Dead 520STFM?

[galahad]

Got given an ST over a year ago, and only just bothered to power it up.... appears to be dead

Switch it on, and I get a white border with black in the centre with lines running through it. No floppy access, reset and it does the same thing.

Remove the two memory simm modules that sit between the transformer and the floppy, nothing!

Tried checking for unseated chips, but they are all surface mount except the keyboard processor it seems.

Is it dead?

I'm going to keep it for spares, on the look out now for another ST(e)/TT/Falcon now, getting a bit of an Atari bug at the moment..... shudder!

[MRAtari]

memory problem for sure

[galahad]

memory problem for sure

I'm not au fait with ST inner workings, this ST has the memory modules sat in a ram card inbetween the transformer and the floppy drive, sat ontop of the metal shielding. Is this normal? Because it looks added to me.

[Frank B]

memory problem for sure

I'm not au fait with ST inner workings, this ST has the memory modules sat in a ram card inbetween the transformer and the floppy drive, sat ontop of the metal shielding. Is this normal? Because it looks added to me.

Marpet board by the looks of it. Stick some simms in and up it to four meg. They're very rare now. Lucky find!

Frank

[insanity]

memory problem for sure

I'm not au fait with ST inner workings, this ST has the memory modules sat in a ram card inbetween the transformer and the floppy drive, sat ontop of the metal shielding. Is this normal? Because it looks added to me.

If it's a 520STFM then that is almost certainly a memory upgrade... the memory for these machines is usually found somewhere on the actual motherboard...

For more info, have a look here: http://www.atari-forum.com/wiki/index.p ... _revisions

...and feel free to upload your a pic of your motherboard!

baz

[galahad]

memory problem for sure

I'm not au fait with ST inner workings, this ST has the memory modules sat in a ram card inbetween the transformer and the floppy drive, sat ontop of the metal shielding. Is this normal? Because it looks added to me.

If it's a 520STFM then that is almost certainly a memory upgrade... the memory for these machines is usually found somewhere on the actual motherboard...

For more info, have a look here: http://www.atari-forum.com/wiki/index.p ... _revisions

...and feel free to upload your a pic of your motherboard!

baz

Its a C10375 Rev 1 motherboard, and underneath the shielding is a mess where the ramcard has been wired and soldered onto the board.

TOS chips are C300685-002a

[MRAtari]

you may have put the simms in the wrong slots, bank 1 is the 2 x simms nearest the grey ribbon cables, bank 2 is the 2 slots furthest

hard to see in that picture but looks like you're using the 2 middle slots

the mass of grey wires you see are where they have been soldered directly to the board because the MMU adaptor is surface mounted, so what someone has done if cut off the MMU socket and soldred each wire in! which is common

you need to know what memory configuration you have

is it using the original 512k and an additional 512k on the marpet?

or is the marpet 2mb and the original memory disconnected?

could be the memory on the mobo which is the most common senario, if it isn't the memory it's possibly an IC chip

[galahad]

you may have put the simms in the wrong slots, bank 1 is the 2 x simms nearest the grey ribbon cables, bank 2 is the 2 slots furthest

hard to see in that picture but looks like you're using the 2 middle slots

the mass of grey wires you see are where they have been soldered directly to the board because the MMU adaptor is surface mounted, so what someone has done if cut off the MMU socket and soldred each wire in! which is common

you need to know what memory configuration you have

is it using the original 512k and an additional 512k on the marpet?

or is the marpet 2mb and the original memory disconnected?

could be the memory on the mobo which is the most common senario, if it isn't the memory it's possibly an IC chip

Simms are in the bottom two slots (nearest the keyboard), just a crappy picture.

As for memory configuration, I have no clue when it comes to ST. How much memory does each of those marpet simms contain?

[insanity]

Its a C10375 Rev 1 motherboard, and underneath the shielding is a mess where the ramcard has been wired and soldered onto the board.

TOS chips are C300685-002a

Assume you mean C103175?

I think my latest ST has the same upgrade: "XTRA - RAM Deluxe. 1991 Frontier Software"

RAM_upgrade.jpg

You can also see the ST it came out of, additional ribbon link cables to hook it up can be seen:
1. Out of the shielded section in the middle, and
2. Left and down from this, plugged into a square chip.


Thanks,

baz