Blizzard PPC blues, very good advice needed !!

[Effy]

Okay, to start with, the Blizzard is not mine but from a friend that I want to help out. It´s about a Blizzard PPC 210 Mhz (original) and a 060 at 50 Mhz with the latest firmware, DCE Revision 2 board. Problem is that the card refuses to boot into Workbench. Halfway the loading it freezes and the green light starts to flash. This happens every time again. So we started to boot "with no startup sequence". This worked and after LoadWB we got into Workbench. But after opening a program it freezes again. We tried with floppy only, so no harddrive, just a normal standard Workbench 3.1 floppy (original), but the same problem occurs. We tried to remove the Ram but the problem was not removed. We tried the heavy A500 power supply, also a Goliath power supply, also inside a Micronik tower, but no result, even when using an A500 power supply to the A1200 and a pc power supply for the coolers, so power supply is not the problem.
The card hasn´t got its original coolers but far better ones so heat can´t be the problem.
We have tried at least five different modules of different Mb´s but no result, so the memory module is also not the problem.
We tried, using Escape to get into the Blizzard PPC menu, to reduce the speed of the Ram to 70 ns, but no result, so Ram speeds can also not be the problem.
We tried three A1200 boards with different revisions, so this can also not be the problem.
We tried with and without harddrive connected, with and without internal floppy connected, and even with only an external floppy, so this can also not be the problem.
Phil has flashed the card with the file from the G-Rex site, so this can also not be the problem.
We tried on un-expanded A1200´s, so no Zorro or Mediator or clockport cards, so this can also not be the problem.
So we are a bit running out of bright ideas. Has anyone got a better suggestion ?? Would be greatly appreaciated !!!!!  :-)

[LuisTHE]

 Hi there,can i make sugestion,try a new ide HD cable,that´s it,i hope it works.   :-D

[lorddef]

I think it seems you've tried anything I can think of. Not meaning to state the obvious but you do have the required .060 libs installed don't you? Have you tried booting with the key pressed that drops it back down to the 020 cpu?

What would be usefull is if you could log everything it does up to the crash to find out exactly what it's doing when it crashes, or even better something like snoopdos that duns during the bootup process, that'd help a lot in situations like this.

[Effy]

LuisTHE : it even crashes when I only boot from floppy with no harddrive at all !!

Lorddef : we tried to boot from a standard 3.1 floppy, so I don´t think the Libs are an issue here, are they  :-?

Even if we get into the Blizzard early menu by holding down Escape, even then it crashes when I change an option, no matter which one.

[doctorq]

Try to reflash with latest flashupdate without G-Rex support.

And yes, the CPU specific library should always be installed or else it might lead to random crashes.

[Mugo]

Hello,

I bet your friend have a defective BlizzPPC card.

If you or your friend, or a third friend of yours feels confident with electronics repair, i would suggest that all the tantalium capacitors be replaced.

Not so far ago, i manage to fix a friend's Blizzard PPC with very simillar symptoms doing this.

The problem is lack of power. But not from the main power supply. The capacitors filters the power that feed the processors circuitry.

If you think that you (or anyone else) is not up to the job, the best thing to do is send the board to Amiga France.

Regards,
Marcelo.

[FrankBrana]

Plug a floppy power connector from the PSU (What ever you use, but an ATX or AT is okay ) in to the floppy power connector of the 1200 mobbo, and be carefull NOT to put in twisted. This usually helps in power troubles with the ever hungry BlizzPPC

Yes you read right

PD: Oh, Im not resposible of any damages etc etc

[Effy]

Doctorq : the card had allready been reflashed with the latest flash from the G-Rex site ...

FrankBrana : the pc power supply to floppy connector has allready been tried, didn´t work ...

Mugo : one of the things Phil wrote me was "I checked the voltage on my Blizzard PPC and I got 4.91V  the same as without  I reached 5V on my BPPC by connect two power supply A500 + AT 200W through Floppy connector...  I think that I could reach 5 V DC with only the PC PSU connected trough two entry..." so is power the problem

[Mugo]

 My Blizzard PPC works flawleslly, and the +5V line reads 4.89V. This critical difference that some people find, is actually related to the components quality. Even in the same production batch, eletrical parts may have differences.

These capacitors that i mentioned, usually change their internal resistance (i don't know the exact word in English for this. In Portuguese we use a word that means 'escape')and so the circuit have problems working properly, because this way the voltage goes down. Ans doesn't matter what kind of power supply you use to feed the circuit, the voltage will not raise enough. In fact, if you try to raise the current, these faulty capacitors will soon fail.

Sorry, it's a little difficult to explain this better in English. But i really think that you should replace these parts.

Regards,
Marcelo.