E-Matrix 1230/40Mhz Accelerator

[DaveGlo]

top jumper is off
middle jumper have set to on and off, makes no difference
bottom jumper- if set to on, amiga doesn't boot, if set to off, does boot, and typing cpu in shell gives the result i mentioned.
The amiga can see the board as changing the on/off jumper gives different results.
the crystal in inserted correctly
i have cleaned the connectors
i have ensured no RF shielding touches the card
What else can i do?
I will try showconfig tomorrow and report back.
It is now getting to the point where I may as well use a EMU and flog all this kit on, shame being as my 1200 is in pretty good nick.

[amigakit.com]

Did you reseat the SIMM as previously suggested ?

From memory (I have no card here to check at the moment), the jumper sequence should be OFF OFF ON

[DaveGlo]

Reseated it plenty of times.
Off Off On, from top to bottom (as was set when delivered) doesn't boot.
off, off, off does boot though

[DaveGlo]

to add,off off off, does boot, but without any added ram

[DaveGlo]

to add,off off off, does boot, but without any added ram according to work bench

[amigakit.com]

Very strange problem- please raise a Support Ticket and we will provide further advice.

[DaveGlo]

ticket raised 2822.

[DaveGlo]

New plan of action.
Spoke to somebody at work today about my issue with this 1200, and turns out he's got a 1200 with an 030 accelerator, i honestly didn't know this at the time. It' not been fired up for some time, but the guy is gonna bring it into work for me to borrow. I'm gonna swap boards about and see if i can work out what the issue is.

[prowler]

It's about time you had some luck. And that sounds like a very good plan indeed!

[DaveGlo]

Originally Posted by prowler

It's about time you had some luck. And that sounds like a very good plan indeed!

Yeah, was getting close to loosing interest with it all

Had a blast on sensible soccer through an emu tonight to help re-ignite the fire. Lost badly, but Im still gonna get the real deal working.
In my head, i can obviously only play properly on a real amiga!

[DaveGlo]

right then...

Got another card of my mate at work today and tried it in my 1200...... no joy, i know it should have worked cos my mate was saying how amazed he was that after 15 years of no use it powered up no problem last night.

I have basically spent the last 3 and a half hours pulling the 1200 to bits, sounds brutal but i have now sorted it.

I think i have some sort of weird, one off A1200 case as the E matrix card will not connect fully and fit in the space of the trap door. There are 2 plastic "hooks" that stop the accelerator card from falling all the way into the amiga, one runs in front of the disc drive the other is parallel running the entire length of the bottom of the trap door. These 2 bits of plastic stop the card dropping enough to be pushed all the way onto the connector in the trapdoor.

It turns out, basically i hadnt pushed the card in far enough to make a full connect as it was physically impossible.

I have now brutally removed the "hooks" with some pliers and put a rubber spacer between the mobo and the bottom of the case to raise the trapdoor connectors about a centimetre, i have then installed the accelerator card with the lid off and bent ever more metal shielding away from the card.

All of this has been a mission to get working but got there in the end and its only by looking at the card position with the lid off thats made me think it didnt look right.

New problem is now none of the whdload games work, they "all" just crash with software failure 8100 0005 and various task errors. Think 8100 0005 is to do with the RAM?

any more help is appreciated

[prowler]

Thanks for the update, DaveGlo!

Great work getting the card fitted properly. It just shows the value of having a known good component you can swap in.

Now I just hope you can get the software failure sorted out quickly.

[DaveGlo]

Originally Posted by prowler

Thanks for the update, DaveGlo!

Great work getting the card fitted properly. It just shows the value of having a known good component you can swap in.

Now I just hope you can get the software failure sorted out quickly.

no problem, it really has been blood, sweat and nearly tears, topped with a lot of swearing

I figure i had better post a comment (first post!) given that DaveGlo borrowed my Blizzard 68020 @30mhz with FPU.
Firstly, i was amazed that my A1200 (which has sat collecting dust in my office room and has not been powered up for nearly 15 years) actually booted first time! The hard drive (60MB Western Digital) works flawlessly and sounds nice and quiet still. The Accelerator card worked and propelled the visuals in 'Frontier' (my only HD installed game) just as smoothly as i remembered from 1993.

