Bought an untested Amitek/Hawk 8MB off eBay...

[radiokida]

Hello

As the title suggests I bought an untested Amitek/Hawk 8MB RAM card for my Amiga 1200. I took a gamble, and it would appear that it hasn't paid off. The "paid off" part of my gamble seems quite appropriate as the card cost me £65, but I can't get it working. Also made the mistake of telling the missus after I bought it and found it didn't work, oops

The card came with an 8MB stick of RAM. I have given the contacts on the card and the RAM a good cleaning with some Isopropyl Alcohol and have done the same on the Amiga; this doesn't seem to have helped. I have also removed the RF shield to ensure the card wasn't shorting out on it

When it is plugged into the Amiga the machine will not boot, it doesn't get to the insert disk screen at all, it just stays black. The power light on the Amiga seems to flash many times as well. It doesnt even get to the stage where I would be able to press both mouse buttons to access the pre-boot menu.

Once I take the card out the Amiga boots fine, either by floppy or hard disk.

My Amiga is the Commodore model with 3.0 roms.

Will attach some pictures of the culprit card when I get home; however the card looks fine with no obvious circuitry problems, would welcome any assistance anyone could provide.

[Bamiga2002]

Do you have 3.0 or 3.1 ROMs?
oops, you already mentioned it...

[Bamiga2002]

Tried another memory stick?

[DDNI]

Are the jumpers set for 8mb?
Is there an FPU, are the jumpers set correctly?
Have you tried a different simm?
Does it boot with no simm?

Here is the manual if you need it.
http://amiga.resource.cx/manual/Amitek_Hawk.pdf check page 8 and 12 for trouble shooting tips.

Here is the amiga.resource page. The support disk is there for if you get it working.
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/search....=Hawk&company=

Good luck

[Loedown]

If the power light is flashing many times it could be loading up the +5 volt line, got a multimeter, check what the +5 V rail is doing, or it could also be stuck in a reset loop.

[fitzsteve]

Maybe PSU isn't powerful enough to run it?

I'd say try another PSU and follow DDNI's advice for fault finding.

If you need some more Ram for it I can send you a 4mb stick for postage costs to test it out.

[radiokida]

Hi

Thanks for the super quick replies.

Unfortunately I don't have any other memory sticks to test with, so I can't confirm or deny that the 8MB stick is working. Same thing happens when I remove the RAM though.

I have tried all the jumper configurations, 1Mb, 2MB, 4MB and 8MB.

There is no FPU so the jumper is set correctly for that as well.

I do have a multimeter, however how can I test the 5V rail exactly?

When it is stuck on the black screen there doesn't seem to be any sign that it is doing anything at all, the black is a constant black, there is no drive clicking from the floppy drive and no activity from the hard drive. Sometimes though I can hear a very very faint beeping from somewhere in the Amiga when it is stuck like that with a black screen. No idea what that means if anything....

[fitzsteve]

You could also try cleaning the edge connector on the A1200 and contacts on the hawk with IPA (isopropyl alcohol) the solution you get with VCR head cleaning tapes will do if you have any kicking around.

[Loedown]

Originally Posted by radiokida

I do have a multimeter, however how can I test the 5V rail exactly?

When it is stuck on the black screen there doesn't seem to be any sign that it is doing anything at all, the black is a constant black, there is no drive clicking from the floppy drive and no activity from the hard drive. Sometimes though I can hear a very very faint beeping from somewhere in the Amiga when it is stuck like that with a black screen. No idea what that means if anything....

Measure between ground and +5 V on one of the logic chips, if it's switching on and off in time with the power light then the ram expansion most likely has a fault, short circuit ( logic chips usually have 74F74 or 74Fxx )

The faint beeping is most likely something that's partially powering on and failing in a constant on / off loop, most likely floppy drive.

[radiokida]

Is it normal for an A1200 PSU to be badged for A500/A600, because mine is.

Thanks for the offer of the RAM to test fitzsteve, I may take you up on that. Will send you a PM.

Have tried cleaning the contacts, didn't help.

I guess I may just have to face the fact that the card is in fact faulty and sell it on as so, even if it's just for a tenner... although I don't want to give up just yet.

[DDNI]

Can you post some hi res pics of the front and back of the card please.

An outside chance, is there an FPU crystal on the board. If there is, there shouldn't be. Remove it and try again.

[radiokida]

Hey

Will post some pics this evening. No crystal on the board or FPU, I thought about getting both to go with the card but didn't, glad I didn't now...

[radiokida]

Been looking through the pictures I took of the Amiga 1200 whilst I was taking it apart and noticed this. It looks like one of the contacts of the expansion interface has been scuffed, but it looks like there is still enough of the contact left to make a good connection. What do you think?

[8bitbubsy]

It's probably fine, notice how the trace before it is just as thin. :-) If it was a power rail it would probably have a thick trace too.

[DDNI]

Take a lead pencil and scribble on that track, being careful not to bridge neighbouring tracks. I suspect it is ok, but it is worth a try.

[r.cade]

I am sure you are aware that "untested" on eBay almost always translates to "definately broken, I can't get it to work no matter what, but I don't want to say that to reduce what I might get".

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by r.cade

I am sure you are aware that "untested" on eBay translates to "definately broken, I can't get it to work no matter what, but I don't want to say that to reduce what I might get".

thats not always true,but..unfortunatly it does happen.

an easy way to find out is to look at the persons feedback to see what else they have sold.

if they sell loads of amiga gear,chances are your right.

[radiokida]

Yeah, having checked their feedback it would seem that they sell a fair amount of Amiga games but not hardware so much. Anyway lesson learnt I guess... unless I can get it working.

Anyway here are two hires pictures of the card I just took. They are about 5MB each so I will just post the links here and not embed them in the forum.

Front of the card and RAM
Rear of the card and RAM

[roy bates]

you could try reseating the the pal's and peel ic.

and try a different simm.

[DDNI]

Did we comment that the label on the simm says ?defekt.
Stick a cr2032 battery in there just in case.