A1200T + BPPC (Resolved)

[nyteschayde]

I recently purchased an A1200T from the UK (I am in the USA). After replacing the power supply with a 110A version and reseating one of the ROMs (the ... well informed individual I purchased it from had inserted it with one pin sticking out on the side) the A1200 booted up with the familiar insert disk prompt.

I took the BPPC I purchased from Effy and hooked up the 68K cpu's fan which has obviously been added. Whenever the BPPC is hooked up I get no disk prompt (i.e. black screen).

This is the first day I have had the chance to get all the parts in the room at the same time. I tried holding down escape when I power on the machine but I get no menu. I really really really hope I haven't purchased a broken BPPC especially since the only reason I bought this A1200 was for the BPPC and both items have cost me an arm and a leg all in all.

Irked...

[Piru]

@nyteschayde

You did connect the extra power to the floppy power connector, right?

Did you try giving the system extra ctrl-amiga-amiga salute? (sometimes this wakes it up)

[Effy]

If there is no harddrive connected then the computer will wait at least 20 secs before it continues ...

[nyteschayde]

@Piru

Which connector goes to the floppy?


@Effy

It's been on for an hour now with nothing but a black screen

[Piru]

@nyteschayde

If your system is towerized the floppy is likely to be powered by the PSU directly. So the botherboard floppy power connector is empty.

This allows you to feed the motherboard (and the BPPC) with extra power by connecting another power cable there.

Here's a post about it.

Normally the extra power is only needed with BVisionPPC, but it doesn't hurt to try it.

[nyteschayde]

Oh that connector. Yeah I have plugged the extra power in; also I am using a 300W power supply so it should be fine. I can upload some pictures if necessary. I just don't know what to do.

[Effy]

An hour is indeed a few minutes too long.
What Piru says is true. I sold another BPPC to a dutch guy with a desktop and he also couldn´t get it working. Turned out that 256 Ram was too much drain on the power line and that he needed to connect his pc power supply to the floppy connector as Piru says ...

[nyteschayde]

I have the extra power supplied. I have also tried rebooting with the ctrl-amiga-amiga as well as a cold restart.

[Piru]

I'm out of ideas really.

Well you could try to strip the mobo to barebones and then try connect only keyboard, monitor, BPPC and power. If that fails, I'm afraid something is toast.

[nyteschayde]

Hmm doesn't look good for Effy's reputation since I bought the unit from him but in the end it looks the worst for me since I bought the 1200 solely for the BPPC and in the end I have now spent close to 500 USD for HD less A1200T and a pile of junk in the form of a BPPC.

Sigh... Why is it so hard to get Amiga hardware these days that works? I mean I have a new mediator setup in my A4000D and the damn voodoo cards (two; thats right two) don't work. Neither one of them. I have a whole separate thread for that as well.

Looks like I just have had a string of bad luck with this stuff. Makes me wanna give up half the time.

[doctorq]

Bummer. This is what I would do if I were you...

1. Strip down the computer so it only has the motherboard in, with power feed through the normal power in socket as well as the floppy power connector on the motherboard. Power up and see if it boots.
2. Add the keyboard adaptor (assuming it's a keyboard adaptor since it is a tower). Power up and see if it boots.
3. Install the BPPC without ram, power up to see if it boots. If it is with SCSI try holding S during boot. The extra reset shouldn't be requiered, but try it in case it doesn't boot.
4. Install ram on BPPC and power up. If it boots without ram, but not with ram, try removing the ram, and hold down ESC during boot. Enter the ram menu and set ram speed to 70 ns. If it still doesn't boot, there is a chance the board is defective.

A hint; if you haven't installed a diskdrive, you will have to wait a long time for it to boot. This can be fixed by setting a jumper on pin 1 + 2 on the floppy controller

Do you know the specs of the BPPC? The 040 versions are the most power hungry boards.

As for the Voodoo cards (even though it belongs in a different thread), have you tried them in a PC? I have two here, and both work perfectly in my Mediator. The chances that both are defective is rather unlikely, so maybe it's a config fault.

[CLS2086]

Hi,
remember that :
BPPC menu is in 31 Khz VGA mode !
so you'll need the VGA connector.
just put 32 or 64 Mb of ram.
Try to check if the MB connector is clean (use Alcohol)
and if your BPPC is well deeply plugged in (take a look at the bppc connector).
You need at least a 140W PSU
if you use the floppy connector, don"t use the original psu connetor (except for the -12V), nor you'll burn your MB, like lot of people did with bus extensions.

[nyteschayde]

@all

I will try these things as soon as I can (probably Sunday night if not Monday night). The machine is being tested with a monitor that supports both 15KHz and 31KHz modes and is done through a commodore 23->15 converter. So that should be good.

I did remove the RAM and put the RAM back in on the board to no avail. Neither situation seems to make a difference. Without the board it boots to the floppy prompt very quickly with the board the screen always stays black. I tried holding down the ESC key when powering on to no avail but I haven't tried without the RAM so I will do that when I can.

At this rate it looks like I got burned from Effy despite his few posts here. It really sucks to pay 150UKP for an adapter I cannot use. People on this board would be wise to get some sort of guarantee in writing before paying or perhaps be willing to buy DOA items despite the cost.

[Effy]

I have learned to wait with accusing somebody until all the options are tested. It´s not the first time that a BPPC refuses to work but afterwards turns out to be not defective. Fact is that the card worked when it was shipped to you last year in December. It is also not my fault that you bought the card assuming it was for an A4000 as this is the mail I got from you on January 3 :

"Man I am a complete retard. I will have to turn around and resell this soon. Turns out I forgot to check into the BPPC long enough to find out that its only for an A1200. I have an A4000D. Sigh... Well if you come across an A4000 PPC accelerator let me know. In the meantime if you know someone who wants to trade please let me know. Maybe I can find a cheap NTSC A1200."

[Piru]

@Effy

Now was that really necessary?