BlizzardPPC memory problem.

[Dragster]

Hello Folks,

got a little problem I noticed a few days ago. I have a Towered A1200 with BlizzardPPC (see signature)... it all started one day I did a soft reset C= + A + A key sequence, the machine did not boot again, instead it showed up a red screen (rom error). I use blizkick to map the rom to fast memory. Anyway, I removed everything, I have the machine barebones now, I just connected the floppy drive, copied blizkick to a flooppy disk and booted with it then I issued "blizkick *" from the CLI. Reboot is ok, but when I do a soft reset, I get the red screen. First thing I thougt was, ok , must be one of my SIMMS, so I removed one of them, and did my test again, turned the machine on and the problem seemed gone, so I turned it off again, replaced the simm with the one I had removed before on the same slot, tested again, problem still gone... hmmm.. weird, so I tried both SIMMs separately on the other memory slot of the board, and then I got the problem back again, with both simms, so it appears to be a problem on only one of the slots of the board, as a third test I put another simm (different size) on the non-problematic slot, everything went fine, I put it on the other slot and I got a red screen again.

Could it be a hardware (blizzppc mem controller) problem? Bad or false contact on that simm slot pins? :-?

Any suggestions will be welcome and greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

D.  

[Dragster]

@Keropi

Thanks for your reply. Both simms are clean, I will try cleaning the simm sockets though,I don't think it's the simms being dusty or something as they both work on the other simm slot. As for the PSU, I bought it recently, it's a 400 watter ATX... if it were a bad PSU, I guess I would have the problem no matter what simm slot, don't you think?

Cheers,

D.

[Dragster]

Hi,

I cleaned the bppc memory sockets and even the simms with isopropyl alcohol, I dried everything, put everything back on, same result :-( I tried with another simm, still same result...  :-(

any more suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

D.

[Dragster]

@Boot_wb

hehe.. thanks for your reply, yes, I've already tried that... the machine works OK without blizkick or using blizkick and SIMM installed only on one specific SIMM slot on the board.

[Dragster]

@Boot_wb

I'm using the simplest way to run blizkick on my tests, that is blizkick * which means to copy rom to fastmem without any patch/module.

In normal situation I run many modules with it, but I don't remember now exactly, I removed the HD. I'll reconnect the HD to see my blizkick command line and will let you know if interested.

regards,

D.

[Dragster]

@Akiko

Thanks for your reply and suggestion. I tried with another motherboard and I got exactly the same result, everything points to a problem on the blizzardppc board itself :-(

I'll try tomorrow with another PSU but... I really doubt it has something to do with that.

Thanks!

D.

[Dragster]

@Bamiga2002

That's the problem I have, however it happens here even with Blizkick *, so it's not about compatibility problems of a module or such, but a problem with the copied ROM in RAM when the available fast memory is in one specific slot  on the BPPC, I'm out of options/ideas, I guess I'm gonna have Jean Jacques B.(amigacenter) in France to have a look, it's quite expensive tho, around US$50 just for shipping, plus repair cost if needed plus shipping back...

I shouldn't complain, we all know Amiga=Expensive :-(

thanks!

[Dragster]

@Piru

Thanks, finally we're getting somewhere! I had a 1260 and a SCSI KIT IV sometime and I remember you had to have the RAM in one of the slots for rom mapping to work, but I didn't know this was the same for the BlizzardPPC. Could anyone confirm this please?? Somebody with a PPC board?? Anyone? :-)

This makes me feel so much better, no need to spend extra $ and my BPPC is OK..

thanks!

D.

[Dragster]

@Bamiga2002

Hi, thanks for testing! So, if you try with only one simm connected on the most-angled memory slot of the BlizzardPPC, you get the red screen, right? If you move that SIMM to the other slot without adding another one, does it work fine?

Cheers,

D.

[Dragster]

@Bamiga2002

Thanks for the confirmation! Phew, saved a few bucks :-)

Thread closed!  :-D

Regards,

D.