Unflashy BlizzardPPC

[Karlos]

Hi all,
   I have this occasional problem with my BlizzardPPC and was wondering if anybody has had similar problems.
   Every once in a while, the card fails to initialize fully. You can get into early statup with both mouse keys (using a PAL monitor) and the card is not detected in the expansion list. However, the CPU is detected as a 68040. No fast ram is detected and consequently no PPC either.
   I recall once that I disabled the memory on startup and the effect was similar. However, in this case the problem is persistent and the only way to remedy it is to reflash the card's ROM.
   When this problem arises, I have to reflash for 3 or 4 cold boots (basic resets are ok) then mysteriously the card is OK again for months...
   Anyone know what gives? I don't think reflashing the ROM over and over can be too healthy for it!

[Castellen]

Hard to say exactly what's going on, or if it's hardware or software related.

For a start I'd try cleaning the A1200's CPU slot edge connector with isopropyl
alcohol, as well as the connector on the Blizzard.

Perhaps also try another power supply on the A1200?

If you have access to surface mount soldering equipment, you could rework most
of the components on the board.  Also check for dry solder joints on the
Blizzard's A1200 edge connector socket.

The flash memory on the Blizzard cards have a life of about 100,000 write
cycles.  Though if you have a problem when flashing it (like a power cut) that
may cause the card to not boot again as the firmware running on it is not all
there.

[Karlos]

Castellen wrote:
Hard to say exactly what's going on, or if it's hardware or software related.

For a start I'd try cleaning the A1200's CPU slot edge connector with isopropyl
alcohol, as well as the connector on the Blizzard.

Perhaps also try another power supply on the A1200?

If you have access to surface mount soldering equipment, you could rework most
of the components on the board.  Also check for dry solder joints on the
Blizzard's A1200 edge connector socket.

The flash memory on the Blizzard cards have a life of about 100,000 write
cycles.  Though if you have a problem when flashing it (like a power cut) that
may cause the card to not boot again as the firmware running on it is not all
there.

Yeah, it has me scratching my head. I cleaned the connectors already. Fans get dust into the strangest places! As for power, the whole thing is in a Tower with 300W PSU, so I guess the power level is OK - unless I'm getting spikes occasionally. I hope not!

The weirdest thing is that it maybe plays up for a few days then is OK for ages. Blizzare  :-)

[odin]

My A1200 has ever since I got it in 93 also suffered from weird random/voodoo like probs. Guess it's just a part of owning an A1200 =).

[Karlos]

odin wrote:
My A1200 has ever since I got it in 93 also suffered from weird random/voodoo like probs. Guess it's just a part of owning an A1200 =).

You gotta love it though  :-)

To be fair, I can honestly say that I only have problems with the Blizzard/BVision - the latter is the graphics corruption discussed in 'BVision unclear vision' thread for which I have a workaround anyway...

When its working, it works like a dream...

[odin]

Apart from the crappy bogstandard C= IDE interface I still use, the crappy 'only-one-key-at-a-time-detection keyboard interface that with my crappy plastic Micronik tower, the stupid problems I have when I try to reinstall OS 3.5 from scratch (doesn't open any CGX BVis screens..., guess it has something to do with the flash being to new for the CGX 4 CD or something?).

Basically I'm quite fed up with my A1200. Stupid piece of Frankenstein engineering. But I can't seem to part with it either :-b/