RE: Major Havoc test mode

(RE: Video... Yeah, that is the gameplay beeper for when the ship is
landing I believe)

Okay, here is how it is supposed to work... you could monitor the
communication port between the two and see if it is happening this way
in a rough analysis.

Gamma

1. Read a byte from Alpha (number doesn't matter, this just tells
the alpha that the Gamma is running).

2. Write a 0x00 to the Alpha

3. Do Gamma Self Test: self test data is a single byte in format
1111WXYZ where

a. W is Zero for Gamma RAM Error

b. X is Zero for Gamma ROM Error

c. Y is Zero for Gamma Pokey Error

d. Z is Zero for Gamma EEROM Error

e. Everything good is 0xFF

4. Write Gamma Self Test data to Alpha...

NMI on Gamma is pulsed low when an Alpha Command comes in

>From the code, the Gamma doesn't do *anything* if no commands come from
the Alpha processor, so the beeping doesn't mean anything in
particular... more likely that your Gamma is getting lost and getting
caught in the sound loop for that sound.

And yes... the Alpha should show an error if the gamma is not
communicating... I think it actually puts up a big 'GAMMA ERROR' screen
from what I remember. I can look at the Alpha side more in depth if you
want.

From: owner-vectorlist@vectorlist.org
[mailto:owner-vectorlist@vectorlist.org] On Behalf Of Kevin Moore
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2013 2:07 PM
To: vectorlist@vectorlist.org
Subject: Re: VECTOR: Major Havoc test mode

Here's a quick video of the beeping.

http://youtu.be/g1XWChBp-Y8

It's still processing so the video may not be avail for a few more
minutes.

Kevin

On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 3:02 PM, Jonathan Koolpe <jkoolpe@hotmail.com>
wrote:

I think Jess is correct. I had a MH board that also beeped at me with
no video. From what I recollect, the number of beeps pointed me to a
specific RAM chip (after consulting the manual) that I replaced and
voila! Board worked just fine after that...

One of the easiest board repairs I ever had....took about 5 minutes ;)
...

Jon

________________________________

Subject: RE: VECTOR: Major Havoc test mode
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 13:41:14 -0600
From: jess@askey.org
To: vectorlist@vectorlist.org

The beeps mean that there is a RAM error of some sort I believe.

From: owner-vectorlist@vectorlist.org
[mailto:owner-vectorlist@vectorlist.org] On Behalf Of Kevin Moore
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2013 1:55 PM
To: vectorlist@vectorlist.org
Subject: VECTOR: Major Havoc test mode

Ok I'm not having any luck with this thing at all.

No video in test mode

In fact when you put it in test mode you get a rapid succession of beeps
for about 4-5 seconds, then it stops beeping.

It's not watchdogging

I've been able to fluke the program roms, and rams, and even the paged
roms with good sigs

Not sure how or if I can check sigs on 106 107 and 110

on the gamma side I can check 108 just fine.

If the gamma processor isn't communicating, I would think I would still
have video showing me that the gamma isn't communicating..

Lost.

Kevin

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Received on Tue Jul 30 16:41:11 2013