How to get stable Blizzard PPC operation?

[doctorq]

Since I'm a huge fan of the A1200, I have never wanted to get rid of my A1200T. Previously I had a Blizzard PPC 060/240/SCSI with Mediator installed in the tower, but since I only use the tower a couple of times during a month I decided to sell the high spec Blizzard PPC card and Mediator and getting another Blizzard PPC with lower specs.

I got my new Blizzard PPC board recently (actually got two, but one have SCSI issues). It's a 040/160/SCSI with a BVisionPPC added. Both cards works as intended as I have been using PPC datatypes and PPC libraries under OS3.9 and MorphOS. However, that's only when the cards run stable :-(

The tower has a rev. 1D1 motherboard, and gets power from the original power connector, as well as power from the floppy power port on the motherboard. The Blizzard PPC gets power directly from the PSU. The PSU is a 350W one. I reckon the power side is OK then?

The tower has a 80x80 fan mounted in the middle of the tower, moving cold air from the bottom of the tower up and over the BVision PPC graphics card. The 68040 has been mounted with a heatsink with built-in fan, and the fan on the PPC board is also spinning. I reckon the heat issue is OK then?

I'm using the rev. 1D1 motherboard after reading on an Eyetech webpage that this would be the best board to use, since it should already have all bugs fixed before leaving the factory. Can anyone confirm this, or is there another rev. motherboard that is better to use with a Blizzard PPC with BVision?

The problem is that the system is rather unstable. It can lock up when loading the OS (correct libraries are installed), when doubleclicking icons, when playing around it the settings menu of the BPPC, etc, etc.

What do other Blizzard PPC users recommend to get a stable system?

[doctorq]

But still, your board need patches ! It didn't have had all the problems corrected on the factory.

Is there anywhere I can see a list of these patches, and how to do them?

I think your problem can be a power issue.

Even if the power supply is rated at 350W, it doesn't means it really is. Nowadays is more and more common to find low quality power supplies out there. If you can, try another power supply. Preferably the newer, RMS rated power supplies.

I tried to replace the PSU yesterday, with the one from my A4000 in custom tower. The schematics on both PSU indicates that the new PSU deliveres a lot more amps than the old one. It helped a bit at least, but I still experience lock ups.

[doctorq]

Turns out the problems weren't related to neither power or heat.

I did the timing fixes aimed for the 1D4 motherboards, since the sites I have seen only mentioned the timing fixes for 1D4 and 2B motherboards. All instability problems went away, I have had the tower running for 1 1/2 hour without any lockups. Most likely my other Blizzard PPC works just as well after the timing fixes, as it showed the same kind of errors.

I never in my wildest dreams imagined that the timing issues could have such a major impact on the stability of the computer.

[doctorq]

I used the instructions on this site.

[doctorq]

Correct. I couldn't get a stable system with my 1D1 motherboard, but after doing the timing fixes the system has been running without any problems for a couple of hours yesterday and a couple more today.

If I just could get MorphOS running now...