µA1-C only shows a black screen - Now working again!

This morning when I turned on my µA1 there was a slight delay before the power light went on which I found odd but since I had the KVM switched to the PC which I sometimes do while it's booting up I didn't notice until switching it to the µA1 that there was no display. Turning the µA1 off and back on again this time with the KVM switch turned to the µA1 there was no display at all even for U-Boot .

I of course immediately checked that the monitor cable wasn't loose but that was not the case. Looking at the HDD led it is lit for a while immediately after I turn on the computer but then goes off and doesn't show any activity after that so it doesn't seem that it's booting up OS4.1.

Sounds like a job for a serial cable and see if the machine is actually doing anything.

Simon

battery changed?

@Rigo

I thought of that but unfortunately my PC doesn't have a serial port.

@Ricossa

I changed it not too long ago because I was having problems.

@salass00

Have a look at the battery which is on the mobo : it is often the cause of such a black/grey screen when it is discharged.

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Acording to your signature you have a Sam 440 Ep, doesnt that one have a serial port? =)

otherwise you can buy usb-rs232 adaptors for almost nothing on ebay.

I got it working again by taking out the battery for a while and putting it back in. This unfortunately reset the U-boot settings so I had to set them how I want them again but fortunately I don't use many custom U-boot settings so that didn't take that much work and the µA1-C is working perfectly again !!!

Good to See that your µA1-C hasn't died

@salass00

The fact that removing the battery for a while & it booted after installing again, could mean the voltage is low. The battery voltage will increase a very small amount if its load is removed, maybe just enough to get the system to boot. If possible, measure the battery voltage in circuit or just buy a new one, the boot problem will return if it is the battery. When I had a sil680ide card in my micro, I noticed that the battery voltage went down faster, a lot faster.

@sundown

Well I have the same problem today again so I guess you're right and the battery needs to be replaced with a fresh one.

Just tried with two new CR2032 batteries (fresh from the shop). Neither of them worked (both producing a black screen and no U-boot) . Putting back the old battery I was able to get the µA1-C to boot normally again, but I guess when I turn it on tomorrow morning I will have them same black screen again.

I returned the two non-working batteries to the store and got two new ones (both identical to the one I have in my µA1), neither of them showed any sign of working .

Either it's a bad batch of batteries or the µA1 is extremely picky about it's battery.

Also an odd thing I noticed was this morning when I plugged in the power cord (we have them out at nights because of the possibility of lightning causing damage to electronics) I was hearing some strange sounds and when I looked around I noticed that some lights on the µA1 were going going on and off even though it wasn't turned on. I pulled the power plug on the µA1 and after a while it stopped .

The µA1 working fine now though after I removed the old battery and put it back in and I'm typing this from OWB running on it, but removing/reinserting the battery every time I want to use the µA1 doesn't seem like much of a solution to me .

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It is sounds like the noise of a tired PSU. Parts of it is working even when the machine is turned off. There are some capacitors that could leak its electrolyte by time. A power supply circuit with defective capacitors can do strange effects and may die slowly. If you can't replace the PSU just try to open it and check those parts.

More about this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

@lazi

I guess you may be right. I opened up the PSU but couldn't see anything obviously wrong with the capacitors but now I can't get the µA1 to boot at all .

@salass00

If you have no other PSU to check it, maybe you could try disconnecting every device (HDD, CD, add-on card) from the motherboard except the monitor and try to boot. That lowers the power consumption and maybe that help the PSU to start normally. However that would be just a check to see if the MB is fine.

Any luck yet?

Yeah - Any luck?

I've placed an order for a new case+PSU (same as the one I have now) so currently I am waiting for it.

The new case I ordered arrived in the post today. I will try installing the µA1 in it tomorrow.

Let us know how you got on.