Daystar 68040 woes

[pcamen]

I've got an SE/30 that has a Twinspark riser, a 68040 Daystar accelerator, and a Radius color pivot card.  All was working well until I removed the stack to put a PRAM battery on the board.  When I put it back, I just get a bong and then a "noise" screen.

I replaced the 040 card with a Daystar 030 card and it works fine. 

I replaced the 040 card with another 040 card that I tested on a IIci and didn't work, and got the same thing.

How in the heck could I have borked the 040 card by just removing the Twinspark from the PDS slot when the power was off. 

I did not disconnect the power from the system, just turned it off at the switch.  I can't see how that might be a problem as it cuts power to the board.

I guess the next question is, what might be wrong with the Daystar 040 card?  What CAN go wrong with those cards?  I think I asked this question on another thread but I can't find it now. 

 

[pcamen]

Here is the noise screen and my setup.

 

[denodster]

when you put it back in the IIci did you get a sad mac code?

 

[pcamen]

I should also note that the Daystar card doesn't smell like I "let the smoke out" at all.  When I've fried things in the past, I've often smelled that. 

 

[denodster]

You could try unseating the cpu and reseating it (the socket on the daystar card kinda sucks)

 

[pcamen]

I just tried that on both cards.  I also unseated and reseated the ROM chip.  Didn't help unfortunately. 

 

[denodster]

do either these cards work in your IIci?

 

[pcamen]

Okay, hmm.  It wasn't actually a Twinspark adapter but the Twinspark clone I got from you @Bolle.  When I replaced it with the actual Twinspark adapter I have, it worked again with the original Daystar 040 card. 

The other card still doesn't work but I believe it is probably a rev that is too old for the SE/30. 

So what could go wrong with the Twinspark / clone adapter?  Not much to them. 

 

[jeremywork]

Try a PRAM reset? I find often that when switching hardware on my 040 PDS slots, a PRAM reset is needed to get the system to behave "normally."

 

[beachycove]

Have you checked for a bent pin? It happens.

 

[pcamen]

Yea, that's a good call.  I did check the PDS connector at the bottom of Twinspark clone, and also the one on the 040 card.  No bent pins. 

 

[Bolle]

Can you check for damaged traces around the mounting tabs? Happened to me before.

How much RAM do you have in there? For some reason the SE/30 still does a RAM check on bootup even with the T040 in place that should disable the RAM check. Just waiting some time and let it sit.

If it chimes there can't be any serious damage to either the adapter or any of your T040s.

 

[pax]

+1 on @Bolle's question about the amount of RAM. My SE/30 has 128MB RAM and if I don't disable the RAM test during boot it takes over a minute, during which it will display exactly the pattern in your picture.

I also have a Twinspark and a Turbo 040 and there's a hidden setting in the Turbo 040 control panel (QuadControl) to disable the RAM test. Maybe you lost that setting when you removed the stack? If the theory is true, and to disable the RAM test, just wait for it to complete, then fire up the Turbo040 control panel and option-click the "Turbo 040 Info…" button. Should look something like this.

 

[pcamen]

Well it works with one card and not the other.

But, I was mistaken @Bolle.  I actually have two Twinspark card.  One is a dark blue color and the other a green PCB, but I recall now that I got one of the shorter ones from you, not the taller ones. 

So I've got two actual Twinspark adapters and one works now and one doesn't.  The one that doesn't did work yesterday in the morning.  I checked all the traces and I can't see any that look damaged. 

This system has 32MB on it, so mem test probably not an issue. 

 

[pax]

Ah, I see, not the RAM then. I mistakenly read it as the machine now always displaying this pattern while before it did not, my bad. In any case, for some reason I have the same pattern on my SE/30 when I have not disabled the RAM check.

 

[pcamen]

Well this just keeps getting better.  Now the second Twinspark board has the same result.  Hmm. 

@jeremywork was over and showed me how to reset the PRAM on the SE/30, but that didn't help at all. 

What a mystery.  I sure hope something I'm doing isn't ruining those Twinspark boards.  But the thing is, I've been through this dance once before about a year ago where they wouldn't work, but in the last two days, both of them have worked at one point. 

 

[jeremywork]

Well this just keeps getting better.  Now the second Twinspark board has the same result.  Hmm. 

@jeremywork was over and showed me how to reset the PRAM on the SE/30, but that didn't help at all. 

What a mystery.  I sure hope something I'm doing isn't ruining those Twinspark boards.  But the thing is, I've been through this dance once before about a year ago where they wouldn't work, but in the last two days, both of them have worked at one point. 

At this point I second @denodster's suggestion; try that Daystar 040 in a stock IIci and make sure it's still in good order before going too much further down the rabbit hole.