A1200T + BPPC (Resolved)

[nyteschayde]

I recently purchased an A1200T from the UK (I am in the USA). After replacing the power supply with a 110A version and reseating one of the ROMs (the ... well informed individual I purchased it from had inserted it with one pin sticking out on the side) the A1200 booted up with the familiar insert disk prompt.

I took the BPPC I purchased from Effy and hooked up the 68K cpu's fan which has obviously been added. Whenever the BPPC is hooked up I get no disk prompt (i.e. black screen).

This is the first day I have had the chance to get all the parts in the room at the same time. I tried holding down escape when I power on the machine but I get no menu. I really really really hope I haven't purchased a broken BPPC especially since the only reason I bought this A1200 was for the BPPC and both items have cost me an arm and a leg all in all.

Irked...

[nyteschayde]

@Piru

Which connector goes to the floppy?


@Effy

It's been on for an hour now with nothing but a black screen

[nyteschayde]

Oh that connector. Yeah I have plugged the extra power in; also I am using a 300W power supply so it should be fine. I can upload some pictures if necessary. I just don't know what to do.

[nyteschayde]

I have the extra power supplied. I have also tried rebooting with the ctrl-amiga-amiga as well as a cold restart.

[nyteschayde]

Hmm doesn't look good for Effy's reputation since I bought the unit from him but in the end it looks the worst for me since I bought the 1200 solely for the BPPC and in the end I have now spent close to 500 USD for HD less A1200T and a pile of junk in the form of a BPPC.

Sigh... Why is it so hard to get Amiga hardware these days that works? I mean I have a new mediator setup in my A4000D and the damn voodoo cards (two; thats right two) don't work. Neither one of them. I have a whole separate thread for that as well.

Looks like I just have had a string of bad luck with this stuff. Makes me wanna give up half the time.

[nyteschayde]

@all

I will try these things as soon as I can (probably Sunday night if not Monday night). The machine is being tested with a monitor that supports both 15KHz and 31KHz modes and is done through a commodore 23->15 converter. So that should be good.

I did remove the RAM and put the RAM back in on the board to no avail. Neither situation seems to make a difference. Without the board it boots to the floppy prompt very quickly with the board the screen always stays black. I tried holding down the ESC key when powering on to no avail but I haven't tried without the RAM so I will do that when I can.

At this rate it looks like I got burned from Effy despite his few posts here. It really sucks to pay 150UKP for an adapter I cannot use. People on this board would be wise to get some sort of guarantee in writing before paying or perhaps be willing to buy DOA items despite the cost.

[nyteschayde]

It's ok. If Effy wants to play that game thats fine. His response stemmed from this last email I sent him (below). He is worried that I will try to further discredit him. I did ask for help here because I am having trouble.

I am upset because I have spent so much trying to get this working. Anybody who has spent 500USD on Amiga parts just to receive a non-working unit would be equally upset especially if the seller's only response was to say, "Keep asking people, I am sure you'll get it working."

If I can get it working thats great. You're all right that I wasn't aware of any timing issue. I'll take photos of the board and continue trying new things as I indicated in the email before I further discredit him but not once has he come close to stating he'd return the money. Based on his actions I doubt he will. Even though it's something I'd do. I didn't want to sell the BPPC before ensuring it worked for that very reason. Which is why I went through the process of purchasing an Amiga 1200T to test it with.

I have noticed that of all things you don't seem very upfront about guaranteeing your purchase. Did you sell me a broken accelerator? Because it was broken when I received it... If this cannot be resolved I can be sure to make sure that others know you won't make good on your sales and that nobody should trust you with purchases. I don't mean to strong arm you but you walked away with my money and I got your broken BPPC. I will keep trying a bit more before I let everyone know but I am not exactly happy with your stance on the whole thing.

[nyteschayde]

Ok, so here are some pictures of the mobo. It appears to be a 1D4 model. But on the url supplied above, they mention only a Budgie Rev 01 and Budgie Rev 02 fix for 1D4 mobos. Any ideas on which model this is? It seems to be a Budgie Rev 0.



And the BPPC card with and without RAM

[nyteschayde]

I wished I had known it was overclocked from the get go. Effy never bothered letting me know that he was selling an overclocked accelerator. These things are super picky about being touched let alone going under the torch so to speak by an amateur.

Sigh. I suppose someone will point out what I have found after receiving the card; which is that they never made a 68040 @ 33Mhz, 603e @ 200MHz model. I also noticed after the purchase that the fan on the 040 was added.

As far as the voltage goes I am still trying to find my multi-meter. And finally as some have inquired about the Mediator/Voodoo situation in my A4K it seems that it has something to do with the MMU.

