Help with repair of Blizzard PPC 603e

amigo-mexicano

Making amigos with other Amigas
AmiBayer
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Hi!

I have this Blizzard PPC 603e card that gives a black screen on boot.

I've tried without the SIMM module (it has an EDO 32mb one), same results.

Fan spins when powered up, but nothing else.

Tried to clean the contacts, both sides, same result.

I noticed there's only ONE crystal oscillator soldered, and it's not bridged in any way (read somewhere that you could use only one if bridged with cables).

The black metal heatsink has some white thermal paste under.

Battery might be dead, but you know, this one is not the kind that leaks.

What else should I check to try to revive this card? Would it help if I bought new crystal oscillators and change the one soldered, and add the missing one?

Should I change the battery?

Also heard that might need to flash it again, how do I do that?

In case all fails, someone could repair it if I ship it?

Thanks in advance! (y)
 
Thanks, I hope he will!

Been trying a lot of other things, I got same black screen on boot if I press any of the keys related to the BPPC, that is: Esc, 2, a, s, c, m... no results on any. Of course I tested the keyboard and boot without the card to discard a problem there. Also tried early boot with both mouse buttons pressed, nothing, all black for several minutes.

The card does not respond to anything on boot, fan powers up and both chips get warm.

I saw on another thread how to flash the card, but I get no boot and no cli, so I might need to check on the oscillators and maybe manually flash the ROM? Of course I don´t have the equipment to do that.

Stachu100, are you accepting cards to be sent for repairs?

Thanks!
 
Dead Blizzard PPC ?

Dead Blizzard PPC ?

I have the same problem,

I need to send it to repair.
I mad the same checks like you. It makes me crazy.
I assume my Blizzard PPC is dead,when I plug it it just shows a black screen, and I cannot make appear the PPC menu when I hold the ESC key.
It doesn't depend from the motherboard. I have four boards and it's everytime the same problem.

Who can help me ? Could Stachu may be the man ? Or someonelse with technical skills ?
(y)

I would send both the Blizzard PPC board and also my BVision for checking.
 
In my case, I press both mouse buttons on boot to get to the Amiga Early Startup Control, but it doesn't work, I get the same black screen for several minutes (I've waited like 5 minutes, and with the BPPC disconnected, the a1200 boots under 10 seconds).

So, I can't select "Boot With No Startup-Sequence" :(
 
Hello,

to all the people with this type of problem on the BlizzardPPC: the Flashrom need to be resuscitated!
You can try several time to boot with the key "2" pressed, that mean power on the Amiga with the key pressed, if nothing happen, power off for about 20" and so on for several time.
You need to have the file, to upgrade the flashrom, on a floppy. If the amiga boot with the key "2" pressed, enter in the Amiga menu and start without the startup-sequence, then insert the floppy and type on the shell

cd df0:
BlizzPPC0x0Upgrade

then wait if something happen. x mean 4 if you have a 68040 card or 6 if you have a 68060 card.

All of this at your risk!

Regards
Stefano
 
I noticed also that Blizzard PPC's are very picky in the revision of the motherboard.

For example my BPPC boots on a 1B revision, although I have to restart 2 or 3 times soft reset to get the card started.

Once it's booted it runs fine.
 
FYI: no repairmen in France. VOXEL (JFB) is a thief and AMIGA CENTER (JJB) is no longer in activity.
 
My blizzard ones just did not turned on and reprogramming of ROM (done by Stachu :) - I do not have adapter to program it off the board) helped.
 
Thank you all for your valuable feedback. I already sent a PM to Stachu. In the meantime, I will try what vibros (Stefano) says.

(y)
 
Hello,

i have forgotten a thing: if the Amiga boot with key "2" pressed, the BlizzardPPC is disabled. When you try the reflash-task, the computer can reply that no BlizzardPPC was found, even with the "FORCE" command ("BlizzPPC0x0Upgrade FORCE"). If you reboot the Amiga (pressed ctrl-alt-alt for more then 10 seconds), with much probability, the BlizzardPPC will be recognized and you can reflash it.

Regards
Stefano
 
Thanks to all that really gives hope. Will also try what Stefano suggests, if it doesn't work, I will turn to Stachu.
In my case it is so that I have a strong doubt that I don't get enough power. Just 4.70 or so measured on the fdd plug on the motherboard.
Fast ata and indivision take a lot. The atx psu maybe underloaded.

Blizzard PPC board or PSU that is the question...
 
OH MY GOD, IT WORKS NOW!

I was cleaning it, removed the black cooler, and checked the PPC chip, one of the pins was bent and was touching another pin.

I carefully set it straight with a blade cutter, finished cleaning everything else, and tried again without any hope.

IT WORKS! System booted normally, on early startup the board shows as working, also impressive numbers on sysinfo.

I had this card for YEARS and never got it to work, I am very happy! I can finally install OS 4 :D

Now I only need to add a good heatsink and fan to the 68040 because it gets VERY hot.

Thanks for all your feedback guys!
 
That's awesome, well done (y)

And indeed 040's run very hot and the convecting heat wont help the rest of the board.

An all in 1 chipset cooler would do the trick, but they can be a little noisy.
 
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