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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: 57goldtop on September 03, 2007, 03:02:17 PM

Title: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: 57goldtop on September 03, 2007, 03:02:17 PM
The title pretty much explains it, Neither pressing ESC or S brings up any menu at all. I only received this yesterday and I can't help thinking that previous owner may have tried to flash the card but screwed it instead, I'm not exactly very pleased.

I did the _INT2 mod, checked my wiring with a multimeter, changed the jumpers according to the manual instructions that came with the card but the SCSI on the CSPPC is basically dead & I'm currently using the onboard SCSI in the A3000. Unitcontrol is able to see the drive but whenever I click on any of the buttons, the program just freezes and does nothing.

Is there anybody out there who repairs these ?

Cheers.



Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: Amigaz on September 03, 2007, 03:04:23 PM
Have you tested to press the SPACE BAR and see if the menu appears? it switches from 15khz to 31khz modes
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: 57goldtop on September 03, 2007, 03:12:11 PM
No, The control menu is not loaded at all,  the machine just boots up WB 3.1 from the onboard SCSI in the A3000 even with the ESC key down.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: Piru on September 03, 2007, 03:22:27 PM
Quote
with the ESC key down.

There's your problem.

Try hitting the key repeatedly instead of just holding it down.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: Jeff on September 03, 2007, 03:26:39 PM
I have a CS MK III (same card) installed in an A4000T and it isn't easy to bring up that menu on my system. It requires several attempts while the machine is either powering up or re-booting, I can't remember which. I have been able to get it to work though.

You can't just hold the key down, you have to get the timing correct "hitting the key" while powering up or re-booting.

Good Luck,
Jeff
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: 57goldtop on September 03, 2007, 03:42:50 PM
I tried that too, I'll keep trying but I don't really like my chances.

Just wondering, did any button configurations change at any point ? My card has a DCE serial number.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: Boot_WB on September 03, 2007, 04:47:04 PM
Check the version of CybPPC.device at the CLI (this relates to the version of the flashROM).
The earlier versions had no GUI boot menu.

There is a website somewhere detailing which versions relate to which flashrom - can't seem to find it at the moment though.

There may be more info in the readme of one of the flash updates.

If you want the GUI boot menu, just reflash with a later version.

@Piru

Quote
Quote
with the ESC key down.
There's your problem.

Try hitting the key repeatedly instead of just holding it down.

Whilst that is true for accessing the boot menu of the Picasso IV, I've never had a problem accessing the CSPPC boot menu by just holding down the ESC key, but that is just my experience.

@57GoldTop

Please detail your scsi chain, including termination.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: 57goldtop on September 04, 2007, 12:22:23 AM
Quote
Check the version of CybPPC.device at the CLI (this relates to the version of the flashROM).
The earlier versions had no GUI boot menu.


I'm currently at work so I cannot verify it right now but I think the version number returned was 44.24.

I'll verify this tonight.

Quote
If you want the GUI boot menu, just reflash with a later version.


The PowerUp website has a Flash update, unfortunately the "HOW_TO.." documentation only describes how to do the update via the boot menu by pressing 's' and I cannot access this either.

Quote
2) Hold key "s" while booting and press both mouse buttons
   to enter the AmigaOS bootmenu.
...
...


In addition, the .LHA files provided on the PowerUp site will not uncompress using LHA on my Amiga ( downloaded from Aminet ), I tried using fixlha but that doesn't seem to be the  problem. I can unpack other LHA files I download from the internet with no problems at all, perhaps the compression method for these files may be different, I don't really know. WinRar has no problems but I cannot just simply copy the files across to my Amiga , it doesn't handle PC long filenames.

Quote
Please detail your scsi chain, including termination.


I'll provide a photo if that makes it easy later on today. I just wanted to keep things relatively simple and removed all other SCSI devices and SCSI cables, the cable is the original yellow SCSI cable that came with the unit. Only 1 drive is connected.

Regards.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: matthey on September 04, 2007, 01:27:37 AM
My Cyberstorm Mk3 has the 44.24 cybppc.device and no bootmenu also. My Cyberstorm SCSI works just fine with the 44.24 cybppc.device though. I found flashupdates here...

http://phase5.a1k.org/

I'm going to do a flashupdate soon. The directions are in the .lha flashupdate file and they decompressed just fine for me from the site above.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: 57goldtop on September 04, 2007, 02:07:33 AM
That's reassuring to hear, the card is probably OK then.
I'll give it another shot tonight and I'll report my findings.

