Problem with P-Code Card?

[NickH93]

Man, you guys are going to get sick of me asking so many questions, but you're the best resource when I can't figure things out on my own (which seems to be a lot lately)

 

Without getting in to a lot of backstory here, here's what's going on:

 

My P-CODE card hardly works. Very rarely when I boot it up with the card switched on, I'll get the beep, followed by 3 beeps and it will work just fine.

More often than not though, here's what typically happens:

 

On the first boot, it will be a blank blue screen, the light on the flex cable interface goes out, and nothing happens. No P-CODE menu

Any boot after that, it will boot to a blank blue screen, with an loud long tone that will sound until I turn the computer off. In this instance, the flex cable light stays lit

 

If I restart the PEB, this cycle will repeat of the first boot, and then every boot after that.

 

Anyone ever run into this? Any ideas?

 

Thanks so much everyone for all the help lately. I don't mean to seem incompetent, but I'm just the king of running into weird issues!

Edited November 22, 2016 by NickH93

[Shift838]

There definitely could be issues with the Pcode card or it could be an issue with the particular slot you have it in. have you tried moving the pcode card to a different slot.

 

I have also seen this behavior with a bad flex cable card. Do you have another one you could swap the flex card out with?

[NickH93]

I have tried changing slots with it to any other open slot, and I've tried moving the RAM card as well.

I've cleaned the contacts on every card in the PEB except the flex cable card, and if the Flex Cable card was dirty like the rest were, perhaps that may be my issue.

I will try cleaning the flex card and see where that gets me.

[+arcadeshopper]

have you considered your pbox cable might be the issue? It could be not seated well..

[Shift838]

I have tried changing slots with it to any other open slot, and I've tried moving the RAM card as well.

 

I've cleaned the contacts on every card in the PEB except the flex cable card, and if the Flex Cable card was dirty like the rest were, perhaps that may be my issue.

 

I will try cleaning the flex card and see where that gets me.

 

Greg makes a good point. we have all seen issues with the firehose flex cable might not be getting a good connection to the expansion port on the side of the 99/4A. I have also seen issues related good connections with the pbox cable when it's used in conjunction with a speech synthesizer.

 

So if you have anything attached to the side of the 4a besides the flex cable remove it for testing.

 

I have also seen an issue where my SCSI card stopped being recognized and it was because I was using a cartridge expander (widget). So if you have that inserted you may want to remove that aas well.

[NickH93]

Just should let everyone know I figured it out and got it booting no problem. I tried everything else to no avail.

 

I began to suspect the foundation 128k ram card to blame. I took it apart and reseated all of the ICs in sockets. Some of them had become fairly loose, perhaps from moving the PEB around from place to place.

 

That did the trick. Boots up 100 percent now.

[Shift838]

Just should let everyone know I figured it out and got it booting no problem. I tried everything else to no avail.

 

I began to suspect the foundation 128k ram card to blame. I took it apart and reseated all of the ICs in sockets. Some of them had become fairly loose, perhaps from moving the PEB around from place to place.

 

That did the trick. Boots up 100 percent now.

 

good to know! Happy it was not a faulty pcode card.

[+Vorticon]

I actually occasionally get the same behavior. In my case however, I am suspecting that my PEB power supply is getting flaky as I have all the slots filled plus a Lotharek drive and a floppy drive. Next project is to replace it with a more modern alternative...