Mac II + Turbo 040 help

[ObeyDaleks]

Hi. Today I tried to get my Turbo 040 working in my OG Mac II. I get a happy chime, then nothing. No video, no drives searching, nothing. Not sure where to go from here. I tried reseating the adapter, and swapping ram. I assume happy chime means the processor checks out? Any advice on how to troubleshoot?

Oh and I forgot to mention, it works flawlessly with its stock processor and PMMU. The Turbo 040 the Mac II adapter have not been tested on other machines.

 

[ObeyDaleks]

Here are some pics of the two boards. The Turbo card has some black wire connecting sone traces, assuming from factory?

 

[Iesca]

Basic question, but are there drivers that need to be installed?

 

[Unknown_K]

How much ram and what size modules?

 

[Phipli]

Do you have any other machines to test just the Turbo in? A IIci or something?

 

[mg.man]

Probably not this (since you have no video), but from the "Preparing your II" section of the Turbo 040 manual :

Update your hard drives’ driver software with a version known to be compatible with the 68040. If you used a non-Apple formatter, make sure that blind transfers are disabled (see page 118 for more information)

 

[Phipli]

Yeah, it is hardware not software, the video should come on before the disk driver or OS loads from the disk.

 

[mg.man]

Yeah, that's my suspicion. Still, interesting requirement - will have to check that when I get 'round to spinning up my Mac II adapter.

 

[Phipli]

Here are some pics of the two boards.

Can you photograph the other side of the adapter?

 

[ObeyDaleks]

Can you photograph the other side of the adapter?

I added a pic.

Do you have any other machines to test just the Turbo in? A IIci or something?

Unfortunately I don’t have any others that would take this card directly, otherwise that would be the first thing I’d try.

How much ram and what size modules?

I tried 4MB basic setup (4x1MB in bank A), 16MB (4x4MB in bank A) and 32MB (8x4MB). The 4MB sims are PAL. All of those configs work fine with the stock CPU/PMMA.

I guess I forgot to mention, this machine has the IIx roms that came with the FDHD upgrade (along with the SWIM chip). It also had the PMMA upgrade, but I assume that's a moot point since the PMMA is removed for the Turbo card to slot in.

I inspected both cards with a microscope and they look really good. No trace issues, no rust anywhere, no obvious damage to ICs. Not sure if this could be some sort of a rom issue. I guess what throws me off is the happy chime. That to me would indicate that the card is alive and passed post? Sorry I’m new to the vintage mac scene, last time I used these machines I was a teenager.

 

[ObeyDaleks]

I did some additional testing. For the happy chime to sound, the following needs to be true:

• Card needs to be seated (adapter without the Turbo card doesn't chime).
• Processor needs to be present (card without the processor doesn't chime).
• Rom needs to be present on the card (card without the rom doesn't chime).
• Ram needs to be present (removing all ram doesn't produce a chime).

This means that the POST process must be checking all of the above and it checks out fine. What happens afterwards is a mystery though. I would expect the video to work, but the screen doesn't even light up (I tried a different monitor to make sure). Also, the power button doesn't turn off the machine, which I believe means it's in some sort of a hardware-crashed state.

 

[Bolle]

Your Turbo040 seems to be a very early revision. It’s possible that it doesn’t support the Mac II at all.

A IIci would help here, as that’s the only machine that will run with any revision of the Turbo040. So you could at least verify if the card itself is working, then check the ROM version from within the Daystar control panel. It’s possible that you might be able to get it to run in the Mac II with one of the later v3 or v4 ROMs.

 

[ObeyDaleks]

Thanks for the info, @Bolle. That’s what I was afraid of. I don’t have plans to acquire a IIci (no soft spot for that machine), but I would be interested in testing it with other rom versions. How would I go about that? I assume I could just buy a rom and flash the new firmware using a programmer? I searched and couldn’t find any rom dumps or info on which rom IC to use. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ObeyDaleks]

double post

 

[ObeyDaleks]

I think I found the 4.01 and 4.11 rom dumps. I haven’t found any 3.x. I also ordered a few replacement rom chips. I will try to flash later this week, hoping it will do the trick.

 

[Iesca]

While I had uploaded v3.1 to MLA awhile back, I've also just added it to the Garden page that was started recently.

 

[Phipli]

I assume I could just buy a rom and flash the new firmware using a programmer?

Someone here could flash a chip for you, the ROM chip is a common part. But, if you think it might be worth it, you might consider buying a TL866ii+. They're really useful. They can program some MCUs and PALs, possibly CPLDs, as well as do some logic chip and ram chip testing. They cost about £40 here last time I looked.

Note there are two products here, not sure what the other one is, so research it if you decide to pick the "color" that isn't the TL866ii Plus :

https://aliexpress.com/item/32968819643.html

If it doesn't come with one, you'll also need a PLCC32 adapter. The best ones have a hole through the PCB (not just the socket) which makes it easier to remove the chip by placing the adapter upside down on the table and pushing through the hole.

Arbitrary example : https://www.ebay.com/itm/164180431981

 

[Iesca]

(Sorry, my reply was in regards to a different thread, kindly ignore.)

 

[ObeyDaleks]

@Phipli thanks, yeah I already ordered the XGecu T48 (should be an improved version of the TL866ii+). It includes the PLCC32 adapter. I also ordered a few matching rom chips for spares.

 

[macuserman]

If you get it working and are interested in selling the stock cpu and pmmu let me know.