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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: pyrre on April 13, 2007, 03:56:05 PM
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Hello.
I got a problem with my BVision, and I am wondering if any of you people have had a similar problem.
My setup:
- A1200 (MB revision 1D4)
- BlizzPPC 603e+ W/040 25
- 64MB ram
- BVision card
- External SCSI zip drive
- Tower an older model, not sure of name.
- Keyboard interface
- 5 GB HD
My problem:
Every time i change screen mode to the BVision, it crashes.
Sometimes i can go for hours, but when i do something "advanced" it hangs.... even using dopus...
But most of the time it crashes ALWAYS when changing screenmode to it
I have modified the timing circuit to the motherboard, by desoldering two capasitors. That modification made sure the system was workin, before it WB would'nt even run...
To the BVision i have glued (with thermal glue) cooling fins, and mounted a fan on top of them.
I have a 200W psu, connected to main power to A1200 and in the Floppy power port.
But still the BVision is VERY unstable
If it matters, I have only upgraded the bios of that card, with the update that phase5 supplied with the card. no newer one.
Do any of you guys know how to get it to work?
Should i upgrade bios to latest edition, and what is the latest edition?
Thank you for any help to my problem. :-)
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I think that we should exclude power and heat issues since you have already took care of those.
Disable all graphic related patched in case you use them and see what happens.
Do you run CGFX v4? Perhaps it will help, perhaps it won't. I don't know.
I do know that some very early 0 revision BPPC are not working properly with BVisions. This was fixed later on. Perhaps you own one of these BPPCs.
Should i upgrade bios to latest edition, and what is the latest edition?
Why not. http://phase5.a1k.org/
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I do know that some very early 0 revision BPPC are not working properly with BVisions.
WhichAmiga tells me that it is a 603p 210MHz REV: 2.1 board.
whatever that means...
Could it help to put power to ppc trough the fan connector?
Just to be sure....
and possibly add some more cooling fins to ram chips etc...
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Please try it with Boardtype which can be found on the PowerUp webpage http://powerup.amigaworld.de/index.php?lang=en&page=24
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WhichAmiga tells me that it is a 603p 210MHz REV: 2.1 board.
whatever that means...
That's the PowerPC CPU revision, not BPPC revision. Use boardtype as decribed in the earlier post.
Anyhow, I have a first revision Phase5 BPPC and I've never seen issues with BVision.
Anyhow, my understanding was that rev0 would not work with GRex. I can't remember hearing about issues with BVision before.
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It is a REV 0
"This Blizzard has version 0 which may cause HW problems with the BVisionPP"
How can I fix this, and is there anyone selling ppc boards? (new or used)...
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Mine is... And that is A LOT...
:boohoo: :boohoo: :boohoo:
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Hi,
use the lastest firmware GREX for BPPC will help you a bit as it did for me ;-)
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How does that Grex work?
It is a PCI extension?
Though it is a bit expensive...
Do you have any pictures of it put together?
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Look for the DjBase's secret site
http://grex.amigaworld.de/index.php?lang=en&page=1
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Ok, so if I got this right...
the Grex connects to the expansion slot that the BVision uses. And then you connect the BVision to the Grex...
Am i correct?
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No you either connect a BVision or a Grex.
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No you either connect a BVision or a Grex.
what... now I am really confused...
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The connector on the BlizPPC is faster than any Zorro slot. So the Grex uses the BlizPPC connector for the BVision to achieve faster graphics speed and memory access when you connect a Voodoo card in one of the Grex's PCI slots for example.
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ok.. thanx... but in my previous post i asked if the grex is going into to BVision connector on the ppc card...
so, i got that sorted out now. :-)
But, by using the grex... my guess is that I will not be able to use my BVision... Is that correct?
If so, meaning that i have to get myself a Voodoo 3 card...
Will then a VooDoo 3 2000 PCI do the job?
(I got one laying around somewhere)
Guessing that the VooDoo 3 is a bit better than BVision...
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CLS2086: So this helped stability with BVision ? With a Rev.0 card ?
Thanks for any more info about this :)
pyrre: If you get the grex hardware, you can use a voodo3 yeah :) But
still I thought a Rev.0 board would get into problems with grex or
bvision cards ?
