ACA500plus (old version) E0 woes

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.

    Hi Jens et all,


    my ACA500plus (small DisMo) is acting up, in an unusual way i have not comwe across on this forum, here it goes:

    - Amiga 500 + A512 expansion + Gotek (F-F)

    - ACA500plus (2016 small DisMo - never connected the wrong way around ;-)

    - ACA1221ec


    The whole setup worked just fine with the ACA500 + ACA1221 on the back of it - i was a very happy camper. Then recently, it seems the old power supply died for good. I got a new replacement unit, and the bare Amiga works just fine with it, inclugin the A512.


    However, now I observe the following:

    ACA500plus plugged in:
    - Dismo starts at 00 - jumps right to E0, - Display of Amiga goes to EXC error screen

    - I can press teh Dismo button to enter de-brick mode, then i press A-A-CTRL, BUT:
    - the machine will NOT boot to kickstart hand screen, but be stuck in a loop gray -> green -> gray ....


    ACA500plus + ACA1221ec plugged in:

    - Dismo starts at 00 - jumps right to E0, - Display of Amiga goes to EXC error screen

    - I can press teh Dismo button to enter de-brick mode, then i press A-A-CTRL, AND:

    - the machine WILL BOOT TO KICKSTART screen, i can boot UPDACA500.ADF from my GoTek and updating the ACA firmware works fine!


    however, even after updating firmware, i have the same behaviour as above.


    Any clues what to try next?


    thanks a million,

    Emanuel / tubo^bph

    There you have it: That power-supply is known-bad. It is based on a MeanWell chassis, which is not suitable for the Amiga. You should return it for false advertising. The PSU might work with an un-expanded Amiga, but the advertising implies that it's good for expanded units. To my knowledge, it's not covered by product liability insurance, which is another point why you should avoid that.


    Read more about the complexity of power supplies in our PSU FAQ.


    Now back to your original problem: With the old/original power supply going bad, it may have caused a defect on the ACA500plus. You wrote that you also have an ACA500 - can you test with that? Or was that a typo?

    Hi Jens,


    Re trying with an ACA500 -> unfortunately, that was a typo indeed. I only have one such card, which is the ACA500plus.


    Re the PSU: ouch, i had no idea its known-bad. :-( Armed with the knowledge of your PSU page, i shall be much more careful, thanks for the link.

    This new PSU however manages (so far) to reliably power my A600 + Furia020 + CF + GoTek. Still, i d rather have my A500 + ACA500plus working.


    Meanwhile, i have recapped my original A600 PSU (i know its less strong than the heavy A500 brick) - interestingly, it exhibits the exact same behaviour i described above. While i do not know for sure, i assume something got broken in the ACA500plus card. I can still flash it as described, and get the spinning circle on dismo, but then always 00 quickly followed by E0 and the Exception screen output..


    I do have some tools and resources to check things here (components, soldering, oscilloscope), so if you have any ideas what i could check for next, i d be very grateful. Otherwise, i d be happy to send the card in for a repair also.


    best

    tubo / Emanuel

    At this point, I'd also assume that one of the components on the ACA500plus got damaged. Unfortunately, it's mostly the CPLDs that suffer damage if a PSU goes wild, so there's not much you can do on your end.


    The spinning circle shows that the CPU is running and at least has access to the DisMo and flash - so a lot is already working. Maybe you have a contact problem on the 86-pin connector or the exception is thrown because there's a contact problem between your Agnus and the socket in the A500? I have this kind of problem frequently on one of my A500s - it will run without the ACA500plus and only exhibit problems when running software (graphics problems and crashes), but it will work fine after cleaning and re-seating the Agnus chip. If you have a friend near who has another A500, it might be worth trying the ACA500plus on a different machine.

    ok,


    as a last option, tried to remove, clean and reseat Agnus but it made no difference. Also tested the A500 + A512, ran solid for multiple hours with no signs of garbling / other issues. I think the ACA500plus got fried by the dying PSU.


    Do you offer repair services for the ACA500plus? I tried to find a WIKI page on how to proceed, but did not easily find it.


    thanks again for the swift support,

    tubo / Emanuel

    Once again, double-check the overclocking options. The transition you're describing is giving strong hints at the global settings showing more than 14MHz.

    Hey Jens, thanks - but without the card booting to menu, how am I going to check the overclocking options? I did in fact run the card at more than 14MHz for sure, but how could i revert / toggle the setting on a card in this state? Checked the Wiki, found nothing on the topic - hope i have not missed anything

    ok, this took me a while :-) but i just sent in the card. Communication details included, let me know how to transfer repair fee etc.


    thanks again, and hope to see you on Revision soon,


    best

    tubo / Emanuel

    Arrived yesterday, unpacked today. The board is heavily bent, and we're trying to guess what this is caused by: Is your A500 case without rubber feet and drags down on the connector, or did it happen in transport?


    Jens

  • The last reply was more than 365 days ago, this thread is most likely obsolete. It is recommended to create a new thread instead.

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