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54820A scope display problems

Question asked by vorpal on Sep 10, 2012
Latest reply on Nov 7, 2015 by swperk

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Hi All,

I am having trouble with my 54820A scope. I came to work one day and turned on the scope and the graticule and input signal did not display. The graphical and full screen interfaces appear to both be working fine except neither displays a graticule or the input signal. For the input signal, I placed the probe on the front panel square wave output. I tried quick measure and that worked. I have reset the scope using Ctrl-Alt-Del and that didn't help.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
Vorpal

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ksmith Sep 11, 2012 7:42 AM
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Unlikly but possible, the display resoluton got changed somehow. I believe it is suppsoed to be 640x480, true color (24 bit). I could be wrong, so take note of the ettings before changing them.

To get into Windows, use Ctrl and Esc.

But more than likely the scope is at the end of its days. The original Infiniiums were very nice scopes and many are still working well, but time takes its toll on 15 year old motherboards and computer hardware. Certainly it could also be the acquisition hardware... try a self test...
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vorpal Sep 11, 2012 12:04 PM
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Thanks for the info. I checked the display information and it was set to 640x480 (true color, 24 bit). That looks OK and I didn't change anything. The self test passes. This probably won't turn up anything but, I am going to run a scan disk. Maybe you are right, the scope has seen better days and its time is up! I will keep on looking into this. It just seems strange that after boot up the FW successfully runs to where the full screen interface appears but the graticule doesn't.

Thanks again,
Doug
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- ksmith @ vorpal on Sep 12, 2012 1:56 PM
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  hi,
  
  so did u do a default setup, or factory default setup, under the "control" or maybe "setup" drop down?
  
  under the cahnnel menu, there may be a "probe config" button or soemthing like that. make sure that there is nothing like "user defined probe" or "external scaling" turned on. (can u tell I have not seen one in quite some time?)
  
  assuming neither of the above fixes... it is likely worthwhiel to do a self calibration... that shud also report any hw failures....
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swperk Nov 7, 2015 5:21 AM
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Hi Doug,

I have a 54820A that has the identical problem as yours. It boots fine, responds to inputs, and basically does everything except display a graticule and the traces. In fact, a print preview of the screen shows the graticule and traces, it's just that they aren't making it to the display!

The service manual says that the LCD display system consists of two interconnected PCI cards. The first card interfaces to the acquisition system to get the trace data points. It then feeds that data to the display driver card (the one with the VGA connector on the back) that generates all of the rest of the display elements. I hooked up an external monitor to the VGA connector and the display on it is identical to the internal VGA: everything is displayed except the graticule and traces.

My working assumption is that the problem is with the card that interfaces to the acquisition system. That card has a soldered-in coin cell backup battery. I have not measured it but I have to assume that it's dead, or nearly so, after all these years. Other than replacing it, I'm not sure what else I can do other than find another display card from a parts donor scope.

Did you ever figure out the problem with yours?

Regards,
Stan
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54820A scope display problems

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