Re: SecondSight boot stability

[Paul Schultz <pschultz@med.wayne.edu>]

On 13 Aug 1996, Matt Portune wrote:

> There was talk about this awhile ago, but I'm not sure if anything was 
> ever finalized...
> 
> My secondsight has become EXTREMELY freeze-prone on startup.  It will 
> sometimes take 8 or 9 resets before the GS starts booting.  Yes, this is 
> with a buggie supply, AND with a buggie convertor cable attached to a 230 
> watt supply.  Wasn't there a previous discussion about removing something 
> off the back of the SecondSight board, (wire or diode) to increase 
> stability?  Or was that only for specific situations, different than this?
> 

I have had a horrendous time with my SS cooperating with my ZipGS _AND_
my RamFAST installed at the same time! I've tried everything and have
come the the conclusion that on some IIgs motherboards the electrical
'noise' threshold is crossed over with certain expansion card combinations.
One of the main culprits is the SS. When i remove the SS from my system
and hook up my old monitor I can run stably for hours and hours at 12 MHz.
With the SS installed i can run stably for maybe 1 hour (tops) before
crashing _AND_ this is at only 9 MHz...anything faster crashes immediately.

The funny thing is that this situation is actually vastly improved over
when i originally bought my SS. It wouldn't work at all when I first got it.
The one single thing that I did to "improve" the situation was to replace
my power leads from my heavy duty power supply with 12 or 14 guage wire
(can't remember which at the moment). This apparently helps to reduce the
line noise generated from the power supply. I should point out that a
Buggie power supply did NOT help. In fact, my system wouldn't even boot
with the SS + a Buggie power supply!! (Anyone want to buy this Power
supply send me an e-mail!).

The conclusion that I have come to is that the IIgs was never intended to
be pushed as far as we have pushed it and that some combinations of 
motherboards/expansion cards/power supplies/cache RAMS will result in a
flakey system.

Try lowering the speed you run your system at and see if it stabilizes.
(via a lower oscillator....not via software settings or hardware dip 
switches)


> My GS is a ROM 3, and the slot config is as follows...
> 


My GS is a ROM 01. I have been toying with the idea of buying a ROM 3
motherboard as a last attempt to stabilize my set-up. I have heard that
the ROM 3 is more stable when "pushed" beyond its intended level than
the ROM 01. Of course, your situation tends to put a damper on this
notion! :-)

Keep us informed of your progress!

Paul.

pschultz@med.wayne.edu
Paul Schultz