My A1 died last night

I had been away for four days and sitched off my A1-XE. When I came back last night I switched it on as usual and it booted just fine, but after like 4-5 minutes it simply switched off and could not be started again

I do suspect the PSU though, but it appears like a short-circuit emergency-shutdown by the PSU. I just hope the mobo or the CPU hasn't broke. That would suck.

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@Deniil715

That's really sad m8. But to tell you the truth, last week I've heard another AmigaOne went bust. Huh, do they reaching the end of their lives?

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@Deniil715

Quote:

My A1 died last night

Don't say that, it's scary! Before I read this I thought it was gone but after reading it I have hope. Since it isn't certain yet. But I am sorry you are out of action.

Now, I was at an Amiga meeting when my machine just "died" the same way. As it turned out someone else has the exact PSU I had and was giving it away. This was a scary momemnt so all I had was to test it with this other PSU.

It came back alive! So I hope it is the PSU. If the CPU is dead the machine will still switch on but Uboot will be dead along with it.

@Deniil715

I had a scare once too - I had my micro in a really small tower (itx), when I heard a *POP* and I could smell some smoke...
Turned out it was the PSU - I moved the board to another case and everything booted up fine.

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The annoying thing is that this PSU is fairly new and quite expensive since I wanted a silent one with internal 120mm fan instead of the external 80mm fan most normal PSUs have... I find it odd that it failed, if it failed.

I'll see if I still have my old noisy one. Noise isn't that much of an issue anymore since I'm not sleeping in the same room as it anymore.

The most scary thing though is that I have killed a PSU already and that was because of a too high powerdrain by the Alitivec unit when I used a too high Vcore. Maybe I'm seeing a similar issue now, but this time the CPU really fried and short-circuited everything!

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@Deniil715

Quote:

The annoying thing is that this PSU is fairly new and quite expensive since I wanted a silent one with internal 120mm fan instead of the external 80mm fan most normal PSUs have... I find it odd that it failed, if it failed.

Well if it's new you should be able to get a free replacement if the warranty hasn't expired yet.

Last edited by salass00 on 29-Mar-2010 at 12:57 PM.

Happy to see it was the PSU :p

@Deniil715

Quote:

The most scary thing though is that I have killed a PSU already and that was because of a too high powerdrain by the Alitivec unit when I used a too high Vcore

Was it a decent power supply? Unless if the PSU is overloaded, that should never happen, these CPUs really use bugger all power in comparison to most x86 processors these supplies are typically used with. If this is common, it would indicate, to me at least, some problem with the CPU SMPS design.

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@Zardoz

Quote:

If this is common, it would indicate, to me at least, some problem with the CPU SMPS design.

Hey, they have a problem all right. On my first A1 board the fan half came off and and I could hear it whizzing faster and faster! It must have been about five seconds before I got to the wall and pulled the power. But it was too late. The CPU had fiied!

What's worse is that IIRC I had it laying flat in the case since I was just testing it soon after getting it. Didn't last long. Certainly the build quality didn't match upto the price.

@Deniil715

Quote:

I find it odd that it failed, if it failed.

Another issue with modern PC power supplies is that an A1 might not be pulling enough load anymore. I wonder if this can affect it.

Quote:

The most scary thing though is that I have killed a PSU already and that was because of a too high powerdrain by the Alitivec unit when I used a too high Vcore.

Well in that case with a decent enough PSU you shouldn't need any VCore "hacks" and should be able to set the VCore to the correct value.

Quote:

Maybe I'm seeing a similar issue now, but this time the CPU really fried and short-circuited everything

Don't know how different the Sam is to the A1 but I have seen a Sam connected to a 240V oulet on the PSU that was switched to 120V while the Sam was still on! There was popping. smokeness and the Sam survived!

The PSU of course was fried on the spot but was on the way out anyway and was failing. And that was a new PSU as well. ACube issue. Out of the box. The box being a Nexus case.

Last edited by Hypex on 29-Mar-2010 at 02:29 PM.

@salass00

Problem is it was a christmas gift and now I live in another country. I also doubt it has more than one year warranty...

@Zardoz

Quote:

Was it a decent power supply? Unless if the PSU is overloaded, that should never happen, these CPUs really use bugger all power in comparison to most x86 processors these supplies are typically used with. If this is common, it would indicate, to me at least, some problem with the CPU SMPS design.

It was a decent PSU I think. Zalman 5?? Watt something. But the difference is that x86's use a separate 12V connector to power the CPU. The A1 use the 5 or 3.3V line AFAIK.

Anyway, I'll do some experiments today to verify if it really is the PSU and replace it with my old one if I can find it...

Last edited by Deniil715 on 30-Mar-2010 at 08:44 AM.

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> Amiga Classic and OS4 developer for OnyxSoft.

@Deniil715
good luck!

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@Deniil715

Remember when i bought my A1 the PSU got damaged after some time. I changed to another one quality and it has worked now for years.

@Deniil715

Quote:

It was a decent PSU I think. Zalman 5?? Watt something. But the difference is that x86's use a separate 12V connector to power the CPU. The A1 use the 5 or 3.3V line AFAIK.

Gah, so yes, it is broken...

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@Deniil715

All I can say is, hope the best for you.

cheers

P.S. Maybe it is time to accept paying the price for a new gen amiga again?

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@Gebrochen

Quote:

Maybe it is time to accept paying the price for a new gen amiga again?

Thing is these can't be bought new anymore, only 2nd hand. And the X1000 doesn't exist yet to the eyes of a consumer.

@Deniil715

Quote:

Deniil715 wrote: My A1 died last night I had been away for four days and sitched off my A1-XE. When I came back last night I switched it on as usual and it booted just fine, but after like 4-5 minutes it simply switched off and could not be started again I do suspect the PSU though, but it appears like a short-circuit emergency-shutdown by the PSU. I just hope the mobo or the CPU hasn't broke. That would suck.

Have you tried unplugging the power cable for a few minutes before trying again?

@Deniil715

Quote:

I do suspect the PSU though, but it appears like a short-circuit emergency-shutdown by the PSU. I just hope the mobo or the CPU hasn't broke. That would suck.

Have you got a multimeter? It would be useful to try and take a resistance measurement between the supply rails of the PSU and ground (with the power off, of course) and see if there is any evidence of a short circuit.

If you do measure a short circuit on one of the power supply outputs, then the next step would be to completely disconnect the power supply from the motherboard and other peripherals, then take the measurement again. This will tell you whether the problem is likely to be related to the PSU itself or the motherboard/peripherals.

I'm not aware that PC based PSUs have the kind of "emergency shutdown" feature that you've described? It probably does have some kind of output protection, but whether this includes an emergency shutdown when too much current is demanded, I don't know. I'd be more inclined to believe that the PSU is dead, to be honest. I'll certainly be hoping that's the case for you, anyway. I know what it's like to lose expensive Amiga hardware.

Let us know how you get on!

Apple Hammer

@Deniil715

When I read the thread title, this image popped up in my head of someone brandishing a sword at their computer, and saying in a deep voice "time for my machine to die!"

I hope that it is the power supply, and not the board.

Hans

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@Hypex

The closes you get is a Sam440 flex, if my AmigaONE-XE did not work then I buy one, even if its slower.

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