CT60 UNKNOWN FLASH DEVICE!

[JoeAtari]

I was doing some work on my CT60 Falcon and the machine was on when I moved the keyboard back in place. It has a CTPCI, and the monitor attached to the Radeon went white. When I try to boot in 060 mode now I'm getting a red screen on the monitor attached to the Falcon VGA video out, and an "out of range" message. I decided to try flashing the CT60, and the ABE and SDR flashed just fine, but when I try to flash the boot I get an immediate "UNKNOWN FLASH DEVICE!" message from the flash tool. I have removed the CTPCI and reseated the CT60, but I keep getting the same result. There is no way to flash the boot/TOS. Did I kill it? Help! This sucks!

[paul92706]

Are you flashing the TOS in 030 or 060 mode?

[JoeAtari]

I'm flashing in 030 mode. I cannot boot in 060 mode. Thanks!

[wongck]

IIRC the CT60 and CT63 have different flash/rom chip.
So you need another CTflash tool.
Try to find the older flash tool for CT60... something before the CT63 release.
That's all I can advise.
Good luck.

[paul92706]

IIRC the CT60 and CT63 have different flash/rom chip.
So you need another CTflash tool.
Try to find the older flash tool for CT60... something before the CT63 release.
That's all I can advise.
Good luck.

They should be same flash “29F800” ram chips wongck, i am thinking he may have shorted the flash ram chip with keyboard, it is dorectly below the keyboard in position.

[paul92706]

Question joeatari, are you using stock keyboard in original case? And if so i hope you have some protection tape or padding underneath the keyboard?!

[JoeAtari]

I'm currently using the flash tool from version 1.03, as I know that always worked before. I do have the keyboard insulated. Nothing to touch the pins on the CTPCI or anything, but I suppose there could have been static or something moved when I sat the keyboard down.

[wongck]

IIRC the CT60 and CT63 have different flash/rom chip.
So you need another CTflash tool.
Try to find the older flash tool for CT60... something before the CT63 release.
That's all I can advise.
Good luck.

They should be same flash “29F800” ram chips wongck, i am thinking he may have shorted the flash ram chip with keyboard, it is dorectly below the keyboard in position.

Lately my memory has been very hazy indeed....
I remember reading somewhere that they may be differences between the CT60 & CT63 flash chips ( separate from CT60e which for sure it is different) so I re-lookup the text on CT60/63 and in a small paragraph in the CTPCI.HYP.

Here it is http://tho-otto.de/hypview/hypview.cgi? ... 8&index=24
Scroll down right to the 2nd last paragraph.

[wongck]

I'm currently using the flash tool from version 1.03

yes, it seems like that version would be indeed before the CT63.

[paul92706]

IIRC the CT60 and CT63 have different flash/rom chip.
So you need another CTflash tool.
Try to find the older flash tool for CT60... something before the CT63 release.
That's all I can advise.
Good luck.

They should be same flash “29F800” ram chips wongck, i am thinking he may have shorted the flash ram chip with keyboard, it is dorectly below the keyboard in position.

Lately my memory has been very hazy indeed....
I remember reading somewhere that they may be differences between the CT60 & CT63 flash chips ( separate from CT60e which for sure it is different) so I re-lookup the text on CT60/63 and in a small paragraph in the CTPCI.HYP.

Here it is http://tho-otto.de/hypview/hypview.cgi? ... 8&index=24
Scroll down right to the 2nd last paragraph.

Ahh your right wongck, newer CT63 have a newerflash chip, as i thought they were all similar 1Mb flash chips. And you are right again the CT60e is completely different.

[paul92706]

Hey joeatari have you tried plugging in your CT60 in a different Falcon? If so what were the results?

[JoeAtari]

I do have a different Falcon to try, but I'm not sure I want to mess with my perfectly working CT60e Falcon with SuperVidel
I may try if I get the courage. Does anyone know if you can flash the Boot/TOS with a PC/Xilinx jtag instead of Didier's tool and a Falcon custom jtag?
I'm suspicious that this could be an issue of the connection between the CT60 and the Falcon expansion bus. It has always been a bit flaky. I've had to reseat the board several times before. It may be time to replace those expansion bus headers. At least I would like to hope it could be something like that instead of a dead CT60!

[paul92706]

I do have a different Falcon to try, but I'm not sure I want to mess with my perfectly working CT60e Falcon with SuperVidel
I may try if I get the courage. Does anyone know if you can flash the Boot/TOS with a PC/Xilinx jtag instead of Didier's tool and a Falcon custom jtag?
I'm suspicious that this could be an issue of the connection between the CT60 and the Falcon expansion bus. It has always been a bit flaky. I've had to reseat the board several times before. It may be time to replace those expansion bus headers. At least I would like to hope it could be something like that instead of a dead CT60!

You can only flash the xilinx chips with jed files using jtag cables. You need didiers flash tool to flash the bin/hex files to flash ram. Why don’t you try reflowing the headers with fresh solder and flux joeatari? It would be a hastle to replace those headers they are soldered down pretty good.

[mikro]

I'm suspicious that this could be an issue of the connection between the CT60 and the Falcon expansion bus. It has always been a bit flaky. I've had to reseat the board several times before. It may be time to replace those expansion bus headers. At least I would like to hope it could be something like that instead of a dead CT60!

Actually, if this is the case, then most like the CT60 is the culprit. Someone from Nature posted here some time ago his experience when developing the SuperVidel - after some time he had to completely resolder the pins on the CT60 due to really low quality soldering (i.e. not only melt the solder but completely suck it out and replace with new solder).

[JoeAtari]

I'll try the CT60 on my other Falcon and report back what I find, and then I go forward from there. Some have said that the header pins on the Falcon "rust" and it is a good idea to replace the headers, but I'll check everything out first. Reflowing/replacing the solder on the CT60 is a good idea. That would be easy. I'll see if it comes alive when mounted on the other Falcon first. Thanks everyone!

[paul92706]

I'll try the CT60 on my other Falcon and report back what I find, and then I go forward from there. Some have said that the header pins on the Falcon "rust" and it is a good idea to replace the headers, but I'll check everything out first. Reflowing/replacing the solder on the CT60 is a good idea. That would be easy. I'll see if it comes alive when mounted on the other Falcon first. Thanks everyone!

Cross our fingers she comes alive!