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Documentation about the Vampire hardware

Any Way of Eliminating Green Screen On 500V2+?

Antony Coello

Posts 153
02 Mar 2020 20:38


Ive had this board for a few months now, and its been one thing not working after another.
Im not quite ready to throw it out the window yet.

Im now getting a green screen and flashing power led.

I see a few  A600 vampire green screen problem posts and the main cause is board reseating.

However, I have A500 version and have just spent about 1.5 hrs re-seating/booting/repeat. Every time its a green screen.

Bear in mind the A500 works fine with the original 68000/ROM AND it also showed the WB3.1 insert disk screen/Vampire girl picture on DIGITAL-VIDEO before. (As an aside, I couldnt get any IDE/CF/SATA drives to work with it, so thats why I only got this far!)

Has anyone had this much trouble with the A500 vampire? Is there a good solution to eliminate green screen?

Many thanks for any help!



Henry Johnstone

Posts 6
02 Mar 2020 20:48


Imho maybe your cpu socket on the A500 motherboard needs replacing as the original one is pretty low quality and prone to wearing out.
Hope this helps.
cheers


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
02 Mar 2020 21:56


Do you have any memory expansion in your A500?
If yes, what happens if you remove them?


Antony Coello

Posts 153
02 Mar 2020 22:21


@Gunnar: Theres no memory expansions present. However, I have the board situated in one of the new Checkmate A1500 cases.
  This case has a trapdoor riser for Zorro2 cards and an ITX PSU which feeds the mainboard from the riser card.
 
I would pull the board out and try without the above using a standard A500 PSU, if it wasnt for the fact that the Vampire card seemed to work in this setup up till now (other than the IDE interface which I couldnt get any drives to boot from, see my previous thread).
 
  @Henry: I would imagine if the CPU socket was really bad quality or worn out, then the 68000 would give trouble too. Would this not be the case? Unless its like the old PC x86 SIMM sockets; I remember if you mixed the wrong SIMMS/sockets (copper/tin?) they would accellerate the oxidisation/corrosion rate and cause bad contacts.
 
  Im thinking the amount of times I have inserted/removed should have 'polished off' any oxidisation on the pins/socket by now.
  Changing the socket may well be the problem, but I am no good at any soldering, so would prefer to avoid (Ive already had one of the pins of the V500 snap with all this on/off so needed to get it professionally re-soldered).
 
  Im a pretty patient guy, but I have to do some other things in my spare time! lol
 
 


Andrew Miller

Posts 352
03 Mar 2020 00:33


Have you had your A500 recapped? Is it a base A500 or an A500+ (I assume its the former).
Is there any noticeable corrosion anywhere? Are the other sockets ok and plastic not perished?


Ronnie Beck
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 199
03 Mar 2020 07:14


This is for sure not normal.

A green screen on the RGB Video port indicates bad chip ram, hence why BigGun was asking about the ram expansion.

EXTERNAL LINK 
The power requirements of the original CPU and the Vampire are vastly different.  So it could well be that an A500 with a degraded CPU socket or dried out capacitors works with the original CPU but not with the Vampire.  But to get a green screen......

As a comparison, I have an A2000 with a Vampire.  I tried a CPU slot adapter and the Vampire gets stuck on a yellow screen (which can be similar to a green screen).  With the original CPU, it boots.....mostly.  This adapter is tin plated (which I am informed by two electronics engineers have told me is not good and can lead to increased oxidation and poor contact with time).  When I replaced this CPU slot adapter which is copper, both the Vampire and the original CPU work.  Reliably.  So I can believe that perhaps something is not well with your socket, despite your cleaning efforts.  This is of course a different scenario to your situation but the key point is, that contact with the CPU might still be an issue for you.

Can you try your Vampire in another machine?