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pyrre: If you get the grex hardware, you can use a voodo3
yeah :) But still I thought a Rev.0 board would get into
problems with grex or bvision cards ?
This is beyond my knowledge, I only know that my rev 0 card is having trouble using the BVision.
But according to CLS 2086 it helped him to use the grex...
I will await the arrival of the diskette DCE is sending me.
The guy i spoke to on phone said it was enough to upgrade the firmware to be able to use the BVision.
If he is right is left to find out...
I will post any updates ASAP....
Hopefully it will solve problems to more people than just me...
(but i got to be honest, it sounds a little to simple just inserting a floppy... and "KACHING"... my firmware is upgraded...)
Cross your fingers for me. (and all others having similar problems)
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But according to CLS 2086 it helped him to use the grex...
Uhm. I can only see CLS2086 talk about flashing the BPPC with the GRex flash update, not about using actual GRex hardware.
Anyhow, the GRex flash is the very latest flashupdate available, and thus has the latest 0x0 and ppc libraries. It also works with BVision, however, to my knowlege only CGX4 drivers handle the GRex flash properly.
To recap:
- Rev0 BPPC does work with BVision (well mine does at least)
- Rev0 BPPC does NOT work with GRex (the PCI expansion)
- Rev0 BPPC can be flashed with GRex flashupdate (but this requires CGX4)
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I have a Rev 0 BPPC which works Fantastic with my BVision. HOWEVER, you have to make sure you have the latest Libs from Pahse 5. Without those, it was a nightmare. You'll have to use BlizKick from Piru to disable onboard BPPC libs (both 040 and ppc libs). Check aminet and piru's software (http://piru.dyndns.org/~p/sw/) page for the latest blizkick and info.
An alternative is the BPPCFIX (http://devnull.owl.de/~frank/ppcemu_e.html), which is easier to use than blizkick, however I highly recommend blizkick.
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(I got one laying around somewhere)
Guessing that the VooDoo 3 is a bit better than BVision...
Afaik, Voodoo3 is slightly slower in 2D, but faster in 3D.
Piru wrote:
- Rev0 BPPC does work with BVision (well mine does at least)
Mine too. What i picked up by reading several threads in here is that there are 2 kind of rev.0 cards. The very early one which has issues with the BVision and the newer which is working properly with the BVision.
I have no experience on this. This is only what i read.
@pyrre
First of all, have you isolated the problem to the BVision by running WorkBench in AGA mode and see how it behaves?
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I have also a very early Rev.0 board. I havent used the last flash (gave up and bought a mediator). Now I have uppgraded the ppc card from 040 to 060, and i will give it a new go.
Lets see if it will work better with the latest flash.
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First of all, have you isolated the problem to the BVision by running WorkBench in AGA mode and see how it behaves?
In "normal" screen modes (i use a hacked version of super27, enabling 800X600V256collors) Workbench behaves perfect...
No problems at all. Multitasking, playing games, watching pictures and videos (though I have not found a good player yet, and only get like 2FPS). And i cannot complain at all for AGA modes. But when changing screen mode to the BVision card The whole system freezes up. sometimes it can work for some minutes, once it worked for hours. But it always freezes, eventually... I have tried to change to another aga mode to check if there would be problems between super72 and the CGX mode... but nope... no matter what i use, it freezes up...
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Its the same problem I have had with my ppc + bvision also..
Have you flashed to the last update ?
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Its the same problem I have had with my ppc + bvision also.. Have you flashed to the last update ?
No, not yet... I am awaiting the disk DCE is supposed to send me. When i got it i will see what is on it.
If it is the actual firmware upgrade that they say it is...
i will upgrade that first. then the flash...
(if the disk contains the flas, i guess it would be bad to flash twice...)
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i guess it would be bad to flash twice
Um, why?
PS. Could you use the normal quoting rather than the "code" quoting? code quoting doesn't do automagic formatting and it screws up the page layout with long lines.
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(if the disk contains the flas, i guess it would be bad to flash twice...)
Actually, not necessarily. It's a possibility that the data could be corrupted slightly, and a re-flash may be something to consider anyway. I've experienced a small number of strange and annoying HW issues that turned out to be a corrupted BIOS, cured by a re-flash. In my particular cases, all I could attribute the corruption to was (perhaps) an unnoticed amount of static discharge while working inside the case.
