A1200T + BPPC (Resolved)

[nyteschayde]

No nothing works. Seems "my next post" never posted. Anyhow, I tried a second motherboard and both motherboards do not need the fix. I don't know what I am going to do with it. I have a 300+ USD paper weight.

Both motherboards work fine without the card and deliver a black screen with the board.

Out of ideas here.

[AmigaMance]

The motherboard fixes just improve the stability of an Amiga 1200 with a 68040/68060 CPU. If the CPU card doesn't boot at all, the fixes will not help. Sorry for not having said something more essential but i'm out of ideas too. :-(
 I bought my PPC equipment in a good price from effy a few years ago and everything was working perfectly. I don't know...

[HellCoder]

How come you haven't said anything about the voltage yet ?
It seems to me that this is trivial.
Do you have the tools for this ?
Do you know were to measure the voltage ?

[Oliver]

HellCoder wrote:
How come you haven't said anything about the voltage yet ?
It seems to me that this is trivial.
Do you have the tools for this ?
Do you know were to measure the voltage ?

Don't you mean 'not trivial'?

The voltage certainly is important.  You can't just assume that a high power supply will give you good performance.  The voltage has to match the requirements of the device(s) being driven.  Also, the total power available at each voltage output is important, ie current at V1, current at V2, etc.  One can't ignore this, and assume it's all fine.  Modern PC's tend to be more tolerant of lower voltages than miggies are.

[HellCoder]

Don't you mean 'not trivial'?

Since your native language is English I assume you're right.  :-)

Interesting topic:
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=22505

[PulsatingQuasar]

@nyteschayde

I think the best thing to do is put the card back to its original state.

That means the 68040 should be put back to 25 MHz again. The PowerPC is likely a 160 Mhz one so it should be put at that speed. It was clocked that way because you have 2 oscillators. If you had 1 it would be clocked at 175 Mhz.

Overclocking a 68040 is pointless. Just get the cash and send it to the Amiga Center in France and get a 68060 on it.

The possibilities I see is that either the oscillator that is driving the 68040 is dead or there is break in the signal line or the 68040 is dead.

If you don't want to send it of to get it fixed I am willing to buy if from you but ofcourse for a defect price because in the mean time the thing might actually be dead.

On a note:
There were different versions of the BlizzardPPC and especially the first versions had timing problems. These were later fixed. I had a BlizzardPPC once that didn't like a motherboard at all too.
Later on Phase 5 sold 160 Mhz PowerPC versions with 1 oscillator which made the PowerPC run at 175 Mhz and these cards can take any motherboard.

On a second note:
75% of Amigans should get there hands of these expensive pieces of hardware. I have seen 6 BlizzardPPC's so far and of these 3 had missing components like capacitors broken of where they should have been. I even saw this on a BVisionPPC!!

I have managed to replace all those broken of components and I'm really gutted to see how some people seem to handle these things.

Please, please, please if you don't intend to fix these cards, send them to me. For free!  :-D

[twizzle]

just a thought and this might be a stupid question that no one has mentioned in this thread yet??
but you have installed the necc libs from the cd and floppy discs that should be with it ??

before fitting the bppc?

because it wont work until you do.

[nyteschayde]

@HellCoder

I haven't checked the voltage because I am without a volt meter at the moment. I tried three different power supplies some ranging in over 550W just to see if any would work. All would power the A1200 just fine and all failed with BPPC installed.

@PulsatingQuasar

I am going to send the unit to France for a free inspection. I wasn't aware they could or would solder on an 060. I will have to ask about that.

@Twizzle

I'd like to get to the insert floppy prompt. I have used a driveless system, a system with a drive both to no avail. I don't even have a drive installed for these tests anymore. And yes I am giving sufficient time for the "delay" for no drives.

[pierre]

dude I feel your pain, but you have options the amiga center is one... I hear good things about it.  I had a 060 for 6 years I thought it was bad until I finaly organized myself and got it working, with the help of amiga.org I may add.  I hope this thing will work for you.  Amigas are not as fragile as you might think... Amigas however are very trick machines to work with, by todays standards they are wicked difficult... so many things to know so few resources.  While I feel the seller could have given you a better info, you could have gotten the thing on e-bay and NEVER HEARD ANYTHING from the seller.  Well now you know that amiga hardware will keep you busy, it's a very time consuming hobby!  I find that if I store a machine for a long time, it no longer boots and I have to take the whole thing apart again...usualy it not broken it just in need of love....

[PulsatingQuasar]

@nyteschayde

Good choice.

BlizzardPPC cards can indeed be upgraded to a 68060. This is not cheap but the speed increcement over a 68040 is huge.

If you have the cash then do it.

I hope Amiga Center can fix it. Maybe they don't have anything to fix and you know also if there is an incompatibility between your Amiga and the BlizzardPPC.


On a NOTE: Everybody that has a BlizzardPPC with a 68040 should send it to Amiga Center in France and get it upgraded to a 68060. A 68060 is sooooooo much better than a 68040 in about all regards. And a socket is part of the upgrade price.

[AmigaMance]

A 68060 is sooooooo much better than a 68040 in about all regards.

 Except in compatibility with 68000-020 software maybe? :-P

[PulsatingQuasar]

Yes, but that counts for a 68040 also.

With a BlizzardPPC you want to build a power system not a compatible system. And based on that reason alone you should change to a 68060.

[STeADi]

I've just got myself a BPPC for my Amiga 1200 and Mediator system and I too are having black screen problems when the card is connected to the A1200 (but not the mediator).

I get constant resets if I connect it to the A1200 and the mediator.

So I'll be following this thread through tonight and praying I can get mine working too.

[lopos]

STeADi wrote:
I've just got myself a BPPC for my Amiga 1200 and Mediator system and I too are having black screen problems when the card is connected to the A1200 (but not the mediator).

I get constant resets if I connect it to the A1200 and the mediator.

So I'll be following this thread through tonight and praying I can get mine working too.

I Thing it's best you tell us what your system has. So we can try to help you. :-D

[STeADi]

lopos wrote:
I Thing it's best you tell us what your system has. So we can try to help you. :-D

:-) Well I'll try some of the things I've read here first and try and gather some of the same information people have asked for and I'll get back to you.  (No doubt sobbing my little heart out  :lol: )

[Effy]

I recall that Amiga4001 had big problems getting his CyberstormPPC to work with power supplies other than his original A4000 D power supply. It later turned out that all those heavy ATX power supplies (up to 600W) could not give a  5 Volt signal but only close to 4 V and therefor his CyberstormPPC just refused to boot up. Think there must be a thread about that somewhere ... THIS is that thread, not that it means that this is the same problem with the Blizzard PPC but I just want to point out the problem of  not having enough power, even if your power supply tells you it has more power than you would need ...