+Guitarman Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 Maybe someone might be able to point me in the right direction. I have a Falcon that, all of a sudden, will not start. When powered on, the fan spins up, the HD spins up, the floppy does its initial seek, but that's where is stops. I get no reaction from the monitor (I am using a Dell 19" that has an amber power light during standby until it gets signal, then it turns green). I do know that it is intermittent because I have got it to start a couple of times while tearing it apart, but for the most part, it won't. And, when it does start, it will run fine until I turn it off and try to restart it. Any pointers on what to try or look for?? Any help appreciated!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 Sounds like a RAM problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Guitarman Posted February 11, 2007 Author Share Posted February 11, 2007 If it were ram, wouldn't I still get the TOS boot screen and ram test?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 When I upgraded my RAM I accedentally placed it a pin 2 the right and when I tried to boot, I got the spin and a white screen than nothing. No TOS bootup or anything. It is actually very logical not to see anything because the screen is drawn in the main RAM. So with no RAM you can't see anything... Another thing that might cause this would be the IDE interface but I am not sure as to how it would force the falcon to react. I would suggest to try booting without a hard disk, if you haven't done already. There is nothing more I can tell you since that's where my technical knowledge ends. I think that someone else will probably jump in but you only asked for a pointer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Womble76 Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 Disconnect the HDD and the floppy then try. I had issues with mine when I got it - the HDD was dead and it hung the IDE bus. Then the floppy died and it did the same thing. Ended up having to relpace both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Guitarman Posted February 12, 2007 Author Share Posted February 12, 2007 As it turns out, it was the memory, but it is not bad. The memory card was not making a good connection with the pins. I removed and attached the card a few times and it seems to have fixed the problem. Probably just tarnished pins on the connector. Anyway, as usual, thanks for the assistance!! Also, anyone have a memory upgrade card for the Falcon they would like to part with?? I have the 4meg card in it now. Would like to get at least 16meg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 You can try contacting Petr to see if he has some available. It's a very good product.... http://www.volny.cz/boban07/RAM_kartice/ Alternatively you can try to build your own.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Guitarman Posted February 14, 2007 Author Share Posted February 14, 2007 Well, boot issue is back. I am thinking a short somewhere. After some reasearch, I am noticing that when it does have the issue, when I do get it to boot, the NVRAM has to be reset and reconfigured. Luckily, after a little research and my Suzy B CD, I figured out how to do this!! So, whatever is shorting or causing the issue is messing with the NVRAM also. I was wondering if this could be an issue of the Dallas Clock Chip going although I wouldn't think the clock chip being dead or dying would cause the whole system not to boot. Where does the NVRAM reside?? Chip number?? And, could I test memory by using the ram card from my TT030 in the Falcon?? Are they compatible?? Thanks for any help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 The falcon will boot without NVRAM just fine... I know mine's been dead for a year :> Ehm is your monitor a VGA one? Try the falcon on a TV and see if it would boot. OH and forget about the RAM from the TT... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Guitarman Posted February 14, 2007 Author Share Posted February 14, 2007 (edited) When it fails, it doesn't get to a point where video, VGA or otherwise, will happen. When it boots normal, the sequence is the following: These at about the same time: power light floppy seek speaker click HD spins up monitor wakes up/comes out of stand by floppy light/HD light lights Atari logo on the screen When it fails, I get the following: power light floppy seek (sometimes) HD spins up I will get no monitor wakeup, speaker click or floppy/HD light. I can tell, after it fails and I get it to boot again, that the NVRAM is hosed because I will get 40col LoRes boot screen (very large Atari logo and text). When I run the NVRAM control panel accessory I have, the settings are all haywire. I use the Atari NVRAM config utility to set all settings back to USA, reset the computer and, if it loads, all is back to normal 80col settings (until next boot failure). Edited February 14, 2007 by Guitarman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Guitarman Posted February 14, 2007 Author Share Posted February 14, 2007 (edited) Boy... the things you learn by reading. I didn't realize that the DALLAS RTC chip IS the NVRAM. I also was reading over the original e-mails with the seller of the TT/Falcon I bought and he mentioned in one of them that he had replaced the DALLAS RTC chip. I am now going to look for any shorts that could have been caused during the replacement, since the NVRAM is affected by my falcon's issue. Edited February 14, 2007 by Guitarman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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