Blizzard 1260 PPC - Black screen -

[jurassicman]

Hi guys...
I have a question for you hardware experts.

I have a Blizzard PPC that always worked well but that is/was quite "sensitive" in the oscillators area.

If the oscillators weren't placed well, the card gave me just black screen and in fact the last time I had this issue I put adesive tape them on them in order to keep them in the right place.

This "trick" did work well for years until last Saturday when, after doing some maintenance on my A1200 I got black screen.

I tried to put the oscillators in their socket many times without success and I also tried a few spare oscillators I have but I always got black screen.

The worst thing is that I'm sure that after a few hours of tries, due to the frustration, I certainly put at least once the upper oscillator (the one of the PPC CPU) in the wrong way...

I haven't touched the card since then and I'll try it on another A1200 in the next few days just to see if the problem is the A1200 (I don't think so since without the Blizzard it starts correctly).

My question is... putting the oscillator in the wrong way did I certainly brake something? I can't see any burnt sign and aesthetically everything seems ok but now I'm worried that I caused some bad damage...

[jbenam]

In the worst case scenario, you have just fried the one oscillator - the card most certainly hasn’t been damaged in any way. I have put oscillators in the wrong way more than once and my cards are still working

It’s probably useful to purchase two replacement oscillators anyway. While it’s difficult for them to fail, it’s not impossible. My Apollo 1240 came with a dead oscillator, for example.

You might have some broken solder joints under the oscillator pins. IIRC the BPPC didn’t came with a socket but just “loose” pins which could crack if moved around too much. Sockets provide much needed structural stability and protect the pins’ joints from crack when removing and inserting oscillators.

If that’s the case just a light reflowing with the tip of a soldering iron should do the trick. If you don’t feel confident with a soldering iron, it’s better to send the card to someone with the appropriate tools - saw way too many cards ruined by a too-hot soldering iron

[jurassicman]

Originally Posted by jbenam

In the worst case scenario, you have just fried the one oscillator - the card most certainly hasn’t been damaged in any way. I have put oscillators in the wrong way more than once and my cards are still working
(...)

Thanks for your reply jbenam!
This news certainly brings me some relief...

Obviously I still have an issue by knowing that probably I didn't fry anything is a good start. As soon as I have some time and I feel relaxed enough I'll try the Blizzard again on a different A1200 (it isn't simple to test a card in a Tower case) and I'll see if it starts...

I'll update this thread just as reference...

[cpiac64]

Hi Livio, send me the Blizzard for test

[jurassicman]

Originally Posted by cpiac64

Hi Livio, send me the Blizzard for test

Hi Carlo!
Thanks for your offer.

I'll let you know soon how my new try goes...

[Kin Hell]

I have had similar issues with a DKB Mongoose card.

The card came to me via an old friend back in the early AmiBay days & wouldn't function with Single sided Memory Sticks. Then on another occasion & after frying the Motherboard for watching the floppy cable light up like a roman candle, the shorted pins on the floppy header also killed the Mongoose card, or so it appeared.

Looking at the back of the DKB, the soldering was really messy on one of the X-tal's so I reflowed the pins of the X-tal & then still no good. So heating the pins again, I lifted the X-tal off the board slightly and amazingly, it worked. Obviously, the 5V on the floppy going to ground blew the solder contacting the X-tal's legs to the pcb.

The X-tal will have a Square corner or a Dot denoting it's orientation on the PCB, so it's easy to follow. Getting the wrong way around will simply fry the X-tal. Most PCB's are multi layered & cross holes for X-Tals & such will have via's in place to make contact where required. In the case of my DKB card, one of the X-Tal sockets was properly butchered.

Try another Re-Flow & lift the X-tal & you could be good to go. - Good luck fella.

[jurassicman]

@Kin Hell
Wow! Interesting story... thanks for sharing.

I have some spare oscillators so if I fried the one that I put the wrong way I could use another one... that would be the minor issue.

Today I've just refreshed the soldering of the sockets... I haven't had time (or courage) to test the card again, though. I'll do it as soon as I can and let's see what happens.

If the card won't start, I'll try to lift a bit the oscillators off their sockets 'cause I remember that when the card was working they weren't plugged all the way through...

[jurassicman]

I want to update you, guys, about my Blizzard PPC.

The good news is that the card still works (sort of). I did try it on a rev. 2B mainboard and it starts (the first time, actually, I had a black screen but after re-placing the oscillators in their sockets I got the 3.1 image on screen).

I did try sysinfo and amigatestkit for a while (I have no hard drive on that system) and there where no problems. I also tried a 80 MHz oscillators for the rev. 5 68060 CPU (the card always worked clocked at 66 MHz) and I had no issues but obviously I haven't tested it thoroughly and I guess it wouldn't be possible to use the card clocked at 80 MHz without adding a fan (it has just a passive heat sink on top of the CPU).

