A1200 bad RAM?

[misjah]

Hi all. I got A1200 recently with Blizzard 1220/4. Finally got ide/CF adapter and installed WB. I noticed some graphic glitches with hombre boot disk and whdload games. I downloaded memtest app from aminet and it's displaying a lot of errors. I thought it was Blizzard but after removing it the same thing happens. Is it possible to find out what chip is corrupted by the addresses that memtest shows or I will have to change all 4 chips?
I also had yellow screen at boot couple of times....

[Zetr0]

@misjah

This is a perplexing problem - I have had some memory test programs report inacurate fails - I found the best *and most accurate* was the memory testing program on the GVP HC8 installtion disk (thanks to amiga.resrouce.cx)

The program will test CHIP, 24bit fast and 32bit fast if you have any.

Its a VERY slow program - but its VERY accurate.

give that a go and see what results you get - post them here and see ifwe can isolate either the failure point OR the failed chip.

[orange]

there are better memtests on aminet, also that one which came with board (can't remember atm, its on one of these: http://www.l8r.net/install/accel.html )

but seeing all those errors seems like a problem with address or data lines. I think that usually if RAM chip breaks, only one cell is bad.

[misjah]

Thanx for quick response and the link! Test finished in about 30 seconds and it looks like everything is ok:



Any other solution or testing procedure?

[misjah]

@ Orange

Which one from the link? I have Blizzard 1220 and the errors were reported without Blizzard plugged in.
Any tools to test out CF hard drive? I have standard 40-pin IDE/CF adapter and another one 40/44 pin so I can plug it on Amiga board....

[Zetr0]

Its possible that you are suffing power problems.

This could be a combination of weak - dying powersupply - or dying capacitors on the motherboard.

Its not surprising these last couple of years we have seen in influx of electrical problems plaguing these machines - they are over 15 years old and they were not really designed to live past 10.

The cheapest and easiest would be to change the power supply and see if your problems are still prevailent.

From that I would then look at inspecting the power filters and feeder electrolytic capactiors.

Its also entirely possible that some monolithic smd capacitors have failed, although this is lest likely of reasons you are having troubles.

could you post some more detail on your system - i.e.

Power supply rating
Motherboard revision
Peripherals attached

=)

[misjah]

I'm using PS for A500 5V - 2.5A
12V - 1.0A
-12V - 0.1A
I used it with my A500 and A600 that I don't have anymore but had no problems with it.

Motherboard is Revision 1D
There is no internal floppy at the momment, only one external and 128MB CF card, plus blizzard card. I also tried with all plugged out (only CF HDD)
Caps looks OK, even those smds....
I will try to boot some game directly from floppy and see what happens.

[orange]

Originally Posted by misjah

Which one from the link?

i cant remember, could be m-tec. will check later.
it has a GUI, so it looks much better than ordinary memtests. unfortunately requires KS2+ (but most of them do)

[Zetr0]

@misjah

you have the "infamous" 25watt PSU

what revision of 1D do you have (1D1, 1D2, 1D3 or 1D4)

[misjah]

It's 1D1 (didn't see the second 1)

I already used friend's A1200 with this PSU and it worked great.

Just tried Space Crusade from floppy without Blizzard and HDD, the intro went OK but the selection menu have graphic glitches....
WHDLoad Space Crusade is all messed up from start...

Well, I think I'll go with memory chips replacement and see what happens, not really easy but I can manage it...

[misjah]

Nope, I changed all four RAM chips and everything is the same....

[orange]

sorry, it seems I gave you wrong link, try this to test RAM:
http://amiga.resource.cx/install/M1230XA-101.dms

[fitzsteve]

I'd try a better PSU, I have one of Amigakits ATX-Amiga PSU's and its rock solid.

15yr old 25w PSU probably not enough for all that kit.

Steve.

[misjah]

All RAM tests passed with this tools, too. I'll definitely try with with different PSU....

[Zetr0]

@misjah

I think your CF card might not be working correctly with your A1200

is there anyway you can test this in another AGA machine ? (preferably another A1200) ?


Recently I have had problems with SCSI drives loosing data (it was an old drive from a hardworking environment) - it would corrupt data put on it - but only over a certain size (about 500k) and larger files would be corrupt -

It was a nightmare with WHDLoad games - where some (under 300k) would work flawlessly - others would crash or load with so many graphical glitches they were unplayable - or even unseable.

In the end I just got bought more SCSI disk lol (yeah I am a glutton for punishment it seems...)

try the CF card in another A1200 if you can - and with the 4MB adapter card too.

[orange]

@zetro

they say maxtransfer could cause that, but you probably know it already.

[misjah]

Yep, I'll get friend's A1200 in couple of days.
Ok, I tried with 200W PSU, perfect voltages and everything works the same way. The funny thing is that I made some more floppies, Desert Strike works, Pools of Darkness is working, Giana Sisters - only intro, the game crashes. Going to try some more games directly from floppy....
After all, I'll install to 2GB Kingston CF (Transcend 128 is at the moment)

[Zetr0]

@misjah

Are you writing these ADF's from data stored on your CF card(s) ?

if so its likely your data is corrupt before you are writing it.


@orange

Yes indeed, a maxtransfers setting to high - or incorrect can cause lots of problems like the ones listed here.

Using HDToolsBox set the "maxtransfers" to the following "0x1FEFFFFF" remember to press enter and then continue on - its likely that you will delete the existing partition/data.

[Loedown]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

@misjah

Are you writing these ADF's from data stored on your CF card(s) ?

if so its likely your data is corrupt before you are writing it.


@orange

Yes indeed, a maxtransfers setting to high - or incorrect can cause lots of problems like the ones listed here.

Using HDToolsBox set the "maxtransfers" to the following "0x1FEFFFFF" remember to press enter and then continue on - its likely that you will delete the existing partition/data.

You sure that's the right value Zetr0?

[misjah]

I just tried Ruff n Tumble and it's working great. I'm writing floppies with Amiga Explorer via serial cable since Hombre boot disk is all messed up (graph glitches on the menu). I usually use parallel and hombre, it transfers disk in less than 2 minutes. I also have PCMCIA CF adapter but the cards I have are just not compatible. Only one worked and I don't have it anymore.

I prepared CF with Amiga (WB 3.0 Install disk) but I installed WB with UAE (saves me a lot of time). That's how I installed friend's A1200 and it's working great.
Will try later with new card and different WB version. I have some pack with lots of WB versions.