Blizzard PPC + BVisionPPC: system unstable :-(

Dear Amiga 1200/BlizzardPPC freaks out there,

I recently bought a BlizzardPPC 603+ and BVisionPPC on ebay to give my old Amiga the speed up it deserves. Although the BlizzardPPC itself runs very well and stable, the machine gets unstable (freezes or crashes randomly) when the BVisionPPC is attached (even though it isn't in use yet, i.e. no CyberGraphX etc has been installed). I've already tried the following but the situation hasn't improved:
- Updated the BlizzardPPC flash ROM to the most recent version
- put a cooler on top of the Permedia 2 chip so I doesn't overheat
- used a PC PSU to get enough power for the Amiga
- fed additional power from the PSU to the floppy connector on the A1200's mainboard to give it more power

As I said: The BlizzardPPC itself runs stable, the system only starts freezing once the BVisionPPC is added. Are there any other things that can be done or tested to resolve the issue? Is it possible to feed the BVisionPPC or the BlizzardPPC directly with power (couldn't find any soldering pads on it)?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Best regards,
Christian

Try putting a floppy power cord from the new PSU onto the floppy power connector on the A1200 motherboard. This will help the motherboard get more power.

/Fred

Hi Fred,
thanks for the reply. But as I wrote: I did that already but it didn't help  :-(
Thanks,
CK

[Sodapop]

Well... I had the same problems... I tried all the possible tricks, without success !
Then, I decided to send back the PPC card to Phase5 (R.I.P. !), to see if they could do something... when I got it back, everything was ok, no more freezing or crashes or whatever !
The technical note about what they done on it was in german, and I don't remember it (maybe a rom problem)...
I don't know if DCE can still fix it, but I heard that some people never got their card back from them...
Try that anyway !

Cheers...

[PulsatingQuasar]

AFAIK

There were a batch of BlizzardPPC (early in the BlizzardPPC phase) that had problems with the flashROM. Everything was fine when not flashed but when flashed (needed for settings menu, BVision and GRex) the card became unstable.

DCE took quite some time to find this out! They now know what too look for so it will probably be an easy fix for them.

[Hardboy]

In my BVisionPPC it wasn´t enough to supply power at the floppy connector. I had to connect the power supply directly at the PPC-board. To do this, I had to cut the wires to the PPC-fan and then reconnecting them together with the Power-supply. You´ll HAVE TO reconnect the fan too.

[KennyR]

I have three power sources feeding my 5-year old BlizzardPPC:

* A 3.5" power connector connected to the A1200 floppy power point. This can get very hot. :-x

* A power connector fitted to the BPPC fan power.

* A power connector fitted to the original A1200 power point. This is fed via a 5.25" power connector. This was my last attempt at fixing my power problems, and it worked - or at least, it solved the crashes.

As you can see, the BPPC is a HUGE power hog, and you'll have problems no matter what the PSU. Before I set things up like this I blew two A1200 power bricks trying to squirt more power into the A1200 motherboard (even though I have a tower with a heavy duty PSU). I don't get crashes any more, but my A1200 still doesn't have enough juice to power my scandoubler. Bye-bye AGA. Pah.

[PulsatingQuasar]

A 3.5" power connector connected to the A1200 floppy power point. This can get very hot.

That's the only thing I did to my setup!!

I did direct a fan at the Permedia 2 because when the chip became hot I got visual artifacting.

[Karlos]

Heres how my hw is set up. First of all, power is pumped into both the original connector and the floppy port connector. Some tower setups only connect the -12VDC line through the original connector.

1) There are a couple of chips next to the PPC that can get way hot. I use a mica (non conducting ceramic) disc and heat transfer compound to ensure that theyre in good thermal contact with the heatsink.

2) An AMD K6-2 heatsink sits on the 040, but no fan due to space limitations...

3) A power amplifer heatsink (copper, 1 inch tall vanes) is attached to the Permedia with heat transfer compound.

4) A 3.5 inch case cooling fan is mounted just above the BVision/BlizzPPC assembly to ensure good airflow through the system.

Everything runs just fine...

[PulsatingQuasar]

I also have a fan above the 68040 and a fan connected to a 5 1/4 bay, turned 90 degrees to get the heath away from the space between the BlizzardPPC and the case.

I did this because the side of my Elbox became warm. Not anymore now.

I'm thinking of buying a proper graphic chip heatsink cooler with fan and glue that to the Permedia 2. Then I can run the chip on it's proper speed.

[Karlos]

PulsatingQuasar wrote:
I'm thinking of buying a proper graphic chip heatsink cooler with fan and glue that to the Permedia 2. Then I can run the chip on it's proper speed.

MELTDOWN = 110 :-D Muha ha ha ha :-)

-edit-

Or without cooling,

UNSOLDERSELF = 110 :lol:

Be very careful overclocking the Permedia...

[PulsatingQuasar]

I was thinking of diging up some PC videocard specs with a Permedia 2 chip and heatsink+fan and see on which speed those run and then set it to those speeds.

I'm not going to overdo it though! I wan't to keep my BlizzardPPC for a long long time :-)  :-)

[Karlos]

PulsatingQuasar wrote:
I'm not going to overdo it though! I wan't to keep my BlizzardPPC for a long long time :-)  :-)

Then don't overclock it at all would be my advice. The card is already running as fast as it's design reasonably allows. But with decent cooling, clocking to 90MHz os ok.
To be honest, you won't notice much difference, except in 3D (you get slightly better fill rates).

I still run mine at the default 80MHz...