Katana kit arrived with damage

Just found your thread mate Might be worth dropping the whole unit in to me and instead of just the board I'll test the VGA properly. I'd hate for you to be spending hours and hours on it and it turns out just to be a video problem!

 

Your sure it's not in dev mode? iirc (was a while since had time to tinker with one) then the screen will be blank on boot. try swithchig it to self-test mode (note that mode is VGA only).

 

Welcome to the boards mate ;-)

 

I should have tried this as I had a quick look through the Katana.com site and did notice the self test.

 

Nothing - no change, not a peep via VGA or otherwise. New PSU required I think.

 

just did a little reading and it looks like self-test only works in OS-mode.. so it could still be that the system is in dev-mode which could explain the lack of video-output

 

I have received back the Katana kit (several months after writing this post) and 2 very highly trained, skilled and professional electrical engineers have poured over it and cannot find an 'electrical' reason why this unit does not work. In other words, in their opinion it is most likely a software issue rather than hardware.

They have tested everything from A-Z and even re-worked a couple of parts of the unit to be 100% sure.

Much head scratching later, I have it handed back to me with a 'Good luck' and 'let us know if you ever get it going again'.

I've pretty much given up on DC as the main thing I was after (a very early Tomb Raider dev disc) is now out of reach due to the seller moving to Australia and leaving everything in storage in the UK.

I hate waste though, so might eventually get unwrap it and have another bash at it. Lost enthusiasm for this one I think :-(

 

That's too bad. I was hoping you could get it fix.

Anyway, i understand your lost of enthusiasm

 

Did you ever connect it to your PC SCSI card and see if you get this screen when the PC is booting?:

Where * is any number 0-7, used once.

 

I bought a suitable card and it turned up broken

My luck with DC material has been pretty poor. Ever get the impression someone was trying to tell you something? ;-)

 

Oops! I didn't see this before - could probably have helped sourcing parts! Oh well, glad you got that part sorted!

Shame the thing won't boot. I'd offer to take a look, but unfortunately I don't have the time at the moment. Hopefully you will re-spark the interest one day, though ;-)

 

If the Tomb Raider beta disc turns up again then I suspect I'll regain some interest. Thanks for the offer and perhaps (if you have time) you could assist via PM if I get around to setting it up again?

 

So you've never actually connected this unit to a PC? I say it's still worth it to get a working SCSI card.

 

No, I've never so much as managed a peep from the unit beyond lights coming on the front panel. That said, my mate (one of the electrical engineers) did have it for several months) so I've really only spent a couple of days with the unit. It's currently wrapped up in the attic and I'll get around to it soon. Will try and obtain another SCSI card.

 

Assembler, that's the first time I've ever heard that. Do you know if it's known what causes it (faulty parts / hot swapping / too many connected devices)?

 

This item is being offered in Marketplace as a £50+ trade for anything at all lol - just take it off my hands!

 

Right, as a final throw at the unit I was offered all the material I would require to get the Katana possibly up and running again. The offer still stands however, if I am unable to get it going, then it's gone!

I found a PC, plonked Win2k on it, installed an Adaptec 2940U SCSI card, set the Katana kit as described elsewhere, and booted the PC. Although the Adaptec SCSI is recognised I still don't get any mention of the Katana itself showing up.

Once the PC has booted I have tried to uninstall the SCSI card, obtain new drivers etc and thus far I have not had any joy.

The Katana is the correct revision for the SDK I have (I checked), the SCSI card appears to be working (well, it is at least found), despite the on-board LED (red) not lighting up (is this right?)

I even tried installing the SDK, revising the APSI firmware and still no joy!

It's not looking good...

Right, I have the SCSI A set to 3 (as suggested), I am using an old CRT monitor attached to the Katana VGA port, I've used the correct SCSI card, I appear to have the correct drivers all installed. Something is either seriously wrong with the Katana or I am missing something here. :-(

 

The Katana was powered on before the PC, correct?

When Windows loads, do you see the Katana's internal hard drive listed among the other drives?

 

Are any SCSI terminators connected to it? Try booting the PC (if you haven't already) around a minute after you've booted the Dev.Box.

If you don't get this screen:

...then yeah, looks like you've been performing plastic surgery on an already dead unit.