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Documentation about the Vampire hardware

V500 2+ Problem

Oi Ho

Posts 3
26 Apr 2023 00:17


Hi. I have bought this card about a year ago. Back then it boots into a kickstart screen, but when I took it out of storage recently, all it gave me is a flash of blue screen then nothing! The floppy drive make no sound, power led on the V500 card is on and activity light flashes non stop. The amiga 500+ works without the Vampire. Can anyone tell me whats wrong?

I have also tried and failed to update it to the latest jic with a USB blaster. it tells me it can't access JTAG chain!


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6197
26 Apr 2023 07:35


Hello Oi,
 
For your information we try to use "real names" in this forum here, so also using real name would be nice,

 
I understand from your post that you bought an older V2, second hand?
And that you had it working fine - which changed after you put it in storage? Can you explain this? Did you put the whole Amiga away for some time? Or did you unplug the V2 card and put it outside the Amiga and reinserted it now?
 
Please note that neither the Amiga CPU socket nor the V2 pins are not designed for plugging the card in and out many times. For correct functioning the card needs to cleanly inserted and have good contact, make sure that this is the case and that the pins are not bend.
 
Of course for an Amiga Accelerator to run stable, a good and stable power is needed! If you experience crashes then a bad power supply  or bad power connection could be the cause.
 
 
 
 
 


Oi Ho

Posts 3
09 May 2023 23:58


THANKS getting back to me.

Yes. I have unplugged it from the Amiga and stored it separately. I reinserted it but now it doesn't boot. I only get a flash of blue screen then nothing. I have made sure it sits firmly on the socket.
My power supply is a new meanwell so it has enough power. The power LED is on and activity light flashes non stop on the Vampire? Nothing wrong with the Amiga, it boots with the original 68k.

I have now tried to flash it using USB blaster with QuratusII 13.1 programmer and V500_G216B.jic. It's did nothing, still the same.
The error message say: "209040 Can't access JTAG chain"

ps. I know it is a rare and short name, but Oi Ho is my real name  :)


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6197
10 May 2023 08:14


Oi Ho wrote:

ps. I know it is a rare and short name, but Oi Ho is my real name  :)

Nice to meet you!

Oi Ho wrote:

Yes. I have unplugged it from the Amiga and stored it separately. I reinserted it but now it doesn't boot.

Are you sure that all pins have good contact?
Could it be that a pin is bend?

Please note that the pins of the V2 are not designed for plug/unplug/replug many times.
I would not advice to remove / reinsert that card many times.


Oi Ho

Posts 3
10 May 2023 10:38


The last owner said he did break some of the pin before. He replaced them. It is not the best of jobs but he showed me it boots before I bought it.

When I took it out of storage, a couple of the pins were slightly bent, but I have straightened them before I plug it in.

So you think the error message suggests a connection problem? Do you think I should replace all the pins?


Geirmund Eidet

Posts 6
28 Jun 2023 23:32


No idea if this will help you with your problem or not, but I had already a few encounters where my trapdoor 0.5 MB ram had to be wiggled a litle to have it working again. i know this because I systematically stripped the Amiga down piece by piece until it was working again. Happened a times already, and every time it was the trapdoor expansion causing the startup failure.

posts 6