Constant error on X68K ACE HD

[Dantyr]

Hi,

I recently have acquired an x68000 ACE HD without the original SASI hard drive. It came with an Astec Monster SCSI to CF adapter, so I'm running everything from the CF card installed.
After some time playing, a strange error occurs and sound become weird and the following image is shown...



Anyone knows what this error means ?

Thanks!

[BlueBMW]

That is a general error has occurred please reset screen.  Has the power supply in the system been serviced and has the sram battery been changed?  Being a sasi based system special drivers need to be loaded into sram to make the aztec monster scsi interface work properly with the sasi interface of the system.

[Dantyr]

Hi BlueBMW,

Yesterday I have burned the Eidis CF Image to a new CF and after that the machine appears stable. But I will check with the last owner if he changed the capacitors on the PSU and in the mainboard.

Thanks!

[BlueBMW]

A flaky power supply can cause a myriad of strange issues.  Find out what service has been done and let us know.  We will figure it out from there.

[Dantyr]

The last owner replied that he never serviced any components. Would be prudent to change all caps on the PSU ? Should I change the caps of the mainboard too ?

Thanks!

[BlueBMW]

Mainboard should be ok but I would change the caps of the PSU.  There is a guide/chart in this forum for an expert power supply.  Use that chart.  The cap values are slightly larger on the expert but work fine in an Ace supply.

[Dantyr]

New discoveries about the problem!
Yesterday I swapped 2 different CF images same problem with both. Final Fight got the error always on the same spot of the game also Salamander locks under the second boss.
My machine have a PIO-6834-2/4M-1 like the one on the link bellow (2Mb), and I decided to remove it and test the games again. No problem occurred this time, I almost got on the end of Final Fight and Salamander do not hanged on the second boss.

http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/lib/exe/detail.php?id=x68000%3Apio-6834-2_4m_-_memory_expansion_board&media=x68000:pio-6834_1a.jpg

If think I would use the following program (memtest68k) to verify the RAMs, there is a better one ?

http://www.neillcorlett.com/x68000

Thanks!!

[BlueBMW]

Ahhh, it could be an issue of bad ram.  Yeah run that memtest program and see what results you get.

[Dantyr]

I will change the caps on the RAM board today, but if some of the RAM ICs got bad we can found replacement today ?

Thanks!

[BlueBMW]

I know some people have had luck finding ram chips to upgrade 2mb boards into 4mb boards.  Theyre hard to find but not impossible.

[Dantyr]

Yesterday I have done more tests and I find out that the problem could be the way I was loading the games...

On Eidis CF image there is a pre-built file manager (LHES ?) that starts on boot and I was executing the "!start" batches from there since day one. So yesterday I just find out the if I go to the command prompt and start the ".bat" from there, there is no issue whatsoever in ANY games that the crash problem occurred. Even with the expansion board plugged on the machine..

Is that how should be ? We have always start the game from the command prompt ? In that case, why have a file manager starting over on boot ? Sorry, but I'm a complete newbie on this platform.

Thanks!

[caius]

Hi, most of games can be executed in LHES, some of them need to be launched in DI (to enter in this press ESC) or pure DOS, usually these are located in GAMES2 directory, the first ones in GAME one.

[Dantyr]

So, it's because of this that in the image the Games are separated in 3 directories ?

Thanks!

[kamiboy]

LHES uses more memory than DI which is why some memory hungry games fail to run from it. The three directories are arranged according to memory need I believe. Those in Game1 require 1mb, Game2 games want 2mb and Game3 games require more than 2 mb.