tests that would be a place to start diagnosing the floppy issue.
Do you have another floppy cable to try?
Do you have another floppy drive to try?
Can you measure +5V and +12V at the floppy connector as well?
Any other cards installed while you are testing?
Any cracked solder joints on the bottom of the motherboard on the floppy or power connectors? Don't discount mechanical changes like flexing the board when plugging in cables to change behavior - might be worth trying it on the bench as well if you haven't already.

Also - how long are you waiting between resets? The memory on the BFG is reset proof and there are large caps around - give it a good number of seconds >10 between power off and power on and see if it is still consistently failing to grey screen. You can get weird issues with a quick off/on.

With what you have at the moment if the above doesn't get you any further I think you have a good chance of booting from IDE. Make an image in WinUAE of Vanilla OS 3.2 and see if it boots. From there you can run Amiga Test Kit and check things out a bit more.




Sounds like the seller has gone above and beyond. It's not unusual for things of this age to go flaky in transit, or after a few power on/offs after being stored.

Ok, so he sent me the original 3640 board and it worked perfectly so nothing wrong with the any aspect of the machine itself. He also sent me an XC68060RC50 that he know works. I tried it on the bfg9060 and it’s not working. Apparently that card came from his 4000T and it works fine. But he did say it’s a remake machine he assembled and wonders if maybe there some kind of compatibility issue there. But I’m sending him back the bff9060 with the XC68060 and will test it out again.

Are there any known issues with the BFG9060 on a classic Rev B board? I’ve read about SCSI related conflicts but this is running at the native 50mhz and won’t kickstart with only the floppy drive installed.