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When my 5020 shipped I received it and had a similar issue. It turned out that the video card just did not work. I tried it out on my PC and also had a blank screen without signal. It was a 550 RX.

I didn't see that you swapped your video card from your 5020 to 5040. Could it really be that the same thing happened to you?

First, I would contact Amedia for support. They built it, and presumably they did some QA before shipping it.

I built my own X5000 with a motherboard shipped from Amigakit. I had sourced a Radeon HD 7860 and connected via HDMI but it wouldn't boot past the splash screen. I took a 5450 from a SAM and it booted. Somehow, I eventually got the 7860 working, initially thru DVI and finally HDMI.

Would you be able to try a different card, maybe the one from your 5020 as you know it works?

@Magic

If it's been thrown abuot a generally abused in transit it could be that the video card has become partially unseated. Best bet is to open the case, have a look inside and make sure nothing has come loose.

Mine was shipped from the UK and i believe in the box was a note or maybe they send a email to make sure everything is seated including ram and all the connectors. This is basic trouble shooting and after that you can go balistic. As mentioned before the Graphics card might be a culprit. Hope you find the issue real quick, good luck and congrats on the 5040

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@Magic

Good to hear you got it working!

I would still try and contact Amedia. They may be able to send you a replacement. I don't suppose there was any kind of insurance on the delivery you can claim back?

The RX 500 Polaris cards are the most powerful GFX cards you can get for the X5000, so I would recommend trying to get a replacement, either the RX550 or the RX560. The latest version of Enhancer allows video players such as Emotion to access the GPU hardware, so you can play 1080p video smoothly. The downside is that you lose the ability to soft-boot the machine, and there's no Linux or MorphOS drivers so you won't be able to use alternate OSes (although I think Skateman may have a complicated workaround for this?).

Failing that, I would go for a Southern Islands card (7xxx HD). I believe they will eventually get access to GPU hardware, plus they can be soft booted and will run Linux (although not MorphOS). I used to have a Radeon 7850 HD which was a good card.

Cannot remember if I tested out the RX 550 that somehow broke during shipping for me. My tests went as far as trying it in a PC and determining that it was broken because it didn't show a screen. Furthermore, the fact that the GPU red light came on the motherboard of my 12 year old PC motherboard.

Do not think I never even tried basic checks to see if any of the live rails were shorted to ground. For whatever reason, those 550 RX seem to be delicate. I ended up upgrading to a 560 RX anyway. I still have the RX 550. Probably will get around to doing some basic checks at some point. Possibly a a bad capacitor, or busted mosfet.

Regardless, pleased you got it sorted out.

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@Magic

Sounds like faulty hardware to me. If it were just a software issue, then a 12 hour discharge should have solved it.

Did you disconnect it from the mains completely during this time? If not, try that. I have a weird issue with my Radeon R7 240, where I sometimes need to disconnect power to the machine entirely for a minute, before the screen will start up again.

Those LEDs that are on my give a clue as to what's happening, but you'll need to find someone who knows what those indicators mean.

I hope you can get it fixed. My X5000/40 hasn't had any of the trouble that yours has, so this is definitely not normal.

Hans

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Hi,

I don't think the Boing Bag animation works in anyone's machine.

Whilst the 5040 has been acting up, did you try testing your replacement rx 550 in the Windows machine again?

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@Magic

Quote:
My X5000/020 is powered by a 400W PSU (Be quiet! Pure Power 10), and the machine has a 500GB SSD, a DVD drive, a Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX560 card (the 45W version), and a PCI sound card. Never had power issues; knock on wood.

@Magic

Can you run both X5000s at once? If so, you could connect a serial cable between them and perhaps see (on the /020) what is wrong with the /040.

The X5000 only needs a sniff of electricity. Your graphics card will consume more than the rest of the machine.

Three things to test:

1. Open the machine in a place where you can really get inside it - plenty of light, on the kitchen bench or somewhere.
Remove the screw holding the gfx card and remove the card. With a plastic eraser, run over the PCI-e connector (both sides) lightly. Don't touch the connector with your fingers, but clean off the eraser dust with a small, dry paintbrush.
With the brush, clean the inside of the motherboard connector.
Replace the card and check that the card is not pulled crooked when you tighten the screw. You can bend the bracket slightly to make the screw fit properly.
Repeat for any other PCI-e cards.

2. Check the 3V CR2032 coin cell. Sometimes suppliers leave a small piece of plastic insulator in the socket to prevent the cell from discharging in storage. If you have a voltmeter, check the voltage from the exposed side to chassis - it should be 3.0 to 3.3 V. Less than 3.0 V and it must be replaced (but the X5000 will run with no coin battery in place).

3. Reseat the SATA cable(s). They are notorious for developing bad contact after a time. Make sure that the cable is straight and not pulling the connector to one side - you can bend the cable to make it sit straight.

I don't get it. Why are these machines more susceptible to loose connections than "normal" pcs?

With a PC, you can just "slap" a graphics card into the slot. You can half-assed plug a sata cable in and there are no issues.

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@Magic

Don't forget it has to be a so-called "null-modem" cable, not a regular serial cable.

See more about the serial debugging features here:

https://wiki.amigaos.net/wiki/Advanced_Serial_Debugging_Guide

Best regards,

Niels

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