Diimo 030 won't boot

[ereuter]

I have acquired a Diimo 030 for the SE/30. When I insert it and turn on the machine, there is no chime and the screen is filled with mostly vertical lines. Pull it out and it boots fine. I bought it from Japan (I'm in the US) and the dealer said he tested it. Obviously it's going to be a pain to get it back to Japan for him to verify it.

I haven't had a PDS card in this machine before. I bought it from someone who had recapped the board and it otherwise works flawlessly.

Not sure what to do next. Anyone in ME/NH have a SE/30 I could test the Diimo in? Anything else I should try?

I do have the control panel for it, but I'm obviously not even getting that far.

 

[finkmac]

curious, where did you buy it?

 

[ereuter]

eBay

 

[finkmac]

ouch. often times those japanese sellers are robots that repost yahoo auctions listings at an extreme markup. good luck getting support there...

start inspecting the card for potential broken solder joints or cracked traces.

 

[ereuter]

The vendor, yachtandsea-jp, has excellent feedback and the board I received is definitely the one in the photos. There is a spot where the solder mask was scratched off by someone inserting on the wrong side of the support tabs in the SE30. The traces look ok, but I'll start checking continuity.

 

[obsolete]

Testing with another PDS card would be a good idea. Unfortunately both the machine and the card are suspect at this point.

 

[zigzagjoe]

You will want to inspect the bottom PDS connector for bent pins, and verify that you have at least 4.8v or so at the logic board. Note that they also need a recap though that's unlikely to be the root cause of your issues.

These are complex accelerators to fix - I have some notes here. You can also check basic viability of the diimo by pulling the ROM and checking that it walks the bus. Not all accelerators will do this but the Diimo will. If it walks the bus but doesn't boot, that implies a broken trace. Attached is the schematic, redrawn from @Bolle's original.

 

[ereuter]

This is pretty helpful, thanks. 4.98 V at the floppy socket on the logic board.

Mostly, this convinces me that I should try to return it. I can solder, etc, but I don't have the diagnostic equipment to see what's it's doing. You are taking about the main ROM on the logic board, right?

The board and connectors are pristine except for the scraped area (like on yours) near the serial number silkscreen. I don't see any of the traces that are obviously broken, but I suppose I can check them using that schematic. Is it good practice to remove some of the coating at the thru-holes to use them for continuity checks, or should I try to go to the ICs?

 

[finkmac]

sheesh. for the price you paid, it BETTER work... and have come with a few cans of 196°Cストロングゼロ.
return that thing asap.

 

[Boctor]

I assume by "mostly vertical bars," you mean the default NEC VRAM state? Have you tried any other cards in that same SE/30 before? I've had expansion cards other than the Asante MacCon (which I assume is because it doesn't use all the PDS lines?) quit working when the power supply and the card were both fine, due to well-hidden trace rot on the logic board board. I'd agree that the LB is as suspect as the card itself, if you can't rule it out.

 

[ereuter]

I have not had any other PDS cards in this machine. I will pull the logic board in the morning and give it a more thorough inspection. I have been corresponding with the seller, who has been very helpful and accommodating, and I'm starting to believe it is likely the logic board.

 

[ereuter]

The logic board is very clean, but there is a suspect area between the PDS connector and ROM. I assume the next step is grabbing the schematics and testing continuity between the connector and other ends of the traces.

I have found the routing for the Reloaded boards, but not the original. Is there a resource that would identify these particular traces?