A4000 problems
                             ==============

The  A4000 was unboxed since the last time in Easter.  I decided to test
and  use this 410MB SCSI hard drive (just as a boot partition) which was
given  to  me by last year's tenants, they said the hard drive could not
be  formatted  on  their PCs but I had no such problem with my A4000 :),
only  the  odd  bad  blocks was detected.  WB3.0 and Dopus was installed
which  was  fully  loaded on boot up in only a matter of a split second.
It was impossible to tell if the hard drive was actually doing something
whilst  booting!   But  yes  its  FAST!  A SCSI hard drive makes all the
difference!   Later  after  configuring  my WB the entire screen crashed
before  changing to red.  This experience has happened before which only
occurs  when the 040 processor board is unseated from the main CPU slot.
On  the  following  day  the 040 board was disconnected then reconnected
which  normally  solves  the  problem.   But  once powered, the same red
screen  was  displayed!   It wasn't what I expected!  No matter how many
times  the  040  was reseated into it's slot the red screen could not be
bypassed.   I exchanged the 040 board for the 030 (which I treasured for
years  for  backward  compatibility  -  although  it  had  no  use to me
whatsoever), the 030 booted with no problems, that quickly revealed that
the  040  processor board was damaged but how?!  The SCSI Hard drive was
removed immediately and never to be used ever again!  I didn't think the
SCSI  HD could cause any problem as my A4000 has the lastest revision of
the  Buster  chip  onboard.  This also meant that the chip can cope with
any  device  plugged  into  the  Zorro  slots  with  no bugs, unlike the
previous  revision.  A test was conducted to ensure that the motherboard
was  working,  all  devices  have been stripped, even the duughter board
(Zorro  slots)  was  disconnected, all power cables, all RAM, everything
disconnected  leaving  only  the  030  CPU,  2MB chip, df0:.  About 5-10
seconds  from  powering  the  machine  crashes even during the Kickstart
screen!!   The  system  crash  was  not  normal  and  happens  at random
intervals!   It  behaved  in  the same manner as the A600.  The A600 had
problems of the overheated 020 chip onboard the A620.  This could not be
the  cause  of  system  crash  on  the A4000!  I got out of order before
leaving the A4000 untouched for days.

Note:   The buster chip plays a vital part for controlling the Zorro III
daugter  board.   There  were  two versions since CBM released the A4000
desktops.  Initial release was version 9 (contains bugs), second release
was  version  11.   A4000s  with  V9  had  to  be  returned for the chip
replacement.

                              "Depression"
                              ============

I  left  the  A4000 to one side knowing that nothing could be done about
it,  the  A4000  and  the 040 was dead, the A600 still functions but has
already served what it had to offer during my year in London, now I only
view  it  as a back up device if the A4000 fails.  I need the A4000 back
and  running!  It was depressing because it leads towards thinking about
repairs,  costs,  locating  spare  parts,  support,  buying a new A4000,
selling my old A4000, its just a pain in the arse!  Being an A4000 owner
can  be  burdening,  requires  greater  responsibility  and maintaining,
breakdown  for  A4000s  is  very  common.   Sometimes I wished I kept my
A1200.   At  these  times I can only think of giving up computers and go
elsewhere...  That way could relieve some depression.

                          Tests and more tests
                          ====================

Days have passed, the A4000 was powered on, I booted into WB from floppy
and  the A4000 has managed to work without failing.  I left the Amiga as
it  were attempting to have it working for hours recharging the internal
clock  battery.   I  saved  the clock config.  to the current time which
crashes!  Everytime I booted the machine from cold the date/system clock
always  displays  10-Aug-97  00:00:28.   Even no matter how many times I
have  saved  to  the clock, to allow the clock to operate I had to leave
the Amiga switched on, but that makes it no different to a computer with
no  clock!   Once  the  A4000  is  powered off the clock reverts back to
10-Aug-97....

The  clock was always the worrying factor in rechargining and operating,
I always remembered this fact "Never leave your clock battery uncharged"
(i.e.   never  to  leave  your  machine  switched  off  so long that the
internal  clock  battery  dies!).   On  the following day I examined the
physical  condition of the clock battery - and on one of the sides there
appeared to be some formation, a crust (or sugar like) but green residue
crumbling along the side!  It came to no big surprise, but I still can't
understand  how  an internal clock/batt.  could cause system crashes and
killed  the  040!   I  ripped  it  out  (as  gently  AP)  from  the main
motherboard.  Fair enough I can find a new and replacement clock battery
from a PC battery manufacture.

I  was  still  not convinced that the battery alone could cause all this
damage  (only if it leaks), I wouldn't expect the system to work at 100%
(though it was worth a try).

                  A4000 not working very satisfactory
                  ===================================

The clock battery was removed, every device was plugged in which did not
result  in anymore errors but it survived longer than opposed to leaving
the clk/batt.  plugged in, a few extra minutes of survival until crashed
again!  Hope has faded!  I had no disk based software to test apart from
Workbench,  some utils etc.  I tested one of my old favourites "Tower of
Babel".   The  demo  was then left on for over 5 hours and the A4000 was
running  cool.  But confusion strucked as the system crashed during boot
up  from  the  master  copy  of WB.  Different errors occur at different
stages,  sometimes  WB  boots,  and  sometimes  it doesn't.  Effectively
meaning its behaving like a PC.

