Hi all - so I have a work Nextstation mono slab and I swapped the motherboard out with a (working as advertised) color Nextstation board. It had no memory, so I picked up 4 x 4MB SIMMs (70ns, non-parity), a new battery, and a video cable that provides a VGA out (also from Rob).
However, I cannot get the board to display any video on my LCD monitor. It's an NEC LCD AS193i that syncs on green (I assume the color slab needs SoG like the mono slab). I might not be putting the SIMMs in correctly. I believe they go in in pairs with them starting in slot 1 near the PSU.
When I boot, the fan comes on, the SCSI2SD drive gets power, and the red LED below the battery flashes twice then turns off.
Can the red LED help diagnose?
Thanks!
The startup sequence sounds correct. The LED will flash and then turn off in normal operation. If it starts flashing repeating patterns then there is a hardware fault. You are correct, the color stations need SoG. I would suspect the monitor or the cable based on your description.
Quote from: barcher174 on November 30, 2019, 02:54:24 PMThe startup sequence sounds correct. The LED will flash and then turn off in normal operation. If it starts flashing repeating patterns then there is a hardware fault. You are correct, the color stations need SoG. I would suspect the monitor or the cable based on your description.
Confirmed, the red LED blinks twice then stays off. The caps lock on the keyboard blink green once then off.
The monitor works fine on my Nextstation mono, so I would presume it would work with the color. Obviously the cable is different. I'm using the same sound board for the color and mono.
The R, G, B, Rg, Gg, and Bg connections from the 13W3 to the VGA connector on the cable all have continuity. So I'm guessing the NEC AS193i LCD doesn't work with the Nextstation Color (???) even though it works with the mono. Hrmmm...
UPDATE, well holy crap, I'm using a NON-sync on green monitor and it's working. :) hah!
It depends on the RAM condition on whether or not video comes out. Make sure the simms you are using are single sided. The color is picky. The Mono station does not use SoG, but the datasheet says your monitor should support it (
https://www.necdisplay.com/documents/ColorBrochures/AS172.193i.203WMi.222WM.242W_SpecBrochure.pdf).
If you can confirm this monitor works I may consider it as a replacement for my own setup. My old tube backlit screens are starting to show their age, so an LED model would be great!
For the mono, I am using the NEC AS193i.
For the color, I am using an NEC EA190M.
The AS193i does not work on the color, and the EA190M does not work on the mono. Hah!
Well, I've gotten further. I've set the Nextstation to boot from SCSI (sd) and it does try, but then drops into the monitor with this error:
Exception #3 (0xC) at 0x1000374
I've tried the SCSI2SD from my mono and it gives the same error. The SCSI2SD works fine in the mono.
UGH!
Quote from: barcher174 on November 30, 2019, 06:02:40 PMNow you have a memory error. Exception codes here: http://www.asterontech.com/Asterontech/NeXT_POST_Codes.html
OK, may it doesn't like the RAM I've added though it does identify it as 16MB at boot. Hrmmm.. thanks for the info!
UPDATE: the nextstation didn't like one of the sticks of RAM! Removed the offending SIMM (and its pair) and she boots perfectly. Thanks!