• Registered: 2012-01-04
  • Posts: 1

Topic: Problem with powering up Acuson XP 128

When powering up our Ultrasound machine Acuson XP 128 only one line appears on top of the black screen. It is blinking and "welcomes to Acuson systems 1993 to 1999".:/
I have been running the testing described on this homepage and the result was no fail.
I have attached different ultrasound applications to the sockets.
When this blinking message appeares on the screen nothing happenes when pressing every keyboard sign.

Can You encircle the problem?

With kind reguards from Kiel/Northern Germany,

Dr. Gorch Stegen

  • Todd
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • From: Oceanside, CA
  • Registered: 2009-02-05
  • Posts: 297

Re: Problem with powering up Acuson XP 128

Dr. Stegen,

I saw your emails as well, and apologize for not replying sooner. The end of 4th quarter is always overly busy.

As for the ultrasound system, remove the probes from the system to ensure that they aren't causing any issues with the front end board. Turn the system on and let it run the power-on diagnostics test (the blinking "welcome" bar). If nothing happens after 10-15 minutes, then there could be a failure in one of the EPROMs that holds the system software.

Unfortunately, without having an EPROM reader it will not be possible for you to check the SYSCON chips on the OC3 board to verify that their checksums are all correct.

Basically, EPROMs are integrated circuit devices that retain electronic information on a silicon chip. Over time and continuous use, they degrade, and some sectors of information are corrupted. They will at some time need to be "flashed" or reprogrammed with the original information. An EPROM reader is a device that interfaces with the chip via pin sockets and a computer program designed to make reading/writing information to chips considerably easier. A checksum is similar to a checklist, only it's in hexadecimal format. The checksum will be listed on the top of the EPROM, usually on the Acuson sticker that was first put on the chip. They're 4 digits, alphanumeric.. for example: C6A5. If the checksum of the chip does not match the checksum on the sticker, then there are errors in the chips programming and it will need to be erased and reprogrammed. Most of these EPROMs are erasable, however you will need to remove the sticker and place them under UV light for roughly 30-40 minutes - sometimes this does not erase them entirely, or it damages them permanently.

The OC3 (output controller) is a PCB (printed circuit board) located in the Scan Converter card cage (upper region of the ultrasound system) that houses the 4 SYSCON (I'm assuming this stands for system configuration) chips as well as a few other controlling EPROMs. If any one of these chips fails the system will behave erratically.

Unfortunately... without having more information, I can't tell you for a certainty that the board is the cause of the issue.

If you have a chance to try what I've recommended in the first paragraph, please let me know the outcome and we can go from there.

Universal Diagnostic Solutions

Todd's Website