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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Stimpzilla on June 13, 2003, 05:03:14 PM
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OK,
As an experiment I thought I'd swap the CD-Writer in my Linux Box (Artec 48x/16x/50x, Celeron 666, Mandrake 9.0) with the CD-ROM drive in my A1200T(Power Tower, Samsung 32x CD, 4xEIDE interface, 4Gb HD, 030/40, 2+32Mb RAM, HyperCOM Clockport Serial Port, OS 3.9).
Note that the only way I was able to get the 4xEIDE interface working with OS3.9 was to disable the 4xeide.device line in the startup-sequence, otherwise the machine wouldn't even boot.
Once the CD Writer was in the A1200, software became a lot more unstable, particularly IBrowse 2.3, which is a git since that's the only way I can access my Yahoo e-mail from home. Also, the Linux box won't boot to a desktop, like it did before I tried swapping drives, but just gives a text terminal login.
I thought it might be an incompatibility thing, and switched the drives back, but with the CD-ROM in the A1200, although software is stable again, the 4xEIDE Prefs won't see the device at all, and the CD drive makes wierd clunky noises on boot-up.
Anyone got any thoughts on what's happened?
Stimpy
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Something strange happened to a DVD rom that I had conected to my 1200T.
It worked fine for ages (as a 'big' CD) then one day there was an odd clunk reading a DVD disc.
Now it struggles with any CD or DVD I try to read with it, making lots of similar clucking and chattering noises, so now I'm back with my 60x CD. Which is worrying because I managed to shatter a (admittedly cheapo unbranded crap) CD in it once...
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I'd guess you have two problems, Stimp....
1) The CD-ROM sounds dead, to me. Chattery noises are usually a good sign it's time for it to visit the bit-bucket in the sky. They don't make 'em like they used to.
2) Is a bit more complex. I'm going to guess that your 4xEIDE is slightly damaged or misconfigured. It's working in a base IDE mode, but when you have to go to a DMA access, it's having problems. (Hence it works with the base driver, but not the 4xeide.device) Are you sure all your cabling is good? That can also cause intermittent problems at faster IDE modes.
I have a PC motherboard with an on-board Promise UATA100 controller that is half-fried, though. Works fine in base IDE mode, but hook an ultra-ATA cable and drive up, and faster than you can ask "What the hell happened" the drive you just connected is corrupted. You may have to just be careful to keep your IDE interface in a compatability mode...
:-(
Any other guesses/theories? Anyone?
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I had my suspicions that the CD-ROM was dead, but I wanted to see what others thought.
As for the interface, that's just a very basic buffered 4-way EIDE interface, which I believe can only operate in PIO 0 mode. I don't know if that would affect matters any.
Could that be responsible for the wibblyness of the CD-Writer in any way?
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I too have a 4xEIDE interface on my A1200, though I'm running it under OS3.5. I just installed a second hand CD drive (non-writer) and I too have noticed a wierd clunking noise from it when I boot up. It almost sounds like the computer thinks it's a floppy drive...
Anyway, it works fine despite this, reads CDs with no problems and so far has not shattered any CDs...
However as I cannot afford a tower I have the CD drive strung out the side of the A1200 with it's own power supply. I have noticed that I cannot boot unless the CD drive's power has been switched on for a few seconds before I turn the computer's power on. Switching them on simultaneously will not work, which I assume would the situation in your tower. Perhaps this is part of your problem.
I also have a ZIP drive which I sometimes in place of the CD drive and the above is all true for this as well, so I'm fairly sure that it's something to do with the 4xEIDE interface rather than my drives.