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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: blakespot on August 01, 2010, 10:22:42 PM
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I have an A1200 (towered) w/ Blizzard 060 accel and the associated SCSI kit. I also have a flicker fixer and PCMCIA ethernet card.
I power on or hard boot the system (reset button in tower) and it just stays black screened after a flicker of color (flicker fixer ROM?). If I double-mouse-hold, I get the boot menu and if I choose boot w/ no SS, it boots right to the CLI just fine.
It won't boot if I don't do that.
What is going on here? I can get a dir listing of the 2GB HD just fine, when it boots to CLI.
(Tomorrow my X-Surf card gets here for my A2000 and I need to use this A1200 (w/ Genesis) as a bridge to get the A2000 all setup.)
Thanks.
blakespot
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Are you sure that you have a correct boot disk DH0:?
Seems like you have not ticked "bootable" for this partition with HDToolbox.
You should also try to boot from a floppy to see what happens.
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Are you sure that you have a correct boot disk DH0:?
Seems like you have not ticked "bootable" for this partition with HDToolbox.
You should also try to boot from a floppy to see what happens.
Am sure. Also -- it VERY rarely does work. It used to do this like 50% of the time. Now it does it almost always.
blakespot
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Boot without startup-sequence, in the cli type "set echo on" and "execute s:startup-sequence", notice where it hangs and do appropriate actions to fix it.
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Am sure. Also -- it VERY rarely does work. It used to do this like 50% of the time. Now it does it almost always.
blakespot
Hi blakespot sound's like to me if this 'not booting up problem' is occuring 50% of the time, that it could be your power supply not having enough juice or being on its way out. You should try disconnecting as many things as possible eg:- cd/dvd drives and trying booting up with the least amount of hardware to see if the system boot up easily.
If so then put back your extra hardware one at a time until the boot up problem reoccurs and if this is the case then you'll need a bigger power supply.
Cheers :)
Franko
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or ur HD may be about to shit itself.
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Hm, now I can't even get to the boot menu - just dark screen. Could this be the flicker fixer?
blakespot
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WTF?
So I remove the flicker fixer -- hook up 1084S. I unplug the HD. I just boot.
A1200 + Blizzard 060 + SCSI Kit.
STILL black screen -- no floppy insert notice! But, I can occasionally boot a floppy if it's in the drive.
WTF??
blakespot
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It's looking more and more likely that your power supply is on the way out, have you tried removing as much hardware as possible, like I mentioned before and if you have, double check all socketed chips and connectors just in case somethings loose. :)
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It has just occurred to me that your using a similar set up to mine...
A1200 Blizzard060/PPC 60Mhz/240Mhz / 256 Meg Ram / 2 500Gb HD's /2 DVD burners / FASTATA MKII
I had forgoten that I too had the same problems as you (it was almost 5 years ago). When I first got the Blizzard board I tried it in one of my desktop A1200's. Same thing, sometimes worked sometimes didn't mostly a black screen. I desoldered the connector and fitted a new one (not an easy task).
Still had the same probs, Then I built a tower and stuffed everything in there. Now here's the thing, I used the power supply from one of my old A2000's, It worked but still quite randomly the black screen problems and such kept popping up.
I finally solved the problem by putting in a new bigger power supply and have never had any problem to this day (fingers crossed). If I recall the A1200 supply was around 200Watts, which you would think would be enough but with the new PSU I put in 350Watts the problem was solved.
It was all down to the -12Volts. On the old A2000 PSU it only gave out a max of -12V at .5amps (if i recall correctly) while on the new 350Watt PSU the -12V supply is 1.5Amps.
Like I said since then I have run the above setup and never seen the problem since.
Dunno why I didn't remember sooner, guess I must have managed to forget about it.
Cheers :drink:
Franko
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It's a PC power supply in a tower. I don't think that's it.
Not sure what's up tho.
blakespot
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99% towered amiga's problems are because powersuply.
Your problems seems to be quite magical, so powersuply or exsorcist.
Do you insert more power to mobo with floppy disk powerconnector?
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99% towered amiga's problems are because powersuply.
Yup !!! 110% convinced it's the power supply (it solved my problems)... :)
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Hmm. I can give a PSU swap a try. I have two PSU's sitting here I could swap in. Sadly, there's that custom A1200 power plug adapter that's glue-bonded together that came with this Noblesse A1200 specialty case.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/2372320362/in/set-72157604300573758/
( seen @ the bottom right, there )
I am handy w/ a soldering iron though, and can cut / splice that onto the replacement PSU's line with little problem.
I should be feeding power to the A1200's floppy power lead? Not sure if that's happening right now.
blakespot
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Ok, I pulled the PSU and opened it up.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/4856309117/in/set-72157604300573758/
Leaky caps, and two smaller caps are slightly bulged...
