Micron Xceed Color 30 fail

[JDW]

@Bolle

Thank you for the reasonable explanation.  That makes quite a lot of sense.

Now what is your reasoning on why Micron choose to use super thin wires instead of the thick wire the stock Yoke board uses to the ground lug?

And why not just use one thick wire to the ground lug and forego that other thin wire to the chassis ground?

 

[Crutch]

Thank you guys for this interesting discussion.

@JDW I looked extremely carefully at my display last night.  I could see no horizontal jitter at all, I even held the edge of a piece of paper up to the left edge of the display to make sure it was absolutely still. Realizing you said the issue was intermittent, I kept an eye on it for a while, but saw nothing.  (Then I played Glypha III for a while ... great game!  Mostly playable on a grayscale SE/30 if you know what you’re doing, even though it really needs 640x480... I wonder what John Calhoun is up to these days.)

I do see horizontal distortion when I significantly change the overall brightness of the display (for example, start with a blank desktop then open a large white window).  But I am pretty sure that’s normal with these CRTs (at least, I also see this on my Plus which obviously doesn’t have an Xceed).

Hope this helps.  If you decide to recap, let me know if it fixes the issue. I may do the same preemptively one day.

 

[Bolle]

I do see horizontal distortion when I significantly change the overall brightness of the display

Mine is doing that too but only in GS mode.

 

[JDW]

I looked extremely carefully at my display last night.  I could see no horizontal jitter at all..[SIZE=1.4rem].[/SIZE]

Two nights ago, I noticed some minor horizontal jitter on my SE/30 even after removing the PDS video card and restoring the factory SE/30 Yoke board.  I tested again last night with my video camera on for 44 full minutes, but the jitter never appeared.  I was reminded though of another separate problem of lockups during cold boot, regarding which I created this new thread.  I will try to capture the jitter on video if I spot it again.  Worrisome that it happens even with the stock yoke board, since that board doesn't have any electrolytic caps on it at all.

 

[JDW]

I finally caught my horizontal jitter on video WITH THE STOCK CRT YOKE BOARD installed, during Tetris game play at the end of Video#2 which I posted today in the following thread:





Not a single person has given me the courtesy of a reply in that thread, so if anyone in this thread has ideas, I am eager to hear them.

Thanks.

 

[Crutch]

@JDW I just saw it at about 43:35 in your second linked video.  That is a really weird and noticeable effect and I have to say I have never seen anything like it on any of my compact Macs.  Sorry this isn't very helpful information, I'm sure one of the more wizardly people here might have a better idea what's going on!

 

[JDW]

Thank you for the reply, @Crutch.  Even though you can't help me, your reply shows people still participate in this forum! ;-)  I must admit, the lack of replies does get me depressed.  Hopefully, someone knowledgeable will be able to shed some light on what possibly is going on.

Thanks.

 

[Byrd]

Thank you for the reply, @Crutch.  Even though you can't help me, your reply shows people still participate in this forum! ;-)  I must admit, the lack of replies does get me depressed.  Hopefully, someone knowledgeable will be able to shed some light on what possibly is going on

Plenty do participate, perhaps tone back on unnecessary posts such as these?

 

[JDW]

Please define "tone back" and "unnecessary."  

If you mean you aren't thrilled by my being tongue-in-cheek provocative, that's fine.  I've been in forums and in BBS's since the 1980's and one thing I find true is that being provacative pisses some people off but it always gets folks to participate in the end, ultimately leading to useful information that betters the community as a whole.  And let's face it, we do this for a hobby and sometimes we don't pay attention very well.  Feisty comments attract attention even more than YouTube videos do, apparently.

Ultimately, I'm looking for a solution which can not only benefit me but whomever else has the same problem in the future, as per the fact that the words are written in an open forum.  And toward that end, if you have any specific thoughts to share, such would be very welcomed and helpful, @Byrd!  But even if you don't have any help to offer, thanks for posting and letting me know you're following the conversation!

 

[JDW]

I put my Micron Xceed Grayscale adapter (yoke board) and Color30HR PDS card back in using my spare Analog Board and tested for well over an hour.  No horizontal jitter.  So it's clear the jitter came from my other analog board, even though it was recapped at the same time and with the same capacitors as this other analog board which has no jitter.  I also swapped the flyback on that other analog board (the one with the jitter), so I'm curious as to what component on the board it could be causing the jitter.

As to the freezes I've been getting, those continue even with the new analog board.  I've not yet moved back to the stock ROM since it too me a while to secure my ROMinator II MEGA in this motherboard.  But since the motherboard is recapped along with the SONY PSU, it must be either the ROM or the socketed Daystar 50MHz 030 PowerCache accelerator causing the freezing.  Even so, when the freeze happens, I can then shutdown for 20 seconds, then flip power ON and it won't freeze after that, so long as I keep the machine ON.  It's a crazy problem.