A4000T ide issues

[SACC-guy]

I am trying to add ide cf card to a amiga tech 4000T. It just never shows either in early menu.
or by booting from floppy.
So, I've tested known working ide drives and cf cards from a good 4000T and 4000 desktop.
I tried 40 pin and 80 pin cable. Master and slave combos.
No ide!

Machine has no other known issues, everything appears to work...but the ide?

Any ideas on how to test?

M

[Matt_H]

I'm assuming you already checked to make sure you don't have a disable-IDE patch accidentally set in a Flash ROM or CSMK3/PPC menu

Are the CF cards and known-good IDE drives already prepped for an Amiga (i.e., with an RDB and partitions installed)? If not, they won't show in Early Startup.

If you have both the onboard IDE and onboard SCSI in use, one of them will become 2nd.scsi.device instead of scsi.device. I can never remember which one (it might even be random), so make sure you're trying both device names in HDToolbox when trying to prepare the drives.

If that still doesn't work, maybe there's a compatibility issue with the CF-to-IDE converter? I've had good luck with these, but only after changing the jumper to use 5V.

[SACC-guy]

I'm assuming you already checked to make sure you don't have a disable-IDE patch accidentally set in a Flash ROM or CSMK3/PPC menu

Are the CF cards and known-good IDE drives already prepped for an Amiga (i.e., with an RDB and partitions installed)? If not, they won't show in Early Startup.

If you have both the onboard IDE and onboard SCSI in use, one of them will become 2nd.scsi.device instead of scsi.device. I can never remember which one (it might even be random), so make sure you're trying both device names in HDToolbox when trying to prepare the drives.

If that still doesn't work, maybe there's a compatibility issue with the CF-to-IDE converter? I've had good luck with these, but only after changing the jumper to use 5V.

@Matt-h
Thanks for the insights.

Using the commodore 3640 so no flash or processor menu.
Using AmigaKit cf adapters and cf cards. And complete with 3.1 and needed libs.
The ide becomes 2nd.scsi.device as far as I know.

I also tried without any true scsi items attached.
I also tried ide-max 97.

this is turning into a crazy making thing.

M

[Boot_WB]

@sacc-dude

Is the 'known working' a4000t available? You could try swapping the ide board - at least identify if it's the motherboard or the ide daughterboard at fault.

[giZmo350]

Hi SACC-guy... I don't know if this is coincidence, but...
Oh, nevermind, I see that you're using known good CF cards...

[danbeaver]

My A4000T lacks an "IDE Board," but you have set the jumper to master, tried a known working IDE cable with a known working IDE HDD (also set to master) and used HDToolbox or IDEFix's Find device tool to look for the drive?

Failing this (and the use of the proper KS ROM) I am not sure of any other easy ways to check to see if the port is working.  If it is not working, then you can bypass it with a Buddha IDE card (out of production) or an Elbox FastATA 4000 card until you can get it repaired.

[SACC-guy]

@sacc-dude

Is the 'known working' a4000t available? You could try swapping the ide board - at least identify if it's the motherboard or the ide daughterboard at fault.

@boot wb
Yes, traded both ide working drives and working cf from working 4000T.

To my knowledge, there is no ide daughter card.

The ide header is on the motherboard in front of the roms.

[SACC-guy]

Hi SACC-guy... I don't know if this is coincidence, but I can confirm absolutely that I recently received two non-functional fixed type CF cards from AmigaKit - can't read them on a TrueIDE, a single type CF adapter, EasyADF or even with my built in CF reader on my Dell Optiplex - of which one of them permanently disable the CF reader in Windows on my Dell. Had a frustrating Friday.

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=68962

@gizmo

ouch! I understand.

[SACC-guy]

My A4000T lacks an "IDE Board," but you have set the jumper to master, tried a known working IDE cable with a known working IDE HDD (also set to master) and used HDToolbox or IDEFix's Find device tool to look for the drive?

Failing this (and the use of the proper KS ROM) I am not sure of any other easy ways to check to see if the port is working.  If it is not working, then you can bypass it with a Buddha IDE card (out of production) or an Elbox FastATA 4000 card until you can get it repaired.

@danbeaver
Yes, used working cables and new (both 40 and 80 style) and hdtoolbox and idefix.
Used master setting, slave setting, even cable select just in case...
Roms are 4000T 40.70 as reported by machine.

I may go back to the SCSI drives which are working fine. But I wanted the cf.

M

[amiadudeorwat]

Can you see the IDE scsi.device at all?  When you launch hdtoolbox does it seem to scan the ports when you select scsi.device?   From a CLI do a version scsi.device.  There is that one capacitor next to u156 near the upper corner of the board, any signs of leakage?  Has the board been recapped?  Have you tried disabling IDEFix?

[danbeaver]

Well...  Sounds busted.

I have gone from the built in (A4091) SCSI "Card" to a CF and from my CSPPC's SCSI-3 to a CF with good results (a Mech SCSI card reader works well here too), but I have my IDE port only connected to a CF card (in a slot cut in the back just above the PSU) to do boot partition back ups; these even boot into OS4.1.  

Now the Buddha will give a Z2 speed (3.5 MB/s) and a FastATA 4000 will give Z3 speed (9+ MB/s), so until Anthony Hoffman is back from the frozen south in September to repair your MB, you have $100 to $200 USD solutions.  A two bus solution to backups is quite fast, but I expect that is not your goal.  

There is an Australian SCSI to SD card solution on the web (for MAC's) that works for the Amiga [http://www.codesrc.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=SCSI2SD] [http://shop.codesrc.com/] for $125 AUD / $96.18 USD.

[Castellen]

Hi Dan,
Actually I'll be back from Antarctica at the end of October.  Right after I've finished freezing my arse off; fixing wind turbines in the screaming wind at -20C today wasn't overly pleasant.

But yeah, that A4000T IDE port doesn't sound happy.  Usually quite repairable of course.  If SACC-guy has someone that can do SMD rework, then replace U660 (tri-state bi-directional buffer) and U670 (D-type flip-flop) as a starting point.  At least the IDE interface is extremely simple, so there's usually not too much that goes wrong with it.

[danbeaver]

Sounds good to me (but you already repaired my main A4000T).

[SACC-guy]

Hi Dan,
Actually I'll be back from Antarctica at the end of October.  Right after I've finished freezing my arse off; fixing wind turbines in the screaming wind at -20C today wasn't overly pleasant.

But yeah, that A4000T IDE port doesn't sound happy.  Usually quite repairable of course.  If SACC-guy has someone that can do SMD rework, then replace U660 (tri-state bi-directional buffer) and U670 (D-type flip-flop) as a starting point.  At least the IDE interface is extremely simple, so there's usually not too much that goes wrong with it.

@Casstellen
Thanks for the information. I too thought it would need repair.
The 4000T came to me because I had means but it's not mine.
I will return it to it's owner with your info. He will have to decide what's next.

@thread
Thanks All for the help!

[danbeaver]

As an aside, would there be a SACC member able to follow up on Anthony's recommendations?