So I've got a working, standard ATX PSU in there all wired up, but the PSU that came with this Mediator A1200T case from Revanche LLC has a little two-wire line running out that ties to the front of the case power switch (since it's not gonna detect it from the mobo, as it would with a PC).
What do I do to get this standard ATX supply to soft-switch on? The little line runs under the board of the old PSU and I'm not too keen on handling the board directly to see where it runs. Is there a way to wire something up to the main ATX header (which is not being used on this Amiga setup)?
Thanks.
blakespot
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I was convinced that it was the PSU, I'll have to open up mine and see how I wired up the On/Off switch at the front of the case, I think it was just a simple case of the switch when grounding the purple wire from the PSU for on and leaving it open for off. Can't remember now, I'll have to open up the case and have a look. Just don't try this right now till I double check. :eek:
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Ok, I pulled the PSU and opened it up.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/4856309117/in/set-72157604300573758/
Leaky caps, and two smaller caps are slightly bulged...
So I've got a working, standard ATX PSU in there all wired up, but the PSU that came with this Mediator A1200T case from Revanche LLC has a little two-wire line running out that ties to the front of the case power switch (since it's not gonna detect it from the mobo, as it would with a PC).
What do I do to get this standard ATX supply to soft-switch on? The little line runs under the board of the old PSU and I'm not too keen on handling the board directly to see where it runs. Is there a way to wire something up to the main ATX header (which is not being used on this Amiga setup)?
Thanks.
blakespot
Connect pin 14 (Green wire) to GND (Black wire) to turn it on.
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Check here for connector Pinouts...
http://pinouts.ru/Power/atx_v2_pinout.shtml
DONT ground the purple wire that +5v...
The Pinouts on this Schematic and my own one use PIN 16 not 14 !!!
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http://pinouts.ru/Power/atxpower_pinout.shtml
So wire them up to 14 and 15 an that should start the ATX PSU.
Franko was a bit faster, this for older ATX models :)
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Check here for connector Pinouts...
http://pinouts.ru/Power/atx_v2_pinout.shtml
DONT ground the purple wire that +5v...
The Pinouts on this Schematic and my own one use PIN 16 not 14 !!!
Pin 14 on a 20 pin ATX connector (v1.x) = Pin 16 on a 24 pin ATX connector (v2.0+).
Just use the green wire, whatever pin it is.
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Hm. Ok, I see you can tie the PWR ON (green cable) to GND permanently and you're set, if your PSU has a physical switch, as mine does. I did this, but I just get a blip of power on this replacement PSU. Power light comes on for just a sec. I untied the lines and just touched them for a moment, in case it was a toggle w/ a short window -- no better luck.
This PSU worked fine in a P3 700 tower I don't need anymore. Did it coincidentally die just now?
There's no way the A1200 w/ one HD and 060 accel is drawing more power than that P3 system.
Thoughts? Thanks.
blakespot
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Hmm, you could try to remove the SCSI kit and see if it will boot on it's own with the 1260.
Best thing is start blank and then each time add something to it, something could not be working.
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Test the power supply without any connections made to the amiga, try just connecting the green wire straight to ground without the switch first, if the fan comes on and stays on then the PSU should be ok (no blown fuse). If this is the case then perhaps the switch your using is just a momentry switch (ie: non latching) or is faulty. Its always wise to check the PSU out first without conecting anything up first. If nothing happens open up the PSU and check the internal fuse, you might have blown it...
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Hm. Ok, I see you can tie the PWR ON (green cable) to GND permanently and you're set, if your PSU has a physical switch, as mine does. I did this, but I just get a blip of power on this replacement PSU. Power light comes on for just a sec. I untied the lines and just touched them for a moment, in case it was a toggle w/ a short window -- no better luck.
This PSU worked fine in a P3 700 tower I don't need anymore. Did it coincidentally die just now?
There's no way the A1200 w/ one HD and 060 accel is drawing more power than that P3 system.
Thoughts? Thanks.
blakespot
Check for +5v on the purple wire. It should be there even when the power supply is off.
If you have a brown wire (+3.3v sense) on pin 13, connect it to one of the orange ones and see if that solves your problem.
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Check for +5v on the purple wire. It should be there even when the power supply is off.
If you have a brown wire (+3.3v sense) on pin 13, connect it to one of the orange ones and see if that solves your problem.
Can you explain what that's about, the orange / brown connection?
Thanks
blakespot
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Test the power supply without any connections made to the amiga, try just connecting the green wire straight to ground without the switch first, if the fan comes on and stays on then the PSU should be ok (no blown fuse). If this is the case then perhaps the switch your using is just a momentry switch (ie: non latching) or is faulty. Its always wise to check the PSU out first without conecting anything up first. If nothing happens open up the PSU and check the internal fuse, you might have blown it...
