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Re: Falcon issues

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 18:13
by Steve
Sounds like you need to send the motherboard to someone who can fit a new Dsp for you.

Re: Falcon issues

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 18:23
by darkxavier
Yeah, it's a shame you can't do it as you only live 45 miles away.

Re: Falcon issues

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 19:50
by exxos
It may help if you posted a image of the bottom middle of the motherboard (front of ) so we can see what changes might have been done before looking towards changing the DSP.

The area of interest is like the first image on this page... http://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/last/f ... /index.htm

Re: Falcon issues

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 20:54
by darkxavier
IMG_20190217_121602.jpg

Re: Falcon issues

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 21:11
by exxos
Indeed no clock patch at all.. AFAIK, this shouldn't stop the DSP from working totally though.

Does the DSP get hot, or any of the 3 SRAM chips ? I know there have been a few people who have had the RAM chips fail as well.. Normally one gets a lot hotter than the other two for example..

EDIT:

Your going to need the clock patch fitting and new RTC for starters... Steve ?

Re: Falcon issues

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 21:50
by dhedberg
darkxavier wrote: 19 Feb 2019 16:47 I don't have anything like an oscilloscope. That is way past what I can do unfortunately.
Have you managed to get at least a partial refund from the seller? Clearly this is a non-fully working computer which would be pretty obvious to most users. If you want it repaired, best is to find somebody locally (where are you located?) as shipping back and forth will otherwise be quite a lot and there's always the risk of it getting damaged during shipping.

A new DSP is 45 USD from Best Electronics, but with the insured overseas shipping, and custom fees and taxes (if applicable) it will most likely end up being 70 USD or more. I have all the Falcon custom chips and wouldn't mind helping you out fixing the machine but I simply have *no* time in the foreseeable future. Also the shipping would be pretty expensive to and from Sweden (especially from Sweden as the Swedish Postal Service is ridiculously expensive for international packages).

The DSP is a SMD (surface mount) chip, so to replace it you need to find somebody skilled at de-soldering/soldering those type of chips. The good news is that the chip is "just" 80 pins, so it should be fairly straight-forward for somebody experienced.

Re: Falcon issues

Posted: 19 Feb 2019 23:25
by Steve
Darkxavier if you need someone to fit a clock patch and rtc I'm your man. But I can't guarantee it fixes your dsp. I can also recap the psu and or motherboard if required. Let me know in pm if you like.

Re: Falcon issues

Posted: 20 Feb 2019 08:28
by darkxavier
dhedberg wrote: 19 Feb 2019 21:50
darkxavier wrote: 19 Feb 2019 16:47 I don't have anything like an oscilloscope. That is way past what I can do unfortunately.
Have you managed to get at least a partial refund from the seller? Clearly this is a non-fully working computer which would be pretty obvious to most users. If you want it repaired, best is to find somebody locally (where are you located?) as shipping back and forth will otherwise be quite a lot and there's always the risk of it getting damaged during shipping.

A new DSP is 45 USD from Best Electronics, but with the insured overseas shipping, and custom fees and taxes (if applicable) it will most likely end up being 70 USD or more. I have all the Falcon custom chips and wouldn't mind helping you out fixing the machine but I simply have *no* time in the foreseeable future. Also the shipping would be pretty expensive to and from Sweden (especially from Sweden as the Swedish Postal Service is ridiculously expensive for international packages).

The DSP is a SMD (surface mount) chip, so to replace it you need to find somebody skilled at de-soldering/soldering those type of chips. The good news is that the chip is "just" 80 pins, so it should be fairly straight-forward for somebody experienced.
I'm going to chase after a partial refund. The machine came with d2d recording software on the hard disc which fails to boot. I expect he was using that for his music production. So he can't say he didn't know about problems.

Re: Falcon issues

Posted: 20 Feb 2019 17:38
by darkxavier
exxos wrote: 19 Feb 2019 21:11 Indeed no clock patch at all.. AFAIK, this shouldn't stop the DSP from working totally though.

Does the DSP get hot, or any of the 3 SRAM chips ? I know there have been a few people who have had the RAM chips fail as well.. Normally one gets a lot hotter than the other two for example..

EDIT:

Your going to need the clock patch fitting and new RTC for starters... Steve ?
Checked DSP and SRAM. DSP is just warm and the SRAM are cold.