Color Classic won't boot with FPU installed

[jimbojones]

I recently purchased a 16Mhz 68882 to fit in my Color Classic. Once installed though, the machine doesn't boot. Power comes on, but the screen is black and the hard disk doesn't boot.

I got hold of another 68882 chip, but that does the same thing.

Has anyone seen a similar issue?

 

[cheesestraws]

Do the 68882s work in other machines?

 

[Fizzbinn]

Are you sure you have the orientation of the chip in the socket correct? One corner is keyed/blunted on the chip and socket. I made that mistake with my LCIII at first, I guess I assumed it wouldn't pop in at all if it wasn't right but apparently I was forcing it in wrong and didn't realize it. The keyed/blunted corner is not super super obvious.

 

[mraroid]

I suggest checking if the chip is installed correctly as well.  

Mraroid

 

[jimbojones]

I found the attached pic somewhere on the net and installed the chip in the same orientation.

I can't be sure the chips are ok, but have no other way of testing them unfortunately. I have one more on it's way to test, so maybe third time lucky. The source is Chinese sellers on eBay selling them at around £2 each, so it may just be luck of the draw.

 

[Daniël]

The source is Chinese sellers on eBay selling them at around £2 each, so it may just be luck of the draw.

Yep, that's the problem here: Dodgy cheap chips from China, they'll bite you every time. 

 

[cheesestraws]

I can't be sure the chips are ok, but have no other way of testing them unfortunately.

I'm also in the UK and have a working CC here.  If you post one to me (I'll post it back, obviously) I can test it in my CC here (which has an FPU in it already, so it's "known-good".

The source is Chinese sellers on eBay selling them at around £2 each, so it may just be luck of the draw. 

Yeah, I wouldn't bank on getting a working one from that source / for that price.  Not that this is a particularly Chinese problem in and of itself, it just seems to be the currently fashionable locus of things being sold that aren't what they ought to be.

 

[jimbojones]

I'm also in the UK and have a working CC here.  If you post one to me (I'll post it back, obviously) I can test it in my CC here (which has an FPU in it already, so it's "known-good".

Yeah, I wouldn't bank on getting a working one from that source / for that price.  Not that this is a particularly Chinese problem in and of itself, it just seems to be the currently fashionable locus of things being sold that aren't what they ought to be.

Much appreciated, that's a great offer. I'll DM you if I decide it's worth it. I know it probably wouldn't help performance much, but thought I'd try it out of curiosity as it was only a few quid.

I presume these chips are just taken from e-waste, seems unlikely they'd try and fake them at that price, but you never know

 

[cheesestraws]

Much appreciated, that's a great offer. I'll DM you if I decide it's worth it.

Yeah - it's probably not, honestly, given what you paid for them, but offer's open anyway .

I presume these chips are just taken from e-waste

Seems likely.  I also remember hearing that there's some kind of multi-level fiddle where people contract long term to provide x number of chips which then become obsolete and unusable, so there's an industry providing chips that everyone knows will never actually be used under contracts that never should have been made, and a lot of those are fakes or known duds, which overflow into other supplies.   Under those circumstances, whether the chip works or not is probably a technicality...

 

[NathanHill]

I had this exact issue when I installed a FPU the wrong way. For one, I should have noticed how difficult it was to firmly place in there. But yeah the arrow and the dot should line up. I'll pull out my Color Classic in a bit and make sure it lines up with the image here. Once it was aligned, it booted fine.

However, I spent ~$30 on eBay for mine.

 

[johnklos]

You could tell better than we could, but is that a line on the m68882 right above the "MC68882"? If so, it may be a sign someone printed the numbers.

The last FPUs I got were so cheap ($7) and so new (2012) I thought they might've ended up being fake. It's good to read feedback on the sellers to see if anyone has reported non-working / relabeled chips.

 

[joethezombie]

That picture is of one of my boards, and I can assure you the orientation is correct and the FPU is authentic.  If you look at the package, and the board, you will notice the small registration marks (a dot on the board, an indent on the chip) that aligns.  Also the pin numbers around the socket will match with the pin numbering of the 68882.  If you purchased a 68882 for £2, I would highly suspect the chip.

 

[jimbojones]

Thank you everyone. The 3rd chip came and didn't work either.

I might give up, or look for a better source on eBay. 

Does adding an FPU to the Color Classic actually speed up much (JPG decoding in web browsers for instance)?

 

[mraroid]

Thank you everyone. The 3rd chip came and didn't work either.

Hi...

I thought cheesestraws's idea was a good one.  That would for sure prove the trouble in our out of your motherboard.  Send him all three.

I never did try to run my CC with out an FPU.  Well, I did when it was all original, but I quickly added the max amount of RAM and a FPU.  It seemed faster to me, but it could have been my imagination.  We are dealing with very, very old and very very slow technology.  So anything to help speed it up is a good idea IMHO.   I read here that fake china FPUs were being sold on ebay and to watch out.  I bought what seemed to be a pull and an original FPU.  I dropped it in and it worked.  I have not looked back.

I would not give up on getting one installed.  Others here may know what software would take advantage of it.  I suspect spreadsheets, maybe Microsoft Word, maybe photos??  I just do not know.  But I would deffentally install one.  The price is right.

mraroid

 

[johnklos]

That picture is of one of my boards

Ah, yes - I see that OP said it was a picture from the Internet, not of the Color Classic specifically discussed in this thread.

It's a good reference picture - it's nice and clear - so I'd be interested to see a close-up, high resolution picture of the FPUs that jimbojones got that didn't work.

 

[jimbojones]

Ah, yes - I see that OP said it was a picture from the Internet, not of the Color Classic specifically discussed in this thread.

It's a good reference picture - it's nice and clear - so I'd be interested to see a close-up, high resolution picture of the FPUs that jimbojones got that didn't work.

Please see attached. Sorry, my phone camera can't seem to focus on all three. The middle and right chips where from one seller, and the one of the left was from another.

 

[Franklinstein]

Even the one that does has focus looks a bit blurred. I'd suspect these were reprints. I wonder if someone could devise a sort of quick and dirty test for counterfeit '882s? Such as multimeter on pins 2 and 23 reads 2.8 ohms or something for an authentic chip. I'm not really an expert on these chips nor do I have enough stock to test something like that.

I bought a set of 20 FPUs off eBay a while back but they're later Freescale-branded chips and they're 40MHz-rated (bought as a lot so they could go in any Mac or accelerator from 16 to 40MHz). I have yet to try to see if they work so I'm hoping they do; otherwise I have 20 plastic squares that have no real value. I did hear once of someone who used to work at a recycling center and used a whole bunch of old x86 chips as tiles in a bathroom. Maybe they'd have use as an art project.

 

[Daniël]

Unless I'm reading those datecodes wrong, I believe their format is YY/WW. So the middle and right one would be first week of 2019, and the left one 34th week of 2003. I would expect both supposed 2019 manufacture 68882s to have Freescale logos, if they were even still being made last year. However, I'm fairly sure at least those two, and if it's from the same source or at the same price, probably the 2003 one too, to be fake or dead chips, with new etching applied.

 

[bibilit]

I have a couple of bad SE/30 logic boards, having Maxell havoc issues. 

I am thinking about removing the FPUs for future use. 

Pretty sure are using the same overall size and compatibility, won’t have the same issues Chinese chips are displaying.