So!   Tower of Babel fully works for hours.  Workbench and the Kickstart
screen does not!?

                         Where to find problems
                         ======================

Many  consideration  are  needed  to take into account when dealing with
A4000 faults.  The following can cause faults:

040 CPU:  The 040 CPU board is easily unseated from the CPU slot.

Overheating:  Is there anything preventing the air to escape?  Check the
fan  and  ventillation.  Overheating causes system errors, if problem is
left unsolved then you could easily fry the chips!

Jumpers:  Some jumpers, if not set correctly could cause system crashes.
If  the  settings  are  not set correctly for the 040 processor, you can
permanantly damage the motherboard.

Clock  Battery:  Making sure that the battery is not underused when your
machine is left unused for a long period of time.

Power  Supply:   Is there enough internal power to drive all the devices
and peripherals?

Zorro  devices:   Check  the Zorro devices/connectors and even the zorro
card itself for defects.

Theres  many  more  such as the Hard disk and floppy controllers, memory
SIMMS, physical defects - loose crystals and so on...

                     Are the problems fully solved?
                     ==============================

Just contacted Wizard Developments about offering to repair my A4000.  I
talked  to  the receptionist on my cordless phone whilst dismantling the
A4000.   The  techs.   were  busy I left them my contact details as they
said they will call back but didn't, it is now after 18:00.  I was quite
patient  as  I  will allow more time to make further tests on the Amiga.
Now  with  all  the  A4000 peripheral and devices removed, only left was
motherboard,  fan,  df0:,  keyboard, mouse, 2MB chip, so far it was left
with  the  kickstart  screen visible as it was a common failure.  I made
sure  that  the  FDD  clicked  constantly, monitoring the screen without
causing  GURU.   Nothing had happened for the past hour on KS.  I booted
into  WB, removed the floppy.  Returned in two hours and the the monitor
showed  the  same  WB  screen with the windows arranged, unchanged as it
were  two  hours  ago.   That convinced me that the A4000 is now in good
working  order.  You can forget about repairs with a big sigh of relief!
But how could I gaurantee this fault will not reoccur?  Well soon I will
ordering  a  6.5GB  hard  drive to see my A4000 back into order.  With a
hard  drive  this  test  will  prove more effective as more time will be
spent on the A4000 alone.

So  then!   My  only possible suspect would be the fault of the FASTRAM.
It  became  more  convincing  when  I  tested each individual SIMM which
resulted in the crashes on certain SIMMs.

The clue of bad memory could trace the cause of why the 040 died but who
knows  why?   And  technically  how  did  the  clock/batt.   do to cause
problems?

                         But it's not over yet!
                         ======================

Few  days  later  by using some utils which I extracted from the Aminet:
Amnesia,  Memcheck  and Memtest showed no signs of memory errors!?  Am I
really testing the memory correctly?  How come now with all the SIMMS in
place  my  A4000  is not dying?  But once the SCSI II controller card is
inserted  back into the Zorro now it crashes, how come?  I then stripped
out all RAM but leaving the SCSI controller in place, it dies!!

                               Solution?
                               =========

The RAM and/or SCSI controller could now be the fault.  Unfortunately my
current  040  has  no  slots  for  SIMMs.   SIMMS  must be placed on the
motherboard.   The  possible  solution  (if  only the motherboard has no
faults)  is  to buy myself a Cyberstorm II or PPC, by a new 32MB SIMM to
be  situated  on the processor board.  The Cyberstorm/PPC will also have
an  optional  or  already equipped with a SCSI controller to run my Tape
drive.   But  what are the prices?  The minimum cost is £500+ for a PPC,
604e/150Mhz  not including 68k CPU.  Shame the 603e/150Mhz is unavilable
for  the  A4000 (or is it?).  The prices seem reasonable on all the PPCs
only  if I'm actually working, now that I don't it seem too dear.  I had
already  planned  for  a Cybervision PPC but the Hard drive comes first,
what  next?   A  new processor upgrade with RAM?  Its very depressing, I
had  no  plans to buy a processor upgrade but no my 040 stopped working,
all  4x4MB  SIMMS  (16MBs)  are  not  working properly, then the SCSI II
controller,  don't  you  think  the main motherboard is the cause to all
problems?   Money  will  be  a major problem this year as I have a £1500
overdraft to cover by end of July 1998.  The money which was made during
my  industrial work only barely helped me survive, considering the costs
of living in London.

Now  my  room  is  completely  filled  with chips, circuit boards, media
devices,  CDROM  drives,  ribbons, power leads screws, mounting brackets
etc.  Now I've moved everything into one pile as I need to get some rest
now...

Good news or bad news, more updates in the next month...

Amida/CrN.


[Trust  Amida  to  make  a  story  out  of  a  hardware  problem.  Hehe.
Seriously though, we all encounter hardware problems at some point which
make  us  want to scream and pull our hair out.  I seem to experience it
every  day when my PC's boots up.  So why not share your experiences and
hardware  tips  with  us?   Alternatively,  if  you  have any reviews of
hardware  such  as  computers, electronic gadgets and household devices,
then please feel free to share.  Kei]


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