amiga 1200 hardware crashes

[tormedhammaren]

Hi

I've got an a1200 with a phase5 Blizzard 1230/40 which I'm having some problems with. The machine crashes and boots up again quite often. I've tried it completly stripped (for the Blizzard and hd) and the same thing happens. I am using an a500 powersuply.

Wath can be the cause of this problems?

Please help me, I'm going to make an mp3player of it (featuring the mas player)

[Effy]

You have stripped everything exept the hd and the Blizzard ?? Then try booting with two mouse buttons pressed until you get into the early startup menu. If that happens that I don't think that there something wrong with your system, only with the software. Maybe you installed something on your hd that makes the workbench crash.
If you don't make it to the early startup menu then you may have a problem. Disconnect the harddrive and see if you get into the early startup menu. If that still doesn't happen, disconnect only the turboboard. It's the easiest way to find out where the problem is.
Ofcourse if the same problem still stays when you disconnect everything then the cause must be on your motherboard ....

[Sidewinder]

I've had similar problems with an Apollo 1230 expansion card.  Here's how I'd start troubleshooting:

1.  Take out the accelerator card.  If the machine runs fine without the card installed then then there is probably something wrong with the card so continue with step 2.  Otherwise try booting with a workbench floppy if you have one and see if you still have the crashes.  If you do, you'll probably want your A1200 system checked by a dealer.  If not, then it's probably something that is being loaded during the boot process or running as a background process.

2.  The problem could be something with the card.  It could be that the processor is running too hot.  If there is a fan on the processor, check to ensure that it is working.  If there is a heat sink, make sure it is in contact with the processor, etc.  Move the Amiga into a cooler area and see if that helps.  If none of these seem to be an issue and you are using extra memory on the card try step 3.

3.  It may be that the memory is going bad.  This happened to me just a few weeks ago.  I was getting all sorts of random crashes and it turned out to be bad RAM.  Test the memory with a memory checking utility.  Such programs can be found at
Aminet.  Try switching out the stick of memory or removing it alltogether.  If the machine runs better with a different memory stick or without any extra memory then this is probably the issue.

Try to isolate the problem.  Find out what works and narrow down the possibilities.  I hope these suggestions help.

[Brian]

To me it sounds like a faulty PSU... I also had an A500 PSU connected to my A1200 once but I connected too much to the machine anyway and got unregular reboots without warning even after removing most of the stuff I had connected. :-(

So I opened the PSU, saved the entire power cable that goes to the Amiga and connected that to an AT 230W PSU instead and the problem was solved. Later the AT PSU got stripped from it's shield and the components was put in a custom perspex box and that looks mighty fine. :-D

[Mad-Matt]

Could also be a problem with the A1200 PSU connector.  both the a1200 and the a500 psu are getting on in life and these parts are bound to show signs of aging some time.

[tormedhammaren]

The crashes occur without the 1230 and the hd too. I will try another PSU.. But if it isn't the PSU, what can it be? I'm not really into microelectronics..

Except the frequently crashes, the machine is in working state.

I actually packed the thing away, some three years  ago, because of this.