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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: badgerme on June 30, 2009, 09:26:16 PM
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Hi There
Really hope that someone can point me in the right direction here - I did have a working Amiga 1200 running OS4 with the Blizzard PPC 603e+ card with BVision attached. I'd recently added 256mb ram (two 128mb edo simms) to the card and it was working beautifully and registering all of the ram for at least 20 minutes or so, and then it just crashed and hung. I went to reset the Amiga and now it wont power up. The green light stays dim and I get a dark grey screen. If I remove the blizzard cards, the amiga turns on and goes through the dim/bright green power led stage and comes on as normal.
I'm running this setup using a really old AT power supply with the 5 pin plug attached to the normal amiga power socket, along with an additional floppy power connector plugged in at the floppy power socket on the motherboard (split to go to the floppy drive also)
I had to have 2 power points from the PSU as it wouldn't boot without it. I use to (on several occasions) have to soft reset it in order for it to get past the dim green light stage of booting.
Im wondering if this is an issue with my crappy AT power supply? I've read reports online that if the voltage of the 5v rail drops below 4.75 then wierd things happen - well - mine reads 4.70 at the motherboard connector by the floppy. Could this be the reason its not booting because theres not enough power?
The AT PSU 5v rail reads 5.05 volts off load when switched on, then it reads 4.7 on load when the amiga is attached to it. What should it be at best? The AT PSU is rated at 200Watts
Also - Would purchasing the 250W PSU with just the single 5pin connector for £24.99 from http://www.amigakit.com work with my setup or do I still need to connect a spur off the power supply directly to the amiga motherboard? Is it possible to power both blizzard cards and the amiga all through the main 5 pin traditional amiga power connector??
Please if anyone can shed some light on this It would really make my day. I miss my miggy being down and I'd really like to get it back up and running again! Im sure its just a PSU issue....
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I've read reports online that if the voltage of the 5v rail drops below 4.75 then wierd things happen - well - mine reads 4.70 at the motherboard connector by the floppy. Could this be the reason its not booting because theres not enough power?
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I'd rather say 4.85 V min...
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What specs is the BPPC??
I'm running a 040/160/SCSI with BVision with the normal 5 pin power connector connected to a ATX PSU. I have power to the floppy power port as well as power directly to the BPPC card through it's fan connector. The three feeds will give you a stable computer, without the need to soft reset on power up, to get the machine going. At least it did with my setup.
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Hi There
Please if anyone can shed some light on this It would really make my day. I miss my miggy being down and I'd really like to get it back up and running again! Im sure its just a PSU issue....
Well, I have an A1200T with BPPC and BVision (060/603e240 + SCSI) + 256 MB RAM, Fast ATA MK III, Zorro Busboard, etc... it's very stable, boots when turned on, etc. I have a 400 watt PSU feeding power to the machine via the floppy connector of the A1200 motherboard and the p8/p9 connectors of the busboard... there is no need to feed more than that to have a stable system.
The logical suggestion: Change your PSU...
Good luck,
Dragster
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The ppc card is a 210mhz with a 25mhz 040. Has anyone managed to get this setup running with just the standard amiga 5 pin power connector and a at/atx psu without having to run a seperate power connector going to the floppy power connector on the main board? Or is this a necessity to get enough power over to the ppc card?
I've got my setup inside the original a1200 case you see and would really like to have just one power lead instead of 2 as I did previously.
Also I'm measuring the 5v rail onload at the a1200's motherboards floppy power connector as being 4.7v - is this the correct place to check the 5v rail? Can someone post their 5v Reading at this point here also please so I can compare?
Cheers guys! Really appreciate any light on this one!
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Really hope that someone can point me in the right direction here - I did have a working Amiga 1200 running OS4 with the Blizzard PPC 603e+ card with BVision attached. I'd recently added 256mb ram (two 128mb edo simms) to the card and it was working beautifully and registering all of the ram for at least 20 minutes or so, and then it just crashed and hung. I went to reset the Amiga and now it wont power up. The green light stays dim and I get a dark grey screen. If I remove the blizzard cards, the amiga turns on and goes through the dim/bright green power led stage and comes on as normal.
Have you Tried to boot without the BVision and with only one SIMM?
I'm running this setup using a really old AT power
I also think that you really should buy a new PSU..
The ppc card is a 210mhz with a 25mhz 040. Has anyone managed to get this setup running with just the standard amiga 5 pin power connector and a at/atx psu without having to run a seperate power connector going to the floppy power connector on the main board? Or is this a necessity to get enough power over to the ppc card?
