A1200 boot problem - help!

[blakespot]

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

[blakespot]

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

[blakespot]

Hm, now I can't even get to the boot menu - just dark screen.  Could this be the flicker fixer?



blakespot

[blakespot]

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

[blakespot]

It's a PC power supply in a tower.  I don't think that's it.  

Not sure what's up tho.



blakespot

[blakespot]

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

[blakespot]

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

[blakespot]

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

[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.

Can you explain what that's about, the orange / brown connection?

Thanks



blakespot

[blakespot]

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

[blakespot]

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

[blakespot]

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

[blakespot]

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

[blakespot]

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

[blakespot]

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