Amiga won't boot with XSurf installed

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.

    Hello.

    I recently bought an XSurf secondhand. The seller insists they tested it, but when it arrived any Amiga it's installed in does not boot (dim LED, no activity).
    Tested in A2000, A3000D, A4000D with same results every time.

    If I remove the Mach chip from the socket, the Amiga boots (but obviously no card detected).

    I can't see any broken traces with a microscope. No chips get hot. The network card seems still securely soldered to the Zorro carrier.

    Obviously this is a 20+ year old card with no warranty, but do you know of anything I can try? Is it possible to purchase a Mach chip programmed for this device in case mine has died? I own a XSurf-100 as well but bought this card as I was keen to use the clock port in my A2000.

    Many thanks


    Chris

    There have been many different versions (at least three) of the 10MBit X-Surf card that all have a different MACH chip. What you're describing indeed points to the chip being at fault, and the seller saying he has "tested" it may not be wrong at all, as the wording doesn't indicate "tested positive". At least it's not the typical eBay "untested, have no power supply"-thing :-)


    While I still have the equipment to program MACH chips, it's not set up, and it would take serious amounts of time to dig that out, find MACH chips and program them, with an unknown outcome (your card may still not work as more things are broken). So the best thing I can say is to double-triple-check the contacts inside the sockets (these do cause trouble, especially on the corner pins), and if that's not successful, go for an ISDN surfer card. That's currently disabled in our shop (for speed reasons - see news), but it's the cheapest way to add a clock port to a Zorro-based Amiga. If you want to go that route, I can enable the product in the shop for a day, so you can order it.

    Hmmmm, OK - I totally understand the issue with time and effort needed for programming Mach chips; thank you for the response.


    I'm not sure the ISDN Surfer is the best idea for me - I perhaps didn't explain myself very well, I also want Ethernet functionality but I chose the X-Surf instead of the X-Surf 100 for the Clock Port (and to some extent, the IDE is useful too but I do have a Tandem card which does the job).

    I'll perhaps replace the socket with a good quality new one just to be sure, but potentially it might just be scrap now which is a shame.


    Chris

    You may know that I'm very vocal about living and acting sustainably. I don't like it if things are going to scrap although there's only a tiny thing to repair. I did choose good sockets back then, but we're talking about a card that's potentially 24 years old (especially if the edge connector isn't gold-plated, it's from the very first production run). If you clean the contacts (both Zorro and the socket) with IPA and an old toothbrush, then double-check the corner pins for proper spring force and no bent pins on the chip itself, you're already excluding the majority of faults that have happened to these cards in the past.


    If you post a picture of the card, I can find out what version it is, and put it on the list of chips to program when I'm setting up the euipment next time. For posting pictures, please register in this forum.

    Thank you. I can see you used 3M sockets so I will give them another clean - they had a douse of IPA and a stiff brush but worth another go. I'm certainly not going to go straight in replacing the socket like I would if they were cheaper ones. I'll also check for any pins that have lost their spring, and it might be worth my while checking resistance between the pins on the Mach itself and corresponding points on the board.


    I've attached photos - gold plated edge connectors but still an old card, yes.


    Thank you for the help so far; I appreciate it. I know it will be a long time before you're next programming Mach chips so if the cleaning fails I'll put it away for now and revisit it another time :)


    Chris

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