Nextstation turbo color, 4 blinks

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Title: Nextstation turbo color, 4 blinks
Post by: paburusan on June 05, 2025, 12:56:54 PM
Hi all, I finally managed to put my hands on a nextstation color. Since i don t have a soundbox it took me a while until i could test the machine. 
Once I got the cables ready, I finally  managed to start the next ( new battery btw) and the most beautiful "booting from network " screen appeared on my Dell monitor ( happiest man on earth).
I turned it off to prepare a proper nextstep image for the zuluscsi.
When I tried the next day , the nextstaion did not boot and the led in the motherboard was blinking in series of 4 blinks.
Since then, I have tried replacing all the simms, reseating the rom, replacing the capacitors,... without any change. If i remove all the simms I get 5 blinks.
I also tried to connect via the serial connector A but I don't get any data, i have tried different speeds etc but nothing.
 I'd appreciate any tips, ideas, or even wild guesses ! Thanks in advance.

 
Title: Re: Nextstation turbo color, 4 blinks
Post by: cuby on June 05, 2025, 05:03:39 PM
These are the blink codes defined in the firmware:

/* EKG LED blink counts */
#define BLINK_CRC1      1
#define BLINK_CRC2      2
#define BLINK_VRAM      3
#define BLINK_NVRAM     4
#define BLINK_DRAM      5               /* No DRAM in system */
#define BLINK_MACHINE   6               /* unknown machine type */

So 4 would indicate an NVRAM problem, 5 is expected if you remove all SIMMs.
Title: Re: Nextstation turbo color, 4 blinks
Post by: barcher174 on June 05, 2025, 07:12:56 PM
Did you try pulling the battery?
Title: Re: Nextstation turbo color, 4 blinks
Post by: paburusan on June 07, 2025, 10:05:49 AM
Thank you both for the quick response.
This morning the NexT was not even starting which definitely was pointing towards the battery.
I was using a cr2032 with an adapter , tried other combinations but no reaction. I replaced it with a cr123 and... tadaaaah no more blinks and the booting from network screen was back 🎉

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