Also, you mentioned that the CF card (never?) worked.  This is also very strange.  If you have used a CF card adapter listed on the wiki here bellow and a Sandisk, this should work.

https://wiki.apollo-accelerators.com/doku.php/vampire:v500-v2plus:peripherals

Before you invest any more money, I think the best thing to do now is find someone willing to let you try your vampire in their A500.  Ideally an A500 is unexpanded, which has a refurbished/new PSU and has had the recap done (to eliminate the possibility that you are testing in another degraded A500).

It is really hard to say what the problem could be.  Without the the IDE problems, one could say that perhaps that the CPU socket in your A500 is unwell.  But with the IDE problems......the jury is out.  This is starting to sound like help via forums might not really bring this problem to a conclusion now and that someone needs to take a look at it (both your vampire and your A500).

Where in the world are you?  Perhaps a kind soul here is close enough to you and is willing to help.  If you are anywhere near Zurich I am willing to come with my A500.


Antony Coello

Posts 153
03 Mar 2020 13:46


Thanks Ronnie for the kind offer. Unfortunately, I dont know anyone locally who has a A500, let alone someone who has had one refurbished back to good working order.

Im guessing my options are to see if I can grab a cheap A500 on ebay and roll the dice again, or get my A500 re-capped (I have it running from an ITX PSU, so dont have to worry about the supply) and the CPU socket replaced. After that, I have to pray that its not the Vampire board! :/

Is there anyone here (preferably in the UK, but will post to EU) who can do the above (re-cap/CPU socket upgrade) for a reasonable cost?


Marlon Beijer

Posts 182
03 Mar 2020 14:05


Check if all socket pins on the V500 are still there, they are fragile and can break off. It has happened to a couple of people.


Antony Coello

Posts 153
03 Mar 2020 14:12


Marlon, I have already had this happen and had to get the pin resoldered. I am VERY wary of snapping those brittle pins! :)


Andrew Miller

Posts 352
03 Mar 2020 17:23


If it hasn't been recapped I'd start with that. Electrolytic don't last 20+ years.


Antony Coello

Posts 153
03 Mar 2020 18:15


@Andrew: That would have been absolutely at the top of the list, had it not already booted to the WB insert disk screen already.
 
  Perhaps bad caps are what prevented the CF/IDE/SATA drive from booting originally though..?
 
  Looks like recapping/socket change is the next course of action, once I can find someone to do it! ;)


James Leadbeater
(Needs Verification)
Posts 12/ 1
05 Mar 2020 10:37


Antony Coello wrote:

Thanks Ronnie for the kind offer. Unfortunately, I dont know anyone locally who has a A500, let alone someone who has had one refurbished back to good working order.
 
  Im guessing my options are to see if I can grab a cheap A500 on ebay and roll the dice again, or get my A500 re-capped (I have it running from an ITX PSU, so dont have to worry about the supply) and the CPU socket replaced. After that, I have to pray that its not the Vampire board! :/
 
  Is there anyone here (preferably in the UK, but will post to EU) who can do the above (re-cap/CPU socket upgrade) for a reasonable cost?

Try Amiga Passion - A man named steve does all sorts of Amiga repairs and is UK based.


Antony Coello

Posts 153
05 Mar 2020 18:38


Thanks James. I have his webpage up already as a possible repair candidate!

Cant really afford this ATM so it will have to wait a few weeks or so.

The irony of it is that I had to sell 2 A500's and an A1200 to afford the Vampire board in the first place! No Amigas left now, and the final nail in the coffin is I tried contact cleaner as a last ditch effort to get rid of the green screen. It didnt work and one of the Vampire pins came off in the 68000 socket after removing the V500 board! Im having so much bad luck here.

Im not even going to touch it anymore; its gone straight in its antistatic bag/box again and when I eventually get it back from repairs (along with the A500 recap/CPU socket replace) it will go in ONCE. If it STILL doesnt work, I think I may be calling it a day. Already spent too much time along with money on the board and its stuff I dont need for anything else. :(



posts 13