Anyway that's not something I'm interesting in at the moment, I just would like to use the Blizzard on my A1200 Tower, as I used to do until Saturday, and it is here that I still have problems.

In fact, plugging the Blizzard to the rev. 1B mainboard I have on my A1200T I still get only a black screen. It doesn't matter if I have the Mediator and the PCI cards plugged as well or not. I actually got once the 3.1 image on screen but after a few second I got a garbled image.

I did try the Blizzard on a rev 1A as well without success, always black screen or garbled image.

I have a fourth A1200 mainboard (I don't remember its revision, probably it's a rev. 1D4 but I'm not 100% sure) and I tested the Blizzard there as well getting only a black screen.

I obviously tested the Blizzard on the 3 mainboards where I had the above mentioned issues with the 66 MHz oscillators to be sure that the problems weren't related to the higher clock of the CPU.

I don't know what to say... how is it possible that it works only on the rev. 2B mainboard? I'll do more tests in the next days but I'm a bit stuck...

Please, if you have some ideas share your thoughts/hints...

[LewisB]

Simple suggestion, but perhaps the contacts on the edge connector on the 1b motherboard need a bit of a clean?

[jurassicman]

Originally Posted by LewisB

Simple suggestion, but perhaps the contacts on the edge connector on the 1b motherboard need a bit of a clean?

Thanks for the suggestion.

I did clean the contacts with some IPA and, actually, I thought that they could have been a reason of the issue also because of the Mediator riser but I tried the Blizzard on that mainboard with and without the Mediator riser with the same result.

And the Blizzard also gives me troubles with two more mainboards so I doubt that it could be due to some bad contact on all the mainboards connectors.

As suggested in many places I also do not entirely insert the Blizzard on the mainboard connector but I leave 1-2 millimeters from the end.

I visually inspected the Blizzard connector as well and all the pins seems ok and above all with the rev. 2b the card doesn't have any issue.

I'm probably missing something obvious... but what?

[Kin Hell]

Sounding like you have had some success, even if not fully for the re-flow....

Either way, the Rev2B release & had some different timing issues to earlier revisions of A1200 Motherboard. you can find the various timing fixes for different boards here:

https://www.ianstedman.co.uk/amiga-a...erboard-fixes/

If you have a variable temperature soldering iron, back the heat off to the point where a said volume of solder is not as liquid for using a higher temp. - That is, more like a gooey porridge consistency. - By doing this, as you lift the X-tal back away from the PCB, it will drag the solder through the layers of PCB & you will have a better chance of getting the required contact. - If you don't have a variable iron, keep lifting the X-tal really slowly until the solder sets on that particular corner. It might take a few goes but persistence put the magic smoke back in my Mongoose card. She works in a 1D4 & a Re-Amiga 1200 Rev 1.5 after I de-smoked it with the floppy cable boob up on the 1D4.

[jurassicman]

Thanks for the tips Kin Hell!

Do you know a weird thing?

The rev. 2B where the Blizzard works is the only one of my 4 mainboards that hasn't been recapped yet. And certainly it doesn't even have had the timing fixes done.

It seems that my only chance to use the Blizzard on the A1200T again is to try your trick with the soldering iron... I have a decent soldering station where I can set the temperature, I'll try to use the lower possible temperature to obtain the gooey porridge consistency of solder and get it through the layers of the PCB...

I'm a bit scared, though, 'cause I don't want to damage the card so I'll wait until I feel relaxed enough...

[jurassicman]

Another update... unfortunately not a good news (not bad either, at least).

I "refreshed" the solder joints of the oscillators sockets (I actually have done it only for the ppc oscillator socket) trying to drag some solder through the layers of PCB lifting a little the X-tal when the solder was somewhat liquid but I didn't have any success.

The Blizzard PPC still works on the rev. 2B mainboard but doesn't work on the rev. 1B mainboard where it should.

Honestly, I still can't understand how the mainboard revision can make a difference if the problems are the oscillator sockets... anyway this thing is becoming frustrating.

I guess I should just ask a technician to replace the oscillator sockets and check thoroughly the card.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by jurassicman

The Blizzard PPC still works on the rev. 2B mainboard but doesn't work on the rev. 1B mainboard where it should.

If it works on another Amiga there can’t be anything wrong with the sockets. Sorry I didn’t read this earlier or I would’ve stopped you from attempting this. These cards are very old and very fragile.

Looks like the issue is on the Amiga side on your other Amiga. If the BPPC works on another system, there’s a very remote chance of something being wrong with it.

I would look at the other Amiga first.