| Using Vampire to Troubleshoot Bad MB | |
|---|
|
|---|
| | 
David Wright
Posts 373
24 Sep 2017 23:22
| I currently have it in 500 but an Amiga 2000 came into my possession.
Just a dark screen, no error color codes on monitor. I have swapped out different chips and nothing, no drive click. keyboard lights up and chips get warm, thats it.So I thought of attaching my Vampire on the board just to see what happens. What part of the motherboard is even used by system now that vampire takes over? This system has a megachip and a rom switcher which i disabled. Actually this would be a better fit for me because of Zorro card expansion possibilities. Good idea or not?
| |
| | 
Steve Ferrell
Posts 424
24 Sep 2017 23:53
| Bad idea. You want to eliminate as many probable points of failure in the troubleshooting process as possible. Strip the Amiga down to the bare essentials by removing all expansion cards, MegaChip and ROM switcher first. Plus if there is a power problem such as excessive voltage you risk damaging your Vampire by installing it in the A2000.
| |
| | 
Martin Soerensen
Posts 232
25 Sep 2017 08:58
| The Vampire only replaces the CPU and ROM, so probably won't do much help with diagnostics since the CPU and ROM are not common failure points.
| |
| | 
Vojin Vidanovic
Posts 770
25 Sep 2017 12:17
| David Wright wrote:
| | So I thought of attaching my Vampire on the board just to see what happens. What part of the motherboard is even used by system now that vampire takes over? Good idea or not? |
Currently v2 Vamps are more like CPU replacement with DIGITAL-VIDEO outpout, ROM and SD. However it requires working CPU connectors and much of the chipset and I/O thus its not suitable for diagnostics.
| |
| | 
Ian Parsons
Posts 230
25 Sep 2017 12:32
| The Vampire, especially the Vampire 4 could be a very good diagnosis tool with the right configuration but it may be more tolerant of faults like bad power levels, clock or other signals than a 68000 and may not be able to see the problem due to the isolation between the FPGA and the 68000 bus. It good detect faults related to a bad ROM, RAM, CIA or custom chip. Before plugging in a Vampire to a bad board though it would be best to perform some basic tests like checking the power rails.
| |
| |
David Wright
Posts 373
25 Sep 2017 13:20
| So, in conclusion, bad idea.
Thanks for the responses.
| |
| |
Martin Soerensen
Posts 232
25 Sep 2017 13:56
| If you have the means to burn an EPROM, you could make a diagnostic ROM chip:
EXTERNAL LINK
Or, if you have an ACA500plus, you can also replace the system ROM (maprom) with ones you put in its flash memory, so I think you could use the diagnostic ROM that way as well.
| |
| |
David Wright
Posts 373
25 Sep 2017 14:20
| Both sound intriguing but I have no means to burn eprom. Even if so, no video comes from board so how is data viewed or is it saved in a file? I do have the aca500 plus, could you be more specific as to how to use it here?
Thanks
| |
| | 
Sean Sk
Posts 488
25 Sep 2017 14:57
| I take it all you guys missed the video showing Gold 2.7's new maprom feature that could also allow you to maprom the diagnosis ROM's? If it works the way it is intended the Vampire could be a very good diagnosis tool.
| |
| |
Martin Soerensen
Posts 232
25 Sep 2017 15:06
| The diag ROM can often provide some kind of picture even if you won't see anything with the normal ROM since it relies on fewer chips/functions from the Amiga. Otherwise I think you can interface to the DiagROM using the serial port, e.g. using a USB-serial adapter on the PC and a null-modem cable (unless the serial port CIA chip is dead).
I haven't tried using it with the ACA500plus myself yet, but you should be able to flash the Diag ROM into the ACA flash (ignore the checksum error) and then create a profile that loads this ROM so, even though you are operating in the blind, can just press '1' to boot into it. Perhaps the ACA can even be configured to automatically boot into a profile?sean sk wrote:
|
I take it all you guys missed the video showing Gold 2.7's new maprom feature that could also allow you to maprom the diagnosis ROM's? If it works the way it is intended the Vampire could be a very good diagnosis tool.
|
Could be yes if you feel like sticking your Vampire board into a known faulty machine. :-) But anyway, since G2.7 is not yet available, it is not really a usable alternative for now.
| |
| | 
Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6214
25 Sep 2017 15:35
| old, dying or broken AMIGA hardware is a problem. I would put the Vampire only in reliable working AMIGAs. I would not risk to fry the Vamp by putting it a mobo with short circuit.
| |
| |
Vojin Vidanovic
Posts 770
25 Sep 2017 17:31
| sean sk wrote:
|
I take it all you guys missed the video showing Gold 2.7's new maprom feature that could also allow you to maprom the diagnosis ROM's? If it works the way it is intended the Vampire could be a very good diagnosis tool.
|
Yes, I ve seen it. Its not public, nor completely known how much old hardware you can diagnose, plus what is minimum working hardware to have it working (which is important for diags).
At the other hand, having self-diagnostics for standalone would be most welcome.
| |
|
Documentation about the Vampire hardware