Blizzard PPC Crisis

[Ryu]

Ive had the card now for about a month and ive had to do it about 6 times so far... the previous owner didnt tell me about the problem and I assume he didnt have the problem with it going on what he said in the emails we exchanged about it..

[Karlos]

@Ryu

Now that I think about it, the problem with mine only started after I bought a new motherboard (a revision 2B, from Eyetech with the CC_RESET fix applied). Coincidence?

[Ryu]

hmm I dont know... I think the one I got came from eyetech, and the guy said the motherboard had fixes I think... I'll find out about the CC_reset when I get another PCMCIA nic for it.

[kgrach]

I have suffered from the same problems on my PPC card. The problem with mine was some of the caps were starting to go and "leak" not physically but electrically. Solved the problem by replacing some of the caps and I replaced the Lithium battery on the board that too had gone dead.

Now the onboard clock which turned flakey awhile back has now gone completely dead. Time for me to fix the dang thing again. I also loaded the dumb thing with heatsinks on anything that got hot including the SCSI chip. placing a heatsink on the SCSI chip almost doubled the Hard drive transfer rates.

feel the board while it is on chips should get warm not the Capacitors if they are warm or hot they are bad and should be replaced. Or you could buy a cap checker.

here are two pictures that I just took of my PPC card.

640x480 picture of my ppc

Big picture of my ppc with arrows pointing to what capacitors that I am talking about.

[CU_AMiGA]

Hi Fellas,

I tried the BPPC out yesterday and still not working. I have also found out that the LED flashes literally a second after switch on, and i can't access the early startup menu thingy. I have also tried the BPPC on 2 other A1200 mobos and got the same problem. I might disconnect everything else and see if i get a result, but i think the BPPC card is dead.  :-(  I took a closer look and maybe it could have been the slight overheating signs on some of the pins that done it, although evrything was working okay before that, it was like it when i brought it (second hand).

I think i am running out of options here, what else can i do, i am not a techi guy as you probably guessed, so i can't do anything else really. I don't think it is worth getting it repaired, so i may sell it as "spairs" if anyone want's it(!). Not sure what to do afterwards, get a new BPPC or sell all the Amiga parts and buy a PC.  :-(

Regards,

-edit-

The card definately tries to boot and then resets, just a bit too quicky.

[lempkee]

kgrach: hmm a cooling rib on the scsi chip... never heard that one before, so what speeds do u get now then?

i get 8.2 megs per sec with no cooling rib..

though it does jump up and down ..

cheers

[kgrach]

That about the speed I get now 8-9 depends on the partition and the drive. The speed used to drop to 3.1~3.5 after being on for an hour or so.
The heat sink helps keep the speed consistant nomatter how long or big the transfer.

touch the scsi chip after doing a partition tranfer it do get hot.

Heat kills chips degrades and reduces the life span of components. keeping things cool really will prelong the life of your hardware.

[kgrach]

@lempkee

Same speeds you get 8-9 depending on drive and partition. The problem was after an hour or so of usage the speed used to dump to 3.1~3.5 and after prelonged usage in the summer start to give errors.

I think it was Amiga format who once suggested putting a coin under the heatshink so that it extended to the SCSI chip and help cool it down.

[CU_AMiGA]

He guys,

Okay. Things took a twist yesterday. I tried amigamad's idea and check the PSU. I disconnected everything apart from the mobo. I switched on the Amiga, the green LED flashed once and then done nothing, apart from a blank screen. This carried on for about 20-30 secondsa, then the machine rebooted and done the same other. I thought i was making some progress at that point, so it maybe the PSU instead of the Blizzard PPC that has blown. This was later confirmed. I connected both CD/RW drives, the HD and both FD and switched. I was about to get the shock of a lifetijme, after about 3 seconds the PSU blew up!  :-o

So it sounds as though it was the PSU. So i have to get another PSU to get anything working again. But before i do, i would like to know the answers to these questions please, as it may save me time and money:

1) Are all PSU the same interms of size and screw layout?

2) What would be the best voltage/watts PSU specs for my setup: Amiga 1200T / BPPC and BVision (possibly mediator in future).

3) How much would they cost and where to get them from.

4) Any other thing i should be aware of and my Power Tower setup.

I was actually going to look in PC World later and get one, but i wan't to have the green light before i do so. As i said, your replies and help will be much appreciated.

Cheers,

[lempkee]

Cu_amiga:

1. No sadly not, but most are!

2. if you are going for mediator, go for P8/P9 solution psu and not ATX , if you go for mediator SX then go for ATX psu (SX have AT and ATX , Mediator (normal) has only AT.

3. Any pc store, just a normal one, 200 watt and up!

4. sorry dont got a powertower so i dont know, but i cant think of anything really, but i am sure powertower use AT styled psu, or?

goodluck!

[lempkee]

kgratch:

thanks for this info, i have supervised my chip and i can't say its hot nor cold, something between..

also i might get problems putting a rib on there due to my CASE (tower) design, but i will try work something out

so... you should glue a coin to the chip and then glue a cooler rib to the coin?, ideas are welcome, i dont want to blow it up.

my ppc has allready 3 fans on it , the 1 orginal one (exchanged it with a more powerfull one) and 1 on the 060 and 1 on the ppc cooliing rib.

[PPC]

hi

1 Nopez not all PSU are the same size .

2 Get a PSU 230 watt's and up (300 would always be enough)
  If you buy a Mediator Buy a SX model it has an ATX connector :-D
  But beware of P96<>CGX software prob's i have an mediator in my 4000
  And a lot of SW behave's not normal specially scene productions
  But The 3D is ultra fast hehe :-D
  (games just run super smooth on 1024*768*16 hehe)
  And if you put A voodoo card in it get a Vooodoo 4 with 32 Megs of
  ram the elbox driver let's you select to use some mem of your gfx
  card as system mem, specially when playing games this gives a speed
  up coz there is not as much data transfer on the PCI bus :-D


3 Just get a PSU from a random PC store in the neighbourhood.

4  dunno, fill it up with hw like i did

[CU_AMiGA]

That's splendid news. Just another point, would any of my hadrware got frazzled by the incident.

Cheers,

[CU_AMiGA]

Hi everybody,

Okay i have just been in PC World and seen a 300W PSU ATX. I will probably buy it, but am a little confused by ATX. Would it work with my Amiga? If no-one replies in 1/2 hour then i will just buy it, as that is the only amount of time i have got in using a library computer! :-)

Cheers,

[lempkee]

ppc:

Voodoo4 has SEVERE! problems with the endian AMIGA use .

U should use Voodoo3 on mediators! to get best support for games and scene stuff

also you are giving tips to an a1200 user here (cu_amiga) and myself is an a1200 mediator + ppc user, did u know that MAX memory on mediator a1200 (Sx also) with ppc only gives u MAX 8mb Gfx memory?

i think u dont ! , so to all Go for Voodoo3 and if u have a ppc , only 8mb will be used so having an voodoo5 or 4 is not gonna change anything.

on 68k a1200's it will work with 16,32 etc.

but with WOS+W3d , NO!

[lempkee]

cu_amiga:

yes ATX will work, but recomend u to use AT instead, read above why.

my tower (RBM TOWERHAWK IIc) came with ATX bla bla , but i had to get an AT psu and remove all the ATX stuff due to my mediator is the first version (pci1200) and has no ATX support.

in general no big changes but its the connectors that counts and since u have an Powertower well go for AT

cheers