I have the same setup with you. The main difference is that my PPC runs at 180mhz. I have a 350W PSU and my Amiga can boot without plugging the floppy power connector.
In fact, i don't notice anything different when it is plugged in, stability-wise etc, except from that the power LED flickers less when the PPC is working.
HOWEVER, with your setup it is recommended to feed your Amiga from both the standard PSU socket and the floppy connector. The 68040 and BVision require lot's of power!
I've got my setup inside the original a1200 case you see and would really like to have just one power lead instead of 2 as I did previously.
With this kind of setup everything is very tight inside the Amiga and ventilation is poor. It is almost necessary to cool down the Permedia2 chip of the BVision.
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IMO 4.7v at a molex is a bit low. I would suggest verifying that with another meter, then replacing the PSU.
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Thank you all for your suggestions! I've tried different simm combinations (including the RAM i had in there before I upgraded to the 2x128mb) and I still get a black screen and a dimm green light. Oddly I also get the same black screen and dim green light even when the BVision isn't connected? I would have thought at least this would have required enough less power to make it fire up...?
To add more power over to the motherboard floppy connector: can I simply just take a +5v over from the 5pin socket over to it from the main amiga power connector or does it need its own molex connector from the psu? Main reason for asking is that I've just bought one of these and amigakit.com claim it will work:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=39&products_id=866
I really don't want to stick the whole thing in a tower :( spoils the original amiga feel i think...
Here a question: How many power do I need to run a Blizzard 603e+ with 256mb ram, a BVision - a couple of small fans and a 2gb Compact Flash card? Surely its not coming close to 200Watts (the old AT PSU that I have.....) - I'm really hoping that the Old AT PSU is failing to give out a reliable 5v rail on load.... how can i test the old AT PSU to see what load it takes before dropping the voltage?
Any suggestions would be greatly received - cant wait to get back up and running again..
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Ok guys I've just tried the new power supply and the floppy connector on the motherboard now reads 4.97v! (a big improvement on 4.7v)
Only problem is that it still doesn't get past the dim green light and the black screen. :( :( :(
if I take the card out the Amiga boots and works fine.
I've different RAM chips and still the same. I really don't think it's the ram.
Is it knackered? Does anyone still know if Jean Jaques is still repairing Amiga hardware in France? (http://www.amigacenter.com) ??
Any tips/advice to get me back up and running will be really appreciated!
Cheers
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Ok guys I've just tried the new power supply and the floppy connector on the motherboard now reads 4.97v! (a big improvement on 4.7v)
Only problem is that it still doesn't get past the dim green light and the black screen. :( :( :(
if I take the card out the Amiga boots and works fine.
I've different RAM chips and still the same. I really don't think it's the ram.
Is it knackered? Does anyone still know if Jean Jaques is still repairing Amiga hardware in France? (www.amigacenter.com (http://www.amigacenter.com)) ??
Any tips/advice to get me back up and running will be really appreciated!
Cheers
That sounds like a bad card definately...
Amiga Center still repairs amiga hardware, including BVisions and BPPCs...
You should send your card for diagsnose...
Good luck,
Cheers
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Ok guys I've just tried the new power supply and the floppy connector on the motherboard now reads 4.97v! (a big improvement on 4.7v)
Only problem is that it still doesn't get past the dim green light and the black screen. :( :( :(
if I take the card out the Amiga boots and works fine.
I've different RAM chips and still the same. I really don't think it's the ram.
Is it knackered? Does anyone still know if Jean Jaques is still repairing Amiga hardware in France? (http://www.amigacenter.com) ??
Any tips/advice to get me back up and running will be really appreciated!
Cheers
put the blizzard ppc card back in on it's own,keep the voltage @4.97v.
turn the amiga on,do this about 5 to 10 times. give it about 3-5 seconds when turning on the amiga. if it still refuse to boot try this.
pull the blizzard ppc card out a little away from the motherboard and repeat above.
post result back here.
i hope you dont have those big simms that may have come into contact with the 68k processor.
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I have 2x128mb simms and they pretty big (double sided)
As I've said before the card worked with ram in for about 10-20 mind before freezing. If they had touched surely it would have blown up/stopped working almost immediately?
I'm wondering if the card has suffered any damage after having the 5v rail @ 4.7 with the old power supply?
