Blizzard 2060 in Amiga 2000 Problem

[ljones0]

Hello all  !      I'm having some hardware issues here that I'm trying to sort out regarding an old Amiga 2000 and a (slightly less old) Blizzard 2060 Accelerator card. So far - to date - I haven't had all that much luck. Let me explain and give a bit of background history.    
 
Way back when (ok, maybe not *that* long ago) I used to have an Amiga 1500. This was back in the early 1990s though; from memory it was bought from WTS Electronics. Not too long after, it broke down and I had to get commodore out to repair it (WTS told me at the time that my warranty was with commodore themselves; remember this is the early 90s).    Not too long after it failed again and well .... to cut a long story short after multiple promices to come out and repair my amiga they never did do this properly even after chasing them. Eventually what should have taken let's say top weight 6 weeks took 6 months.  
 
 In the end they changed the whole unit for a second hand one (and one that may have been faulty too!).  Unfortunatly I don't have that old A1500 any more (I finally got rid of it in the early 2000s) at around the late 90s I managed to get hold of a brand new Blizzard 2060 accelerator card. Again - from memory - I bought it largely becasue at the time I seem to remember Amiga hardware was being sold off very cheaply as most people were around that time switching over to x86.  
 
 I tried that card in the A1500 back then (late 90s) but could never get it to do anything. Eventually I returned the card to where I bought it (I forget from where now) and they told me over the phone they tested in just about every way they could and told me it was working 100% fine in their machines, and that the problem was with my computer.    
 
 I never managed to get it to work in the A1500 and the 2060 never got used at all. Eventually I got rid of the amiga (probably incorrectly thinking at the time I'd never be able to repair it) but kept the card.  Now, roll on to 2012 and our time now. I managed to get my hands on an Amiga 2000 from ebay.  Not in the best condition but working; the battery had corroded but mine seems to have got "lucky" in one sense as the battery corrosion (it had leaked unfortunatly) came from the opposite direction of all the ones I've seen online -- all the battery corosion pictures I've seen of A2000s all have the gunk heading towards the CPU; mine was from the other end and not towards the CPU.    
 
 The other (opposite side) of the battery leg was rusty btw! Anyway I removed the dud battery (in fact it pratically fell out due to one leg being rusty).  It took several attempts at powering up but I found this old A2000 was indeed working though it took several attempts to start up (I also found a genlock board, memory expansion and hard drive+controller inside). I could boot up to workbench, run programs, sound seems to be working, mouse is working, display is ok etc.  
 
 Remembering (hey, taking around 15 years is that a record?)  the old unused blizzard 2060 card I decided to give it a try in the A2000 (bought from ebay).   To make sure and to try to minimise problems I took out all other cards, the genlock the memory expansion and hard drive/controller.  
 
 Unfortunatly I didn't get very far. The A2000 (which works ok without the blizzard card in it - to a fashion, rememembering it needed several power cycles) would either just stop dead on a white screen or after getting past the white screen go to a black screen and do nothing at all.  Also unfortunatly not having my A1500's keyboard any more (which possibly got thrown out with the A1500) I had to buy a lyra 2 pc/amiga keyboard adapter; plugging this in with the blizzard board the computer gets stuck at a white screen; remove it, it gets past the white screen but goes black and does nothing. (The lyra 2 is working fine btw without the blizzard card).  
 
 The A2000 is a WB2.x machine, 8372A ECS chipset though I am not sure about the motherboard revision number. One number states 'rev 6' but another on a sticker says 'rev 6.2'. After reading posts from around the 'net I've read  that a lot of A2000 power supplies being pretty old now are possibly not able any more to power accelerator boards ( I don't know if this is the case with mine). I must admit even without the blizzard board in the computer it took several power up/power down (cycling power) to get it to boot and do something.    Does anyone know what could be wrong here at all?
 
PS, I apologise for any mistakes for some reason the forum post/text editor seemed to want to miss carriage returns x.x not sure why!
 
  ljones0

[magnetic]

Well u have a rev 6.2 and thats good. However, do you have the jumper settings right on the amiga 2000 motherboard and on the 2060?

