Problem with one of my 4160STE machines...

[Shredder11]

Today I thought I would open up what I call my second STE, as this is the only one without TOS 2.06. It still had the zero ohm resistor jumpers set for the TOS 1.06 ROMs fitted. I desoldered them, then used a very thin Dremel drill bit to make the motherboard holes clear again, plus I did my best to suck away the solder which was very awkward, as I could not fully remove the board away from the flat metal underside part etc. Anyway once the holes were ready, I fitted some jumper rows so I could use push on jumpers and I soldered the underside of the motherboard.

I put everything back together after fitting the new TOS 2.06 ROMs and correctly setting the jumpers. Powered on and......nothing..........no video (black screen) and no floppy activity, just the green power led lit. I tried another set of TOS 2.06 ROMs and still the same result. I then replaced the old TOS 1.06 ROMs and set the jumpers for those. This time it began the boot process but is stuck in a perpetual loop of the screen coming on in the blank white TOS 1.06 fashion, and the floppy making one access noise and then the screen goes black for a moment and the process begins again....and so on.

So have I bricked my STE or is there something else I may have done? The soldering went okay with no apparent solder going where it should not or shorting anything. My soldering skills are not great but good enough I think, although I do not know if maybe the heat was too much? I use a Weller soldering station that regulates the temperature with a 45w iron.

[DarkLord]

Hate it when that happens - just went through that with my PAK board when I added
the circuit to allow the use of higher speeds. Finally found a solder point where the
connection wasn't going through - even though it looked fine to the naked eye. I
ended up bridging it to make it work.

Anyway, point being - go back and double and triple check your work. If you've
got a meter, check your connections and make sure things are going through, even
if they look fine. Make sure no traces lifted from the MB, although you can usually
see those fairly easy.

Good luck - I hope you find it soon!

[Shredder11]

Yeah good points. Recently I repaired my sister's Pocket PC so she could continue to use TomTom, and I did a fair job but the soldering was naff and yet it works fine. I then did the mod on my ZX Spectrum and that went well and works fine. So after doing the STE much better, I was confident it would work. Third time unlucky!

[wongck]

This time it began the boot process but is stuck in a perpetual loop of the screen coming on in the blank white TOS 1.06 fashion, and the floppy making one access noise and then the screen goes black for a moment and the process begins again....and so on.

Looks like there's hope, no?
I would think that you need to spend more hours checking the soldering, may be somewhere else got "damaged" in the process.
Like a resistor or capacitor elsewhere?

[ralcool]

A number of times- Ive seen similar screens during mucking about with my half dodgy sockets and ROM experiments.

Sometimes I get the Fuji and a hang... sometimes white screen... Results vary.

Always I've found a bad connection to at least one pin of the ROM. (You've even tried a different set)

Are you positive they are jumpered correctly?... can you compare to another 2.06 machine to be sure.

Remember its possible to jumper 1M roms in two ways.

I would consider a complete board removal to see if something got shorted on the bottom of the board. Drilling Swarf or Solder slag.

HTHs.

Sean

[DarkLord]

And post pictures - we're a very visual minded group here - we love looking at things!

[Shredder11]

Thanks guys, photos and info to follow shortly!

[ralcool]

And post pictures - we're a very visual minded group here - we love looking at things!

".....the Internet is for Porn......."



ST.

[wongck]

".....the Internet is for Porn......."

http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 17#p210217
Something to look at until the real thing comes along.....

[DarkLord]

".....the Internet is for Porn......."

http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 17#p210217
Something to look at until the real thing comes along.....

Yeah, was just thinking I really need to go *play* with that game...