Accelerator Experts Out there

[Omni]

Hi,

I need help, i have a problem with an ACT Apollo Turbo Mk3 030 40Mhz, 882 40 Mhz. At the beginning i thought it was a heating problem, so I added a fan cooler over the 030 because this model is overclocked from the factory, so I thought overheat was the main problem, the thing is it boots the first time and it appears normal, but after a while or while trying to do some normal tasks like grabbing a few icons from one place to another brings sytem error and then it refuses to boot! If I try to install OS 3.5 from the CD it resets in the middle of the installation.
I did a test using Amiga analyzer and it revealed errors on CHIP memory when the accelerator was plugged in, but nothing when it wasn't (I did like 500 passes to be sure), with the bare 2 Mb memory and the machine was rock steady, so something is wrong with the accelerator. Does anyone have a clue, where to look ? Or should I give up and get another accelerator ? I tried that but they are hard to find at cheap prices. BTW it's an A1200T with ROM 3.1 and Workbench 3.1

Thank you,
 :-?

[melott]

I really don't know, but offer a guess
Could it be a bad ram chip causing the problem??
From what I've read, the CPU wouldn't act quite
that way.

[Ilwrath]

Well, the Apollos weren't known for stability.  You may still be dealing with a heat or power problem, though.  

What power supply are you running?  If it's the C= stock A1200 one, that may be your problem.  The system might not be getting quite enough juice...  I had to update my A1200 power supply for an old GVP 030+ board.

Also, how did you try cooling the 030/882?  Just a fan probably won't do much good by itself.  A small heatsink attached with a good thermal compound would probably help keep the core temperatures quite a bit lower than just aiming a fan at the chips.  I know it sounds corny, but the little chunk of metal and the heatsink compound really make a HUGE difference.

[StevenJGore]

If I try to install OS 3.5 from the CD it resets in the middle of the installation

This was happening to me, but with OS 3.9. I had a Blizzard 1230-IV 50MHz 030 & 50MHz 882 installed, and thought it was overheating. By the process of elimination, it turned out to be the Squirrel PCMCIA SCSI interface that was overheating and crashing my A1200 (a well known problem with Squirrels, as it I found out later).

Steve.

[Omni]

It's an A1200T and has a huge PS, that won't be the problem, overheat maybe, but i don't know, where can I get a couple of these heating coolers for 030s /882s?

CHIP problem, no ,because it worked perfectly with the accelerator removed and just the 2Mb CHIP.

[Ryu]

I think he meant your ram chips on the accelerator being faulty..., BTW what country are you in? 030's can be picked up very cheaply in most countries... they go for around £30 UKP here...

[bloodline]

My Bet would be THe Acelerator pulling so much current from the Stock A1200 power supply that the ChipRam is not getting enough power and failing.

[Omni]

Hi,

It's not a stock Power supply it's a SkyHawk 230W, outputs 23A in +5v line, 9A on +12v, and 0.5A on -5v and -12v. I used the same PS for an A1200T with a Blizz PPC with 64 Mb, CyberVision3D, BuddhaIDE, Xsurf and  2 Hds and 1 CD ROM and I never had this problem.

BTW I removed and swaped the SIMM modules several times, and always the same result after a while it cease to respond. Resets and so on ...

Something must be bad with the Apollo I guess.
It's not the RAM SIMM chips either because I swaped them ...

It's not the Amiga's CHIP RAM because after testing alone showed no faults.

Must be something with the Apolo Turbo Mk3 board.

BTW  if i shpuld spend 30 british pounds on an 030 plus shipping to here, I prefer getting another board

Thank you

[bloodline]

Omni wrote:
Hi,

It's not a stock Power supply it's a SkyHawk 230W, outputs 23A in +5v line, 9A on +12v, and 0.5A on -5v and -12v. I used the same PS for an A1200T with a Blizz PPC with 64 Mb, CyberVision3D, BuddhaIDE, Xsurf and  2 Hds and 1 CD ROM and I never had this problem.

BTW I removed and swaped the SIMM modules several times, and always the same result after a while it cease to respond. Resets and so on ...

Something must be bad with the Apollo I guess.
It's not the RAM SIMM chips either because I swaped them ...

It's not the Amiga's CHIP RAM because after testing alone showed no faults.

Must be something with the Apolo Turbo Mk3 board.

BTW  if i shpuld spend 30 british pounds on an 030 plus shipping to here, I prefer getting another board

Thank you

Then, I would say that the Apollo's Timings are qrong and not accesing the Motherboard properly... That could be dirty Pins in the connector but morelikly just one of the many problems people had with them.

[Stedy]

What A1200 motherboard revision you got?

[Omni]

Yes , it might be that (timing probs) any suggestion on how to fix it ?

BTW Motherboard is Rev 2B

Thanx

[Stedy]

Yes , it might be that (timing probs) any suggestion on how to fix it ?

BTW Motherboard is Rev 2B

The Rev 2B has known timing problems.

Here's something I wrote earlier.

A1200 timing fixes