Repairing a BlizzardPPC

[jbenam]

Here's another tale of hardware pr0n and soldering

Just received this BlizzardPPC from fleabay. It has come in pretty bad shape, but I'm sure I'll be able to fix the _most_ of it.

Well, let's start! This is gonna be some hardcore pr0n!


That's the main damage. Crystal sockets totally screwed up. I hope there aren't connections in the middle of the board, seeing it's a four layered one.


Gunk and bent pins EVERYWHERE on the PPC.


Another nice view of where the oscillators were. I can see something in the holes. I really hope that it hasn't something to do with the middle layers, as I don't really know how I could fix something like that


A small resistor got killed here I presume it's the same value of the others, but if someone could check on theirs BlizzardPPC, it would be great.


The oscillators "sockets" again.


The battery seems to have leaked, or something. The pins have some brown gunk on them.


And now THIS I don't know what happened to this poor dropout regulator, but it HAS to be replaced I hope it hasn't fried something, if the guy tried to fire this card up in these conditions.

So, got any hints, mateys? If someone could send me REALLY high-res pics of the area surrounding the "sockets", it would be great

Gonna clean the board today.

Thanks!

[Loedown]

Better you than me.

Not sure of the oscillators on a PPC, but they should be little more than voltage in, ground and clock out, so although the board may be multi layer, it won't be too hard to figure out where everything goes.

Advice for straightening the pins, use a scalpel blade *VERY* carefully, too much force on those and very easy to snap.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Loedown

Not sure of the oscillators on a PPC, but they should be little more than voltage in, ground and clock out, so although the board may be multi layer, it won't be too hard to figure out where everything goes.

Well, I hope you're right Before even starting to think where I need to connect what, better grab some oscillators I'm not sure about frequencies, but from the pics I've seen, it's either 2x 50Mhz or a 60Mhz and a 50Mhz one. I'm not sure what the second oscillator is for, but I'm pretty sure the first one is for the 040. I've also seen a pic of a BlizzardPPC with a single oscillator on it... Gonna search for some infos about crystals on PPCs

Originally Posted by Loedown

Advice for straightening the pins, use a scalpel blade *VERY* carefully, too much force on those and very easy to snap.

Yup, that's my favourite method too. Did that on my M-Tec 1230LC

[Loedown]

Originally Posted by jbenam

Well, I hope you're right Before even starting to think where I need to connect what, better grab some oscillators I'm not sure about frequencies, but from the pics I've seen, it's either 2x 50Mhz or a 60Mhz and a 50Mhz one. I'm not sure what the second oscillator is for, but I'm pretty sure the first one is for the 040. I've also seen a pic of a BlizzardPPC with a single oscillator on it... Gonna search for some infos about crystals on PPCs


Yup, that's my favourite method too. Did that on my M-Tec 1230LC

You do raise an interesting point, why two crystals? The answer I think is that the 68040 is clocked by one and the PPC chip by the other.

My understanding of accelerators is good, but I haven't had anything to do with PPC units, even if you're clocking the ram at a different frequency, you still need to be able to syncronise it to the main clock, which can be done, but it makes far more sense to run some form of clock division, to keep everything in step.

[Paul_s]

whoever did those 'mods' needs a smack.

[Mad-Matt]

http://xoomer.virgilio.it/giorsign/overclock.html

Amazing that this site is still online after all these years. Plenty of good info for sorting your timming crystals on it .

[8bitbubsy]

This is awful! Someone loves to give pain to poor innocent hardware
Try your best to heal him...

And the brown thingie on the pins is probably flux, you can clean it with qtip + acetone or isopropanol alcohol.
Oh, the missing resistor is probably a 4.7k (472 = 47 + 2x 0 = 4700!) ohm too, as you stated.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Loedown

You do raise an interesting point, why two crystals? The answer I think is that the 68040 is clocked by one and the PPC chip by the other.

My understanding of accelerators is good, but I haven't had anything to do with PPC units, even if you're clocking the ram at a different frequency, you still need to be able to syncronise it to the main clock, which can be done, but it makes far more sense to run some form of clock division, to keep everything in step.

From the site Mad-Matt's linked, one's for PPC bus and the other's for 86k

Originally Posted by Paul_s

whoever did those 'mods' needs a smack.

You can say it

Originally Posted by Mad-Matt

http://xoomer.virgilio.it/giorsign/overclock.html

Amazing that this site is still online after all these years. Plenty of good info for sorting your timming crystals on it .

Thanks, that site is perfect! Good zoomed pics, and infos about the resistors. The situation is getting a little brighter now

Originally Posted by 8bitbubsy

This is awful! Someone loves to give pain to poor innocent hardware
Try your best to heal him...

