Hi, and thanks for visiting my blog!
Recently I’ve been struggling with getting my Sam440ep running AmigaOS 4.1 to work properly. I therefore thought I’d share some information about this in case someone else out there is experiencing the same.
For those wondering what on Earth a Sam440ep is, here you can find more information:
IntuitionBase – Your Guide To AmigaOS4.x And The AmigaOne
What happened is that after the BIOS-screen, the AmigaOS 4.1 splash screen appeared as normal, but once it reached Workbench, it rebooted automatically.
First solution was to boot without startup-sequence. Fortunately, the computer worked fine in AmigaDOS for simple tasks. I therefore deleted screenmode.prefs to get a clean start. Rebooted. Then managed after a while to boot into Workbench and it was set in BootVGA mode. This is a limited screenmode with few colors and low resolutions. No games or programs would work, as it would reboot under heavier graphics load.
Then I removed backgrounds from Workbench and Windows, and finally managed to boot into Workbench in a higher screenmode, but…the Sam rebooted everytime I tried to run something demanding a bit more graphics. However, it did not reboot of itself when reaching Workbench, so it is clear the M9 graphics chips need some support.
As suggestion by several folks on the Amigans.net Discord, such as afxgroup and Elwood, the solution is most likely to mount a small fan directly on the M9 graphics chip on the Sam440ep motherboard.
I have now placed an order for this, and if all goes well, it’ll arrive this weekend. 🙂 Hopefully this will being my trusty Sam back in business again.
ACube Systems did post a recommendation to use a fan on the M9 earlier this year:
I must admit to not having followed that advice earlier, but hopefully it is not too late. 😉
That was all for now, thanks for reading and I wish you fun with the old computers!
Best wishes,
Puni – AmigaOldskooler
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