Re: Freakin' Second Sight Board

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

On 22 Dec 1995, Colin Williamson wrote:

> Hey all!
>  
> I just got my review Second Sight board in the mail today, and I can NOT get it
> to work!!! Arrrgh! Sequential's tech line is closed for the holidays so here's
> what my problem is:
>  
> I install the SS Board in slot 3 like the manual says (removing my VOC [Grr])
> and pop Mr. RGB cable in, red cable side up. I plug in my RGB monitor, turn on
> the machine and...
>  
> Pwing! I get a beep, then garbage. If I restart I get the "Apple IIgs" screen
> and then it crashes into what appears to be the monitor. When it tries to boot
> any disk drive it just bombs. I'm not a happy camper.
>  
> Here's what else I have in my system: A Quickie board, a Hyperstudio noslot
> digitizing card, Sonic Blaster, Allison Digitizing board, 4meg Sequential RAM
> board, Hispeed SCSI, and used to have a VOC.
>  

I have had a SecondSight since August and still haven't gotten it to work!
I've tried EVERYTHING! First of all, since you just received your SS I would
assume it is from one of the latest production runs. It should have a resistor
on the back of the board connecting to one of the 'teeth' on the slot connector.
Also, check to see that you have one of the latest ROM revisions. I believe the
current version is 1.4. There were some booting anomolies with version 1.0

Here is probably the last thing I will be trying with my SS. Check your
power supply. Make sure it is providing the proper +5V and 12V levels to your
slots. You probably will want to take all the other cards from your system
(except for the 4meg card and SCSI card) and see how things work.

Finally, you mentioned you are using the Apple RGB monitor. Did you remove
the jumper on the board? (there's only one). If you are using a non-Apple
RGB monitor this too can cause problems since some connections are not what
the SS expects. (I discovered this with my old trusty Magnavox RGB monitor)

If you can't get it to work even with ONLY the memory card and SCSI card,
try to remove the SCSI card and boot from floppy and see if that works.
Crazy as it may sound, I can boot if I don't have either my ZipGS or my
RamFAST installed. Together, these cards have caused my SS to display the
same symptoms you have described.

Good luck,

If you could post a follow-up detailing what you find I would appreciate
it!

Paul.
pschultz@med.wayne.edu
Paul Schultz