Hello everyone!

My Pegasos II seems to be dead... here's what happened:

One day it just didn't start, no video signal, no IDE hard drive rotation... nothing. It just turned on (processor fan starts) but there is absolutely nothing. Not even the keyboard leds go flashing.

After connecting & disconnecting everything I could think of (the hard drive starts as long as it is only connected to the PSU but not to the motherboard) and exchanging PSU & video card, I decided to get a null-modem cable and try to capture the serial output using my A4000.

I built a cable following this pinout, it is a Female DB9 to Female DB25 and as far as I can tell it is done according to the table shown there. I connected the machines, started Term (I also tried NComm), started the Pegasos and... again nothing. I moved settings all around (several speeds and 8N1) but still nothing. The only time I got some characters captured was what I beleive is garbage (1 or 2 chars) when I connected / disconnected the cable to the Pegasos serial port.

So I'm officially lost. Other than testing my motherboard with another (known to be working) CPU module (and viceversa), does anyone knows what else could I test? Should I better try and contact bPlan and send it for repair?

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thank you.

Last edited by Bender on 01-Jun-2013 at 05:21 AM.

@Bender

Dead battery?

TrevorD

_________________
No, I don't need no reason, I'm just breezin'

@TrevorDick

Hello Trevor!

I guess you mean the CR2032 mounted on the motherboard right? I tested it with a multimeter and it reads 3V... could a dead battery cause the whole machine to fail?

Regards

@Bender

I don't think it's the battery... my Pegasos II battery died some time ago and the machine could not keep the time but not that it could not boot...

I've read several threads in this and other forums regarding bPlan's repàir service and it seems to be very reliable (good and most of all fast turnaround times)... but I'm not sure about the cost... I'd definately contact them.

Good luck,

Dragster

_________________
Powerbook G4 1139/MOS 3.9/OSX 10.5.8. Pegasos II 2B5 Mobo. 2 GB RAM. 400 GB x 2 GB ATA HD, USB 2.0 PCI. SoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS Gold. Quad boot: AmigaOS 4.1 FInal Edition, MorphOS 3.9 regged, Debian Lenny PPC, OpenSUSE 11.1. Rockin'

@Bender

Hi,
I had the same fear with my Pegasos2
and it was really the battery CR2032 who was dead.

When I tried to power-on, nothing ! And after battery replacment, all was OK !

Hoping for you that it's just that

_________________
http://apps.amistore.net/zTools

@zzd10h

I had similar on an Efika (& A1-SE, A1-XE, Micro A-C )

TrevorD

_________________
No, I don't need no reason, I'm just breezin'

It may not be the battery but it's always worth checking.
One thing I've learned about fixing computer - don't change the most likely culprits first, change the easiest-to-change parts first!
Even if you don't need a new battery, it's good to have a spare as they don't last for ever.

@TrevorDick

I thought the dead battery was a joke for us XE users;)

Seriously components can dry up. Here bad ones are changed from the motherboard and the processor G4 bottom is in repair with cold joint experts. My English is so bad that cannot explain. Hope to get it for Christmas and install the new OS4,1.

Pegasos getting old too? New Amigas comming?

@Thread

I just replaced the battery with a new one but nothing changed, the machine still doesn't boot

I guess I'll have to send it for repair, too sad.

Well such is life... thanks all for you help!

- Efrén

@Bender

Are you sure of your power supply ?

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http://apps.amistore.net/zTools

@Bender

Do the capacitors of the cpu board look ok?

If you have another cpu motherboard to test it would be a great idea to exchange cpu modules to discard problems (trying your cpu module in the other motherboard may be a good idea too)

You could ask Frank Brana in the #morphos channel as he has some experience with bPlan hardware.

_________________
The only spanish amiga news web page/club: CUAZ

capacitors that maybe I was after..Contact is everything. Sometimes got a machine to work when clicking all powers off and taking the cords away. Then istalling all boards and re-installing the cords from the back and memories.

