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Documentation about the Vampire hardware

Green Screenpage  1 2 

Michael Nurney

Posts 283
13 Aug 2017 09:31


hi guys...
 
  spot of bother here , my Vampire 600v2 crashed this morning and now just flashes a green screen..
 
  tried 3 other A600 and same problem..any ideas?
 
socket cleaned and pins checked. no joy

  mike :-)


Szyk Cech

Posts 191
13 Aug 2017 10:36


EXTERNAL LINK says:
Green - An error in the Chip Ram was detected.


Michael Nurney

Posts 283
13 Aug 2017 10:59


on three separate Amiga? , it could well be but I suspect the Vampire has a problem.

The Amigas work fine without the Vamp.
 
  no ram expansions fitted either.


Matthew Langtry

Posts 199
13 Aug 2017 11:59


maybe try reflashing with usb blaster


Michael Nurney

Posts 283
13 Aug 2017 12:01


just done that, refreshes fine but powers on to a green flashing screen...very odd

EXTERNAL LINK


Roy Gillotti

Posts 517
13 Aug 2017 14:20


Any pin damage noticeable on the PLCC socket on the Vampire? Sad to hear this is happening, I enjoy your Vampire videos.


Sean Sk

Posts 488
13 Aug 2017 14:52


Hi Mike,

Saw your video. Sorry to hear you're having this issue. I have one and was quite concerned about a report of these having a high failure rate, but not 100% sure how true this is.
Have you posted on the Apollo Accelerators website forum as well as flicking an email to Kipper2K? Would it still be under warranty? Hope you get it sorted. If so, let us know what happened in case the issue arises for some of us.


Michael Nurney

Posts 283
13 Aug 2017 16:07


hi guys , I've had a quick chat with majista and we'lll see how it goes.

Im not sure the failure rate is high on these boards but it is a complex board and the socket will always be an issue i suspect, especially if people remove them often.


Roy Gillotti

Posts 517
13 Aug 2017 16:34


sean sk wrote:

  Hi Mike,
 
  Saw your video. Sorry to hear you're having this issue. I have one and was quite concerned about a report of these having a high failure rate, but not 100% sure how true this is.
  Have you posted on the Apollo Accelerators website forum as well as flicking an email to Kipper2K? Would it still be under warranty? Hope you get it sorted. If so, let us know what happened in case the issue arises for some of us.
 

  With almost a year being on the Apollo-team IRC channel, I haven't heard of any  true failure that wasn't related to a power or contact issue with the V600.  The nature of how the V600 is attached is problematic, the thing tends to want to pop up even when screwed down.


Michael Nurney

Posts 283
13 Aug 2017 17:08


There have been some but not many as far as I know. Funnily enough someone has just messaged me to say they have the same fault.


Mallagan Bellator

Posts 393
14 Aug 2017 23:44


That really doesn't sound good. If the error codes are still the same, yes it means there was an issue with the RAM, either chip or other ram (slow/fast). Since it just happens with the vampire attached, I would guess the ram modules used are not really up to the task of the Vampire, since more of them seem to have failed.

Not good

And unfortunate.


Roy Gillotti

Posts 517
15 Aug 2017 00:13


Mallagan Bellator wrote:

  That really doesn't sound good. If the error codes are still the same, yes it means there was an issue with the RAM, either chip or other ram (slow/fast). Since it just happens with the vampire attached, I would guess the ram modules used are not really up to the task of the Vampire, since more of them seem to have failed.
 
  Not good
 
  And unfortunate.
 

 
  From what I understand, everything on the Amiga side still runs at typical running speeds, nothing is running above what a typical 68000 can run. 25+ year old parts tend to break down over time.

I'm Not entirely sure if it's accurate, but it sounds like Gold 3 will be allocating a portion of the on board Vampire RAM as chip ram, so maybe if it truly is the Chip RAM and not some connectivity issue, the issue may resolve itself. 


Michael Nurney

Posts 283
15 Aug 2017 06:10


It was running gold 2 and developed the green screen not gold 3 , I have flashed it to gold 3 as it's the only flash file I have for the blaster.


Michal Warzecha

Posts 209
15 Aug 2017 13:23


You can buy freezer spray and use it on FPGA chip. If balls under chip are cracked somehow- it should let run it freezed for a while. Don't use freezer when board is powered, it's really flammable! Freeze chip and then run Amiga. Next You can use it on CPU connector. Last thing is clean up connector and CPU contacts, but not with alcohol, You need  liquid for cleaning glass with surface active agents but without alcohol. Use cosmetic sticks to clean up this.


Roy Gillotti

Posts 517
15 Aug 2017 13:35


michael nurney wrote:

It was running gold 2 and developed the green screen not gold 3 , I have flashed it to gold 3 as it's the only flash file I have for the blaster.

If you have the "Gold 3 IDE fix" for the V600 it's not really gold 3...


Michael Nurney

Posts 283
15 Aug 2017 19:08


indeed its not.

but it still green screens. I have had a chat with Majsta and well hopefully find a solution.


Sean Sk

Posts 488
06 Dec 2018 03:28


I have had mine since August last year and it's now started to exhibit the green screen problem.
 
This is how the situation began and unfolded:
 
1. I was using it yesterday, then after about 15 minutes the whole thing green screened on me.
 
2. Turned it off and on and still green screened. Left it overnight to cool down and still the same thing. So I don't think it's a heat problem.
 
3. Opened the A600 up and connected the USB Blaster. Turned on the A600 and it started up and worked fine, before I had even had a chance to flash it! Weird!
 
4. Flashed it anyway. Flashing was successful. Turned off and on.
 
5. Worked for about 15 minutes and then green screened on me again.
 
This card was from Kipper2K's last batch. Anyone got any ideas?

EDIT: OK so it seems that when I wiggle the Vampire ever so slightly (and I mean hardly any movement at all) it makes the A600 green screen even though it was secured down quite well. So I desoldered the PLC socket and replaced it with the socket on my spare ACA620EC accelerator card which I think is a better socket. It snapped down quite well and now things "seem" fine.

Will give it a good testing over the next few days. Writing this post from it right now.
 
 


Nixus Minimax

Posts 416
06 Dec 2018 07:49


Sean Sk:

Sounds like a connection problem between the v600 and the 68000.


Sean Sk

Posts 488
06 Dec 2018 07:59


Nixus Minimax wrote:

Sean Sk:
 
Sounds like a connection problem between the v600 and the 68000.

 
 
Yeah it was exactly that problem. :)  Edited my post above.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
06 Dec 2018 08:02


Yes sounds like a connection problem.
 
When you power on, the following steps are done:
a) Vamp verifies flash chip
    -> on failure blue stripes
b) Vamp uncompresses Kick to Fastmem, turn on Maprom
c) Vamp verifies compression Checksum
    -> on failure red stripes
d) Kick is started
e) Kick verifies own checksum
    -> on failure red screen
f) Kick tests chipmem on Amiga mainboard
    -> on failure green screen
 
 
When you reached the green screen, the Vamp did already execute a lot code. Did uncompress the Kick, did verify the checksum.
This means the Vamp did operate successfully in its local fastmem.
 
The Green Screen is most likely caused by problems on the Chipbus.
A connection problem could be the reason.

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