Problem with Amiga 1200 and BlizzardPPC

[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

[patrik]

@neofree:

To the right of the chip on picture 2 and 3 it looks like a component is supposed to be soldered there, but has loosened. When comparing with this picture it seems like it is a tantylum capacitor.

Tricky situation with the lifted trace. This picture suggests that the trace doesnt run very far and connects to a via. Might it be possible to connect to that via on the opposite side of the card?


/Patrik

[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.

[PulsatingQuasar]

OK, my last post sucked. Here some more and better info:

Yes, I have GRex with a BlizzardPPC rev 0. I have a Voodoo 3 in and 10 MBit network card. I don't have soundcard because I thought that only works when you have the latest firmware flashed in with the OpenPCI.device. The whole rig is stable. I can play Quake, Quake 2, and Shogo.

You must absolutely NOT use the latest firmware. This firmware supports the OpenPCI.device which is the cause of all the problems. You need the firmware before that which doesn't use OpenPCI. So you can't use any of the OpenPCI drivers.

The CyberGraphx 4.3 drivers seem not to be able to recognize correctly that no OpenPCI.device is supported and start to give all kinds of negative side effects. I needed the 4.2 beta 11 drivers to get everything working stable.

To summarise a few simple rulez:

- If you have a rev0 BlizzardPPC and you want to use a VooDoo 3 with a GRex then you can't use the firmware with OpenPCI support. You need the one before that.

- If you use the previous firmware you can't use the 4.3 CyberGraphx drivers. These drivers seem not be able differentiate properly between the firmware with OpenPCI and without OpenPCI. You need the 4.2 release. The beta 11 was the latest.

- If you have a BVisionPPC and you want to use the 4.3 CyberGraphx drivers you need the latest firmware with OpenPCI support. I had my BlizzardPPC upgraded in France from a 040 to a 060 and it didn't work properly when it got back. MagicMenu would lockup the system when I wanted to see the menu and so did 3D games. I flashed to the latest BIOS and it worked.


To be honestly; Frank Mariak and Ralph Schmidt and everyone else involved with Cybergraphx and the firmware {bleep}edup the latest releases of both their products. Don't ask for support because neither is interrested in fixing this problem. This rev2 crap was the biggest mistake they ever made.

On a side note; I have a Voodoo 3500 TV which wouldn't work in my modern AGP 4 supported AthlonXP motherboard. I found a BIOS on the internet that changed the timings of the card. I flashed it in the Voodoo 3500 and it has worked ever since. Maybe there is a BIOS outthere for PCI voodoo cards that change the timings. If I remember correctly the rev0 problem was a timing problem and only with the Voodoo-3. I might buy another PCI Voodoo card and start testing some of that stuff if I am able to find such a BIOS.

[PulsatingQuasar]

The capacitor that's missing there next to the SCSI chip is the same one as the 5 that are in a row next to the 5V fan connector. These are standard components.

I have had a damaged BlizzardPPC also in which that component was missing. Took it out of a dead mobile phone.

[Tahoe]

So the damaged IC is a normal NCR SCSI controller. You should be able to rip one off an old PC SCSI card. Maybe that way you can restore the card in its full glory?

[PulsatingQuasar]

A little update on the driver to use for your Voodoo 3.

Go to the page [color=FF0000]grex.amigaworld.de[/color]

You can only use stuff from 19-sept-01.

As you can see, all the stuff above it is openPCI crap so unusable for a rev 0 firmware.