PPC cards doesnt work on Escom A1200 motherboards ?

[lempkee]

is that a fact? , i have now heard two people who
say this , connecting the bppc simply makes the computer crash ALL the time , black screens / gfx trash and 99% of all sw (ppc) doesnt work etc,
problems turning em on etc.

revision on the motherboards is 1d1.

i have an 1.4.d (older motherboard) , please help here as i need 1 new motherboard for myself + 1 more for a friend (who has a escom 1d1 obviously)

;(

cheers

[Calen]

Lempkee:

Surpised this hasnt come up before if it is true. lets hope not as some people may have dumped there cards thinking there faulty when its down to incompatibility.
My ppc card has been fine besides little timing issues on 1D.4 and 2.B revisions (Commodore)

I do remember Eyetech  using 1d1 revisions for testing most of the hardware they sold so its makes it seem even more unlikely.

Here's a snip from Eyetech's site...

The main production board issued in the UK - Rev 1.D.1 - had onboard provision for hardware workarounds to fix the main bugs, notably bus timing problems in the Gayle and Budgie chips. In general these boards work fine with most combinations of expansion hardware and are the boards which we use to test A1200 expansion products on before shipment.

snip some more..

The later revisions of motherboards - particularly the revision 1.D.4 and 2.B are a different story however. These boards revisions were designed to take corrected versions of the Gayle and Budgie chips - and therefore were designed without provision for the earlier hardware workarounds. However, revised versions of the custom chips were never produced and as a consequence all but a few of the last of the AT/Escom manufactured motherboards were shipped without either bug-free chips or hardware workarounds.

info was sniped from here

[Calen]

Are you sure its 1d.1 (escom) By the way?   according to Eyetech, 2b and1d.4 (commodore) are later revisions, hmm weird.

Sounds like 1d.1 was one of the first a1200 models to ship from Commodore

[lempkee]

yep escom used 1.d.1 (1992) , my 1.4.d is from 1993 and works fine..

2 people here has 1.d.1 (escom) and both report huge probs.

[lempkee]

here is a picture of the PATCH on the escom mobo

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/a1200mb1d1.jpg

weird stuff if u ask me, i belived escom was the latest rev..

i need info , all i can find..
so i can atleast tell my friend to see if he can make such a patch , if not i then need 2 new motherboards (mine is nearly dead allready)

cheers

[Calen]

Ok. very weird indeed given that the 1d.4 and 2b timing issues seems to be not even present on 1d.1 boards as they seems to be top dog mobo according to Eyetech.

Be nice to know what the problem is indeed,  perhaps some hardware addon is causing a conflict (clutching at straws here)

[lempkee]

well i sent a idefix to this guy to see if it help (as he now use a non buffered one) , but
yesterday he unplugged the hdd and it still crashed in early boot menu etc , gfx bugs and trash etc and very unstable.

so i doubt adding the idefix will help at all.

and yes we are 100% sure that the software and hardware are 100% installed.



and the other user report same problems!

[lempkee]

forgot to say , it was a clean system ..

bppc + bvision ONLY and an ide adapter (the ide adapter was removed to test, but still SAME!)

also the bvision was removed ,still SAME.

tried with a blizzard 060 and all was OK!.

the bppc works FINE (no probs what so ever in 1.4.d .)

[lempkee]

calen: if 1.d1 is so top dog? why does it need the WIRE FIX ? and why is it from 92 and not 93 ? , other users who has this (68k only) had to deliver it to repair shops to get the fix added!

i am rather upset atm ;( , as my last resort was infact to buy a new MAGIC PACK and right now i am glad i didnt!

cheers

[Calen]

Yeah thats the one, probably  the first A1200 mobo and one of the most reliable by whats been read, weird indeed. perhaps though it does need some fix.

My early ppc setup had problems to with crashing and gfx currupted on cold bootup times, this was mainly down to lack of power getting to the mobo with my blizzard vision gfx card installed.  But since day one i usaly do a warm double reset to get her kicking in, i think thats more down to a timing thing though

If all ideas fail maybe you can get your friend to give eyetech a call, they are usually very helpful on these matters.

[lempkee]

btw , if this is the reason why everyone said their ppc amigas was unstable and crap, well then it all start to make sense now.

sorry for the rant but i am desperate for info + i need 2 motherboards that is KNOWN to work on bppc without crashing every now and then (mine can be online for days with no probs and thats even with a broken ciaa)

[lempkee]

calen:thanks for the eyetech info but he doesnt speak english so i need to call for him then , and yuck i live in norway, but yes if thats the last option then i will.

anyway my friend has a 240watt psu (normal pc AT/AT psu powering the motherboard) and hmm doesnt a normal 060 blizzard (68k only) draw more than a ppc 040 with bvision? , also his 68k soultion was zorro 2 card (cv643d and microtek zorro board for a1200) , hence if this is a power prob then its really weird...

[utri007]

1d1 is not escom product, it might be one of those they/commodore get back to repair.

They repaired a lot motherboards, and sold them back to customers.

2b is escom mother board, problems with that is because they used "old chips" to new motherboard.

[Calen]

Yeah, don't blame ya for being upset, classic ppc h/w is far from cheap and for it to not work with the Amiga out of the box just sucks,  I for one would feel the same.

If i was in same boat and all else fails (there must be something though) i'd resort to ebay and pick up a dirt cheap basic a1200 with a model known to work with those cards.

Perhaps someone else here can shed some light on this problem, step up Bppc owners..

[lempkee]

confirmed from the OTHER amiga escom mobo owner aswell now , he also powered it with a big psu , still same probs , he now use 1.4.d and none of them problems show up..

(though its abit buggy on 1.4.d on his setup but nothing compared to the escom mobo)

there... that out of the picture  i hope