Hi everyone,

I have rescued a poor CDTV from the crusher. I've managed to get her up and running (the switch-mode PSU required attention) but when I switch on I only see the kickstart 1.3 floppy disk screen - the CD screen does not appear.

There is a clunky old switch hanging out the back of the unit which makes me suspect that some kind of ROM switcher has been used. However, the switch terminates at a 3-pin molex connector and for the life of me I can't figure out where this would ever have connected. There is no 3-pin molex on the motherboard. Not on the top-side, anyway!

Any ideas?

Right well I've had the motherboard out completely and it's confirmed: there is no place that switch could ever have connected. Bizarre.

Any ideas about why the CDTV would boot to the floppy screen instead of the CD screen would be welcome. I understand that the CD functions are on an extended ROM but I don't know how this would be invoked or, in my case, inhibited.

I've connected an external disk drive and she boots up just fine :)

Cheers.

Last edited by BrianHoskins on 27-Apr-2013 at 01:27 PM.

@BrianHoskins

I don't know how the CDTV works internally, but I'd recommend looking for a second ROM chip. You may find the CDTV checks for a valid CDTV ROM and boots that if it finds one - if this chip is dead, it'll ignore it and boot to KS1.3. If it is dead, you just need to program an EPROM I'd guess (or get someone else to).

I could be wrong, though - it's also possible someone just put an A500 ROM into your CDTV! Check the ROM identifier written on the chip.

@Spirantho

Thank you for the reply.

The machine appears to have the correct ROMs installed.

I would be very surprised to find that the extended ROM has died. Is there history of this particular device failing that you know of?

I guess I could dig out the EEPROM programmer and see if I can replace it. What EEPROM part would I need?

I'll look into it. Thanks.

If anyone has other suggestions please join the discussion!

In any case, the world is now one Amiga richer than it would have been and she's in good hands

Last edited by BrianHoskins on 27-Apr-2013 at 01:44 PM.

@BrianHoskins

this is retorical: Why would anyone throw away a CDTV? I paid $600+ for mine. The BEST ECS Amiga ever made. Plays awesome CD+G CDs, etc..

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Men who have girlies in their avatars are Girliemen!

According to the schematic I need 27C1000 or compatible EPROMs. Now I just need to find a suitable image to program it with...

@Darth_X

Quote:

this is retorical: Why would anyone throw away a CDTV? I paid $600+ for mine. The BEST ECS Amiga ever made. Plays awesome CD+G CDs, etc..

Agreed! Unfortunately I don't think this particular unit will fetch $600 any time soon. She's in average condition (which is better than you'd expect in fairness) and she has a missing reset button that will undoubtedly be irreplaceable. I hunted around for the button but there was never any chance of me finding it. Needle in a haystack.

I was fortunate enough to rescue the keyboard though, believe it or not! But it has a missing key.

The keyboard alone would have fetched a fair price on Ebay had it not been thrown away...

Last edited by BrianHoskins on 27-Apr-2013 at 02:02 PM.

Loaded an audio CD and she plays it without problem. So the CD drive is working at least...

Got her working!!!

There's a jumper called JP15. It doesn't have a molex housing (it's just an in-line 3 pin header) but it's the right pitch for the molex connector to fit onto. So I connected it and Bob's your uncle - I get switchable CDTV or Floppy boot screen:

@BrianHoskins

hello i hope you can help me here on amiga cdtv as i own one but cd park dose not work i like to take it out to free up memory as cd drive use some of the memory up mwourld i be get to it with out take part out to get to it thank u

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