And the brown thingie on the pins is probably flux, you can clean it with qtip + acetone or isopropanol alcohol.
Oh, the missing resistor is probably a 4.7k (472 = 47 + 2x 0 = 4700!) ohm too, as you stated.

I'll try my best, because after all, it's a BlizzardPPC, nonetheless

Yep, it's flux. But it's gum-like... and I don't have a single bit of isopropanol alcohol here I'll have to use acetone.
I usually use rubbing alcohol. Not the best, but it works.


I'll try to source the oscillators locally tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure I'll have to order them online And let's not forget about that dropout regulator too! I'll update as soon as I'll have some news.

EDIT:
Fixed all bent pins. I've also done some research on the dropout regulator. It should have a LT1580 CT7-2.5 which has 7pins, instead this one is a LT1580 CQ with only 5pins.
I'm not really certain about it's compatibility (I haven't checked the datasheet yet), but it does seem like a good soldering job, so who did it was probably competent enough to not place there something totally wrong. Still, I'd find preferable to replace it with the original IC, or at least a 7-pin compatible one.
Sadly the CT7-2.5 isn't in production anymore. My best bet are either a LT1580CR-2.5#PBF-ND or a LT1580IR-2.5#PBF-ND from Digikey.
The missing resistor should prove fairly easy to replace. Obviously, the hard part are gonna be the oscillator sockets. I'm probably gonna do some tests by having floating 30awg wires soldered to some oscillator sockets, before doing something "definitive".

[rkauer]

A few tips:

Use round pin sockets on the crystals.

Buy some IPA ( = isopropanol = ISO = etc), acetone is not good for electronics!

Digikey prices are not good, try Futurlec from England, I think you'll not regret it.

Stachu100 (Poland guy) from Amibay is replacing old PPC CPU (your is a slow 160MHz unit) for 300MHz ones at a decent price.

[Cosmos]

>acetone is not good for electronics

???

Why ?

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by rkauer

A few tips:

Use round pin sockets on the crystals.

Buy some IPA ( = isopropanol = ISO = etc), acetone is not good for electronics!

Digikey prices are not good, try Futurlec from England, I think you'll not regret it.

Stachu100 (Poland guy) from Amibay is replacing old PPC CPU (your is a slow 160MHz unit) for 300MHz ones at a decent price.

Thanks for the tips.

Yep, I'm gonna use round pin sockets. It's gonna be quite difficult to find some locally. I'm probably better off buying some IC socket with round pins and take them from there

I've searched locally for IPA in the past, no luck. I'll try again.

Sadly, I've searched on Futurlec, and while it has good prices, it has nowhere the assortment Digikey has. Mainly I haven't been able to find the Very low dropout power regulator replacement nor the half-size oscillators this little Blizzy PPC currently needs. I guess I'll really have to go with Digikey

Yeah, I've followed Stachu's threads. Pretty nifty work there. But I'd love to do that myself... still dunno how, but I would like to try But that's a bit of ahead-thinking right here, huh?

Well, I'll post some updates as soon as I'll get some components
Really thanks for all the help

[rkauer]

Originally Posted by Cosmos

>acetone is not good for electronics

???

Why ?

Acetone attacks the varnish and can weak plastics, that's why.

[Cosmos]

>Acetone attacks the varnish

No...

Not in France... Maybe in Brazil, but not here !


>weak plastics

Yes !

[rkauer]

Acetone softs nail varnish, which is pretty similar to board lacquer.

In Brazil or in any other place of the world.

Im about to order some SMD resistors for the ppc multiplier.
Could someone tell me the specs of those other than 4.7kOhm?

Im thinking of size etc..

Edit: Size is 0603


Thanks.
Roomeo

[8bitbubsy]

You can always use "normal" big resistors too, but be careful with the solder pads. They can be lifted up too easily.

[Loedown]

Originally Posted by 8bitbubsy

You can always use "normal" big resistors too, but be careful with the solder pads. They can be lifted up too easily.

You do this and you are absolutely invoking all the trouble in the world, one accidental knock and goodbye SMD pads. Find an old PC motherboard, they have heaps of resistors and aren't hard to change.

It's looking really bad, but it's possible to be repair. I don't know what happend to the regulator, but I think it's not big problem. Signal connection from oscilators are inside PCB.

[Hewitson]

How on earth could anyone treat such a rare and valuable piece of hardware like such a piece of shit?

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by kwaku85

It's looking really bad, but it's possible to be repair. I don't know what happend to the regulator, but I think it's not big problem. Signal connection from oscilators are inside PCB.

What do you mean that they're from inside the PCB?

I have tried to have track them, and they all seem to be connected all on the (first?) surface layer, luckily

Too bad that I still haven't had time to order all the parts from Digikey!

Originally Posted by Hewitson

How on earth could anyone treat such a rare and valuable piece of hardware like such a piece of shit?

Don't even tell me, mate