[actung_bab]

I got dud amiga blizzard 2060 card in my amiga 2000 i was told mine was probley broken when i brought it , apprently somone tryed install 060 cpu arournd the wrong way and the logic chip needs re programing, which think is impossible as caompany no longer supports amiga . dce , if you hold down both mouse keys can you get into eraly start up and see what boards are showing up . my card didnt even show as ram board

[Kitch]

Sounds like you have the Blizzard 2060 I bought from overseas, it turned up D.O.A.
I had Anthony look at it but wasn't able to get it going but he pointed out that someone had tried to fit the 060 the wrong way around. I ended up selling it on Trademe as not working.
Lost a fair bit of money on that 2060, it was one of the few times I bought Amiga hardware from overseas.

[Kitch]

Ijones0, have you read through the manual for the 2060? I found a copy of the manual here. http://amiga.resource.cx/manual/Blizzard2060.pdf

[ljones0]

Thanks for all that though I'm not having much success with the 2060. I've checked over -- sorry, I should have pointed out I still have the manual for the blizzard 2060 (discovered quitely decomposing in the loft under a load of boxes). I've tried different jumper settings and following what it says, but to no avail. Also btw that blizzard card wasn't in the A2000 bought off ebay sorry if it sounded like that -- I bought the blizzard 2060 way back in the late 90s actually directly from a company (I can't remember where from now!), it wasn't in the A2000 off ebay. It's just sat around unused and gathering dust; assuming the company wasn't lying the last time it did anything was when it was tested by the company I bought it from after returning it to them. I must've given them my (then) home and work 'phone number as that's how I found out about them testing it, they called me at work!

I'm not able with the 2060 inside to get to the early startup. I either get a white or black screen x.x . I can get into this if I remove the card.

As a sort of postcript or addition to this story - and now that I remember it I also recall back in the early 90s (when I had the A1500) that I had a Powerpc board inside it as well. Nothing to do with the CPU of the same name, this was a board made by KCS (european company) and was basically an entire XT PC on a board. The CPU was on the board itself with video being done by the Amiga (so I could have VGA 16 Color but very sloooowly!). Originally bought it for my *very* old WB1.2 A500 (which I still have!) though eventually ended putting it into the A1500 via an adapter card that KCS sold at the time to convert the KCS "trapdoor" board into one which fits into an A1500 or A2000. And now I remember about it -- guess what -- that had problems in the A1500 as well (and this was before I even had the blizzard card). Had to go back to KCS a couple of times probably because of some sort of fault on my A1500 (which at the time I wouldn't have known about). As for the A500 I kept it and still have it now, was going to sell it or trade it in back in the early 90s (when I got the A1500) but was told (when asking about a trade-in) "nobody wants an old amiga with WB1.2 roms any more, has to be at least 1.3!". Sorry I'm going off topic.

As to the whereabouts of the board and adapter I'm not sure. They might even still be about. Maybe! The photocopied manuals I got with it are definately still about!

Anyways back on topic -- prehaps I should remove the 060 CPU and check it over and see if it's been put in the correct way at all? It dosen't look like it's ever been removed! And while I think of it .... although it's not possible to tell just by looking at them btw sometimes when chips die (for example memory chips) they get very hot. None of the chips on the blizzard seem to be getting like that. The 060 CPU just got a little warm though. To tell if it's round the right way I guess I'd also need to prize off the heatsink as well though x.x .

Would put a picture up here as well of the card, would that help at all?

I'm wondering if maybe possibly just prehaps this is some sort of power supply issue. The A2000 (ebay purchase) was being cranky right from the start and needed several power cycles just to get it to start up. I read somewhere maybe elsewhere on this board that more modern accelerators need a *lot* of power and that it may be too much for the power supply. Thinking about it how old is the PSU in the A2000 -- I'm guessing none are younger than 20 years of age now. To elminate this at least I've bought a ATX to Amiga power supply from amigakit. At the very least it should elimiate the power supply from the problem.

ljones0

[paul1981]

Unfortunatly I didn't get very far. The A2000 (which works ok without the blizzard card in it - to a fashion, rememembering it needed several power cycles) would either just stop dead on a white screen or after getting past the white screen go to a black screen and do nothing at all.
  ljones0

I think this is quite important. Your computer shouldn't need several power cycles to turn it on. So I'd fix that problem first, and then try it with the Blizzard card attached. Sounds like a capacitor problem on probably motherboard and PSU being as they're all so old now. There's also the reseating of the motherboard chips where possible.

