Re: Transwarp GS freezes

[Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com>]

STYNX <stynx@gmx.de> wrote:
> I'm really set to revive this card from the undead back to the land of
> the living. I will get my Oscilloscope an test the actual output of the
> components (may need a logic analyzer though). Since the card works for a
> given time, i can start from there. The test-header on the Card may help
> me there. I'm fed up with this trial and error stuff. As soon as i have a
> pinout and working of the test-connector i will post my results. But that
> may take a while...

And don't go overboard and drown in data before you repeat your earlier
steps with cooling spray to localize the problem. 

This will require a lot of patience to get good localization, and I sense
that you're currently running a little short on that. ;-)

You changed so many things that you have no idea which physical disturbance
of the card led to a "remission"--that's a big mistake. There is exactly
one thing wrong, and you'll never find it if you change more than one thing
at a time!

When you're feeling more in control, return to methodical
localization--both cooling spray and a small but sturdy plastic rod (to
cause local flexing of the card and its solder joints) will be useful. It
would also be good to have a very quick way to tell if the card is
functional after a failure. 

Stick with it and you will be rewarded. It is improbable that the
intermittent fault is internal to a chip, since your recent physical
disturbance of the card (replacing components) restored operation for
several hours. That's a very strong argument that the intermittency is on
the card itself. 

-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon