Blank Output from QL / Dodgy Trump Card

[RWAP]

I have been testing some more QLs today - managed to get another nice one sorted out ready to be boxed up and sold

I did however come across a rather peculiar QL (JM ROM) - plugged into my monitor on its own and it seems really nice - however, as soon as I connect my Trump Card, there is no picture on the monitor and the QL does not start up (as F1/F2 do not work).

There are no bent pins in the edge connector

Does anyone have any ideas what might cause this? So far as I know, the Trump Card does not use its own memory test routine otherwise I would have thought that it had picked up a dodgy RAM chip on the QL itself.

Actually, that brings me onto another problem with my Trump Card - I have tried this on various QLs, but find that in the middle of copying files from disk to microdrive (or RAM disk) - the QL sometimes hangs. It is not down to heat, as resetting the QL can let it work for another 20 minutes or so, or it might work for 2 minutes.

It only ever seems to stop working when copying files from disk.

Even more oddly .... (and this is VERY puzzling) I have made some working copies of the Psion programs for a customer. To do this, I copy the files from disk to RAM disk and then from there to microdrive. Do a FORMAT ram1_mdv2 to check that the microdrive has copied fully and it has.

One of the copies I made of Abacus then starts up on the customer's QL with a blank space at the top (where the menu should appear) and you cannot use the spreadsheet. Other copies made in this way worked. He sent the cartridge back to me and FORMAT ram1_mdv1 still shows no faults on the cartridge, but it doesn't work on my QLs either...

I replaced this and it worked, but the customer asked me to make another 2 sets - oddly some of those cartridges also just hang - no errors when loading... They were made on a different QL too...

The only factor seems to be the Trump Card - any ideas what might be happening - maybe a faulty RAM chip on the Trump Card, could cause this?

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi Rich,

If you plug in Minerva, the ram test will display an error code and a programme on the support disk will tell you the memory location in the internal ram and identify the ram chip.

[RWAP]

That I know - but one of the QLs I have tried it on is a Minerva QL, and it passes the RAM test without any problems....

[1024MAK]

@ Rich - the intermittent problem sounds like it may be a dry solder joint or other poor contact somewhere.

Mark