[Search for users] [Overall Top Noters] [List of all Conferences] [Download this site]

Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

1291.0. "Diagnostics for Amiga?" by DPDMAI::ANDERSONA () Sun Apr 03 1988 19:55

    
    Does any one know of diagnostics for the Amiga.  My A500 just died it
    was only two weeks old.  I had many visits from the Guru but I assumed
    it was a loose nut on the keyboard.  Well this morning I plugged
    it in and turned it on and the power light blinks while the screen
    stays green for five second and then flashes pink then back to green.
    So I need to send it to the shop.  But for the future I would like
    to have some test that I could run for my peice of mind.  If anyone
    knows of anything of this nature I would appreciate it.
    
    
    Thanks in advance
    Alan
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
1291.1PLDVAX::SMCAFEESteve McAfeeSun Apr 03 1988 21:479
    
    I'm not sure from your message if you realize this, but...  Those
    colors you see flashing are the diagnostics.  Anything abnormal
    means you have a problem.  Each color represents the results of
    a certain type of test.  I believe the meanings of these colors
    and the order of their appearance is discussed somewhere else in
    this notesfile.  Try looking way back...
    
    - steve
1291.2Color coded diagsDPDMAI::ANDERSONASun Apr 03 1988 22:5710
    No I did not know that.  But reading some old notes about some problems
    adding on extra memory fixed it?  I tapped on the back turned it
    back on and I got the hand with the floppy.  It has been running
    fine the rest of the day.  But something is definetly wrong with
    it.  Before it fixed itself I had every thing disconnected including
    the M501 memory and it just blinked.  I need to look for that old
    note. Thanks for the tip. 
                    
    Alan
1291.3bad productionWJG::GUINEAUMon Apr 04 1988 12:2010

When I bought my A500, the guy at the store said he had several A500's which
had bad solder joints. In fact, he said some had 68000 pins which were not
even soldered!!

I would (if your not afraid of soldering and warranties :-), check out
all the soldering inside...

John
1291.4color meaningsMVCAD3::BAEDERD. Scott DTN 237-2961 SHR1-3/E19Mon Apr 04 1988 12:47102
Here is the color info off of usenet....
    
    Scott.....
    
    
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Path: decwrl!hplabs!hp-sdd!ucsdhub!esosun!seismo!uunet!littlei!omepd!hah
Subject: All dem colors during boot
Posted: 11 Oct 87 07:31:23 GMT
Organization: Intel Corp., Hillsboro
 
 
The folowing is a "Sandscript" file, it can also be ran thru straight nroff/
troff by removing the first 8 lines.  Lacking nroff/troff just remove all
lines that begin with a ".".
 
Hope this helps.
 
Hans
 
ps watch for the last cut an sig at the end.
 
--------------- cut here ------------------ cut here ----------------------
.BE paper
.nr nS 12
.rn SH sH
.de SH
.sH "\\s\n(nS\\$1"
.sz \n(nS
..
.sz \n(nS
.sz 20
.ce 1
A M I G A ' S      I N I T I A L I Z A T I O N      C O L O R S
 
.sz 12
Dark gray		Ok Hardware
.br
Light gray		Ok Software
.br
Red			Bad ROM Checksum
.br
Green			Bad RAM
.br
Blue			Bad Custom Chips
.br
Yellow			Exception
 
 
 
.sz 20
.ce 1
A M I G A ' S      I N I T I A L I Z A T I O N
.sz 12
 
Clear Chips
.br
Disable DMA and Interrupts
.br
Clear the Screen
.br
Check the Hardware
.br
Pass or fail the Hardware to the Screen
.br
Checksum the ROMs
.br
Pass or fail the ROMs to the Screen
.br
System setup
.br
Check the for RAM at $C00000
.br
Move SYS_BASE to $C00000 if it exists
.br
RAM Test
.br
Pass or fail the RAM to the Screen
.br
Check the Software
.br
Pass or fail the Software to the Screen
.br
Set up the RAM
.br
Link the Libraries
.br
Find External RAM and link it to the list
.br
Set up Interrupts and DMA
.br
Start default Task
.br
Check for 68010, 68020, and 68881
.br
Check for an Exception
.br
System Reset
 
--------------------------------- cut here -----------------------------
 
Hans
1291.5Thanks for the short cutDPDMAI::ANDERSONATue Apr 05 1988 00:494
    
    Thanks Scott a search "diagnostic" was not getting me any where.
1291.6Its fixed!DPDMAI::ANDERSONATue Apr 12 1988 02:1118
    Well I called the people that I bought it from and they said there
    is a problem with Fat Agnus coming loose in shiping.  So with their
    blessing (to preserve my warenty) I opened her up during lunch last
    wednesday and reseated every socketted chip I could get a screw
    driver under.  My A500 has been running fine ever since.  I did
    come up with a quick test it appears to keep the cpu busy and fill
    memory up.  Just create a large ARC file in RAM: and run a batch
    file from shell that tests the file over and over again.  According
    to the performance monitor the cpu is kept very busy.  I let it
    run all day all night and no crashes.  This does not do any disk
    I/O but then you wouldnt want to wear the thing out.  This seems
    to keep the Guru away also.  I guess that loose nut wasen't so loose
    after all.
                                                              
    Thanks for all your input
    
    Alan