Ive had another play tonight, and even without the Acc card i can get Frontier running (albeit at about 3fps lol!). My old docs from Uni are on the HD still, and 'Final Writer7' loads up ok too.

I've got a CD Rom drive lying around somewhere too, so when i get the card back, i will plumb it all together again and see if the whole caboodle runs like it did back in 1995 (I think i need the cards extra 2MB FAST to get other apps working)

Erm....as this is a hardware prob thread, i'll add some relevance......how can i get the best display from the A1200 on a normal Plasma telly? Do i need a video-to-vga adapter for best visual results? Im running composite and it looks awful, flickers, pulses etc.... hmm, that sounded slightly hardware related

[prowler]

Hi andyvcc, and welcome to EAB!

I hope you will stick around for a while.

It sounds like you have DaveGlo to thank for getting bitten by the Amiga bug again.

It's really amazing how resilient the old Amiga hardware can be, as you've just found out.

Now to your question:

Originally Posted by andyvvc

How can i get the best display from the A1200 on a normal Plasma telly? Do i need a video-to-vga adapter for best visual results? Im running composite and it looks awful, flickers, pulses etc....

You will get the best display by connecting the Amiga to your Plasma TV via an RGB video to SCART lead, with no other hardware necessary.

[DaveGlo]

Originally Posted by prowler

Hi andyvcc, and welcome to EAB!

I hope you will stick around for a while.

It sounds like you have DaveGlo to thank for getting bitten by the Amiga bug again.

It's really amazing how resilient the old Amiga hardware can be, as you've just found out.

Now to your question:



You will get the best display by connecting the Amiga to your Plasma TV via an RGB video to SCART lead, with no other hardware necessary.

yeah he sits next to a guy who takes the mick for all our miggy chat, i think hes a closet ST owner!

I got a half meter rgb to scart with sound you can have, or if that isnt long enough

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Commodore-Amig...ht_3017wt_1046

i got one of these and the picture is better than back in the day.

[PowerPie5000]

@ DaveGlo... Did your E-Matrix 1230 accelerator come with this this wire soldered on the back? I think Amigakit said it was a jumper wire for the FPU but i'm not exactly sure of it's purpose (i don't have an FPU installed anyway).



Also if you run Sysinfo does it show the 68030 MMU as "not in use"? Not sure if this means MMU is disabled/not being used or simply not present (I hope my boards not using a 68EC030 processor ).

Cheers

[FOL]

Originally Posted by PowerPie5000

@ DaveGlo... Did your E-Matrix 1230 accelerator come with this this wire soldered on the back? I think Amigakit said it was a jumper wire for the FPU but i'm not exactly sure of it's purpose (i don't have an FPU installed anyway).



Also if you run Sysinfo does it show the 68030 MMU as "not in use"? Not sure if this means MMU is disabled/not being used or simply not present (I hope my boards not using a 68EC030 processor ).

Cheers

Its needed to allow the FPU to work if you install 1.

It is indeed a 68CE030, it can however be replaced with a 68030 as its socketed.

[DaveGlo]

yeah mines got that white cable soldered on. Will do sysinfo tomorrow cos im knackered now. Your photo highlights the 2 bits of plastic i ripped out earlier! Top bit near the top of the white cable and the bit of white case running the length at the bottom of the photo.
Was hoping i wouldnt see that again for sometime!

[PowerPie5000]

Originally Posted by FOL

Its needed to allow the FPU to work if you install 1.

It is indeed a 68CE030, it can however be replaced with a 68030 as its socketed.

Really? are you 100% certain it does not use a 68030? I assumed it came with a full 68030 processor considering the price and it even says on your website that it uses a 68030 processor and does not mention a 68CE030 (http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=913) I wish i had known this before purchasing