A3000D Boot Issues

[Pat the Cat]

Floppy CHNG signal is read by one of the CIA chips, not Denise.

It could be the drive is no longer sending the signal. Ideally, try with a different drive. Also check the cable (pin 2 is the signal for CHNG).

Your problems seemed to start when adding all your cards, has the power supply ever been replaced or even recapped? Because a failing 12V could have lead to your read/write errors on the system drive.

[Pat the Cat]

Perhaps it might be best to just install processor card and  then install operating system. Leave the other cards off until after you've got a successful WB3.9 install.

That seems to be the step failing which has conspicuously not been happening. Why doesn't the hard drive like it?

I don't know how you are fixed for capacity but you can have multiple bootable partitions.

Also might be an issue with how you are partitioning the drive maybe. That's what throws the install? 3.1 it's OK but not 3.9.

[Pat the Cat]

Hmmm... OK, if you can get setbatt onto a CD - the issue becomes reading it on the Amiga side.

Is it possible for you to setup a WB 3.1 floppy with z3scsi.device on it, to let you try and mount the scsi CD drive using the Z3 Fastlane controller, to let you access the program on CD and run it to sort out the onboard controller?

I don't know if mounting the hard drive that way is really what you want, what you want is the hard drive being recognized by the onboard scsi controller. But it could be a workaround just to get that program run, and hopefully sort out the onboard controller.

Does this A3000 have real 3.1 ROMs, or is it softbooting Kickstart from original 1.4 ROMs and files stored on the hard drive?

Probably not important. And the Z3scsi.device driver is in the ROM of the card, so you really just need a suitable mountlist entry for CD0 in the devs/dosdrivers drawer of your boot floppy. And a compatible CD filesystem in your L diredctory of the boot floppy. That might just save the day.

A pain in the rear to connect the CD drive that way, but it should work.

[Pat the Cat]

Just tried to use the Z3 to access the CDRom Drive. A3000 wont boot with drive plugged into Z3. I get a black screen. A3000 boots with Z3 in place but without CDRom drive plugged into it.

Couple of questions:

1. The Z3 has the terminating resistor packs in place - should these be removed? The onboard SCSI has the packs removed with them located on the SCSI drive.

2. When using HDToolbox it reports two SCSI devices. SCSI.Device and 2nd.SCSI.Device. It does not report Z3SCSI.device - should it?

Weed

1.Usually not. The convention is that the first device (controller) and last device on a scsi cable have the terminators.

2. HDToolbox has a tooltype in the icon to set which scsi.device it is working with (and so each controller). It defaults to scsi.device. On an A3000, that is the onboard scsi controller. Different kickstart version to A1200 or A4000, which obviously have IDE controllers onboard.

I suspect the Amigsa is having an issue with booting from the onboard scsi, which again is a default behaviour.

I did ask if the A3000 had real 3.1 ROMs or whether it loads up Kickstart from hard drive (original ROMs). These latter systems need care when changing the hard drive, as they need scsi boot partitions set up, They don't have the usual early startup menu (hold down both mouse buttons on booting), they give a choice of detected operating systems to boot from, and will load superkickstart disks from floppy if they can't find a suitable hard drive using the onboard scsi controller.

Bottom line is - your hard drive is almost dead if not totally dead already. Needs replacing. Might be causing an issue just by being plugged in to the onboard controller.

You can download Diskmasher images of the Z3 controller install floppies (various versions from earliest to most recent);-

http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/fastlane

Even a manual  if you can be bothered to translate it. The text can be copied and pasted so this isn't so difficult.

[Pat the Cat]

Hopefully when I can make more progress when the Gotek arrives.

Very handy devices. Take a bit of getting used to though, they do change the game a lot.

If you are doing emulation in a desktop, you might consider putting a scsi card in that. That way you could setup a new drive on an emulator. On the other hand, drives setup that way aren't guaranteed to work on genuine hardware.

I was a bit mystified why you were using onboard scsi when you have a faster Z3. The trick there is to fit just an external terminator to the onboard scsi, so it can quickly check no drives are connected. EDT: Might not work on the Z3 though. In theory you can swap over a scsi hard drive partition with a Rigid Disk Block and access it on any Amiga wiith any HD controller, assuming it's compliant in size with whatever driver is used on the target Amiga. In theory anything done on the onboard scsi shoud be go to go on the Z3, but no guarantees that anything setup on the Z3 will boot on the onboard scsi.

The thing with termination is - "last device on the cable" changes when you have external drives. If it's occasional use, it makes more sense to terminate the internal drive and the external drive. Because sometimes, the internal drive is the last device on the cable, and sometimes it isn't.

Real Kickstart on an A3000 makes drive replacement a lot easier.

[Pat the Cat]

I would try settimg up the HD to boot from Z3 rather than onboard.

You seem pretty convinced the HD has been gradually dying, that might confirm it.

The question is whether the onboard controller is OK or not.

[Pat the Cat]

Kudos for narrowing it down to the onboard controller not liking 3.9 for some reason.

I think the original scsi controller chip is replaceable for something more reliable and pin compatible. Beyond that I have no solid information on A3000D screw arrangements - on mine (for the brief period I owned one) the centre rear screw was oversize, but I have no idea if that was what was originally fitted. It was 2nd hand.

That does seem to tally with a factory machine but I can't be sure on that one. The four exterior screws were definitely identical and Phillips dome head I think. Centre one was a pan head.

[Pat the Cat]

I suggest you buy a buster 11,they are still available and its a good upgrade.

Alas Analogic ran out a few months back. I guess some people who did upgrade might have Buster 9s for sale.

Also rumours of a Dave Haynie new version, but it will definitely need a socket to plug into. Even if it does happen.

[Pat the Cat]

Original scsi controller chip. Can be a little quirky.

Checked 5V is going into and out of that diode? It is the most likely cause.

Also worth checking voltages, if you got low 12V or 5V that would affect the drive. Probably OK.

You might want to put a little DeOxit in the scsi controller socket, that might do the trick. If you're going to clean, do a little maintenance on the sockets too. Doesn't hurt putting some on the pins that run into ribbon cables, but do let it dry and wipe before putting cables back on.