[ETO_Alpha] Alpha 87A Alphamax issue

[kk2ed at comcast.net]

Good Evening, 

I recently purchased an Alpha 87A, and the original purchaser provided me with the Alphamax upgrade kit, which Alpha sent him, but he never installed.  It consists of a PAL (U9) and an eprom (U7) which are to be changed out. The new eprom is labled "V1P00-1", while the old one is labeled 108G". I replaced the PAL and eprom, and installed the berg jumper, as per the included instructions.  However, when completed, the amplifier hard faults off within 10 seconds of power up.   

I immediately pulled the new eprom, and reinstalled the original eprom, then removed the new berg jumper, and re-assembled the amp.  It works perfectly with the old eprom once again. As per the instructions, the new PAL can remain in place if/when reverting to the older software eprom. 

Just to be sure, I tried the procedure again, with the same results. The worst part is the eprom's location, so it requires pulling the front panel each time! 

The only thing I can guess is that the eprom lost some "bits" from sitting in a box the past 9 years or so.  Or, the eprom was programmed improperly from the get-go. 

I have eprom burning equipment here in my shop, so burning another eprom (or erasing/re-burning this one) would not be an issue, but the bin image file is not available online anywhere as far as I can tell. Therefore, even if I read the current eprom I have in my hands, I can't verify it's contents. 

Of course, this had to happen on a weekend, so I can't even call Alpha (now RFC) until Monday. 

Would anyone happen to have an image of the 87A's Alphamax-capable eprom contents, or at least know the CRC checksum? 

Anyone else experience a similar situation? 

Thanks, 

Eric 

K2WD