Apollo 1230 mk3 woes
 

I got my hands on a cheap Apollo 1230 mk3 accelerator. I got a 32mb sim with the card. Unfortunately with that simm installed A1200 won't boot at all :( After a while I get a "red acreen"... If I change the simm to another (4mb/8mb) I get the ClassicWB Lite running from the hd, but I get 0 bytes other memory reported... I have tried to set the jumpers (RAM/WAIT/SCSI) in every possible way, but still the same. Is the card defective (GRR!!) or what?

Any clues?

Is this the same board http://bboah.amiga-resistance.info/index_e.html ?

I wonder if the 32mb simm is up the creak.

EDIT: I know how troublesome these old EDO connections are, they don't always make a good connection. Inspect the contacts on the board, clean if necessary and do the same on the simm. Make sure they are firmly seated too. Sometimes it can take a few goes before the simm is recognized. I had the same trouble with my old 486SX board, added some ram, board failed to boot. I thought is was bust so I bought a new computer. Years later I looked at it, took the ram out, cleaned them, and fiddled with the connections until bingo, it worked, all memory available and working. Unfortunately, it's now a museum piece and I keep it for nostalgia purposes only.

@emuola

hmmm seems a sad state of affairs there my friend,

lets see what we can do, now, some of this you have likely already done, but bare with the process as it can shed some light into the fault.

before we start let me point out that this could be a power fault, do you have another PSU to test it with?

A1200 PSU's only chucked out 2.5 - 3 amps on the +5v, this is BARELY enough to power the board let alone a harddrive / accellerator card etc. Now we are over 15 years since they were made, these PSU's were NEVER designed to last even half that long.

So we need to look at providing GOOD clean power first.

If you have another PSU we can try that, but its likely to also have the same problem, I will dig up some links for you to make your own ATX - Amiga PSU, it involves a little soldering, or you could buy an ATX to Amiga adapter from either Ian Steadman's site or Amigakit if they stock them.

Once we have good power we can then look at the following.

So you got good power and still have problems? then lets begin...

Check the Physical
remove card from the A1200... populated the sim socket with any old 72pin simm

looking at the bottom of the card gently *wiggle* the simm in the socket to make sure that the solder points on the bottom of the port are okay...

if you suspect one might be at fault, place your index finger on the solder point and gently wiggle the simm/port if you feel it in your index finger then you have a dry solder fault.

Tor repair a dry solder fault... use a little flux and a 380c iron (45-60 watt iron) touch the pad untill the solder flows, *its best to remove the memory stick as this will act as a heat sink and make things ^difficult*

----

Re-configuring your card

lets get to basics here, remove the FPU chip (if you have one) and MEMORY from the SIMM bank

Set the following jumpers

RAM = off / WAIT = off / SCSI = off

lets power up your Amiga with the card attached... allow it to boot to Workbench, then use SYSINFO to see if your 030 is working as it should.

Turn off,

Add a stick of ram, (remember to change RAM to ON) unless you have slow 80ns + SIMMS you should leave WAIT = off

any luck ?

lets try another SIMM

any luck

lets try one more SIMM

If it fails here we need to ascetain the speeds of the rams and thier type, ie. EDO or FPM.

I found Apollo's can be exceptionally fussy when it come to types of memory try to find some 60ns FPM, I have some around here so if you need to test let me know and I can send you some.

Thank you guys for the information :)

My power supply is the following:

A very lightweight (and I really mean lightweight) DSP-500, 4,5A

A Mtec 1230 works ok (apart from some whdload weirdness) with 4 megs installed. Is it possible, that the Apollo takes a lot more juice than the Mtec?

The ram was supplied with the card and the seller assured that it works...
The powersupply thing is kinda daunting... Do I really have to create a diy psu (atx with a converter) to be able to use an accelerator reliably in my desktop A1200? Because this would really be a big downside :( (but of course I'll do that, if it helps ;)

I'll investigate the possible "physical disorders" in my accelerator asap and report here.

Thank you guys already, nice to have backup :bowdown

Sorry emuola, my link just takes you to the main home page, you mustn't be able to link stuff for some reason. Type in "Apollo 1230 Mk-III" without quotes in the keyword search box at the bottom of the page and select the correct model.

Actually my card seems to be a variant of some sort, it is exactly this:

http://amiga.resource.cx/photos/apollo1230mk3,5

The specs seem to be the same though.

*edit*
My Apollo has also the fpu installed
*edit*

The seller of the Apollo has the same psu as I do, but of course mine can be a bit flaky... It seems I have to order the atx-to-amiga -converter from Amigakit to be sure... :(

I'll report as soon I get something to report...

As an update... It seems that now I cannot get the Amiga to boot with any ram installed, the only time the Miggy boots with that Apollo installed is when the RAM-jumper is set to "off".

Ok, tested with a atx-psu 16A +5v/many different ram modules/jumper settings etc etc, same result. I take that the Apollo has released its "magic smoke" at some point :(

I give up, I already got me another accelerator :mad

Thanks for the comprehensive testing instructions Zetro :)

@emuola

I do wish I coulds of helped more, normally I would offer to have a look at your card, alas I have to much work on at the moment =(

If you still have the card in another couple of weeks I might be able to help further.

Thank you so much for the kind offer Zetro :) I really appreciate! I started a new thread here, because I think there could be more to this than just the Apollo :(