Has anyone had anything repaired recently by The Amiga Center? Still waiting for a reply from Jean (JJ)
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Amiga center, 240 eur for 040 to 060 upgrade.
Have you tried holding ESC key and see if you get the blizzard config menu?
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have you tryed what i said in my last post.
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Delshey: Have tried the on/off approach as well as moving the card in/out at a fraction at a time and still the same situation - dim green light - no boot :(
When it did use to work - I would normally have to soft reboot (CTRL + 2A keys) in order to reset it and get the dim green light to go bright green - is this normal or does it sound like the card was either on its way out - or simply reinforces the original PSU issue by way of the 5v rail not being 'strong' enough at 4.7v.
I think I'll skip the upgrade..... I wont how much a repair will be. If I have shorted the ram on the 68k processor - does that basically mean - game over?
I cant see that I have as the card worked with the RAM in for some time....
I do hope Mr JJ can help me out :)
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Have tried holding ESC for the menu whilst turning on and nothing..... I've tried soft resetting it and holding ESC and nothing......
Does this card boot without any RAM in? I just wondered because I could take the ram out to eliminate it as being a suspect in this debugging process.....
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I do hope Mr JJ can help me out :)
I've sent stuff for repair with him recently. He's pretty fast at diagsnose/repair/email... you should get an email message from him any moment. As for the cost, depending on what your card has, it can be pretty expensive.. ~EUR120... his service is expensive, but VERY GOOD.
Unfortunately you might have caused a problem in the card while handling it (blame static charge)... it uses to happen if you don't have/use an antistatic wrist strap.
And before you ask, yes.. I killed my BPPC like that, then I had JJ to fix it, got it back (and working perfectly) and I immediately bought a wrist strap.. (lesson learned....the hard way).
Good luck.
Dragster
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Try what delshay said, specifically pulling the card out a little bit. Sometimes the connector can get loose. Also clean the motherboard card edge with cleaner to be sure there is good connection.
If you shorted something or the 68XXX is dead the card will not boot. I tried a blizzard and without ram I can get the boot menu.
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without ramand hardive pull out you should see the amiga boot screen where it ask to insert a floppy disk.
but at this point you are just checking that it boots to this screen,if so the card should be ok.
when you inserted the new ram you may have disturbed the card contacts as dust builid up inside the case,this is why i ask you to pull the card out a little.
also when you insert anything with the blizzard still attach to the motherboard the dust which builds-up inside get in-between the contacts and what happens is some of the contacts can get stuck not springing back.
this is why when i insert anything onto the blizzard i hold the card so very little movement accures
and not put pressure on the contacts.
ok remove the blizzard ppc card from the motherboard completly and then re-insert the card.
you may want to check the contacts for dust before re-inserting the card back.
*** also look at the blizzard ppc contacts,are all contacts in-line,what you are checking for is any of the contacts sitting further back than normal *** IMPORTANT
OOPS i forgot i reconmend some contact cleaner & dust remover.
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**OTHER NOTES EXPERTS ONLY**
when A1200 cards are brand new their are very hard to install due to the spring contacts being new. over time after many inserts the contacts do not press as hard onto the motherboard contacts.
to get my amiga super stable i got a small pin and push all 150 pins foward on the blizzard card not too much towards the centre of the card.
when i try to re-insert the card don't let the card wiggle left to right as if you are trying to break the connector,keep it in-line all the time this is best done with the ram module allready attached.
if you have a A1200 desktop hold the card from the other side ie remove the top of the A1200 so that the card does not drop down add trapdoor cover while still holding the card in-line with the motherboard.
NOTE: the card will be a lot harder to install than normal but this will bring it back almost to a level when card was new. it will grip the motherboard connector a lot harder the card will also be stiffer ie less movement.
now when i turn on my amiga it boots first time every single time without a single problem.
**only card with intermitten errors you can try this**.
VERY IMPORTANT: if all has gone well **never** disturb he card ie change ram modules leave it alone. if you need to change something hold the card in-line with the motherboard so there is little movement.
do not bend the pins towards the centre to many times it will not break lets say after 3-6 times
but it will not grip the motherboard connector as well as the very first time.
THIS IS FOR EXPERTS ONLY its best done on the first time and leave it alone forever.
EXTREAM IMPORTANT: if you bend the pins too near the centre when you insert the card you can bend the pin to the other side of the card and damage the pin(s). there is no room for mistakes here best to get it right first time.
**ALL MODIFICATIONS AT YOUR OWN RISK**