Did you try this yet... to make sure the new power supply is ok... :)
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Can you explain what that's about, the orange / brown connection?
Thanks
blakespot
The orange wire is +3.3v, the Brown wire is the +3.3v sense line. The sense line is used to monitor the voltage at the motherboard and is normally connected to +3.3v. If the sense line isn't getting any voltage, the power supply might determine that something is wrong and shut itself down.
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Or you could just get an ATX to AT converter (http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=306) and be done with it.
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That switch on the front is probably a momentary close action switch, i.e it's only closed when you are pressing the button. You need to keep the green and black connected to keep a ATX psu going, so that is probably the reason the psu blips on then off. Different switch required (and a temporary test with the green and black connected to ensure everything else is working).
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I had this with a hard drive on my towered A1200 and a guy pointed me to a utility called ' SlowBoot ' .
http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/SlowBoot
...The problem with buying a large IDE drive is that it has a long spun-up
time... :( When booting from cold you have to bootup and then reboot...
SlowBoot fixes this
May help.
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Hi blakespot, have you sorted the power supply problem yet and got things up and running.
Franko
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Ok.
I tied the orange and "brown" wires together (though an online shows it half orange / half brown and the label is 3.3VDC, 3.3V Sense). I've got the green to ground also.
Fired up and same thing, blip and nothing but a fan pulse at first.
After testing, I finally found it works with everything wired up EXCEPT the Amiga 1200. I have:
- CPU fan
- Case light
- CD ROM
- HD
but only when I unplug the A1200 does it work. Could there be a wiring issue here? The power plug I am using is that flat, 5-6 pin one with a latch. It plugs into a custom cable that came w/ the case that goes into A1200 power jack.
It's a 300W power supply -- how could this be overloading? Or is the A1200 mobo dying?
Thanks.
bp
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Hmm... I need a few moments to think about this one...
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Hi blakespot... :)
We seem to be getting nowhere fast here, so I'll make you this offer, the choice is entirely yours but I am quite happy to do it if you wish.
If you would like to send me a personal message and give me your telephone number, it must be a landline and not a cell phone. Then I would be more than happy to call you as it doesn't cost me anything to call to the USA. If you wish to take me up on this offer make sure you include the international code for the USA as i have forgotten it. I reckon we might be able to sort out your problems if I can speak to you, rather than typing back & forth here with limited info.
Cheers :drink:
Franko
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I was thinking I'd try the PSU in my C-One case...but it occurred to me last I messed with it, that nearly unused PSU started doing the SAME THING there. Power on for a blip, then nothing. So that PSU likely would do same on the A1200.
WTF is going on here?
bp
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Sorry blakespot, but I don't think I can offer you any more advice here. If you wish to take me up on the offer of calling you then I would be only too happy to do so, but without knowing more about everything your trying to do there. I don't think I can be of much more help.
Cheers
Franko
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By the way, IIRC there is a program on AmiNet that can control the ATX PSU so you can shut the amiga off with a CLI command or something.
Read about it years ago and always wanted to try it. I think it used the joystick port to open the power wire on the PSU.
Good luck!
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Sorry blakespot, but I don't think I can offer you any more advice here. If you wish to take me up on the offer of calling you then I would be only too happy to do so, but without knowing more about everything your trying to do there. I don't think I can be of much more help.
Cheers
Franko
Only have cell, sorry. Thanks for the offer, tho!
bp
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What is the likelyhood that something has happened to the A1200 motherboard (that I got NEW in 2004 - rarely used after) that made it short out or something?
bp
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I've never connected orange and brown to get a 20 pin ATX psu working (is that a 24 pin thing ?). Can you just try it without those two connected, leaving green and black connected to see what happens ?
Be aware that these psu's need a load connected to function properly.
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Take one of psu's floppy power connectors and put it to mobo's floppy power connector, so that you can feed mobo that way allso.
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Hi blakespot
Had any luck yet...
Cheers
Franko
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I've never connected orange and brown to get a 20 pin ATX psu working (is that a 24 pin thing ?). Can you just try it without those two connected, leaving green and black connected to see what happens ?
Be aware that these psu's need a load connected to function properly.
That move makes no difference, FYI.
blakespot
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Hi blakespot
Had any luck yet...
Cheers
Franko
Nope. Gonna pickup an ATX PSU today from the store and give it a shot.
It's all particularly painful as I just got a new X-Surf ethernet card for my Amiga 2000 and I can't get a TCP/IP stack over to the Amiga 2000 w/out using the A1200 (which has ethernet already) as a bridge...
blakespot
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OMG you won't believe what just happened. Stay tuned.
bp
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OMG you won't believe what just happened. Stay tuned.
bp
GOSH !!!!, Cant Wait... Tell Me More... :eek:
Just hope it's not another nightmare... :lol:
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Ok.
