Issues setting up Blizzard PPC in A1200 tower

[samaron]

Hi!

I've lost count on how many hours I've used now to solve this issue. I've read a bunch of threads, but can't really find anything with the exact same problem. Be prepared for a big wall of text, I'll try to explain and provide with as much information as possible.

First, I'll start with the tower setup:
E/BOX PowerTower (with 230 watt AT power supply)
Amiga 1200 rev 2B, KS 3.1 (capacitors replaced two months ago) (now rev 1D4, not re-capped, E123C and E125C removed)
Blizzard PPC 603e+ Power Board, upgraded with PPC @ 330 MHz, 68060 @ 66 MHz, 256MB RAM
Mediator 1200TX
Voodoo3 3000
Fast Ethernet network card
Sound Blaster 128 (CT4810)
Indivision AGA 1200 MK2cr
FastATA MK-IV
CD-ROM
CF card (system "disk")
160GB hard disk

I used to have a Blizzard 1260, but my goal is the "ultimate" Amiga 1200 tower. Misunderstood the concept a bit with the Blizzard PPC at first, but realized this is the board I wanted in the first place. Recently bought one that have been upgraded with new CPUs, overclocked and 50ns RAM.

When I got the board it were stone cold. Let it sit in the warm living room for a couple of hours to gain some room temperature in the card. I took precautions against static electricity, plugged it in and powered on the computer. It booted just fine into workbench and worked exactly as it did with the Blizzard 1260. I downloaded WarpUP 4.0 and 5.1 update from this web-page: http://powerup.amigaworld.de/index.php?lang=en&page=13 I installed them, rebooted, and were greeted with a white workbench screen (white screen with the WB title bar at top). The computer froze while starting the workbench in other words.

Didn't think much of it, thought I might've done something wrong with the installation. So I went and copied over a clean install of AmigaOS 3.9 with Classic Workbench that were prepared in WinUAE to my CF card. Copied over the library files so it should boot without issues, plugged the CF card back in my Amiga, booted it up, and when workbench were supposed to appear at the screen the power light started to flash. It were flashing 6-7 times and rebooted. Did this over and over. No matter what I did, a clean install wouldn't want to work.

I've tried installing several combinations to my working installation backup that were used with my Blizzard 1260 (the only system installation that boots into workbench). No matter what I did I got the same result, white half loaded frozen workbench screen after reboot.

Found a disk image made by a Thomas Rapp that is a PPC test disk. Copied this over to a floppy, booted the computer and got two choices. PowerUP test and WarpOS test. The PowerUP test gives me an "OK test" message, but when running the WarpOS test I get something else. First I get a window telling me to terminate a library file, I click terminate, then it loads from the floppy and the screen turns black. The power light is flashing again, and it reboots.

I got a SCSI disk with my card that is pre-installed with AmigaOS 3.9. I plugged this in and booted from that HDD. This one does the same thing, freezes when workbench loads.

I've soldered extra wires from the power supply into the floppy drive connector on the motherboard. I've measured the voltage in both ends of the motherboard and on the PPC fan connector, I have a stable 4,9 volt everywhere.

I have stripped everything out of the computer for a barebone test, but it does the same thing when booting.

Have searched for an english manual for this board (don't have a hard copy), but can't find any on the web. Can only find german manuals, but I can't read that language. Some more searching gave me some info about three keys that can be pressed during power on. Escape-key to get a menu, 2-key to disable 68060 and S-key to disable the entire card. The first gives me a black screen and the computer doesn't respond, the two other disable keys doesn't do anything. It boots as if nothing is pressed.

I'm really out of ideas on what to try. Have a feeling it is a special trick to get this to work, but since I don't have a manual it is hard to troubleshoot this or know how to properly set it up. WhichAmiga lists the card correctly, the early startup menu (from holding both mouse buttons) says all expansion cards are working.

Heat isn't an issue. The CPUs don't get too hot. They're warm, but can still hold my finger fine on them. The rest of the tower have a fan blowing cold air in, voodoo have two fans, CPUs have fan and the PSU draws out hot air.

