Help with my Ateo bus board A1200 setup

[rebbi]

Hey Everybody,
I didn't even know this board existed, but I stumbled upon it googling for troubleshooting help for my A1200, housed in an Ateo concepts tower case with Ateo bus board, Ateo Pixel 64 graphics card and an ethernet card also in the Ateo bus. The tower also has a Blizzard A1260 accelerator with 4 MB of fast RAM and a cd ROM drive and a Zip drive (remember those?) on the Blizzard board's SCSI adapter.
To get to the bottom line of my issue: for quite some time, the machine would intermittently start showing garbage pixels on the Pixel 64 (Picasso) screen, after which it would lock up and I would have to reboot. Occasionally, it would fail to boot completely at all, with the hard drive activity LED simply showing solid red a few moments after powering on. Sometimes, gently wiggling the accelerator board (which is mounted vertically in the case, connected to the Ateo bus board connector, which in turn is connected to the motherboard expansion connector) a few degrees one way or the other from the vertical, and that would get it to boot.
By trial and error, I have figured out that the problem is somewhere in the Ateo side of things. The machine will boot fully, either with or without the 1260 accelerator board attached, as long as the Ateo bus board connector is disconnected from the motherboard.
I have tried gently cleaning the motherboard expansion connector contacts with an eraser, and I have done the same as best I could with the contacts on the Ateo bus connector that attaches to the motherboard. It still hasn't fixed the problem.
In following some of the links I tracked down on this board, it seems that one possibility is that my power supply is beginning to die, or at least not put out enough power to successfully boot the machine with all of the other peripherals attached. So I will do an experiment where I will disconnect the CD drive in the zip drive from the power supply and see if I can get the machine to boot properly. (I forgot to mention that I also have a couple of 8 GB, full-size hard drives in their the case.)
I'm eager to hear any other troubleshooting suggestions that you might have. I should add that the motherboard has never had its capacitors replaced, and I know I should do that. But in the meantime, it doesn't seem like that's the problem that is stopping the computer from properly booting.
Many thanks if you have read this far! Eager for your suggestions!
Steve

[outlawal2]

Nice machine! Doing a little research it appears that machine had a 200 watt PSU in it from the factory. This seems like a small PSU for all of the devices, boards, accelerator etc you have connected. (Probably worked OK when brand new, but not much headroom and after many years the PSU will start to struggle.) My recommendation would be to replace the PSU with a new one. Not sure what the form factor is of the original one but there are different types available such as FLEX that may fit and can be found in higher outputs. I have a 300 Watt in one of my old Amigas. In my case it is probably overkill, but with yours outfitted as it is, I would be looking for a 300 or 350 watt PSU in replacement. Good Luck!

[rebbi]

Originally Posted by outlawal2

Nice machine! Doing a little research it appears that machine had a 200 watt PSU in it from the factory. This seems like a small PSU for all of the devices, boards, accelerator etc you have connected. (Probably worked OK when brand new, but not much headroom and after many years the PSU will start to struggle.) My recommendation would be to replace the PSU with a new one. Not sure what the form factor is of the original one but there are different types available such as FLEX that may fit and can be found in higher outputs. I have a 300 Watt in one of my old Amigas. In my case it is probably overkill, but with yours outfitted as it is, I would be looking for a 300 or 350 watt PSU in replacement. Good Luck!

Hey, thank you so much for the prompt reply. I've never tried to replace a power supply before so if it seems to be that this is the issue, are there certain standard sizes of power supplies? Is that a thing? I guess I will have to do some research.

[Jpor]

Originally Posted by rebbi

Hey, thank you so much for the prompt reply. I've never tried to replace a power supply before so if it seems to be that this is the issue, are there certain standard sizes of power supplies? Is that a thing? I guess I will have to do some research.

Okay never heard of this Ateo before but I’m guessing it’s like the infinitive and Elbox cases of old.

Looking at these pictures from Big book of Amiga hardware:

https://bigbookofamigahardware.com/b...t.aspx?id=1311

This looks to the standard old “AT” PSU type where it would have had a “P8” & “P9” board power connectors. Recently I replaced my Infinitiv PSU with a new Old Stock AT PSU at a whopping 250watts! from eBay.
I know on some bus boards they may use where the P8 and P9 connectors are connected as one to go into a single power connector on the bus board like the Micronik bus boards do.

Options are, find a good reconditioned AT PSU or get hold of a newer ATX PSU rated around 300watts or higher, but you will need some sort of 24pin to P8 and P9 adapter with a push in and out switch which can be obtained off EBay as this is what I ended up doing on another Amiga project I was doing with an old ITX case
With a Amiga 600


Just found a picture of the bus board:

https://bigbookofamigahardware.com/b...t.aspx?id=1359

Yep looks like it uses the standard P8 and P9 AT power connectors.

[rebbi]

Originally Posted by Jpor

Okay never heard of this Ateo before but I’m guessing it’s like the infinitive and Elbox cases of old.

Looking at these pictures from Big book of Amiga hardware:

https://bigbookofamigahardware.com/b...t.aspx?id=1311

This looks to the standard old “AT” PSU type where it would have had a “P8” & “P9” board power connectors. Recently I replaced my Infinitiv PSU with a new Old Stock AT PSU at a whopping 250watts! from eBay.
I know on some bus boards they may use where the P8 and P9 connectors are connected as one to go into a single power connector on the bus board like the Micronik bus boards do.

Options are, find a good reconditioned AT PSU or get hold of a newer ATX PSU rated around 300watts or higher, but you will need some sort of 24pin to P8 and P9 adapter with a push in and out switch which can be obtained off EBay as this is what I ended up doing on another Amiga project I was doing with an old ITX case
With a Amiga 600


Just found a picture of the bus board:

https://bigbookofamigahardware.com/b...t.aspx?id=1359

Yep looks like it uses the standard P8 and P9 AT power connectors.

Hey, this is super helpful, thank you! I love this board! :-)
By the way, does it make sense before I go out and put in a new power supply to try disconnecting the CD drive and the zip drive to see if it will boot with less drain on the power supply and thus may be verify that this is the problem? Thanks!

[Jpor]

Originally Posted by rebbi

Hey, this is super helpful, thank you! I love this board! :-)
By the way, does it make sense before I go out and put in a new power supply to try disconnecting the CD drive and the zip drive to see if it will boot with less drain on the power supply and thus may be verify that this is the problem? Thanks!

No harm. Don’t forget other factors like failing caps on the 1200 mainboard may have a part to play here as well.

[rebbi]

Originally Posted by Jpor

No harm. Don’t forget other factors like failing caps on the 1200 mainboard may have a part to play here as well.

Hey, would this bar a suitable power supply? I'm not sure about the connectors.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/152431356038?hash=item237d9de886:g:Z5gAAMXQ01tRTOc-

[Jpor]

Originally Posted by rebbi

Hey, would this bar a suitable power supply? I'm not sure about the connectors.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/15243135603...gAAMXQ01tRTOc-

Yep looks good to me

Has the connector you need listed:

4-Pin Molex, 4-Pin AT Push Button, 4-Pin FDD, 6+6-Pin AT P8////////P9

Just make sure that before you power it in its set correctly to the power outlet in your country. 110v? NOT 230V ??