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Author Topic: EP with working 08-47 Nick (Read 7996 times)

Offline Wolfgang

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EP with working 08-47 Nick
« on: 2020.October.16. 16:07:20 »
Unfortunately, I have three EPs with 08-04 Nick. I would like to get a fully working 08-47 Nick without the blinking pixels.:smt022

Please offer anything from full computer to just the mainboard.

Thanks.
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Offline elmer

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Re: EP with working 08-47 Nick
« Reply #1 on: 2020.October.16. 20:45:31 »
Quote from: Wolfgang on 2020.October.16. 16:07:20
I would like to get a fully working 08-47 Nick without the blinking pixels.:smt022

When do you see blinking pixels, is it on the boot screen, or just within games?

My revision 4 motherboard with 08-04 Nick doesn't seem to be showing any propblems (yet) on a CRT ... are you viewing on a CRT, or upscaling to an LCD?


Apart from that ... good luck with the hunt!
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Offline Wolfgang

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Re: EP with working 08-47 Nick
« Reply #2 on: 2020.October.16. 21:26:55 »
Quote from: elmer on 2020.October.16. 20:45:31
When do you see blinking pixels, is it on the boot screen, or just within games?

My revision 4 motherboard with 08-04 Nick doesn't seem to be showing any propblems (yet) on a CRT ... are you viewing on a CRT, or upscaling to an LCD?


Apart from that ... good luck with the hunt!
Only in games and demos or the little BASIC test program on my TFT
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Offline ergoGnomik

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Re: EP with working 08-47 Nick
« Reply #3 on: 2020.October.16. 22:01:21 »
One Hungarian forum member had some similar problem with his machine a long ago. He had purple discolouration and jittery pixels. It turned out that it was caused by the TV encoding circuitry because the B&W output on the video connector exhibited no clues of such problems. See here. Unfortunately only in Hungarian. But that's only a vague idea from someone without any experience in electronics.
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Offline gflorez

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Re: EP with working 08-47 Nick
« Reply #4 on: 2020.October.16. 22:32:40 »
Wolfgang knows what he says when he mentions the two Nicks.

The differences on the defective Nick are: strange pixel glows on multicolour screens, and bad external colour input. Also there are some EPs more affected than others. The cooper heat-sink over Nick seems to slightly attenuate the issue.

None of the two errors happen on a normal use. Nick Toop, the creator, said it was a production defect, his high end design was too much advanced for the manufacturing techniques on these days.
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Offline Wolfgang

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Re: EP with working 08-47 Nick
« Reply #5 on: 2020.October.17. 01:27:19 »
All three EPs on my workbench have the 08-04 Nick and exhibit the problematic pixels. One is really bad, two are acceptable (at least in most games). Reducing the temperature (cooling spray) reduces the phenomenon, but it never disappears completely.

Another good test for the problem seem to be interlace pictures.
   
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Offline geco

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Re: EP with working 08-47 Nick
« Reply #6 on: 2020.October.17. 18:13:59 »
Yes, interlace pictures are good for test, but as i experinced faulty Nicks do not like the attribute mode, ex you can check it with new version of The Hobbit, but old speccy conversions produce also strange behaviour, ex the screen jumps a bit, and at the bottom of the border moving black lines appears, by the time the number is increasing in Exploding Fist, status line contains strange and changing characters in Turbo Esprit. My original ep has also faulty Nick, and i experinced thi behaviour in my childhood, but did not cause any problem for me :-D I did not expeience the purple pixels, which cause more problem, which appears on attribute screen palette changed in each line. I bought another EP after 2000, and it has also faulty Nick, and i guess the Egyptian also what i bought in this year.
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Offline elmer

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Re: EP with working 08-47 Nick
« Reply #7 on: 2020.October.18. 00:26:58 »
Quote from: Wolfgang on 2020.October.16. 21:26:55
Only in games and demos or the little BASIC test program on my TFT

Thank you for that link, it was really helpful to read that thread! :cool:


Quote from: gflorez on 2020.October.16. 22:32:40
The differences on the defective Nick are: strange pixel glows on multicolour screens
Quote from: elmer on 2020.October.16. 20:45:31
My revision 4 motherboard with 08-04 Nick doesn't seem to be showing any propblems (yet) on a CRT

OK, now that I know what to look for, I can confirm that my Egyptian EP64 has the problem too! :cry:

It just takes a minute or two for my Nick chip to warm up enough so that the flashing pixels appear.

I can also see the same problem if I run WP 2.6 ... the two text lines at the bottom of the screen start to show pixel flickering after a few minutes when the Nick chip warms up.


Quote from: elmer on 2020.October.16. 20:45:31
Apart from that ... good luck with the hunt!

Well, I guess that now I'm going to be on the hunt for a motherboard/computer with an 08-47 Nick chip as well.

Jeez, I really wish that I hadn't given away my lovely Enterprise 128 when I moved to America! :oops:


In the meantime, does anyone have any hints or tips for removing the heatsink on my Nick chip so that I can try to replace it with a better one?
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Offline emptiness

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Re: EP with working 08-47 Nick
« Reply #8 on: 2020.October.25. 18:19:58 »
Quote from: elmer on 2020.October.18. 00:26:58
In the meantime, does anyone have any hints or tips for removing the heatsink on my Nick chip so that I can try to replace it with a better one?

I'd be interested in knowing what heatsinks people are using. I'm trying to get a bare Enterprise 64 motherboard back to working condition and it has no heatsinks on the chips at all.
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Offline BruceTanner

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Re: EP with working 08-47 Nick
« Reply #9 on: 2020.October.25. 18:34:27 »
You can get ceramic heatsinks these days which are smaller, lighter and more efficient than copper or aluminium ones. I haven't tried one on a Nick but I have used one on a 7805 and it was better than I would have believed possible looking at it - I was very impressed!

Lots on eBay uk if you search for "ceramic heatsink", or from the usual Mouser etc.

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Offline gflorez

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Re: EP with working 08-47 Nick
« Reply #10 on: 2020.October.25. 18:59:09 »
I didn't imagined they existed... I want to try it, thanks.
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Offline Judge

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Re: EP with working 08-47 Nick
« Reply #11 on: 2020.November.04. 14:12:07 »
I got the ceramic heat sinks. I will test it on my spare 64/128 motherboard ...

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

There is another good news: Ceramic heat sink is not dangerous to other circuits if it accidentally falls off the chip. :)
« Last Edit: 2020.November.04. 15:06:30 by Judge »
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