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[Tyball]

When I boot up with my A530, all I get is a green screen. I know a green screen means that there is something wrong with chip mem, but when I disconnect the A530, the Amiga boots fine. So does anyone know what this means?

I tried removing the HD and the memory (with adjusted jumper setting), but I get either a green screen or a grey screen.

Could it be that my A530 is broken? And if so, is there some way that I can see this? At first glance the board looks fine.

Any response would be great.

[Ilwrath]

I might try cleaning the edge connector on the A500, as well as making sure there aren't any obvious problems in the connector on the A530. The issue may simply be a poor connection. It could certainly give the symptoms you mention.

Beyond that... Well, not a lot you can test without additional hardware or a bit more research. Do you have a voltage tester? Are the power supplies good? I don't remember if the A530 uses Amiga power or has a separate supply. Either way, a power issue is certainly possible, as well, though.

[Tomas]

I agree with the previous poster about checking the connection. You might want to also try cleaning of the pins or whatever you call them.

The a530 has separate psu, but it still doesnt hurt checking them.. It could infact also be the psu for the a530 itself. I got the gvp version without the accelrator myself and it behaves similar if i for example forget to turn on the psu for the gvp.
If you turn on just the a530.. does the hd power up and all?

[Tyball]

Thanks for the fast reply!

OK, I'll try that. The connector certainly doesn't look dirty or anything, but it's worth a shot.

As for the power supply. I made one from an ATX PSU and it seems to give adequate readings. I connected the "5V GND" to a ground from the PSU. Is that incorrect? Also, if anything is blown from a bad power connection, would that be visible on the board?

I remember that I once got a green screen because the rom in the A500 wasn't propartly seated.

[Tyball]

@ Tomas: No the HD doesn't power up. In fact, not even the LEDs go on. Only the led on the A500.

[Tomas]

Tyball wrote:
@ Tomas: No the HD doesn't power up. In fact, not even the LEDs go on. Only the led on the A500.

Then there definitely is something wrong with the power supply to the a530. The a530 should afaik power up even when disconnected from the amiga.

[Zac67]

The A530 has its own power connector, and I'm fairly sure it's not enough to power the A500 alone. Split up the ATX PSU cables and connect that to the A530.

As to which lines have to connect where: no idea. But it's probably easy to follow the power input lines to the HDD power lead, so you'd know which is 5V and which 12V. The plug looks pretty much like vanilla DIN.

[Tyball]

Thanks, it's good to know that the A530 should power up by itself. I'll look into it some more and post my results.

[Tyball]

OK, the only progess I've made so far is that now the fan on the A530 works. Earlier the A530 would remain dead on powering up the system. But after looking closely at the pictures of the print on the Amiga Hardware Database and the Big Book of Amiga Hardware, I noticed one little difference: Jumper cn16 was bridged on one picture. After I did the same, the fan on the A530 powers up when I start the system. The HD, however, remains silent. I tested the HD and it works fine in another controller (A590).

I'll keep on messing about. In the mean time, if anyone has any suggestions, please don't be shy.

[Tyball]

I'm sorry to bother you guys once more, but I'm pretty deparate.

I am pretty sure now that the board shortcircuits, because when I turn it on the PSU clicks softly and I can only power it up again after a while (after diconnecting the A530). Can this be caused by a blown 68030? It looks fine though.

With a ATX PSU connected to my A500 and not to the A530, crossing jumper cn16 makes the board draw 12V from the A500 and powers up the fan. So I'm guessing that the shortcircuit has something to do with the 5V line.

Does anyone has some schematics or something?

[Zac67]

Have you tried disabling '030, SCSI BOOT ROM & RAM plus disconnecting the drive? If that doesn't work either, there's something electrically wrong with the unit. If it does, slowly and one by one activate the options to pinpoint the problem.

[Tyball]

I tried to disable the RAM and disconnecting the drive. If you mean by disabling the '030 the switch on the front of the unit, then I did that also. But how can you disable the SCSI BOOT ROM. If this is done by bridging jumper 8, then I tried that also. I guess there's something eletrically wrong then. That makes me sad.

[Damion]

Do you have the A530 book? If not, let me know... I can post the jumper settings or any other info.

[Tenacious]

@ Tyball

It sure sounds like a power distribution problem. Do you have a meter? Radio Shack sells a decent analog meter for $20. After getting familiar with reading DC voltages (if your not already), you should be able to answer a lot by reading the HD power connector (the correct voltages are usually marked on the drive) and other known points.

Are you using the same modified ATX PS to power both the A500 and the A530? I ask because the A530 should be powered first or simultaneously with the A500. Never the A500 first. How did you modify the ATX PS without schematics?

[Tyball]

@ D: I don't have the a530 book. If you would be so nice to post some info, I would bemost grateful.

@Tenacious: I used the schematics for powering the A500 from here: ianstedman. I used the pinout for the power connector from here. Maybe that's the problem?

I am using the same PSU for both devices and even tried powering the A530 from the ATX PSU (first) and then the A500 from its original power supply. The A500 alone boots up fine from the ATX PSU, but when the A530 is connected nothing happens and I get no power reading from my voltage meter.

When I bridge jumper cn16 the A530 gets 12V from the A500, because the fan spins up and the HD reads 12V, but no 5V.

And yes, figuring out the voltage meter took some time :-)