I have a flaky A600 which sometimes GURUS on power on, and I suspect it needs new motherboard caps. Problem is I'm at the same time trying to test a memory expansion I bought for it recently that seems to work, but after a guru, I reboot and the memory disappears and I have to powercycle again, which sometimes doesn't always work and I get either a white screen continually or yellow/green, or a black screen which goes all weird and "out of range".

So definitely fix your motherboard issues alone first, as it may well be causing the blizzard to not function.

[ljones0]

I think this is quite important. Your computer shouldn't need several power cycles to turn it on. So I'd fix that problem first, and then try it with the Blizzard card attached. Sounds like a capacitor problem on probably motherboard and PSU being as they're all so old now. There's also the reseating of the motherboard chips where possible.

I have a flaky A600 which sometimes GURUS on power on, and I suspect it needs new motherboard caps. Problem is I'm at the same time trying to test a memory expansion I bought for it recently that seems to work, but after a guru, I reboot and the memory disappears and I have to powercycle again, which sometimes doesn't always work and I get either a white screen continually or yellow/green, or a black screen which goes all weird and "out of range".

So definitely fix your motherboard issues alone first, as it may well be causing the blizzard to not function.

Might have to check the capacitors though I hope they aren't bad. I'm not 100% sure if I can remove and replace them myself without causing any damage. I wonder how easy it is to test/replace them? It looks a lot easier than modern stuff whereby capacitors are the size (almost) of a full stop!

Well I got the PC power adapter eventually and I can say I've managed to advance forwards - slightly. I used the hard drive card (which was in the A2000 when I bought it) and the blizzard card inside the A2000. I was using the hard drive card so that I could at least have something which would boot to WB.

With memory installed in the blizzard card, no joy. Stuck at white screen. Without memory in the blizzard I got to the WB screen though the amiga acted very oddly. It loaded up to WB, but the mouse pointer was completely missing and I had a ludicrous amount of memory free (in the order of about 30 to 40K free).

I also removed, cleaned the socket (best I could) and reseated the 5271 chip (which I found out was the buster chip). Put the blizzard card back in with memory installed back in the blizzard but this time removing the hard drive (Since the blizzard card has a SCSI controller I was thinking *maybe* there's a conflict between it and the hard drive card that was originally in the amiga). More success this time -- although I had no WB to boot to, I got the purple incert disk animation the amiga gives you if it can't boot. Even had a mouse pointer too!

Still trying, right now its gone back to stuck at a white screen again x.x

ljones

[ljones0]

I think this is quite important. Your computer shouldn't need several power cycles to turn it on. So I'd fix that problem first, and then try it with the Blizzard card attached. Sounds like a capacitor problem on probably motherboard and PSU being as they're all so old now. There's also the reseating of the motherboard chips where possible.

I have a flaky A600 which sometimes GURUS on power on, and I suspect it needs new motherboard caps. Problem is I'm at the same time trying to test a memory expansion I bought for it recently that seems to work, but after a guru, I reboot and the memory disappears and I have to powercycle again, which sometimes doesn't always work and I get either a white screen continually or yellow/green, or a black screen which goes all weird and "out of range".

So definitely fix your motherboard issues alone first, as it may well be causing the blizzard to not function.

Might have to check the capacitors though I hope they aren't bad. I'm not 100% sure if I can remove and replace them myself without causing any damage. I wonder how easy it is to test/replace them? It looks a lot easier than modern stuff whereby capacitors are the size (almost) of a full stop!

Well I got the PC power adapter eventually and I can say I've managed to advance forwards - slightly. I used the hard drive card (which was in the A2000 when I bought it) and the blizzard card inside the A2000. I was using the hard drive card so that I could at least have something which would boot to WB.

