Arghh! , need some help here with my a1200!

[lempkee]

hey, i've had some issues lately (since i finally got my sys up) , several people whom i know have said it daily that there is something wrong with my Amiga but hehe i belived it just was a bad drive or something, anyway here is the problem now..

1. Early Boot menu wont show up anymore, if i press both mouse buttons on reboot the system just hangs, if i let go of the mouse buttons the system boots nicely into workbench without any problems.

2. POWERPPC problems, it keeps saying it doesnt work (lots and lots of exceptions) , i tried to reconfigure it all from scratch and it didnt help , though things like "WARPDT" etc work fine (always). and its the WOS version.

3. Interupts seems to be the issue for all 3 points but its hard to say if its my motherboard or my mediator or any of the other hw, might even be the psu..
how i can tell? , when i type stuff in amirc , ibrowse etc its like...type like hell and it output fine but all of a sudden it pause for a moment in the middle and then the rest comes.

any tips ? , i reckon i should try and exchange my motherboard first as i have 3 in my house, i know one is busted but its not as busted as this one ...if its the case.

might be a psu issue and i have no replacement atm so....aargh.

cheers

[Castellen]

If you have a high speed digital storage oscilloscope you can get a lot more information, but I'm guessing you won't have one of those handy :-)

So the obvious test methods are:
Reduce the system hardware and software to the most basic level possible and see if the problems still occur.

Swap hardware components one at a time (CPU board, motherboard, power supply, cables, drives, etc) until you narrow the problem down.
Of course you shouldn't test with suspect hardware, only known good parts.  If you don't have spare parts, then maybe borrow some.

If you're running OS 3.9, make sure BB 1&2 are installed, which fix conflicts with some hardware.

Try using a clean install of WB 3.1.

[lempkee]

@castellen , i dont have a oscilloscope sadly ;( but i will try and swap motherboard first today as its really weird that its acting up like this.

anyone recall which motherboards had major issues with bppc ?  , the mobo i use now is rev1.1b i think, must check closer when i get home from work..

anyway thanks for the input

[Daedalus]

Hmmm... Well, if it didn't have issues before, and just developed them for no apparent reason (like updating software or changing/adding hardware) then it's unlikely to be simply the motherboard's revision. As was pointed out above, the simplest thing is to run it without anything, make sure that works, then add parts, one at a time, until it fails. That'll tell you where to look for the problem, but seeing as it's affecting even the early startup, it may be possible you have a corrupted ROM image or setpatch or something...

[Castellen]

Something else I just remembered.
Are you using the square A1200 power socket (standard motherboard one) to supply power to the computer?

Especially with the additional current of the PPC board, the current through the socket is quite high, so unless the contact is perfect, you can get power supply issues to the motherboard.

Using a small spike, you can bend the "prongs" of each socket hole inwards, increasing the contact tension on the plug's pins.  Using electrical contact cleaner to remove corrosion and contamination can also help.

[lempkee]

hmm yes but it can be everything from sw to hw when it comes to rom's ..

anyway thanx for tellin daedalus!

[lempkee]

castellen:no i use mediator so its powered with that directly from an AT psu , i also power the ppc directly from the psu too.