aclbandit
Member
Video of the problem: https://youtu.be/eSHvp64CozU
Had some trouble getting this behemoth enough power, but it's sitting at a happy 5.0V on the far chips now that I've run a second power line from the New Astro's NVS-400 power supply.
But it still isn't happy. This is the best I got it to look, and this was after running it for ~15 minutes. Initially, the textures are usually black and the colored lines across the screen are much worse:
It seems like the video RAMs going bad on this thing is a fairly common problem, and from what I can tell from the Google it matches what I'm seeing pretty well, but I'm not sure.
I've heard also that the video ROMs sometimes cause similar issues if they're not making contact with the main board.
I've tried pressing down on the top board, and that changes the problem, but doesn't fix it. The only 'fix' is to leave it running for about an hour without the fan so it gets nice and toasty, and then kind of tap the metal casing. After that, it will sometimes 'click in' and work fine until it gets powered off.
I checked continuity from the top board to the bottom board on the side where the three boards interconnect, and I've checked continuity between the pins that only touch two boards. It all checks out great.
While I was at it, I pulled and reseated all of the socketed chips. I've pulled the boards apart and put them back together.
The seller is willing to ship me another board to try out (sans top ROM board), but before I put them through that much trouble (and before I start checking individual traces)... am I missing something simple?
Had some trouble getting this behemoth enough power, but it's sitting at a happy 5.0V on the far chips now that I've run a second power line from the New Astro's NVS-400 power supply.
But it still isn't happy. This is the best I got it to look, and this was after running it for ~15 minutes. Initially, the textures are usually black and the colored lines across the screen are much worse:
It seems like the video RAMs going bad on this thing is a fairly common problem, and from what I can tell from the Google it matches what I'm seeing pretty well, but I'm not sure.
I've heard also that the video ROMs sometimes cause similar issues if they're not making contact with the main board.
I've tried pressing down on the top board, and that changes the problem, but doesn't fix it. The only 'fix' is to leave it running for about an hour without the fan so it gets nice and toasty, and then kind of tap the metal casing. After that, it will sometimes 'click in' and work fine until it gets powered off.
I checked continuity from the top board to the bottom board on the side where the three boards interconnect, and I've checked continuity between the pins that only touch two boards. It all checks out great.
While I was at it, I pulled and reseated all of the socketed chips. I've pulled the boards apart and put them back together.
The seller is willing to ship me another board to try out (sans top ROM board), but before I put them through that much trouble (and before I start checking individual traces)... am I missing something simple?
