The latest member of the family

[rubber_jonnie]

I did and it got worse, as in wouldn't boot to the insert WB screen, however Diagrom says they are good...

Then you have at the very least one defective CIA (or defective sockets??)
Diagrom can only check a few things.

IMHO, I would wait for the CIA replacements or..
If you have a 1581 drive it also uses the same CIA...
You could probably use a C64 CIA (6526A) for testing, Diagrom will probably complain about the time tho...

You are having some bad luck with this one, normally these Amiga's are quite easy to fix.

Yeah, when I swap them I sometimes get a green screen (Doesn't that mean no RAM?), however it sometimes works, but still won't boot. I'm kind of thinking the sockets are bad, just a feeling hence ordering replacements. I don't have a 1581, and I'd have to check if my C64 has socketed CIAs (I think most do) but I am loath to pull apart something working just in case...

Another issue with the sockets is that the ROM isn't happy since I used the DiagROM in my Boo Bip 27C400 Emu, as they have turned pins and I think it's opened up the socket a bit.

[rubber_jonnie]

Interestingly I have 2 Boo Bip 27c400 emulators, one which I've got DiagROM on and one with kickstart and it seems that the kickstart one has much the same errors booting as the real ROM.

Basically either gets to the Workbench insert disk screen OK but does not boot and then does a guru meditation, or sits fine at the Workbench insert disk screen.

The other option is a grey screen.

[Maximilian]

Yeah, when I swap them I sometimes get a green screen (Doesn't that mean no RAM?), however it sometimes works, but still won't boot. I'm kind of thinking the sockets are bad, just a feeling hence ordering replacements. I don't have a 1581, and I'd have to check if my C64 has socketed CIAs (I think most do) but I am loath to pull apart something working just in case...

Another issue with the sockets is that the ROM isn't happy since I used the DiagROM in my Boo Bip 27C400 Emu, as they have turned pins and I think it's opened up the socket a bit.

Green screen is ram indeed, it means the Kickstart couldn't find a minimum of 256K of working chip RAM, and that it sometimes happens probably means a loose or bad connection...

If there were issues with the Rom I would expect a red screen during booting or maybe a light grey screen.

If you have a Guru during bootup I would first take a look at the cap in the reset circuit and the ram.

[Maximilian]

I've forgotten which chip runs the floppy on the Amiga.

P.S. Just looked it up... it's Gary. Time for a new Gary socket if it's single wipe?

Gary, Cia's and Paula.

[Maximilian]

If you have a Guru during bootup I would first take a look at the cap in the reset circuit and the ram.

It could also indication that you had a TSR virus, it could even survive a few seconds without power to the board.
(one of those put the kickstart screen up side down)
Or that you turned on the amiga to quickly after powering it off..

[rubber_jonnie]

If you have a Guru during bootup I would first take a look at the cap in the reset circuit and the ram.

It could also indication that you had a TSR virus, it could even survive a few seconds without power to the board.
(one of those put the kickstart screen up side down)
Or that you turned on the amiga to quickly after powering it off..

To be clear, the guru comes after a while of it cycling from grey to white and with no floppy boot happening I can't see it being a virus of any sort as there is no way for one to load. It happens with either the original FDD or the Gotek BTW and with or without media inserted. It also occurs with no disk attached.

I presume you mean C712, which seems to be the only electrolytic in the reset circuit. I can try that.

As for turning on too quickly, well that is possible for sure, we do get impatient when things don't work :)

So, current status:

1. System is not booting from floppy. The drive does not spin, however with DiagROM I am unable to turn the motor on, however if I toggle motor on and then step the heads, the motor spins. I can't then stop the motor.
   {*]Fat Agnus has a new socket. The non booting started after removing Agnus from the socket, however that may be a coincidence.
2. U36 has been replaced. I do seem to get toggling signals at Gary and on the output of U36 and all the pins held at VCC read as such, but I need to put together all the parts on a diagram so I know what's related connection wise between the CIAs, Gary and Paula plus the internal FDD connector. I don't care about the external FDD connection at present.
3. I have replacement sockets on the way for Paula, Gary and the CIa's. Something is bugging me about them, especially the ROM socket after using the Boo Bip 27C400 rom which has turned pins as the original rom seems to be making a poor contact after using them..
4. I have replacement CIAs coming as well as Paula, Gary and Denise. Even if I don't end up using them I always like to have spares. I don't think there is a problem with Denise, but it was cheaper to buy all three.
5. I'll replace C712 as a matter of course.
6. I need to properly scope out the connections to the FDD at both CIAs, Paula and Gary.

I think the guru and other instabilities are down to whatever is causing the non-boot issue TBH, but that remains to be seen.

Once the non-booting has been resolved then I can get back to the trapdoor RAM issues, though they may have the same fix. Given I have an A500 8MB + IDE adapter on the way the trapdoor issue may end up being irrelevant.

It has occurred to me that there could be a split via, however given that the empty vias are all filled with solder, this is probably unlikely.

Probably not much to be done over the weekend whilst I'm waiting on parts, but I can at least do the scoping and replace the reset circuit capcitor.

[rubber_jonnie]

I replaced C712 and the reset seems cleaner, but I'm still getting Kickstart boot being erratic.

DiagROM still boots just fine though.

[rubber_jonnie]

Well the CIAs just arrived so I'll give that a try later.

The A500 8MB+IDE just arrived too, but I won't be playing with that until the other issues are resolved.

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so I swapped both CIAs for replacements and things have changed - a little.

It still doesn't boot, however it tries to boot, and accesses the disk in the Gotek but then suddenly shoots up to track 255, which is way too high, then flags up a message saying Direct Access on the Gotek display.

So it is trying now whereas it wasn't before. I have tried different ADF images and it remains the same. I also tried a different CPU but no change.

Still, I figure it's progress. I have also mapped out the pins from Paula and Gary that are dealing with the FDD along with U36 so I need to get probing with my scope, but a bit tired today...

I still can't help but think Gary is bad, but fingers crossed I'll have my replacement on Monday and we can see what's what.

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so whilst I wait for the other spares to arrive I thought it would be best to tone out the connections between Paula, Gary and the CIAs in relation to the FDD connector.

As it goes everything is connected to where it should be and also over to the FDD connector. Hopefully I'll get the rest of my parts tomorrow and I can see if any of them make a difference.