bilbo@pnet02.cts.com (Bill Daggett) (11/04/87)
Ever since I expanded my A1000 2 months or so ago with a 2Meg Micron board and 20Meg Supra hard drive I've experienced various gurus/crashes that have been attributed partly if not completely to the PAL (timing?) chips. I replaced the "so called" affected PALs causing expansion port trouble with the faster/better variety prior to using the expansion port but this seems not to be enough. Through Supra I learned that ALL the PALs have floating pin 10s that should be grounded. And I asked them to send me info on this operation along with a new Supra driver program disk - all of which I am still waiting for 3 weeks later. That's the background... If anyone has information explaining how to do this grounding I would appreciate reading it either here or U.S. Snail: Bill Daggett 1108 E. Imperial Av., Apt. B El Segundo, CA 90245 And I thank you in advance very much. My gripe is that if Commodore knows that these pin 10s are not grounded and that the health and well being of my computer has probably been suffering for it WHY can't they make it "official" in some way with details on how the user can get their machines fixed - either take it to a dealer or "do-it-yourself"? Or have my eyes and ears been closed up tight? GRIN... I hope that Commodore can discover a way of communicating with Amiga users better -- please bear in mind and respect that I am not a hacker/programmer type but an end user. If there was to much flame there it is all off now. *Bilbo* Recombinant Hobbit * Sometimes The Dragon Wins! *
grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) (11/08/87)
In article <2153@gryphon.CTS.COM> bilbo@pnet02.cts.com (Bill Daggett) writes: > Ever since I expanded my A1000 2 months or so ago with a 2Meg Micron board and > 20Meg Supra hard drive I've experienced various gurus/crashes that have been > attributed partly if not completely to the PAL (timing?) chips. I replaced > the "so called" affected PALs causing expansion port trouble with the > faster/better variety prior to using the expansion port but this seems not to > be enough. Through Supra I learned that ALL the PALs have floating pin 10s > that should be grounded. And I asked them to send me info on this operation > along with a new Supra driver program disk - all of which I am still waiting > for 3 weeks later. > > And I thank you in advance very much. My gripe is that if Commodore knows > that these pin 10s are not grounded and that the health and well being of my > computer has probably been suffering for it WHY can't they make it "official" > in some way with details on how the user can get their machines fixed - either > take it to a dealer or "do-it-yourself"? Or have my eyes and ears been closed > up tight? GRIN... I hope that Commodore can discover a way of communicating > with Amiga users better -- please bear in mind and respect that I am not a > hacker/programmer type but an end user. The problem, sir, is that Pin 10 on the PAL's are grounded. If you (or others) will check, the two PAL's that are lifted from the mainboard (U6K and U6N) obtain power and ground thru the headers that connect them to the mainboard, while the other two are part of the daughter board power and ground system. To the innocent, this may not make much sense, but there are a number of reasons for wanting to control the number of points where you want grounding systems interconnected. When used with devices that follow the precepts mentioned in the expansion documentation and good engineering practice it seems to work pretty well, while others, especially those combined in non- buffered stacks or daisy chains seem to have problems. If you want to try the reputed "fix", which may well help in some cases, simply solder a very short wire between pin 10 of U6J and U6K and one between pin 10 of U6L and U6N. Oh yeah, voids the warranty, but that's most likely academic at this point. -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {ihnp4|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: out to lunch... Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)
bilbo@pnet02.cts.com (Bill Daggett) (11/11/87)
GREAT! Now I've got two approaches and no one guaranteeing anything 'cept my
warranty will be void - which it has been for some time. Well Commodore and
Supra - what am I suppose to do? Fortunately getting rid of Word Perfect
seems to have helped more then anything.
George,
Are you suggesting that if I ground all four pin 10s together and go for the
ground on the daughterboard at the negative capacitor terminal and then down
to the negative point on the motherboard that I WILL creat new trouble by
making these four points on the PALS common when they MUST float separated in
some "logical" fashion? I'm not afraid of the experiment at all but I think
that Commodore, 3rd party vendors, and "hackers anonymous" ought to come to
agreement on this sort of modification.
Should I approach Supra that there is nothing wrong with the Commodore and
they need to buffer or whatever their Supra interface? Is it complex or
expensive to modify the interface to include the buffering?
Oh, well... Looks like this subject could warm up again - to bad! BTW, can I
get through to Commodore now? I tried 2 weeks last and the tech line was busy
throughout the day. What are the new numbers if any? I heard at the
Disneyland Commodore Show that Tech Support was being expanded on.
*Bilbo* Recombinant Hobbit
* Sometimes The Dragon Wins! *
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