ACA 620EC - No screen

Tomarkus · May 11th 2020

Hello,

I have an issue with my ACA 620EC card. As soon as I power on my A600, the POST sequence looks like this: black screen, dark gray, and nothing else. Here is the video:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ynisvPqfePep8AGn9

So far I have tied to:

- test the card on three working A600 boards: 2x v1.5, and 1x 2D. 2/3 are fully recapped (with tantalum caps and electrolytes for audio). One of them have Piggy mod for 2MB Chip. All of them are passing all DiagROM v1.2 tests. All of them are working fine without the card.

- test with KickROM 3.1 and 3.1.4

- clean CPU and socket dozen times with IPA

- clean the whole card with the IPA

- Use stock (light, fully recapped) amiga PSU, as well as well as PSU from Lotharek, and Cisco PSU

Other observations:

- when I leave my Amiga powered on with the card, all of the chips are ~equally hot (around 43-46 degrees of celsius)

- Adding ground doesn't make any difference

I have a XILINX Platform Cable USB if it makes any difference in this situation

Any clues what can be wrong here? Is there a chance for fixing my long out of warranty card?

Jens · May 12th 2020

First thing I normally check on these cards is the solder spots of the PLCC44 chip. The stencil for the solder paste had to be thin enough to allow fine-pitch components like the Xilinx and the Winbond RAM, but that's a little scarce for PLCC components (didn't know at the time that you can make different-thickness stencils). So the PLCC44 chip requires special attention on the ACA620. I see some hobby-level soldering equipment in the background, which hints at "you know what that means".

The Xilinx cable won't help you, as the CPLD contents are not public.

On another note: That Cloanto ROM... naah, I won't comment.

Quote from Tomarkus

Is there a chance for fixing my long out of warranty card?

We repair these cards - just send it if you can't get it to work.