Problem with Amiga 1200 and BlizzardPPC

[neofree]

Hello,

I got the following recently:

Amiga 1200 in Power Tower with 3.1 ROMs.
BlizzardPPC (040/25, PPC/200) with 32megs of RAM and SCSI
SCSI HD and CD

When I got it, something was banging around in the box... I opened it up and the BlizzardPPC was loose banging around...

I just powered it up last night using 1084 monitor and it booted up to workbench.  The display was flickery so I went to change the screenmode and it locked up when I double clicked the screenmode icon.  Before this, there are green garbled lines here and there whenever I double click on any icon and bring up a window.

So I grabbed my OS3.9 CD, but it wont recognize it or boot to it.  I checked that CD0: was loaded and even tried other CD's and none were recongized.  

This is a Rev 0 BlizzardPPC and the previous owner was trying to get a G-Rex to work with it but he couldn't make it work.  He claimed he tested the BlizzardPPC successfully without G-Rex installed...

I don't have ANY Amiga floppies (No WB, etc.)...  So where do I go from here?  Does it sound like damaged hardware?  Or does it sound like bad software loaded or problems because of G-Rex firmware?

Besides ordering WB disks off of eBay, is there anything else I can try (software wise) that might revive the CD so I can format?

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

Firstly, I'm not using G-Rex. But I've heard you can reflash your BlizzardPPC with a G-Rex firmware.  Also, I was told this PPC works in this Amiga fine with the G-Rex out prior to shipment.  

I'm using an Amiga 1200 in Power Tower, whatever the original power supply is in a Power Tower, would have to check more about power issues when I get home.  Yes, the small cpu fan is spinning.  Also, this happened within minutes of first use, barely any time for the unit to heat much.

I'll try nuking the startup sequence...  CD0 was found in the boot menu when I tried to boot from cd, but it said not bootable.  Does that mean the drive is not bootable or the CD was not bootable?  Is it even possible to boot OS3.9 from CD?

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

About G-Rex.. What I mean is that the previous owner may have flashed the Rev 0 board thinking he might make it work...   How do I check which version I have and if I should flash?

About 3 minutes until it locks...  I can say it's definately not a time issue.  The lockups occur at precisely the same actions.  Like if I double click Screenmode icon, and others.  Other icons work fine though for indefinate amount of time without lockup.  This made me think it's a HD failure but the CD doesnt work either.

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

nope, in USA..  looks like a good collection of software though

[neofree]

Well, I found the problem...  but it isn't good news...

Inspected the BPPC board itself.  Found two pins of a large square chip (not CPU's) smashed together.  Probably smashed together when the BPPC was banging around in shipping since it wasnt secured.

I carefully tried to seperate them, but one of them quickly just fell off completely.  It was loose at the very base of the chip.  

Now.. The unit doesnt come on at all with BPPC in. I took SCSI cable out to see if it it would just mean SCSI is bad, but it still doesnt work at all any longer...



Seeing as the BVision I have coming requires one of these boards, I don't know what to do now...

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

I'll try to take some pictures tonight. I *might* be able to do it if I only had some flux...  And could find my 15 watt solder iron.  But I fear I will make it worse.  I did do SMT soldering for HP, but nothing this small.

Man.. The whole thing has me very frustrated... Might sell the BPPC and BVision both and get a Mediator.  Are there any accel boards though that are PCI that work with mediator?

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

What do people think of these?
http://elbox.com/news_04_12_17.html

Looks like maybe you could slap in a SharkPPC after OS4 comes out. (Per site the reason why SharkPPC isn't out yet is they are waiting for OS4 to be released.)

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

Heard from person who sold me it...

He said he'd pay for repairs or give me the G-Rex and Voodoo card he tried to get to work on this thing, so I could sell it for repairs/replacement..

Any thoughts? What are G-Rex's worth?

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

Well I told him I'd take the G-Rex.

Assuming I got the G-Rex to work without frying my BPPC, doesn't it run hot?  I also was planning on running this machine 24/7 for a BBS after I installed lots of cooling.

[neofree]

Alright you thread hijackers JK

Anyone have any comments about running G-Rex 24/7?

[neofree]

OK, here are the pics:

www.wattservices.com/1.JPG
This is a pic of the entire chip.  It appears to be the SCSI chip.  However, with the SCSI cable unplugged the unit still does not boot.  I'm using a 1084 btw, maybe it's giving SCSI info for the BVision, I don't know I havent gotten my BVision yet.

www.wattservices.com/2.JPG
This is the best pic of the damage.  If you can tell, the trace is lifted and up against the chip (look next to the 5th pin in from the right).  This happened when I soldered a small copper wire thread to the trace and to the side of the chip tonight.  But when I pulled away even very slowly the trace was lifted and you can see it is still there but up against the chip.  I was never able to get anything to stick.  It'd feel like it was stuck, but as soon as I moved my hand (ouch) or needle nose pliers away, it'd bust off.  

www.wattservices.com/3.JPG
Another slightly different view.  The purplish glare shows where the pin was on the chip, but so little is there to solder to.  I tried using a small metal pin to scrape away some of the chip insulation to have more to solder to, but never got enough.

Any ideas? I can't seem to get anywhere with this...

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

Thanks!

I looked around... Didn't find the missing component.  Anyone got schematics or just know what I need to put here?

Well.. That helps with the trace.  Also explains to me what the board looks like without SCSI option.  Which means that this board should be OK once I put that part back on and I just might not be able to use SCSI.  The problem I'm worried about more then the trace is that the chip doesnt have anything sticking out to solder to.