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Quadra 610 - Maintenance and VRAM oddities

dr-sbaitso

New member
Heya folks, I'm trying to get a Quadra 610 into shape for 24/7 operation, and could use some advice on getting it running reliably.

So far I've maxed out the RAM and replaced the HDD with a BlueSCSI, which is running A/UX 3.1.1 without a hitch. Replaced the 68LC040 with the real deal and pulled the PRAM battery. However, trying to fill the empty VRAM sockets out with new 256k SIMMs from Siliconinsider I ran into my first issue:

Running at any higher resolution or bitrate that would require the increased VRAM leads to consistent corruption on the lower half of the display. That's not a big deal for my use case, but makes me suspect a recapping may be in order. It could be the SIMMs themselves, but I'm not really sure how to discern that, and they are brand new. Dragging a window into the corrupted segment of the screen, then back up to the 'clean' area causes the window to continue drawing the garbage from the bottom half of the display. I've also noticed it only recognizes the additional VRAM at all if both slots are populated, though I don't really know if that's expected, or indicative of an issue. No visible change when swapping the two SIMMs between sockets.

As far as recapping goes, the board seems to be mostly tantalum caps. Are they worth replacing before they give me any reason to, or is it best to just stick to the few electrolytics? Worth cracking open the PSU? Am I overthinking, and it's probably fine to leave running as-is?

Cheers!
 

Johnnya101

Well-known member
For recapping, if you want reliable 24/7 operation, definitely recap or replace the power supply. If the logic board is all tantalum, don't worry about it.

I wonder what speed vram the Quadra requires? I think there were two different speed vrams made?

(Sorry misread a little). Replace any electrolytics with tantalum or I've heard some good things about ceramics. It might fix your issue, maybe some leaking ones involve video.
 

ymk

Well-known member
Try removing the VRAM and running at the highest possible resolution.

If the garbage in a window follows as you drag it, it's probably RAM.

This was the case on my Centris 610. I replaced four of the RAM chips and the problem hasn't returned.
 

MrFahrenheit

Well-known member
When recapping a 610, generally only the 10 or so electrolytic caps need to be replaced. If I recall, they’re all the same spec (but it has been a year since I touched one).

The symptoms you mention about video are possibly cap related, RAM related, and VRAM related. It’s also possible somehow your system has corruption on the drive.

I recommend you first recap the logic board. Then simplify it by removing all add-one like RAM, VRAM, and even your hard drive. Try booting from some other source to confirm that corruption still exists or not.

Good luck!
 
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