exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

I have a new TerribleFire 1230 with 128MB in my A1200. After having some weird freezes a couple of times, I decided to test the system with the Amiga Test Kit. I am getting memory errors when I test the Fast RAM. The strange thing is that after a cold boot, I can run the test quite some time (up to 30 minutes) before I get an error. In subsequent tests, the error appears much earlier. Could it be that the card is overheating? The RAM chips are just warm, but the RAMCPLD is very hot when the error appears.

Unlikely?
This looks more like issue with one of the chips?

So you rather think one of the RAM chips might be faulty? That's what I suspected right from the start, but I just wanted to rule out other possibilities first.

There isnt enough data here to make a conclusion. I'd probably freeze spray the the cpld first and see if the problem holds off while doing that. Then the regulator, then the ram chips then the CPU itself.

At the risk of sounding like Jens it could also be your power supply starts rippling like crazy after a bit.. or your regulator .. or your mobo caps are on the way out. Has your mobo had the timing fixes done? it could be anything really. you need to do more measuring.

There is no way anyone can tell you whats exactly wrong based on the the data here. You'll end up shotgunning parts, costing yourself a fortune and resenting the suggestions you get given here.

Well then I have a real problem. I just bought this A1200, it's my first one. The seller - whom I trust - said it's recapped and everything is in good working condition. I also bought the TF card new. It was manufactured by Amigastore.eu but I bought it from a reseller. I also have some strange problems with my IDE to MicroSD-Setup. That's why I wanted to use the TF IDE instead of the internal one. Unfortunately I don't have the knowledge nor the euqipment to test all that. I guess I have no choice but to find someone who can check and possibly repair my Amiga.

Just to add I tested my TF1230 and the ram chips are cool and the CPLD is barely warm and this was stressing it using a demo on loop, so really that cpld could be faulty , it happens, I would send it back to the reseller to test/repair/replace

as mentioned by Terriblefire make sure your PSU is good as yes this can create problems

Keir Fraser (the author of the Amiga Test Kit) just sent me a reply and he says that the specific errors I get point to one of the two RAM chips being faulty.

(My images of the error screens don't appear in the forum, I hope the links work)

http://www.iriswallner.com/shared/error1.jpg
http://www.iriswallner.com/shared/error2.jpg
http://www.iriswallner.com/shared/error3.jpg

To rule out heat, I have previously had a pedestal fan blowing air over the Amiga or card that is the problem. It's overkill, it's not permanent, but in my opinion it is THE QUICKEST way to rule out heat (and everyone has a pedestal fan in the house?)

Ev3n5taR wrote: 08 Nov 2023 11:24 Keir Fraser (the author of the Amiga Test Kit) just sent me a reply and he says that the specific errors I get point to one of the two RAM chips being faulty.

(My images of the error screens don't appear in the forum, I hope the links work)

http://www.iriswallner.com/shared/error1.jpg
http://www.iriswallner.com/shared/error2.jpg
http://www.iriswallner.com/shared/error3.jpg

The RAM being in that state could be the symptom rather than the cause. As much as i respect Keir i designed the board so i know what i'm talking about.

Well now things got REALLY bad. When I removed the card from the A1200, I noticed that something was loose on the backside of the board. As I turned it over, a little component fell from the card! Here are two photos:

http://www.iriswallner.com/shared/broken_tf1.jpg
http://www.iriswallner.com/shared/broken_tf2.jpg

I asked at Amigastore.eu if I could send the card over for repair and testing.

I don't know what that component is or what it does, so please excuse if I'm asking silly questions: Could this have been the cause of my problems in the first place, or is it just another problem I now have on top of the other one?