Amiga Video Toaster / Flyer FAQs
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      Flyer Will Not Initialize After the First Cold Boot

Product: Flyer

Platforms: 3000T 4000 4000T

Problem: Once the Flyer is initialized for the first time after a cold boot, the Flyer will not initialize after subsequent warm or cold boots, unless it is removed and re-installed in the slot, or the system is left off for a considerable time (anywhere from 20 minutes to overnight) before being powered up again.

The capacitors in the power supply in some Amigas will not discharge quickly enough, leaving the Flyer's gates lingering in a random pattern instead of the all-off pattern. This problem is being encountered more frequently, now that many systems are equipped with power-saving drives. Drives used to bleed off the power remaining in the power supply's capacitors as they spun down at power-off, but newer drives cannot be depended upon to do so.

The user can attach some drive or device to to accomplish this (older large capacity hard drives can do this), or may need to replace the power supply, or have a repair facility correct this problem.

Units particularly sensitive to this issue are A4000 Desktop units retro-fitted into a "Hi Flyer" case. The Hi Flyer has an extra power supply, and the expansion card daughterboard supplied by Expansion Systems (and the cards plugged into it) can be jumpered to either get its power from the Amiga motherboard and power supply, or from the auxiliary Hi Flyer power supply. It is very easy in this system to have one power supply fairly heavily loaded, and the other power supply with little load. Experimentation with the power jumpers on the Expansion Systems daughtercard and the routing of power to the internal hard drives and other components may eventually eliminate the symptoms.