Sam460ex - Fall/Winter Solder Touch-up Project [Solved]

[jdupuis]

Hi,

As well as Lazarus showed potential, I have to say that I still think something is not quite right. Successfully installed MorphOS 3.9 and slow graphics remain. Odyssey under Morph was unbearable, to say the least. Ethernet doesn't seem to be up to par. I could go on. I believe a soldering iron and touch up soldering is order under the board. Here's one that baffles me:
There is a jumper wire neatly installed under the Sam board with small dabs of hot glue holding it in place. I cringe over jumper wires. MOD? Bad Trace? Rev Change? Bypassed trace? I don't know. I would expect Heavily Populated sites to be very slow to load. Not Choppy and sound cutting out. Both AOS and Morph showing the same result makes me feel something still is wrong. On a positive note:
I have a case and all the accessories ready for the Tabor A1222. I'm using "Lazarus's" 1 TB HD for a full Ubuntu Install in the X1000 for now. When I'm ready to play again, I'll use my 16GB SD Card instead.

Cheers!!

[tonyw]

Unless you have many years' experience with soldering tiny parts under a magnifying lamp, I really suggest you don't try soldering on your board.

You can't do it any good.

[jdupuis]

Unless you have many years' experience with soldering tiny parts under a magnifying lamp, I really suggest you don't try soldering on your board.

You can't do it any good.

Thank you Tony.

Weller on the bench and 15 years component level Electronics Tech. Just got to pick a day with a lot of time and patience. May not do anything to change it but cold solder joints do cause agony and mysterious issues.

Cheers!!

[broadblues]

Hi,
Successfully installed MorphOS 3.9 and slow graphics remain. Odyssey under Morph was unbearable, to say the least. Ethernet doesn't seem to be up to par. I could go on.

Not really the place for MOS support but last I heard MOS was using fraebuff or similar on a SAM460 and so will be slow (I'm not following updates so that may have chnaged).

I believe a soldering iron and touch up soldering is order under the board.

OMG is your name helgis? Don't just dont! Touching up solder is not going to improve your ethernet performance or anything else, unless it's *really* broken, in which case it likely wouldn't boot, or would boot eratically.

I would expect Heavily Populated sites to be very slow to load. Not Choppy and sound cutting out. Both AOS and Morph showing the same result makes me feel something still is wrong.

What sound is cutting out? Heavy JS sites can have heavy javascript and sometimes repetive rerendering which max out the CPU and cause multitasking issues. You might want experiment with setting various task priotiies etc.

[jdupuis]

"OMG is your name helgis? Don't just dont! Touching up solder is not going to improve your ethernet performance or anything else, unless it's *really* broken, in which case it likely wouldn't boot, or would boot eratically."
>
That hurts! Good form, Sir! Below the belt, but, good form!
>
Point well made and taken. I'll play 'round with settings and various other browsers. I did trade for this Sam460. I'll re-install AOS 4.1 FE on my 16 GB SD card and see if there are some settings and task priorities that can improve things. I still feel that I inherited a problem but this Sam is not near as bad as it was when I received it.

Cheers!!

John

[tonyw]

Sorry, John!

We don't always recognise a fellow engo on the 'Net. /me waves a roll of Pb-free solder.

However, I'm sure that your problems are much more likely to be software-caused, now that you've fixed the memory issue.

[jdupuis]

Sorry, John!

We don't always recognise a fellow engo on the 'Net. /me waves a roll of Pb-free solder.

However, I'm sure that your problems are much more likely to be software-caused, now that you've fixed the memory issue.

No worries! Just frustrated. I traded a perfectly good working Doo-Hicky for this Sam. Glad I've got my X1000, whew! This Sam makes me appreciate the X1000, a thousand-fold. Anyway, I think I'll try reducing the Monitor. I'm running this Sam with the 2GB 5450 hooked up to an Asus 1900 X 1200 Display via DVI. I'll give direct VGA from the 5450 a shot. I'll browse with iBrowse or QT lite or something of that nature. It's more of a hobby box for me as opposed to me babying my X1000 or my Mac.
The memory module and graphics card change made all the difference in the world.

Cheers!

John

[duga]

I guess you're expecting a bit too much from the Sam460 rather than it is broken.

Regarding ethernet: I have no problem filling the fast ethernet port (100 Mbit/s) on my Sam440@733 MHz so I'm expecting you to be able to do that with your faster Sam460, if your broadband connection is that fast.

[tonyw]

John,

You could just choose a less stressful ScreenMode (eg 1440x900 or whatever is in the ScreenModes list). There will also be variants of each mode with 24/16/8 bit depths. Once again, just reducing the amount of work the poor machine is being asked to do could let it work a lot better.

[jdupuis]

John,

You could just choose a less stressful ScreenMode (eg 1440x900 or whatever is in the ScreenModes list). There will also be variants of each mode with 24/16/8 bit depths. Once again, just reducing the amount of work the poor machine is being asked to do could let it work a lot better.

Thanks. That will be what I'll do. Sounds crazy, but my old Tube-Type NEC Multi-sync VGA monitor was what I was considering using in 1024 X 768 mode. Since my A500 set up is on a 1084, I don't use the Multi-Sync.
Well, I'll give that NEC Monitor a shot. You all have confirmed the graphic flaws I have witnessed so Ye Ole VGA Tube may come in handy after all.

Cheers!!