It's a long-shot, but worth a go IMO.
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Well... I don't know how BIOS works in detail.
But from using pc, and screwing up some of those BIOS.
I know that it would be bad to damage the BIOS.
and since it is very difficult to get a new PPC card and there is no more warranty. I just don't want to risk damaging it...
I bought this thing in 1998, and it was one of the first cards that came to Norway. The first card i ordered was a 060 240.
But it was DOA. an I got the 040 210 as a replacement.
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Is it possible to use picasso drivers for bvision card?
If so, where do i get those drivers?
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@pyrre
Is it possible to use picasso drivers for bvision card?
What picasso drivers? (no)
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Picasso 96?
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@pyrre
Picasso96 has drivers for BVision now?
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I don't know, I am asking if that is possible...
I have tried every possible way of installing CGX V4, and updating it to rev 6. But i only get to rev 1. even when manually trying to patch the cgxmain.library...
And i still don't get the BVision to work.
I have changed the PSU, just to ensure it is not power problems... And all I get is a black "hung up" screen...
I just want to know if there is any other options to try out before giving up the BVision...
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I have done every thing i have been told to do now.
Even trying a different BVision.
But it still shows up with the same black hung up screen....
Does anyone have any new idea?
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How bright is your power led ? This can indicate if theres a power issue especially if its fluctuating. Maybe adding +5v to the Fan connector on bppc will help although bare in mind it may damage the card so it will never work for fan power again.
Ive been fortunate with my bvision in that its had zero issues with an early rev0 bppc and doesnt get particuarly hot either. Using latest flash version and latest cgx4
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How bright is your power led
Normal, and not fluctuating.
dding +5v to the Fan connector on bppc
Already done. And running with a 230W PSU. Have tried with my other 230W psu. With same results. Connectors are FIRMLY soldered and insulated with electrical tape.
Ive been fortunate with my bvision in that its had zero issues with an early rev0 bppc and doesnt get particuarly hot either.
Nice, good to know someone having equipment that works...
Giving me a little hope that i will get mine to work someday.
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Well,
I've had lots of problems with my A1200/060/BVision in the desktop. But I've managed to solve them all. The problems started when I added a PCMCIA wireless card. The system was very unstable and crashed or hanged all the time. Swapping resolutions too.
Eventhough someone mentioned that 200W powersupply is enough, I had a 200W power supply. But this turned out to be the problem anyway. Perhaps the maximum power output was less than 200W due to the age it was but all problems were solved when I finally connected a brand new 400W powersupply to my machine. Now it runs like a rock. So perhaps you should try it anyway?
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all problems were solved when I finally connected a brand new 400W powersupply to my machine. Now it runs like a rock. So perhaps you should try it anyway?
That may do the trick... but then it is the task of getting my hands on a 400w AT psu...
Anyone?
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@pyrre
but then it is the task of getting my hands on a 400w AT psu
What's wrong with ATX?
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How bright is your power led ? This can indicate if theres a power issue especially if its fluctuating.
Hey, now that you mention it, my power led's intensity fluctuates (almost flickers) when there is heavy PPC load. :-o I thought that this was normal, but i see now that it is not. My BPPC/BVision combo is pretty stable though.
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What's wrong with ATX?
Noting really, but i have not figured out how to make ATX work on my amiga.... yet...
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@pyrre
I have not figured out how to make ATX work on my amiga
Well, just find the correct voltages.
The on/off switch should be connected between /PS_ON (http://www.hardwarebook.info/ATX_Power_Supply) and GND.
PS. If you're doing any cold-run testing, remember to load the PSU. I usually connect some old HDD to one of the molex connectors.
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UPDATES:
I have just got my hands on a new A1200, It is a rev. 1D4 MB as well...
But, there is something weird with the kickstart setup.
They are seated in sockets, which is then seated in the MB soldered sockets. And there are two wires on each of the chips, rewiring some or the pins...
Could that have anything to do with me not getting the bvision working?
Have not yet setup another disk with a new install...
My WB disk died yesterday.
As soon as i understand how to upload images i will upload to show you the difference...
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And another question.
Do I need other libraries, except for the CGX libs. and what version do i need them to be?