Fixing my Milan 040 (or not) blog

[exxos]

Thought I would start a new blog for this.

Its been sat on my shelf for like 20 years. I managed to get a Veloce STE and some other bits from a guy who was selling his stuff years ago. The Milan apparently was working until he dropped a screwdriver on the motherboard. As to if this is true or not...

I did find one of the simm sockets looked iffy. Changed it for the wrong angled type I need to send my graphics cards to @PhilC to try in his Raven soon. IIRC I had 4 but only 2 worked and think it was @Zogging Hell I sent them to. But it was such a long time ago and the conversation long lost.

I think the clock gen circuit was working last time I poked around but that's all I remember. My first point of call is to figure out where ROM is and see if there's any signs of life.

It will likely be a very slow backburner project. At this point I don't even know how many simms it needs too boot or what slots etc? .. So if anyone can shed some light on how to get a default setup done it would really help as i have no idea.

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[PhilC]

@exxos they are ISA cards aren't they?

[dml]

Is that a greenish corrody splodge on the battery?

[exxos]

@exxos they are ISA cards aren't they?

Think so yes..

[exxos]

Is that a greenish corrody splodge on the battery?

Probably yes.. The board may even to go for a bath at some point.

[exxos]

Found this site which looks to have some good info..

https://www.der-ingo.de/en/milanhelp/index.html

[exxos]

Had a quick clean up and look around bit didn't see anything obvious.

Powering up, Uwe says there should be "system beeps" but no sign of life at all. The middle of the CPU gets hot quick. But I assume thats normal for the 040..

I need to scope CS on the flash next to see if there is any signs of it even trying to boot up ..

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[dml]

The CPU gets hot super quick? I don't remember that being a thing on the Afterburner 040 or even CT60. It takes some time for them to heat up.

That looks like a 25MHz part - not sure if that makes a difference but I still would expect it to warm up fairly slowly but get hot after a few mins.

...also, I think you mentioned earlier the cause was a screwdriver falling into the board while it was on. So you should probably be expecting an IC got shorted to +VCC, or there are mashed pins where the screwdriver landed. Or maybe a damaged trace but it's easier to damage the pins on the topside.

[agranlund]

That’s a really cool board, going to be interesting to follow this blog. I hope you do get it running

[exxos]

The CPU gets hot super quick? I don't remember that being a thing on the Afterburner 040 or even CT60. It takes some time for them to heat up.

It starts heating up form power up.

27c cold
30 seconds 32c
60 seconds 37c
1.5mins 40c
2mins 43c

hotspot 53c neat the simm sockets.

IIRC I bought a second 040 CPU years ago but no change. At this point I dont even know if the CPU works. I will have to try and find my other 040.. but after 20 years ...

That looks like a 25MHz part - not sure if that makes a difference but I still would expect it to warm up fairly slowly but get hot after a few mins.

Yep the default speed AFAIK is 25MH on the Milan.

...also, I think you mentioned earlier the cause was a screwdriver falling into the board while it was on. So you should probably be expecting an IC got shorted to +VCC, or there are mashed pins where the screwdriver landed. Or maybe a damaged trace but it's easier to damage the pins on the topside.

Yeah, I don't see anything bashed anywhere. But when I first looked at it (20+ years ago) the outside simm socket looked damaged, hence why I changed it. So I assume the screwdriver hit that simm socket.

I checked and flash CE/OE goes low after pressing reset, stays low after that. So its pretty dead