Trying to get passed square one

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markjp
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 6:59 pm

Trying to get passed square one

Post by markjp »

My son has just inherited a Dragon 32. When we connected it to the tv and switched it on we just get a green square. No text ir anything. Any ideas?
fbnbmns
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2016 7:11 am

Re: Trying to get passed square one

Post by fbnbmns »

Hi markjp,

first of all welcome to the Dragon Archive Forums :)

Regarding to the fact, that you have a green square you have a PAL Model. (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Could you make a photo of the motherboard of the Dragon and post it here?

Cheers,
Fabian
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tormod
Posts: 416
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 12:06 pm
Location: Switzerland
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Re: Trying to get passed square one

Post by tormod »

Hi Mark. welcome! The good thing is that your video chip (6847 VDG) and circuitry seems to work :) I don't know if a broken SAM or CPU, or even a partly broken VDG, can cause this, but I know a bad power supply can. I once powered the Dragon accidentally through the printer port from a USB port, and the green empty square appeared. So check all voltage levels going to the motherboard.

The best thing would be to poke around with an oscilloscope, otherwise I'd suggest exchanging the socketed ICs with known good ones.
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