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Documentation about the Vampire hardware

I Need Support Assistance .. Best Way to Get Help?

Mark Smith

Posts 30
11 May 2017 23:30


My Vampire is not happy, what is the best way to get help ?  I live in NZ so IRC is a bit hit n miss on having anyone from the team online, and the emails seem to be unmonitored :-(




Mr Niding

Posts 459
11 May 2017 23:44


A description of the problem would be a good startingpoint, so people can analyze what might be the problem.


Mark Smith

Posts 30
12 May 2017 01:07


My brain wasn't in gear :-)

Basically I get a Cyan screen on boot up with the Vampire installed in the A600.
I've striped everythg down to basics so just a vampire and an Indivision, tried two A600 motherboards, two power supplies .. same result.
A600 boards start up just fine with no Vampire.


Michael R

Posts 281
12 May 2017 01:22


Mark Smith wrote:

My brain wasn't in gear :-)
 
  Basically I get a Cyan screen on boot up with the Vampire installed in the A600.
  I've striped everythg down to basics so just a vampire and an Indivision, tried two A600 motherboards, two power supplies .. same result.
  A600 boards start up just fine with no Vampire.

Is Vampire compatible with Indivision? There may be a hardware conflict.



Mark Smith

Posts 30
12 May 2017 01:32


Yes it is .... also forgot to mention my Vampire has been working just fine previously (baring a few fitting issues)




Ian Parsons

Posts 230
12 May 2017 02:57


Is the cyan screen from the indivision or over DIGITAL-VIDEO?

Have you tested without the indivision if you can to rule it out completely as the source or contribution to problem? (wasn't there an update to indivision published recently).

Stuck solid screen colours on boot up are usually an indication of a self test error but I'm not familiar with a cyan error screen (although it's possible the Vampire startup or indivision have some new behaviour that uses that colour). Is there a sequence of colours before cyan?

Are you sure it's not software (startup-sequence), it's the same with both IDE and floppy boot attempts? Does the floppy click with no disk?


Mark Smith

Posts 30
12 May 2017 03:25


Without indivision over video output is the same.
No hard disk, floppy, keyboard, nothing except a vampire installed.

Take vampire off and all is well.

It has worked previously with everything loaded in.


Mr-Z EdgeOfPanic

Posts 189
12 May 2017 07:33


-Did you clean the pins of the the 68000 processor thoroughly With the by kipper provided alcohol swab or similar product ?
-Try booting the A600 without Kickstart ROM but with vamp connected.
-Wich motherboard revision is your A600 ?
-Any other add on like 1 MB chipmem expansion etc ?

Hope we can get your vamp sorted!


Nixus Minimax

Posts 416
12 May 2017 07:54


So it worked an then stopped working? What had happened that it stopped working? The cyan screen probably is a Kickstart error message which gets signalled through different base colours.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
12 May 2017 08:19


Nixus Minimax wrote:

  The cyan screen probably is a Kickstart error message which gets signalled through different base colours.
 

 
  CYAN is not an Kickstart error color.
 
  Error colors are:
  YELLOW
  GREEN
  RED
  BLUE
 

Is the color you see CYAN or GREEN?


Vojin Vidanovic

Posts 770
12 May 2017 10:35


Mark Smith wrote:

  My Vampire is not happy, what is the best way to get help ?  I live in NZ so IRC is a bit hit n miss on having anyone from the team online, and the emails seem to be unmonitored :-( 

 
  Its best to ask here, as this is not a big company product with real support assistance.
 
  But both team members and users will do their best.
 
  PLEASE take a photo of screen and as asked, try to briefly described "events prior to the screen" and any past issues since Vampire installation that has lead to current state, be it hardware placing problems, connecting it or how software behaves.
 
  Please answer questions above (board version, RAM etc.). Might be the key, even you claim you have tried two more A600 boards.



Andrew Copland

Posts 113
12 May 2017 10:44


I get this sometimes when my Vampire has come loose.

Cleaning the contacts again and resecuring it in place often works but not always.

I actually need to get the jic (?) file to flash via usb-blaster again actually as flashing from workbench never works on mine.


Mark Smith

Posts 30
12 May 2017 10:46


Give me a day or so and I'll get some photos up, and any extra info I can see. (weekends get sucked up by children and soccer! :-) )

thanks for jumping in with advise, fingers crossed :-)


Aksel Andersen

Posts 120
12 May 2017 11:17


On my a500 I get a green screen and sometimes a red screen before the act led turns red on the vampire on power up. Then it boot normally. Don't know if this is normal, but it don't give me any problems..

however... If the same leds are on the v600, how does these behave when turning it on? Does the act turn red?


Ian Parsons

Posts 230
12 May 2017 11:17


Trying it on both bare A600 motherboards with the same result suggests a motherboards problem is unlikely. That leaves the power supply, video cable, monitor and Vampire itself as the possible source of the problem. If as you say the bare A600s without the vampire both give a normal boot screen image (assuming you still have a ROM in the machine) using the same video cable and monitor setup that can eliminate the external video setup as the problem. Do you have spare power supply(s) you can try to eliminate that?

Have you carefully examined the Vampire for any signs of damage or faults like dirt or oxidisation on the CPU socket, broken or bent pins, cracked or weak looking solder joints, discoloured, broken, damaged or missing components. Do any of the ICs get unusually hot when powered up? These checks could help diagnose a fault with the vampire.

If there's still no obvious cause you are getting into the territory where you will need expert help assuming you aren't an electronics engineer used to fault diagnosis.

Any further feedback you can provide may be useful including pictures or video of the setup and screen.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
12 May 2017 11:54



GREEN screen means chip memory access problem.
The typical root cause for this is not good enough contact on the socket.

Before this (green) chipmem test other test are done.
If you reach the green stage this means that the CPU is working and that you passed already the ROM checksum test.


posts 16