Blizzard PPC repairs/servicing

[Gforce]

hello there,

i have been away from the Amiga scene for quite a few years now and recently i took my mountain of Amiga kit out of storage.

i decided to fire up my old A1200 power tower with BVisionPPC card etc only to find that the PPC card appears to have failed, i tested the amiga with a 2nd PPC card i have and it all fired up fine, and it seems the BVision card is also working just fine.

so my questions are:

1. is there a recommended dealer/company still around that i can send the card to for servicing/repair ?

2. would it be cost effective to get it repaired or serviced ?

3. should i just sell it on ebay and if so, roughly how much would it be worth ?

the card itself is a BlizzardPPC 040/25 603e PPC @ 240mhz with SCSI.

hopefully this post is in the correct place, if it's not i apologise and please move it.

thanks in advance for any help or advice

 

[StrontiumDog]

If anyone can, Stachu100 can

 

[fitzsteve]

Hi!

Its definatley worth trying to rescue this card as BPPC's are quite rare now.

I'm afraid we can't discuss values here though as its against site rules.

We have a member here called Stahu100 who is somewhat of an exprt with these cards, I'm sure he would either be interested to buy the BPPC or try to repair it for you.

There are some simple things you can try first like making sure the contacts between the BPPC/Motherboard and clean and you could to try to reflash the firmware on the card in case this has failed over time.

Also if you could post some high resolution pics and let us know exactlty what happens when you try to boot (i.e any coloured screens displayed) Maybe we can help.

If you wanted to send it to an official repair agent there is the Amiga Repair Center (JJB) in France but I understand his repairs can be quite costly.

All the best,

Steve.

 

[Merlin]

Stanlslaw (Stachu100) works wonders with these cards, his work is simply outstanding. If it can be repaired, he is the man for the job.

 

[Gforce]

thanks for the replies guys

not sure i can be bothered with all the hassle to get it repaired if i'm honest.

 

[DonAmiga]

thanks for the replies guys

not sure i can be bothered with all the hassle to get it repaired if i'm honest.

Maybe you should put it up for sale take some pic's

 

[AndyLandy]

thanks for the replies guys

not sure i can be bothered with all the hassle to get it repaired if i'm honest.

You haven't seen stachu100's work then, have you? ;-)

If I had a fully-working BlizzardPPC, I'd still consider sending it to Stanislaw. The amount of performance he can squeeze out of those cards is phenomenal! Up to 80MHz on the '060 part and 330MHz on the PPC. Staggering stuff! He's definitely worth giving a shout.

 

[merlinkv]

@Gforce

I have one CSPPC upgraded by Stachu100 060/66 330Mhz and works like a charm

Now, I want to buy one BPPC 060/50 240Mhz, but when I collect more bucks, it's sure I will contact with Stachu to upgrade to 060/66 330Mhz.

Why 060/66?... I want to use SCSI without issues....

 

[Gforce]

once again thanks for the replies.

i finally (after 10 years) got around to testing this card out again, i rebuilt my Power Tower and booted from a known working WB backup drive.

Workbench actually fired up and it went to desktop, it showed a full working 32mb ram which i had installed, the screen went black after a minute or 2 and now it refuses to let the machine boot.

tests were done without the BVision installed and the only colour screen i get showing up is black.

seems that it could be something stupidly simple wrong with this.

 

[rkauer]

Seems like the fan in the BPPC is singing its last song, if it is still alive... Do a clean in it and under the PPC heatsink and try again. Also check the VR2020 battery that may get toasted and is requiring much power from the rails.

Black&white may be simply you using a NTSC resolution in a PAL TV.

 

[Gforce]

i have a spare PPC card and that's been running fine gfx settings are as they should be.

it's odd you should mention the battery because i was beginning to think that age could have killed it, so i was wondering if it's possible to run these cards without a battery, i was also reading somewhere about a battery mod but so far unable to locate a topic discussing it.

i also have extra cooling fans on both cards and they both appear to be at a safe temperature from what i remember from when i used to use them under full load.

i was also wondering if anyone could remind me of the startup key presses needed to get the cards into the various settings screens.

thanks again

 

[StrontiumDog]

ii was also wondering if anyone could remind me of the startup key presses needed to get the cards into the various settings screens.

thanks again

Linky