ql white screen

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Derek_Stewart
Font of All Knowledge
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Location: Sunny Runcorn, Cheshire, UK

Re: ql white screen

Post by Derek_Stewart »

thecaver99 wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2024 10:25 pm It turned out to be 5 dead ram chips, 1 in lower ram and 4 in upper ram.
All replaced and now the ql lives once more.
Hi,

I am updating the QL Service Manual, and introducing a fault finding section.

Since you have just successfully repaired a QL, could detail the process that that you went through to repair your QL.

This would maybe help other QL owners in the future.


Regards,

Derek
thecaver99
ROM Dongle
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Oct 04, 2024 8:38 pm

Re: ql white screen

Post by thecaver99 »

Derek_Stewart wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2024 10:36 pm
thecaver99 wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2024 10:25 pm It turned out to be 5 dead ram chips, 1 in lower ram and 4 in upper ram.
All replaced and now the ql lives once more.
Hi,

I am updating the QL Service Manual, and introducing a fault finding section.

Since you have just successfully repaired a QL, could detail the process that that you went through to repair your QL.

This would maybe help other QL owners in the future.
yeh no problem, i will give you what i have.

i had a bit of the green/red/white pixels then white screen, from reading this pointed to upper ram issue.
tested as the service manual asks to use a ground lead and short out pin 2 on the 4164 and each chip showed a black line on the scree.
fitted an ice over the top of each of the upper ram ics no change, porobed all the address lines with m y scope and nothing was changing, activity one the data pins, ras, cas, w etc.
this lead me to belive that i had more than 1 ic bad.
removed all 8 upper 4164 ics, fitted dual wipe sockets and fitted 8 tested new 4164 and got a black screen, so some progress,
left system on for a couple of mins and found 1 lower ram chip was getting extreamly hot, removed and fitted socket and new 4164 chip.
powewred on and fgot the normal screen F1/F2.
tested each of the upper ram chips by replcing one of the new ones and found 3 dead, replced the woking ones for the new ones,

if the minerva rom had arrived before hand that might have saved me a lot of hunting.
for video i am using the RGB port hooked upto an rgbtohdmi adapter and have lovely crisp video output.
now awaiting a replacement membrain and bubble mat and new minerva rom for the QL.
also waiting on a mirical systems 512k ram card and a floppy controller so i can finly get some software on to the lovely looking QL.


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Cristian
QL Wafer Drive
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Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2015 1:40 pm
Location: Veneto

Re: ql white screen

Post by Cristian »

Hi Derek,
I got partial progress in repairing my Issue5 board. It's not repaired yet, anyway I hope you can find some useful information (for statistical purposes, at least):

https://www.theqlforum.com/viewtopic.php ... F&start=70


Derek_Stewart
Font of All Knowledge
Posts: 4668
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2010 11:40 am
Location: Sunny Runcorn, Cheshire, UK

Re: ql white screen

Post by Derek_Stewart »

Thanks for all the input, I will try to develop a fault finding guide.

On another forum, there is a message thread that users input the repair process for their computers or parts. Maybe this could done here.


Regards,

Derek
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dilwyn
Mr QL
Posts: 3057
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:39 pm

Re: ql white screen

Post by dilwyn »

Derek_Stewart wrote: Wed Oct 16, 2024 11:56 pm Thanks for all the input, I will try to develop a fault finding guide.

On another forum, there is a message thread that users input the repair process for their computers or parts. Maybe this could done here.
Good luck with this Derek. As QLs get older, a lot of people experience similar problems, so I'm sure it'll be appreciated.


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