Strange RAM-disk failure with BlizzardPPC

[slyder]

I've encountered an odd problem with my Phase5 BlizzardPPC card. I had my Amiga on for quite many hours few days ago and then rebooted. After the reboot Workbench loading just stalled and it no longer boots at all.

I've traced the problem down to the ram disk and it not working. By booting without startup-sequence and just typing "ram:" + enter the console just hangs. I can still type in the Amiga shell but the "ram:" entry has the console busy/stuck. If I disconnect everything except the BPPC and the floppy drive from my Amiga and boot from an original Workbench 3.1 floppy disk the same problem occurs.

If I run demos they all work just fine and they use the fast ram from which ram disk is also allocated. Anything that uses the ram disk now fails to execute properly. Sometimes I get a reset without any guru meditation screen. Oddly if I remove the memory from the BPPC card and power on to boot from any media the problem is gone but I have no fast ram so this is no solution. Tried the card in another A1200 and with another 64 MB memory simm - same problem..

Also "whichamiga" only lists the 060 cpu and not the PPC. I tried to run the blizzard flash update tool (1999 version) and it detected the PPC but it said 160 MHz. The update went through fine but the problem remains and whichamiga still does not see the PPC processor. It seems quite strange that I can run programs that heavily use fast ram but only the ram disk does not work unless forced to allocate from chip ram.

Anyone got any suggestions?

There seem to be three versions of the BlizzPPC060update program available, my BPPC is rev0. Is it safe for me to also try to run the year 2000 or the 2002 version? I got the picture that those are not Phase5 but DCE.

 

[slyder]

Some more observations here:

- If I boot from a disk without any ppc.library and run "version ppc.library" I get 46.31. I assume that's the one on the blizzard rom.

- If I remove the memory simms from the blizzard and boot with only 2 mb chip mem and then run any version of setpatch the system hangs totally (no reset no guru).

Could it be that the heat on the blizzard board has caused some of the solder connections to become bad? Memory bus / controller connections perhaps?

:help: anyone?

 

[Marmes]

Do you have the PPC fan working? If not, you should be prepared for a reballing, or a ppc replacement. try to fit a dissipator on your 060. See also if the flash is not defective. If you can, try another simm modules.

 

[slyder]

Do you have the PPC fan working? If not, you should be prepared for a reballing, or a ppc replacement. try to fit a dissipator on your 060. See also if the flash is not defective. If you can, try another simm modules.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Yes, PPC fan is working fine in its normal loud fashion

I've put a 20 MHz crystal now in for the 060 so it is running very cool and producing only 15 mips.

The blizzppc060update flash tool says it finds a PPC and the flashing works fine. Does that indicate that everything is ok for the PPC and flash?

The card was tried in another A1200 with another 64 MB simm, the same problem occurred so the simms should be fine.

When I boot without startup-sequence mostly everything works. I can run DirectoryOpus4, SysInfo, AsmOne, AsmPro and any demo I can imagine. However, most of these are running on the 68k CPU.

---------- Post added at 13:22 ---------- Previous post was at 13:20 ----------

There seem to be three versions of the BlizzPPC060update program available, my BPPC is rev0. Is it safe for me to also try to run the year 2000 or the 2002 version? I got the picture that those are not Phase5 but DCE.

Tried flashing with the year 2000 version of the flash tool, no change in my situation...

 

[vibros]

Hello,

99% this problem occur then the PPC (that share the bus with the 68k), dont work properly; that mean, your card need a rework on the PPC (reball or a new part). Reflash the card dont help it!

If you start your Amiga without the Startup-sequence, and then, on the shell, type the follow commands

c:setpatch

and

c:loadwb

will be loaded the Workbench and then, after a few minutes, you well see the ram-disk. You can use the 68k processor with the ram, but the PPC will refuse to work.

Regards
Stefano

 

[slyder]

If you start your Amiga without the Startup-sequence, and then, on the shell, type the follow commands

c:setpatch

and

c:loadwb

will be loaded the Workbench and then, after a few minutes, you well see the ram-disk. You can use the 68k processor with the ram, but the PPC will refuse to work.

I did try that earlier and it didn't work. In my case loadwb just doesn't seem to work, it always hangs (talking about Workbench 3.1 here).

I noticed that DirectoryOpus does something that makes the ram disk work. So for the moment I've got a startup-sequence that runs setpatch, fastexec, sets up assigns + paths and then runs DirectoryOpus and mounts CF0:. Now I've got everything working again except Workbench and programs that require it to work.

For some reason the "ed" editor is not working, it always gives a yellow guru.