Karlos mentioned it may be an incorrect 040.library since the voodoo started working when I used the following two commands

cpu >nil: nocache noburst nodatacache nodataburst
cpu >nil: nocache noburst datacache databurst

but not when I use

cpu >nil: instcache instburst datacache databurst

Thats all for now. The BPPC still creates a black screen whilst the A1200T without the BPPC works fine. The BPPC does the same with or without RAM and never lets me into either the early access ROM menu nor the ESC BPPC menu.

[nyteschayde]

I have not given up yet nor will I just toss it away. I know even if I cannot get it up and running somebody else can. I have not completely decided that its Effy's fault yet either but if it turns out to be I doubt I'll get my money back and that makes me sad.

Effy has some standing here at A.org and many people seem to know him. I hope that the product turns out to be a working unit. I am just not having a lot of luck at the moment with this.

[nyteschayde]

@all

Hmm I thought I set a mostly positive note in my last post but it has been taken the wrong way. Let me reiterate in bold this time; I have not given up yet nor will I just toss it away. I know even if I cannot get it up and running somebody else can.

All in all I think I am doing as well as can be expected of the situation. I am very thankful everbody is here. Granted my life is very busy and I don't really have a lot of time to be dealing with this extra headache but getting my A4K to work with the mediator/voodoo solution has improved my attitude somewhat.

I am well aware of the age of Amiga parts given I got my first Amiga in 89. I had to do a fair amount of soldering on the A500 I had back then too but I had taken a long break from using Amigas outside an emulator until fairly recently and have become quite spoiled by building modern PCs.

I greatly appreciate the advice and knowledge presented by the folks on A.org which is why I came to you guys with my problems. This whole transaction was a big collection of assumption (Effy's part) and lack of general knowledge of AGA and PPC Amigas (on my part). Those things coupled with lack of communication set the stage for a very sour taste.

I am doing my best to make the situation a good one which is why I mentioned that if in the end I find I have a bad part I will be sad. (<--- Notice the use of the word sad rather than mad).

I am looking for the giant reset button for the various attitudes of all including myself on this thread so that I can progress and figure out if I am capable of fixing this board or if I must cut my losses and find someone who can.

Remember that there are no Amiga repair facilities left (to my knowledge) in the United States where I reside. And the Amiga community here is at least half what it is in Europe; and we all know that isn't much.

At this point it looks like I need to do the following things:

1. Check the voltage on my power supply
2. Remove my mobo from the case, turn it over and desolder the two capacitors.

If I am missing something please let me know. I would like to go in with as much knowledge as I can before hand. Although slow I have tried to provide pictures along the way the whole time.

[nyteschayde]

Which connection was bad? See my next post to see that the timing fixes had already been applied to my board.

[nyteschayde]

No nothing works. Seems "my next post" never posted. Anyhow, I tried a second motherboard and both motherboards do not need the fix. I don't know what I am going to do with it. I have a 300+ USD paper weight.

Both motherboards work fine without the card and deliver a black screen with the board.

Out of ideas here.

[nyteschayde]

@HellCoder

I haven't checked the voltage because I am without a volt meter at the moment. I tried three different power supplies some ranging in over 550W just to see if any would work. All would power the A1200 just fine and all failed with BPPC installed.

@PulsatingQuasar

I am going to send the unit to France for a free inspection. I wasn't aware they could or would solder on an 060. I will have to ask about that.

@Twizzle

I'd like to get to the insert floppy prompt. I have used a driveless system, a system with a drive both to no avail. I don't even have a drive installed for these tests anymore. And yes I am giving sufficient time for the "delay" for no drives.

[nyteschayde]

Well it turns out the solder points and timing chips were the problem on the board Effy sold me. It WAS broken when I received it. Jeans at the Amiga Repair center in France was able to revive the board and I expect it back, upgraded with an 060 and new timing components for nearly the price I originally paid to Effy.

I know I will never see my money again (or even part of it from Effy) but be careful what you buy online. Even if the seller has previously had a good reputation its possible he will sell you a broken part and refuse to do anything about it.

In Effy's defense I am sure the product probably worked (giving him the benefit of the doubt) when he sold it to me. The product also probably ended up getting damaged in the process of shipping, but nonethless he never once offered to refund the money or to do anything about it. I was angry and immediately accused him without further testing. I was scolded, rightly so, but his response certainly didn't encourage any other type of action *and* in the end my first accusation was correct. I paid for a working accelerator and received a broken one.

For a respected member of the community I think this is a very poor way to handle things. I even admit that my first reaction was equally poor. People should keep this in mind when purchasing any Amiga equipment. Either be willing to buy a broken part for repair regardless of what they promise or make sure they have a non-DOA guarantee.

I am dying to get the product back from the repair center. It will be my first 060 Amiga. Now I have to buy a new mediator for the tower since I originally had a mediator enhanced 68040 A4000D. Not sure what I'll do with it for now. We'll see.

Gabriel