With memory installed in the blizzard card, no joy. Stuck at white screen. Without memory in the blizzard I got to the WB screen though the amiga acted very oddly. It loaded up to WB, but the mouse pointer was completely missing and I had a ludicrous amount of memory free (in the order of about 30 to 40K free).

I also removed, cleaned the socket (best I could) and reseated the 5271 chip (which I found out was the buster chip). Put the blizzard card back in with memory installed back in the blizzard but this time removing the hard drive (Since the blizzard card has a SCSI controller I was thinking *maybe* there's a conflict between it and the hard drive card that was originally in the amiga). More success this time -- although I had no WB to boot to, I got the purple incert disk animation the amiga gives you if it can't boot. Even had a mouse pointer too!

Still trying, right now its gone back to stuck at a white screen again x.x


****UPDATE****

I might be having possible success. After trying various jumper settings (and after finding an old WB3.0 bootdisk) I managed to get to the WB screen again though it took many power cycles. I say success as the system is reporting a large amount of memory -- there's 32MB (2x16MB) on the blizzard card in 72 pin simms. WB reports 975536 graphics memory but 32844352 other mem. That *looks* like the 32MB showing up. In theroy if that's there then (again it is just a theroy) prephaps there is some life?

Just for information purposes btw, here's all the jumper settings I'm using. O the blizzard card -- eclock=open, cclock=closed, maprom=closed. On the A2000 mother board J101=2,3 J900=closed, J300=2,3 J301=open, J500=open.

In the blizzards' manual it mentins cclock being closed though I don't know what cclock (or eclock) do exactly.

Can't tell if the CPU is working at this stage. Though the memory is doing something......

ljones

[ljones0]

I think this is quite important. Your computer shouldn't need several power cycles to turn it on. So I'd fix that problem first, and then try it with the Blizzard card attached. Sounds like a capacitor problem on probably motherboard and PSU being as they're all so old now. There's also the reseating of the motherboard chips where possible.

I have a flaky A600 which sometimes GURUS on power on, and I suspect it needs new motherboard caps. Problem is I'm at the same time trying to test a memory expansion I bought for it recently that seems to work, but after a guru, I reboot and the memory disappears and I have to powercycle again, which sometimes doesn't always work and I get either a white screen continually or yellow/green, or a black screen which goes all weird and "out of range".

So definitely fix your motherboard issues alone first, as it may well be causing the blizzard to not function.

Might have to check the capacitors though I hope they aren't bad. I'm not 100% sure if I can remove and replace them myself without causing any damage. I wonder how easy it is to test/replace them? It looks a lot easier than modern stuff whereby capacitors are the size (almost) of a full stop!

Well I got the PC power adapter eventually and I can say I've managed to advance forwards - slightly. I used the hard drive card (which was in the A2000 when I bought it) and the blizzard card inside the A2000. I was using the hard drive card so that I could at least have something which would boot to WB.

With memory installed in the blizzard card, no joy. Stuck at white screen. Without memory in the blizzard I got to the WB screen though the amiga acted very oddly. It loaded up to WB, but the mouse pointer was completely missing and I had a ludicrous amount of memory free (in the order of about 30 to 40K free).

I also removed, cleaned the socket (best I could) and reseated the 5271 chip (which I found out was the buster chip). Put the blizzard card back in with memory installed back in the blizzard but this time removing the hard drive (Since the blizzard card has a SCSI controller I was thinking *maybe* there's a conflict between it and the hard drive card that was originally in the amiga). More success this time -- although I had no WB to boot to, I got the purple incert disk animation the amiga gives you if it can't boot. Even had a mouse pointer too!

Still trying, right now its gone back to stuck at a white screen again x.x

*UPDATE

For some reason my update got deleted

So (for a second time x.x) here's an update. I am now having a little bit more success -- I've managed to get through after many power cycles with the blizzard card in the system (and with 2X16MB 72 pin memory on the blizzard card) to the WB screen. I dug out an old Workbench 3 boot floppy and I am finding the memory is showing up or at least appears to. WB reports 975536 graphics mem but 32844280 other mem. Had to play a lot with jumper settings and cannot tell if 060 CPU is working or not yet.

