Expert: Gregory Donner - 8/2/2009

Question
My trusty desktop A1200 has recently stopped most of my "Prefs" and some other items from functioning, such as Overscan, Time, Screenmode, Print, Information (from the drop down menu), Format and others. I have a Guru which translates as CPU Exception.
I have used Virus Checker II to check Workbench but this has not found a problem. I have re-installed OS 3.9 but this has not solved the problem either. I can only assume something I added to my HD has caused this, but do not know where to look.
My system is a standard A1200 with Blizzard 68060 and 128 MB Ram and SCSI kit, 60 GB HD and the normal peripherals of CD Writer, Printer and Zip drive (I removed the external floppies ages ago as I find little need for floppy disks).
If you could just point me in the right direction to solve this I would be extremely grateful as I do not know what to do next. Even replacing "C", "Prefs", "Libs" and "WBStartUp" one at a time from my back-up Workbench has not sorted the problem.
However, using my "Extras" Workbench 3.1 floppy disk I can use Overscan from that, so I take it this is a software problem not a hardware problem.
Regards,
       Mike.

Answer
Hi Mike,

Do you get the guru only when you try to run one of the programs you mentioned, or does it also happen at unexpected times? From your description, it sounds like it could be an issue between your 128MB Blizzard 68060 and OS 3.9. 3.9 is definitely fussier than 3.1, especially when it comes to hardware compatibility. I couldn't pinpoint any known bugs with the Blizzard 68060 and OS 3.9 from the FAQ page:

http://www.gregdonner.org/os39faq/os39faq.html

However, assuming your Blizzard is the Phase 5/DCE card:

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=115

...does disabling the '060 at boot time by holding down the "2" key solve the problem? I would try this, and see if this makes any difference.

BTW, I doubt you're dealing with a virus problem, but always make sure you're using the latest version of anti-virus software you can find for your Amiga. I don't know what the latest is for the Amiga (having been out of the Amiga scene for so long), but judging from Aminet, it looks like Virus Checker II's newest brainfile is almost 10 years old:

http://aminet.net/package/util/virus/vhtvb222

If you haven't already seen it, there is also an unofficial Blizzard 1260 support website in the link below that may be helpful to you:

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/1739/1260.html

It looks like you may also be able to try one of the newer 68060.library files and perhaps also a new Setpatch file to see if it stops the problem (again, if you haven't already tried these):

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/1739/1260software.html#soft

I hope this helps!

Greg