BlizzardPPC memory problem.

[Dragster]

Hello Folks,

got a little problem I noticed a few days ago. I have a Towered A1200 with BlizzardPPC (see signature)... it all started one day I did a soft reset C= + A + A key sequence, the machine did not boot again, instead it showed up a red screen (rom error). I use blizkick to map the rom to fast memory. Anyway, I removed everything, I have the machine barebones now, I just connected the floppy drive, copied blizkick to a flooppy disk and booted with it then I issued "blizkick *" from the CLI. Reboot is ok, but when I do a soft reset, I get the red screen. First thing I thougt was, ok , must be one of my SIMMS, so I removed one of them, and did my test again, turned the machine on and the problem seemed gone, so I turned it off again, replaced the simm with the one I had removed before on the same slot, tested again, problem still gone... hmmm.. weird, so I tried both SIMMs separately on the other memory slot of the board, and then I got the problem back again, with both simms, so it appears to be a problem on only one of the slots of the board, as a third test I put another simm (different size) on the non-problematic slot, everything went fine, I put it on the other slot and I got a red screen again.

Could it be a hardware (blizzppc mem controller) problem? Bad or false contact on that simm slot pins? :-?

Any suggestions will be welcome and greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

D.  

[keropi]

I would try cleaning both simms and sockets...
also check the PSU, maybe it is aged and cannot deliver enough 5v for the ram...

[CLS2086]

Try what Keropi said, and give us some news

[Dragster]

@Keropi

Thanks for your reply. Both simms are clean, I will try cleaning the simm sockets though,I don't think it's the simms being dusty or something as they both work on the other simm slot. As for the PSU, I bought it recently, it's a 400 watter ATX... if it were a bad PSU, I guess I would have the problem no matter what simm slot, don't you think?

Cheers,

D.

[Dragster]

Hi,

I cleaned the bppc memory sockets and even the simms with isopropyl alcohol, I dried everything, put everything back on, same result :-( I tried with another simm, still same result...  :-(

any more suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

D.

[Boot_WB]

Dragster wrote:
Hi,

I cleaned the bppc memory sockets and even the simms with isopropyl alcohol, I dried everything, put everything back on, same result :-( I tried with another simm, still same result...  :-(

any more suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

D.

Suggestions:

1) Try removing all other peripherals and just booting with only the BPPC attached.

2) Try the different settings in the BPPC config - such as slowing down the RAM timing to 70ns, and disabling ROM mapping.

Regards



Rich

EDIT: Never mind, just re-read your first post - I see you've already tried.

Note to self - learn to read.

[Boot_WB]

Does the machine work ok when you DON'T use Blizkick?

[Dragster]

@Boot_wb

hehe.. thanks for your reply, yes, I've already tried that... the machine works OK without blizkick or using blizkick and SIMM installed only on one specific SIMM slot on the board.

[Boot_WB]

Out of interest, which blizkick modules (if any) are you using?

[Dragster]

@Boot_wb

I'm using the simplest way to run blizkick on my tests, that is blizkick * which means to copy rom to fastmem without any patch/module.

In normal situation I run many modules with it, but I don't remember now exactly, I removed the HD. I'll reconnect the HD to see my blizkick command line and will let you know if interested.

regards,

D.

[keropi]

oh man, don't count on the 400W psu!

I have tried 4 atx psu's on my ppc/grex A4000, none could deliver enough 5v !!!! try with ur old PSU... if u see it working then u know the prob!
I have reverted to the original 4000 psu...

[Akiko]

I had the exact same problem last year but with my CSPPC. In the end turned out wasn't related to the CSPPC but something else failing on the 4000 mobo.
If you have another 1200 handy it might be worth checking out.

[rkauer]

 With a multimeter u can measure the +5V line/rail.

 Did u use a contact-spray cleaner?

 If it suceeds, try to slightly PULL the SIMM contacts with a hook (?) -shapped-tool in onder to FORCE a good contact in the socket.

 "We all live in yellow sub-routine, yellow sub-routine, yellow sub-routine." - Everybody singin' !

[Dragster]

@Akiko

Thanks for your reply and suggestion. I tried with another motherboard and I got exactly the same result, everything points to a problem on the blizzardppc board itself :-(

I'll try tomorrow with another PSU but... I really doubt it has something to do with that.

Thanks!

D.

[Bamiga2002]

I was having the same problem a few years ago. If i kicked a ROM-file with BlizKick into memory, first boot would be ok but reset = red screen. I solved it by replacing the ROM-file with 'BlizKick *' so it just copies the onboard roms into memory (with modules ofcourse). It maybe a buggy PPC-card we have, because it worked earlier with the previous BlizKick-setup.