Then if Your nerves go like here buy a quality A500 and it will never break;)

@zzd10h

About the power supply, I tried 2 different ones and no luck. Maybe both are bad but I think that's very unlikely.

Regards,

@Crumb

Hello

Capacitors look good, no visible leaks as far as I can see. What I'll do hopefully next week is test with another motherboard & CPU module.

Thanks for the info about Frank, I'll try to contact him.

Regards,

@Bender

Sorry to hear about your peg. I knew it wouldnt be the battery as I have never once heard of an instance where the batt has died on a peg2 motherboard (except the person who posted in this thread) Also I know of not one instance of capacitor leaking. (IThis is NOT commodore here, and do you know of any phase 5 board that has bad caps? ) The batts on the A1 die alot because these are not retail boards but commercial samples known as Teron which were never sold to general public and have some design flaws. (I know this because I was told this personally by Motorola labs in Austin when I was there for SNDF with Genesi)

Did you inspect the cpu module? Remove the heatsink and check for burns or something.. is there another peg user you can try your cpu module with or vice versa.

I say this because you arent getting an Icarus console on the null modem which means its totally "dead"

Having said all of this, try posting on Morphzone or going to Morph IRC.

*edit thought of one more thing... remove the motherboard and all components and re-install. I have had a couple of occasions where a loose screw was grounding out a part of the board and it appears as "dead"

If none of this helps, contact TK @ Bplan and arrange for a repair. Last I knew (it was like 3 years ago) they were doing repairs for a fee.

Last edited by realize on 18-Dec-2012 at 01:34 AM.
Last edited by realize on 18-Dec-2012 at 01:32 AM.

@realize

Hello!

Thanks for the suggestions! About removing the motherboard and all components, I did that and same results... what I didn't do before was inspect the PPC itself, so I took your advice and removed the heatsink and I noticed something wrong there.

The CPU has some small bars (I don´t know what they are) near each of the four borders, my CPU is missing 2 of those small bars, as if they fell off or broke or something.... I don´t think I can explain well and I don´t have a camera available but I looked for an image on the internet to better explain:

https://picasaweb.google.com/101311471689913209985/PegasosCPU?authuser=0&feat=directlink

So those 2 little things are missing. I don't know what they are but I doubt they are there just for nothing so... maybe that's the reason, the PPC itself is damaged.

Does anyone know what those little "bars" are?

Thanks!

@Bender

That is odd afaik there are supposed to be there. Its possible they melted? Some peg users on morphzone have spare cpu cards maybe a guy can send you one or something.

Contact TK @ bplan about this cpu problem. Also post on mz.

@realize

I don't think they are melted, it does not look like that... more like broken. I'll try to get a camera good enough to take a close-up and I'll also follow your advise and contact TK and post in MorphZone.

Thanks!

Almost 6 months later... My Pegasos II lives again! Yeeeiiii!!

I contacted Thomas Knabel as suggested here and sent my CPU card to bPlan in Germany. Yesterday I got it back and it works perfectly!

Just wanted to share with you all, the service was great and the end result could not have been better. It takes some time, in my case 3 months including shipping Mexico - Germany - Mexico but it is worth it. Thanks Thomas!

Now I guess I have some catch up to do... I see both AOS & MOS have been updated

Regards,
Efrén

Last edited by Bender on 01-Jun-2013 at 05:30 AM.

@Bender

Congrats...! Now you just need to come over for it

Cheers,

Dragster

_________________
Powerbook G4 1139/MOS 3.9/OSX 10.5.8. Pegasos II 2B5 Mobo. 2 GB RAM. 400 GB x 2 GB ATA HD, USB 2.0 PCI. SoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS Gold. Quad boot: AmigaOS 4.1 FInal Edition, MorphOS 3.9 regged, Debian Lenny PPC, OpenSUSE 11.1. Rockin'