Thanks to everyone for your replies and help.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: 57goldtop on September 04, 2007, 02:51:26 AM
Matthey, I don't know if the method in those instructions will work because we cannot get into the bootmenu.

I found some info here (http://home.swipnet.se/~w-32234/ppcrulez/faq.html)

It gives you some good instructions on how to do the update without using the bootmenu. To summarise you disable your hd in the early bootup menu, boot from floppy where u copied the flash files and enter PPCUpdate from the CLI prompt.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: Matt_H on September 04, 2007, 03:34:09 AM
@ 57goldtop

I think you misunderstood the Firmware instructions. The S key isn't supposed to go into the bootmenu at all. It's supposed to disable the Cyberstorm's SCSI. The bootmenu described therein is the standard AmigaOS Early Startup Control.

Basically, you want to disable the onboard SCSI, boot with no startup-sequence, and run the Flash updater (put it on floppy). To be extremely safe, disconnect all your drives from the Cyberstorm, but that's probably overkill.

And make sure you're using the latest LhA (http://aminet.net/package/util/arc/lha_68k) to extract the Flash update.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: 57goldtop on September 04, 2007, 03:44:26 AM
Thanks Matt, I should have read the doc's more carefully.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: Akiko on September 04, 2007, 04:05:14 AM

Flashed my CSPPC last year, nerve wrecking experience  :lol:
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: Matt_H on September 04, 2007, 04:26:30 AM
@ 57goldtop

Hopefully that will get you going, but be advised that newer versions of cybppc.device are a LOT more sensitive about termination and other SCSI settings.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: amesie2 on September 04, 2007, 04:57:10 AM
@57goldtop

I bought a 4000T a year ago that had a CSMKIII in it, I wasn't able to access the boot-menu either. I recieved info. here on A.org from the members to reflash the card. I downloaded the update and applied it and low and behold I could get into the boot-menu by holding down the ESC key. I found for my board I wait until I see the caps-lock key flash green then hold the ESC key down.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: A4000_Mad on September 04, 2007, 05:18:52 AM
I'm also holding the ESC key down after my Caps Lock light has blinked to get the boot-menu, and my cybppc.device version is 44.67

At the Big Book of Amiga Hardware (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/) it says:-

Quote
During the reset sequence it is possible to hold down the ESC key and enter a configuration menu for the card. From this menu you can configure various things about the card such as which ID the scsi controller uses, inititial system setup such as the supervisor mode of the 060 and other things like RAM timings. The ROM for the card can also be flash-updated. By holding down M you can disable the memory on the card, holding down S disables the on-board SCSI controller and holding down A disables both the memory and the SCSI controller.



It does indeed work as I've checked but I'm not quite sure why you would want to hold down M and disable your memory. Anyway, I'm glad to see things are looking up mate :pint:
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: matthey on September 04, 2007, 06:38:36 AM
I just flashed my Cyberstorm Mk3 from the really old version to 44.71 without a problem. I now have the bootmenu :).
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: 57goldtop on September 04, 2007, 06:47:02 AM
Great, I can't wait until I get home to give it another try myself.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: 57goldtop on September 04, 2007, 02:13:58 PM
I did the update tonight and now I can use the bootmenu.

After going through the manual I figured that the SCSI cable is not terminated, that explains why I was not and still am not able to do anything with the drive yet. Will get a couple of scsi terminators and it should work fine.. I believe I need  two on each end, it's just the one drive.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: Matt_H on September 04, 2007, 03:34:17 PM
@ 57goldtop

Your SCSI chain should basically be:

Active terminator --- Cyberstorm --- Drive --- Active terminator

You might be able to get away with throwing an active terminator jumper on the drive itself, but a separate one will definitely work.
Title: Re: Cannot access control menu in CSPPC
Post by: 57goldtop on September 05, 2007, 02:38:37 AM
Yeah I thought so too. I had a similar problem until last night with the onboard A3000D controller and couldn't get the external SCSI CDROM to work until I connected the original SCSI cable that had a terminator built into the cable.

I only received the card last weekend including 2 X A3000, Picasso II,  Tocatta,CSPPC, A3640 & other cool stuff. Initially I spent hours trying to get one of the A3000s to start that had the CSPPC installed, turns out the 3.1 kick ROMS were in the wrong sockets( U181 in U180 socket, U180 in U181 socket ) and some pins were jammed, wrong motherboard jumpers & a busted DMAC.  At that point I gave up ( what else could be wrong with it ) and began testing all the hardware in my good A3000. It has been quite a frustrating week testing out all this stuff trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.

Now I'm quite happy with getting the CDROM to work, that means I'll be able to get onto the OS 3.9 install.