The card is known working. The seller were very thorough, lots of pictures, info and even made a video showing the card in action.

Read something about revision 2B motherboards are not good? If so, which revision of the Amiga 1200 is recommended to use?

Any suggestions on what to try, or know a solution? Any questions, please ask and I'll try to give an answer.


- Frank

[rikbliz]

(deleted)

[samaron]

I were thinking it might be the motherboard it self. Did some reading and found several threads about issues with the revision 2B board. Seems like this didn't happen until it were stuffed with expansions like the Mediator etc. I thought the 68060 would also trigger issues, but it were running fine with the Blizzard 1260. Or... never got 3D games to work, like glQuake. It would glitch bad and the entire game looked like a garbled mess. Not sure if that is a sign of timing issue.

[samaron]

Did a small test just now. Dug out a 1D4 motherboard, not the best condition and only have kickstart 3.0. Only have the motherboard, didn't connect any floppy drive and stuff like that (as I don't have any working spare). Used a heavy 3rd party power supply intended for accelerated Amigas, and an old AT power supply to power the SCSI disk. Started up the computer, it booted into AmigaOS 3.9 which is installed on the HDD, and didn't freeze! Of course the OS didn't load properly because of wrong kickstart ROMs and all that, but it didn't freeze, which is a good thing. As mentioned in the first post, doing this in my tower ends in a frozen computer.

I guess this means my 2B board isn't any good for my Blizzard 603e+ Power Board?

[fitzsteve]

Maybe the connector between the Mediator/CPU Expansion slot isn't making good contact?

[rikbliz]

(deleted)

[samaron]

I've gone over the contacts with cleaning alcohol earlier. The Mediator is also brand new (bought it a couple of months ago), which means the Mediator/accelerator adapter is also new. Have tried the Blizzard directly in the expansion slot as well without the Mediator and the adapter.

[fitzsteve]

Motherboard been re-capped? How about PSU, how old is it? Good quality or el-cheapo?

[samaron]

Motherboard had the capacitors changed in december. The power supply is an old AT type, 230 watt. Nice and stable voltage.

After reading on this website: http://jope.fi/amiga/AMIGA001.HTM It sure does sound like I have timing problems. Looks like I need a revision 1D1 motherboard.

[amigasith]

Hi samaron, this sounds like a timing issue for me, too...

I also have a Rev 2B board and got random freezes when I added my first accelerator... I applied the fixes from here: http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/am..._mobo_fix.html in the section "The original timing fixes (REV 1D4 and 2B) for Apollo cards only". Now my Rev 2B runs rock solid for a long time (more than 2 years) and has never produced any random freezes again. I personally like the 2B revision the most

[samaron]

I could give it a go, but lack proper soldering equipment. The iron I have is good enough for larger components, but not good at all for surface mounted stuff. Also I think the motherboard should be replaced anyway. It suffered an accidental short in the video connector a while ago. The system shut off by it self, but started up again fine after turning it on and off. Can't say I've noticed any difference or anything being broken, but I don't trust it completely. Think I'm better off hiring someone with better equipment to re-cap a new motherboard for me and apply the modifications.

[amigasith]

This is going to be my post #100 Ya-hooo, he he.

Anyway, I would say the soldering skills required for this mod are medium at most... It's really not complicated. Regarding the equipment: I only used a regular soldering iron for the job - no rework station, hot air gun or anything similar.

If you plan getting a new board anyway, why don't you give it a try and do some soldering yourself ? There is basically nothing to lose... However, if you still don't want - I would be happy to take your old 2B board

[samaron]

Just need to find the right parts for the job. Really dislike using wrong parts. Only have regular 1/4 watt resistors, in one of the pictures it looks like I need a 1/8 watt for it to fit properly. The skills isn't really the problem, it's just that I have the completely wrong tip to solder properly on small things. Also the iron have a hard time holding a stable temperature. Want it to look as nice and descrete as possible, not butchered and burned.

