Return of the Black Screen of Death

[KingSmed]

I am working on upgrading an Atari VCS for a friend and I am stuck at the Black Screen of Death, nothing a I do seems to get a response. (By Black Screen of Death, I mean no video signal.)

 

First, a little backstory to let you know how I got here.

 

Met up with an old friend a few months back we had both been in the local Atari user group during the ST's peak. Told him about my VCS and he was so excited about it that he went onto Atari's website and bought two. Of course this was December when everybody was getting stuck in that OS update loop, and he had the same problem. He'd also ran into an issue where he'd set the video mode to 4K and he was on the Black Screen of Death.

 

I came here looking for info, and stumbled across this thread as a solution to both the Death screen and the update loop:

 

 

So I made Atari OS Flash stick, popped it in the USB port, and his problems were solved.

 

Fast forward a couple months, and he's decided to set up one of the VCS units as a backup PC, so gets a pair of 16GB RAM modules and a 1TB M.2 SSD to upgrade it. He's unwilling to do the disassembly himself but knows I've done it before, and I agree to handle it for him.I crack it open and get it all installed, but when I fire it up - death screen.

 

I'm worried I screwed up the install, so I revert to the original config and try again, still nothing. I reach out to him and learn that he's never even used this unit (despite it being out of the box). So I pull out the Atari OS stick I made before, and poof - that brings the unit back to the land of the living. Note that I do not go through the usual set up process here, as I do not know his user credentials. I just make sure it boots.

 

So now I crack it back open, reinstall all the new bits, and boot - still a happy machine. He wants me to install Ubuntu, so I make another USB stick and boot it. Note that I also pop into the BIOS to turn off the secure boot. Put in the Ubuntu stick and boot it, then go into the install process.

 

Ubuntu detects the Atari OS (Apertis, I think) so I tell it hey, don't kill that, install Ubuntu alongside. I set up the partitions I want on the new drive as follows:

 

/boot     1 GB

swap      4 GB

/root     32 GB

/home    all remaining space

 

Now, I put all these on the new 1TB SSD. When the install completes, I reboot the system, but first make a stop in the BIOS to change the boot sequence to USB -> SSD -> eMMC. I get a message saying there is no boot disk in the drive. Huh. So back to the BIOS, look at the boot options, and I see there is a new item listed under the eMMC. I didn't want anything added there, but if the Ubuntu installer thought it was a good idea, then I'll see what happens. So I change the boot sequence back to normal (USB -> eMMC -> SSD) and let it rock.

 

But boot fails to start, and I'm at the death screen. I think again about what the Ubuntu installer added to the eMMC, so I put the Atari OS flash stick back in, and get the machine back to normal. Now back to the Ubuntu stick and the install process. It detects the fact that the same version of Ubuntu is already present on the SSD but seems to be aware of a couple issues, so it asks if I want to reinstall. None of the issues it cites have anything to do with the eMMC or the Atari OS. I check and make sure it doesn't appear to want to use the eMMC for anything, at least as near as I can tell, so I tell it to go ahead. After all, if it goes wrong again, I can always reflash.

 

Well, it did not work. Death screen. Really scratching my head here, but I still got that trusty ol' Atari OS flash stick. I put it in and... nothing. System does not respond to it at all. I try fully removing power overnight. I try unplugging the USB hub (and with it the keyboard & mouse). Unplugged the network cable. I try making another Atari OS flash stick in case the first one got corrupted. I even power cycle the monitor in case it is locked up and not seeing the video. None of this works

 

So now here I am, with my friend's apparently dead VCS (I do have a power light and can hear the fan spin when I turn it on, but that is it). Any ideas?

 

BTW - when I hold the power button down to shut down, his power light stays on. Not sure if that is significant.

 

[RadiATIon]

Try removing the battery from the CMOS 1 minute, reinstall it and reboot

[KingSmed]

On 7/4/2023 at 1:04 AM, RadiATIon said:

Try removing the battery from the CMOS 1 minute, reinstall it and reboot

Thanks for the suggestion, I feel a little stupid for not thinking about something so fundamental on my own. However, it unfortunately did not work.

[RadiATIon]

You can try to reset the original memory and remove the SSD. In the same time retry  removing the battery from the CMOS 1 minute, reinstall it.  You can also change your television. On some TV the hdmi signal does not make the right return to the vcs and therefore it does not launch anything. 

Edited July 6, 2023 by RadiATIon

[KingSmed]

On 7/6/2023 at 3:33 PM, RadiATIon said:

You can try to reset the original memory and remove the SSD. In the same time retry  removing the battery from the CMOS 1 minute, reinstall it.  You can also change your television. On some TV the hdmi signal does not make the right return to the vcs and therefore it does not launch anything. 

Did as you suggested - pulled all the new components, and reverted to the original RAM sticks. Also went ahead and pulled the BIOS battery for a few minutes. Powered system back up - it booted.

 

Was curious which of these changes actually made the difference, so I put the new RAM back in and tried again - death screen.

 

Then tried the new SSD with the original RAM, and again I had a good boot. Not sure why the new RAM failed after initially functioning, but something there was definitely wonky.

 

Now back to trying to get Ubuntu to install - and dual boot.

[RadiATIon]

Glad I could help you.