flaky Apollo 1230-40MHz

[Agafaster]

I've got this Apollo 1230 board thats a bit flaky - bought it about 6 years ago to replace the Apollo1230 Litethat served me so well for the previous 3 years, but its never been right - crashes the machine a lot. I've tried cleaning contacts, etc but I'm stumped. I'd kinda like to get it going so I can run AGA demos, etc on a classic.

does anyone know of anyone who still fixes these things ?

[humppa]

Already tried different RAM?

[amigagr]

humppa wrote:
Already tried different RAM?

i should have ask just the same. i had a lot of crashes once because of a faulty 8mb simm

[tonyvdb]

Yes, It can be caused by bad ram or a heat issue. How long after using it will it crash?

[Agafaster]

I havent tried it in a long time, to be honest !
I had two 16MB simms I bought off a mate.
I did however have similar problems with the 8MB stick I was using in the 1230Lite, and the 4MB stick I got with the Lite. (it was the 4MB and a Lite for £100 from Power way back in the era when God's dog was a pup !)

not sure. think I'll have to have a play - but it might be flakey even without RAM ! could be a loose edge conn though - I even got some trichloroethane spray to clean the contacts, etc !

not sure if it was ever really stable - could be heat issue - I guess the 1st thing to do (after giving it a go!) could be to downgrade the clock to the CPU's rated speed.

[Argus]

It's probably flaky because of the overclocked 68030 plastic flat pack cpu (mine has a 16MHz overclocked to 40MHz!).  After about 10-15 minutes of use mine crashes then stops working (and that's with a heatsink on the cpu).

[Agafaster]

now you come to mention it, mine hasnt got a heatsink.
its rated as 33MHz, IIRC though.

I'll have a play tonight, if I get chance.

[humppa]

could be a loose edge conn though - I even got some trichloroethane spray to clean the contacts, etc !

...and try to carefully bend up the pins of the A1230 with a needle. Loose contacts are a common problem on the CPU slot of the A1200.

[AmigaMance]

I'm surprised that no one asked you about which motherboard revision you have.
 It is known that Apollo accelerators have timing problems with some Amiga 1200 motherboards and cause frequent crashes. I can't remember which revisions are affected, but if you do a search here, you will find them.

[humppa]

It is known that Apollo accelerators have timing problems with some Amiga 1200 motherboards and cause frequent crashes. I can't remember which revisions are affected, but if you do a search here, you will find them.

It was revision 1D4 (the most common one) which was most affected by timing problems.
However, you can't bet on that. My 1D4 has been running perfectly so far with all accelerators I plugged in.

[motrucker]

One other, remote, possibility. Is the RF shield of the motherboard touching the card at all. I have seen the shield cause intermtant shorts by touching the card where it bends down. It's a long shot, but worth checking.

[AmigaMance]

 Yeah, that could be another remote reason. Mine is completely removed.

[Agafaster]

humppa wrote:

It was revision 1D4 (the most common one) which was most affected by timing problems.
However, you can't bet on that. My 1D4 has been running perfectly so far with all accelerators I plugged in.

y'know - I think it (they) is (are. I have two - one is original CBM and flaky anyway*, the other is Amiga Technologies era) I need to confirm that, however, as I type this on a Compaq NT box! :boohoo:

the edgeconnector pins idea sounds good: I'll have a butchers' tonight.

I dont think the shielding is the problem: I tried it in its 1200T configuration: still flaky.




*I nuked the thing with a cdrom and 3.5" HDD without using a buffer board

[Doobrey]

AmigaMance wrote:
 It is known that Apollo accelerators have timing problems with some Amiga 1200 motherboards and cause frequent crashes.

AFAIK it was only with 040/060 cards that the timing problems showed up.
It should only be a 5-10 minute job, so it's worth trying it anyway..Fix info and piccies.

Personally, I just found the Apollo '030 flaky. Mine went back to the shop several times in the first year,they changed boards, changed RAM but it would still start crashing after 20-30 mins, even if was just idling on a workbench screen  :madashell:

[AmigaMance]

AFAIK it was only with 040/060 cards that the timing problems showed up.

oh i didn't know that. Do you know, btw, if 040/060 Blizzards are affected or not?