Dead P-GRAM+ board and PEB power concerns

[aftyde]

Hi All,

 

Looks like the memory card wasn't the only one fried. I have a dead P-GRAM+ board on my hands and this one is way beyond my capabilities to repair. Is there anyone who might be able to fix it - or shall I start shopping for a frame and mounting materials?!?

 

System will not start with the card enabled - turning on the switch prior to loading the DSR corrupts the display and the LED flashes intermittently - makes me wonder if the card is getting enough power. Other cards - MYARC DDSS-1, Firehose, 32K mem and RS-232 w HDX seem OK. However, sometimes I needs to power the console on, off, and back on again to get the PEB going.

 

Frankly - the FlashROM is way better in many ways - but it was nice to have the clock...

 

Cheers, Arthur...

[FDOS]

I can sympathize with you, as I've had lots of PEB card failures that I can no longer repair myself. Finding someone capable and willing to do it for a fair price is not easy any more. I have a number of PEB boards in need of repair, but that will wait until I have both of my F18A powered TI-99/4A consoles at 100% (which includes 1 CF7A+ sidecar, 1 NanoPEB v1 and 1 NanoPEB v2 sidecar units. Most of the bad boards that I speak of belong to 9640 Geneves (1 is a GenMOD, the other a 512K PFM+), and 1 SNUG TI-99/4P. All three in my garage due to no appropriate monitor for these V-9938 video systems. Very sad as 10 years ago I spent almost all of my hobby time developing large memory (1 MB or more) software for these systems; Forth+ (V 1.00 release 1993, V 2.00 development paused) for the Geneves and X4th99 (under development--probably will never be released due to TF) for the TI-99/4P.

 

I do have a fully functional P-GRAM+, but it is my backup for the SNUG HSGPL card. Let me, no, let us know if you find someone to repair yours. It seems to me a young tech could make some decent money just repairing TI hardware on the side. My fingers are crossed behing my back, so I can't see them. This is because the left hand can't do this well, at all.

 

Bill R Sullivan (fdos)

[RXB]

Most of my issues stem from corrupted DSR for the PGRAM.

Not much wrong with the card but if the DSR does not work or does not install correctly it makes the PGRAM useless.

 

Horizon should have used a EPROM for DSR instead of loading one.

[atrax27407]

There was an option to iuse an EPROM for the Horizon DSR.

[aftyde]

Yep - the DSR load program is useless - the moment I flip the switch on the card the thing loses it's mind. (the LED starts flashing intermittently and the console goes into a noisy seizure)

[+Schmitzi]

hmm, maybe this firehose-cable/flexinterface has a problem or a contact problem ?

 

Did you give some cleaning to the slots in the PEB, or just pull out the RS232 (and all other, not needed cards)

and insert the PG-RAM in one of these slots...

 

And **NEVER** forget to wait at least 2 minutes after powering off, before pulling a card from the PEB (!)

Early pull can destroy or damage it in strange ways.

[marc.hull]

I'll fix it. Send me a pm.

[aftyde]

I did swap out the firehose - and the other cards all seem OK. My issue could be voltage - I'm using a chinese made 220 to 110VAC converter (which actually powers a set of 110V outlets in my house) - so someone might have shorted it out by plugging a 220 appliance into another outlet or something while the system was on. Who knows...