minimig just boots to a blue screen...

[keropi]

Hello!

I just received a minimig for a friend and I tested it a little... this bugger just boots on the following screen and nothing happens... pressing keyboard F12 or the MENU button does nothing... :blink:



on the root of the SD card I have one test freeware .adf game, the minimig1.bin and the kick.rom. I have tried both 1.3 and 3.1 A500 roms, but still the same result... just the blue screen , one can call it a BSOD too!

What do I miss?  I did try 2 different SD cards, one 512MB - the other 2GB , both FAT16 formatted but they behave the same...
What else can I try?

[yaqube]

If you can see the blue screen there still is a hope.

Does the DRIVE LED blink when the blue screen is visible? How many blinks can you see?

Connect a PC with a terminal program using null-modem cable. Set the SERIAL jumper to the MCU position on the Minimig board. Configure terminal to: 115200 bps, 8N1, no flow control. Then tell us what you see in the terminal when you power on your Minimig.

[keropi]

the  drive led does not blink with the SD card(s) installed... only the red one with half-bright and when the VGA signal comes and the screen is displayed then it goes to full-bright. The drive led is always off..

I will try to get a null-modem serial cable or modify one...
thanks!

edit: damn, all serial cables I have here are male-female ones...

[yaqube]

The drive led is always off..

It seems you have to update the PIC firmware. You will need a null-modem cable to do this.

[keropi]

I just made my own null-modem rs232 cable, I am off to test

[Darrin]

Looks like a mis-match between the PIC file and the Mimimig.bin file on the SD Card.

Go to Minimig.net and there's a helpful "how to update your PIC" guide there if you need it or I can dig around and find the post I made here (years ago).

[keropi]

AWESOME!!!
I upgraded to the 91224 PIC bootloader and now I see the KS screen, all work fine as it seems
Is there any "better" firmware to try? Or stay in 91224? I only have a 2MB/PIC minimig for now...

thanks yaqube and Darrin!

[Darrin]

AWESOME!!!
I upgraded to the 91224 PIC bootloader and now I see the KS screen, all work fine as it seems
Is there any "better" firmware to try? Or stay in 91224? I only have a 2MB/PIC minimig for now...

thanks yaqube and Darrin!

I'll let Yaqube answer that as my Minimig uses the ARM controller so I'm not sure what is the best one for the standard Minimig anymore.

However Boing4000 released this update in March which if I read correctly the GL091230 update should be for the standard PIC Minimig:
http://minimig.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=286

For anyone else planning on upgrading the PIC, here's the guide:

Minimig
Null Modem serial cable – a normal serial cable will not work unless it has a null modem adapter.
PC with a serial port
Tiny Bootloader – free software downloadable from the Internet

#1: Connect the Minimig to an appropriate serial port on a PC using your NULL MODEM serial cable.

#2: Set jumper on Minimig to from “FPGA” to the “MCU” position.

#3: Switch the Minimig on.

#4: Download and run the Tiny Bootloader program on the PC.

#5: Select the correct COM port and rate (115200)

#6: Press the "CheckPIC" button on the Tiny Boodloader display.

#7. Quickly press “PGM RESET” on the Minimig motherboard within FOUR SECONDS to establish communications between the Minimig and Tiny Bootloader on the PC.

If you succeed you should see something like the following message in a log window:

Connected to \\.\COM1 at 115200
Searching for PIC ...
Found:18F 252o/452o

If you don't you will see:

Connected to \\.\COM1 at 115200
Searching for PIC ...Not found,
ERROR!

If you get the error repeat steps #6 and #7.

#8: On Tiny Bootloader select the hex update file that needs to be written to the PIC.

#9: Select "Write Flash" on Tiny Bootloader and immediately press the reset button on the Minimig motherboard.

If you succeed you will see something like the following message:

Connected to \\.\COM1 at 115200
HEX: 6 days old, INHX8M,18Fcode, total=14552 bytes.
Searching for PIC ...
Found:18F 252o/452o
WRITE OK at 20:55, time:7.173 sec

MAKE SURE YOU LET TINY BOOTLOADER FINISH WRITING TO THE PIC BEFORE YOU UNPLUG THE MINIMIG!!!

#10: With the Minimig switched off, move the “MCU” jumper on the Minimig back to the old position “FPGA”

[keropi]

thanks all! all is well now, I'll see how it goes with the basic config and I'll decide

[yaqube]

Is there any "better" firmware to try?

There is a PIC firmware by Goran Ljubojevic which implements some features of the ARM controller. See this topic for further details.