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Missing Right Half of Characters

Started by dr_slump, Yesterday at 15:59

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dr_slump

Hi everyone!
New member here — long-time Amstrad user. I learned to program on a CPC-464, owned one back in the day, and recently acquired another unit that I'd like to use to teach my daughter how to program. :-)The computer is in generally good shape and basically works. It even loads and runs games without issues. However, there's a clear display problem visible on the startup screen (see the attached photo).
As you can see, the right half of each character is missing and is replaced by the background color.
Since everything else seems to work normally, I assume the CPU and memory are fine, and the issue lies somewhere in the video subsystem. The motherboard is a Z70200, MC0002D, with a Gate Array model 40010.
Before spending 40€ to replace the GA, I started checking the chips that feed its inputs. I replaced IC115 (74LS244), but that didn't change anything. My next suspect is IC114 (74LS373).
Before going further with the repair, I wanted to ask if anyone here has seen this specific issue before. I've watched several repair videos, but haven't come across this exact symptom.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!
—Paco

salvogendut

Si nequeo Superos flectere, Acheronta movebo

McArti0

CPC 6128, Whole 6128 and Only 6128, with .....
NewPAL v3 for use all 128kB RAM by CRTC as VRAM
One chip driver for 512kB(to640) extRAM 6128
TYPICAL :) TV Funai 22FL532/10 with VGA-RGB-in.

dr_slump

Yes, games also look weird with vertical stripes. Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of the screen.

McArti0

373 works good. GA does not capture the second byte from memory in the video read sequence.

Try type CLG 3.
CPC 6128, Whole 6128 and Only 6128, with .....
NewPAL v3 for use all 128kB RAM by CRTC as VRAM
One chip driver for 512kB(to640) extRAM 6128
TYPICAL :) TV Funai 22FL532/10 with VGA-RGB-in.

dr_slump

Hi!

I think you are right. Running the CLG 3 command I get vertical stripes (see photo). Does it mean the gate array is faulty?

Thank you for your help.

McArti0

#6
Omg At second byte
11110000->0, pen1 to pen0
11111111->11110000 !!!! Pen3 to pen1 !
00001111->11110000 pen2 to pen1

Try type MODE 2

And try
Cpc reset
pen 2
Ready
Pen 3
Ready

CPC 6128, Whole 6128 and Only 6128, with .....
NewPAL v3 for use all 128kB RAM by CRTC as VRAM
One chip driver for 512kB(to640) extRAM 6128
TYPICAL :) TV Funai 22FL532/10 with VGA-RGB-in.

dr_slump


There you go. With pen 2/pen 3, now the left part of the characters repeats in yellow. In mode 2, every other character is missing.

McArti0

Clearly, the GA is getting the same video byte twice, and with inverted color interpretation. So this error is most likely in the GA. It would be best to check this with an oscilloscope to see if the CCLK, nCAS, and CAS ADDR signals are shifted and misaligning the LS153 multiplexers.
CPC 6128, Whole 6128 and Only 6128, with .....
NewPAL v3 for use all 128kB RAM by CRTC as VRAM
One chip driver for 512kB(to640) extRAM 6128
TYPICAL :) TV Funai 22FL532/10 with VGA-RGB-in.

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