Here's the Jumper settings I am using on the blizzard;

eclock=off
cclock=on (the manual says it's off by default....)
maprom=on

I have no idea what eclock/cclock changes exactly it dosen't say anything much in the manual x.x

On the amiga;
J900 = closed
J300 = 2,3
J101 = 2,3
J301 = open
J500 = open

Powering off and the back on again after a few seconds though, white screen is back.

ljones

[zipper]

If you have that memory available the CPU must work. But missing 060 libraries do cause problems.

[ljones0]

If you have that memory available the CPU must work. But missing 060 libraries do cause problems.

will remember that though I'm still having problems with this old amiga.

With the blizzard card in (and assuming the blizzard card is OK) the amiga's behaving a bit like an old car. You know the one  -- you put the key in and the car just won't "turn over" no matter how many times you try. But once in a blue moon, it fires and starts going.

Wonder what'd be stopping the amiga from just going? Something somehere in this amiga is not working 100% or dead...

*UPDATE

Ok here's something that is really odd. There's a jumper on the A2000s motherboard labelled J300. Apparently it detemines something called the "tick" signal. But here's the weird thing ..... starting from the amiga having a white screen and not going anywhere if I power off leave the amiga for a while (still off) and move the jumper to positions 1 and 2 the power on .... the system dosen't start properly but ends up in a power-up white screen crash and reset loop. Then if I power off quickly, move the jumper back to pins 2,3 and power on I get a guru! Click the mouse button and then the amiga starts up. Weird or what?

*UPDATE II

I gave the Amiga the "finger test", namely carefully putting my finger on the chips inside the amiga to see if any were running hot. Only 4 of the chips seemed to be producing any heat (leaving out the blizzard cards' CPU!) -- Paula, Denise,Fat lady and the 68000 CPU all generate just a little heat (definately not finger-burning not even close!!) the other chips don't seem to get warm at all. So it looks like my amiga's passed the finger test.

No sign of any bulging capacitors though I need to check more carefully.

ljones

[paul1981]

No sign of any bulging capacitors though I need to check more carefully.
ljones

Bulging or not, they can still be dried out/defective to the point of causing problems.

On the chip heat issue, the A600 I'm having a problem with has hot running chips, much hotter than another A600 I have. Does anyone know whether this is due to dried out capacitors? Or could it be different revisions of the chips used generate different amounts of heat? Even the 68000 CPU appears to get suprisingly hot. Is this normal? Mind you, I was using different two PSU's so not a fair test...maybe one of my PSU's has high Voltage. I'll have to check that tomorrow...

[ljones0]

Bulging or not, they can still be dried out/defective to the point of causing problems.

On the chip heat issue, the A600 I'm having a problem with has hot running chips, much hotter than another A600 I have. Does anyone know whether this is due to dried out capacitors? Or could it be different revisions of the chips used generate different amounts of heat? Even the 68000 CPU appears to get suprisingly hot. Is this normal? Mind you, I was using different two PSU's so not a fair test...maybe one of my PSU's has high Voltage. I'll have to check that tomorrow...

I'm no electronics expert but I guess it might be a possibility. Depends on if they have anything to do with supplying power I guess. Don't capacitors that have had it go open or closed circuit though? (Can't remember!).

I've been trying to look over my amiga motherboard btw and two of the tracks near the battery look a bit lousy. Here's a picture (warning -- large picture 300kb) ;

http://spfiles.no-ip.org/a2000-board1.jpg

the picture is a bit deciving as it looks different in different light and its dark here so I had to hold a torch and a camera at the same time (flash on the camera you can't see anything). I'll try for another picture tomorrow.

The tracks lead to a chip U801 an M6242B which appears to have something to do with the real time clock.

There are quite a lot of capacitors to look over on that A2000 board! Glad I have a DMM to check 'em with! (a UNI-T UT803).

ljones

[ljones0]

Better quality of the image above taken in daylight (and outside!)

http://spfiles.no-ip.org/a2000-board2.jpg

Those tracks aren't the greatest looking in the world. Note the  battery crud under R914 and its green leg!

ljones