CA-PSU - Strange behavior

Phil · Nov 15th 2021

Hi Jens,

This weekend I had a strange thing happen to the CA-PSU with my A1200.

I was playing Pinball Illusions AGA via WHDLoad and when I select a pinball table the A1200 freezes after a few seconds.

Then I turned off the A1200 for half an hour and tried the game again, now I could play for about 10 minutes before the image freezes again.

The A1200 has been expanded with a Blizzard 1230 IV 64MB, Indivision AGA MK3, CF HDD 64GB, PCMCIA card reader, original floppy drive and the monitor is an Eizo S1933. OS 3.2 roms are also installed.

What I've tried is the following:

- replaced the 3.2 roms with 3.1.4 roms (I thought maybe a bug somewhere in the 3.2 roms -> no solution, still freezes)

- Replace 64MB ram on the Blizzard with 16MB ram -> no solution

- removing the PCMCIA card reader and floppy drive -> no solution

- reconnect floppy drive and play the game via the floppy disks instead of WHDLoad -> no solution

The only thing I could try was to connect the CA-PSU of my extended A500 (ACA500+, ACA1221LC, ACE2b, Indivision ECS V3) to my A1200.

Once I did that and rebooted my A1200 I had no problem with the game anymore, just let it run for about 8 hours yesterday and it still works fine.

The CA-PSU that was used on the A1200 I have now connected to my A500 and for now everything will continue to work there, I will see what the future brings.

What could be the reason that one PSU works and the other has a problem only with that game?

I don't have any tools to measure the voltages, I'm a plug and play guy.

Jens · Nov 15th 2021

Quote from Phil

What could be the reason that one PSU works and the other has a problem only with that game?

If the two PSUs work on the respective target computers after swapping them out, it's most likely not a problem of the PSU itself. Many of the square power connectors are just corroded and by removing and re-inserting the plug, you have improved contact. I wouldn't be surprised if it still works after swapping them back.

Phil · Nov 17th 2021

Quote from Jens

If the two PSUs work on the respective target computers after swapping them out, it's most likely not a problem of the PSU itself. Many of the square power connectors are just corroded and by removing and re-inserting the plug, you have improved contact. I wouldn't be surprised if it still works after swapping them back.

I did a lot of removing and re-inserting the plug on the A1200 before I swapped the PSU with the A500 one.

Still had the freezing picture.

But yeah, I can't surprise you , after swapping them back A1200 <=> A500 everything works again, tested it now for 3 days without a single failure.

Thanks