So, I go to the local Best Buy to get an ATX PSU. I notice that none of them have the 6-pin AUX connector that my A1200 power adapter cable needs (I later found it was phased out in 2003 when additional pins were added to the main power header). I get one anyway, knowing I can solder the needed cable on.
I get home, open it up. Nice pre-wrapped cables coming off of it. So, I get to it. Get the pinout diagrams up and start stripping, wrapping, and soldering. I install it in the tower and turn it on to test.
I hear no fan.
Whaat? I try again. Nothing. After a few more tries I look into the supply thru the back fan grille. I see the plastic fan blade disc is lying loose, having broken out of the fan mechanism!!! So I could normally take this right back for a replacement -- but I sliced and soldered onto it already!!! $59 power supply. ARGH.
I then notice that there's 2 fans in the PSU. One is at the input inside the case, and then there's the broken one at the rear grille. I turn it on again and see the internal fan DOES spin, but it nearly silent. So I ignore the main fan issue for now (will open and try to fix or attach case fan to outside of case to pull air) and, now that I can tell when it's working with that internal fan, and wire it up to the Amiga.
Power on -- NO GO. Blip, then off -- just like the other PSU. So then I disconnect the main A1200 power input, wire up other peripherals to the PSU -- but FORGET to remove the A1200 floppy power feed. I turn it on -- PSU works, fan turns, and the Amiga does the color flash and seems to behave as before -- cycling black screeens (reboots) -- the Amiga is operating on the floppy input alone it seems!! WTF??
This is a 450W Thermaltake PSU. There is NO WAY the A1200 with main connector wired in can draw more than that. So did something die on the mobo that is shorting the PSU out??? If so, what is likely?? I see no cap leaks or bulges.
Is this A1200 done? I got this mobo NEW in 2004.
Sigh.
blakespot
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Wow blakespot... I thought I had some bad luck... :eek:
450Watts is more than enough. I don't know what the connector type is going to you motherboard, as when I built my tower I cut the end off an old A1200 power supply and wired it to the appropriate wires from the PSU. That way I can use the proper power input on the back of the A1200 MoBo and its also handy for when I have to test any other A1200 MoBo's.
If there is something blown on the mobo, there's now way I can even have a guess at it what might be, without checking it out with my meters & logic probes.
Anway you can check the mobo power connector from the board to the input pins with a meter, there might just be a broken wire or dry joint, especially with all the unpluging and repluging you have been doing.
Cheers :drink:
Franko
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Ok.
So, I go to the local Best Buy to get an ATX PSU. I notice that none of them have the 6-pin AUX connector that my A1200 power adapter cable needs (I later found it was phased out in 2003 when additional pins were added to the main power header). I get one anyway, knowing I can solder the needed cable on.
I get home, open it up. Nice pre-wrapped cables coming off of it. So, I get to it. Get the pinout diagrams up and start stripping, wrapping, and soldering. I install it in the tower and turn it on to test.
I hear no fan.
Whaat? I try again. Nothing. After a few more tries I look into the supply thru the back fan grille. I see the plastic fan blade disc is lying loose, having broken out of the fan mechanism!!! So I could normally take this right back for a replacement -- but I sliced and soldered onto it already!!! $59 power supply. ARGH.
I then notice that there's 2 fans in the PSU. One is at the input inside the case, and then there's the broken one at the rear grille. I turn it on again and see the internal fan DOES spin, but it nearly silent. So I ignore the main fan issue for now (will open and try to fix or attach case fan to outside of case to pull air) and, now that I can tell when it's working with that internal fan, and wire it up to the Amiga.
Power on -- NO GO. Blip, then off -- just like the other PSU. So then I disconnect the main A1200 power input, wire up other peripherals to the PSU -- but FORGET to remove the A1200 floppy power feed. I turn it on -- PSU works, fan turns, and the Amiga does the color flash and seems to behave as before -- cycling black screeens (reboots) -- the Amiga is operating on the floppy input alone it seems!! WTF??
This is a 450W Thermaltake PSU. There is NO WAY the A1200 with main connector wired in can draw more than that. So did something die on the mobo that is shorting the PSU out??? If so, what is likely?? I see no cap leaks or bulges.
Is this A1200 done? I got this mobo NEW in 2004.
Sigh.
blakespot
Take the A1200 mobo out of it's tower.
Lay it on a table (avoid metal of course) and then have nothing on it, no keyboard, no drive, just plain the board, after some 30 seconds or a bit tad more you should see the kickstart screen.