[rikbliz]

(deleted)

[samaron]

I suspected right. A standard 1/4 watt resistor didn't fit. Found a 1/8 watt that would fit in the through hole trace. Found that the resistor with the expansion connector and the two capacitors on the back were already changed/removed. Just were missing the 470 ohm resistor from C6B to DRA0. Though, it didn't change anything, the computer acts as it did before. Slightly sceptical anyway, as it have a couple of rather odd additions. On the back there is a wire soldered to the floppy connector, and with C6B there is a 240 ohm resistor soldered from one of the resistors to the clock port.

I think I'll buy a 1D1 motherboard which seems to be the most stable one. I'm not 100% happy with my soldering either, so want to pay someone with proper equipment to do the job more professionally with re-cap and timing modifications.

[rikbliz]

(deleted)

[samaron]

Ah, yes. Didn't think of that, but got some that were thin enough to fit the through hole anyway. Managed to find another motherboard locally that I tried, a revision 1D4. Didn't do much about the issues, but for some reason the graphical glitches in the workbench are almost gone now. No rainbow colors in shadow effects now. Forgot to check if the board had any timing modifications, so going to check that tomorrow.

Also did a thorough test where I removed one by one all the extra additions. Have done this before, but did it again to double check. Didn't affect anything, so can conclude with that none of the expansions are acting up.

I were thinking of the power supply... would it be any benefit to change the old AT supply out with a modern ATX? The drawback is that modern PCs have a lot more going on at the 12 volt part, so the 5 volt isn't as powerful as in the old ATs. Any minimum amps at 5 volts that is recommended for my setup? Most ATX supplies are around 20A at 5 volt. My AT supply is stable at around 4,9 volt, haven't seen it drop below 4,8.

[samaron]

Took everything apart (again). E123C and E125C were present on this 1D4 motherboard, so I removed those. Plugged everything back together, powered it on, and same problem... Really not sure what's going on. Have made wanted threads several places now for a 1D1 motherboard, hopefully someone have one for sale.

Started to translate the manual for the PPC board. From what I can tell, it says this board is designed for tower systems and need a stronger power supply. Doesn't say anything about troubleshooting or specify compatible motherboard revision. Can imagine this would be impossible to set up back in the 90s...

My Blizzard 603e+ board is rev 0 if it is relevant information. As mentioned, it were working before shipping.

Anyone have any comments regarding power supply? I'd imagine the old AT power supply I have now is good enough when it can give stable voltage. Measured the 12 volt output at 12,4 volt, not sure if this is causing any issues. Doesn't go beyond that.

[Michael]

Don't forget 5V too.
Usually Blizzard boards worked for everyone.
And I also use the 2B without problems, no extra mods apart from pcmcia reset.

[samaron]

As mentioned, the 5 volt is stable at 4,9 volt, haven't seen it drop below 4,8 volt.

Ran a program called "Boardtype". The output said I have version 0 which is known to cause hardware problems. Haven't really found anything about this besides people who use G-REX busboard. I use Mediator, guess this doesn't apply to me then.

I think this must be a timing issue, as it acts slightly different with the 1D4 motherboard now. Still the same, but the graphical glitching in workbench is not as bad. I'm able to run ADoomPPC without having installed any PPC software/drivers. I guess this is due to the PPC library in the ROM? The ADoomWOS does not work. When running the game it might play just fine a while, then the computer will freeze or restart. If I try to run AmigaAMP with PowerUP decoder, the program crashes and I need to reboot.

This is not a heat issue, as this will happen right after starting the computer or after letting it "warm up" for a while. The CPUs doesn't get too hot. Haven't been able to put any load on the PPC, the heatsink is lukewarm at the worst. The 68060 will get hot after running the starstruck demo, but not hot enough that I burn my finger.

I've ordered a new power switch which is for ATX, and I'm going to order a 430 watt Corsair ATX power supply. It can output 20A at the 5 volt. I guess that should be enough with my setup?