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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: dschallock on February 16, 2012, 07:29:49 PM
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Hello,
I have an Amiga 3000 that is currently in a Mirage3000D tower from Elbox. I have never really been able to get this setup with the mediator card working.
It works in that the computer powers on and the mediator works as a zorro pass through. But it has never worked in that it does not recognize any of the pci cards I have tried to plug into it. **namely** the easynet card and software I bought from amigakit. But it isn't an easynet problem because I don't think it has ever really recognized any PCI card I plugged into it.
So I have another a3000 that I can get parts from... considering abandoning the whole mediator/mirage tower set up and just getting back into a stock amiga case... but if I do that I don't know what my options are to get a darn Ethernet plug into the system. I have read that if I had a a1200 I could just use the pcmcia slot, but with zorro as my option what can I do. Is there any product that is still sold? I feel like I have thrown so much money at this over the last several years and still can't seem to get the machine connected.... so frustrated.
Any help would be appreciated.
-Dan
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You need to add and configure a PCI graphics card first, then the other PCI cards will magically begin to work. The gfx card's memory is needed for DMA on the PCI bus.
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I have this card in my A4000 (should work on A3000) and it works fine with AmiTCP v4.
http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=910 Hydra Systems AmigaNet Zorro II (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=910).
The configuration was not that difficult.
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The best zorro NIC cards for the Amiga are IMHO:
1. Ariandne - (not the Ariandne II) this is the fastest performing zorro solution. Very nice card.
2. X-surf - this card is slightly slower than the Ariandne, but it has lots of expansion options.
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You need to add and configure a PCI graphics card first, then the other PCI cards will magically begin to work. The gfx card's memory is needed for DMA on the PCI bus.
True for 100 Mb/s ethernet cards. Definitely want a gfx card with a Mediator anyway.
@dschallock
Do Mediator PCI cards show with PCIinfo? Don't give up on the Mediator. It's a good Ethernet solution.
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I have tried two different voodoo 3 PCI cards and more recently a Voodoo 5500 PCI card and I can't seem to get anything to work.
I will try PCIinfo and see what it says.
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I have tried two different voodoo 3 PCI cards and more recently a Voodoo 5500 PCI card and I can't seem to get anything to work.
I will try PCIinfo and see what it says.
Have you downloaded the latest drivers from Elbox?
Concentrate on getting the graphics card working first and then install the other stuff. Also, make sure the jumpers on your Mediator are set correctly. I had hell getting my A4000 and Mediator working until Elbox pointed out that I had a jumper set wrongly. Also, try emailing Elbox. They were a great help to me even though my tower and Mediator were "second hand".
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If it were me, I'd go with a Zorro III USB card. Hook your ethernet into that. That gives you pretty much all other forms of connectivity: network, hell, even 16 bit sound, scanners, mice, keyboards, external storage of all stripes, printers and, of course, networking.
Fewer points of failure anyway.
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If it were me, I'd go with a Zorro III USB card. Hook your ethernet into that. That gives you pretty much all other forms of connectivity: network, hell, even 16 bit sound, scanners, mice, keyboards, external storage of all stripes, printers and, of course, networking.
Fewer points of failure anyway.
Shame they're no longer being made. I'm going to hang on to my Deneb until I die. :)
I should point out that I have a PCI USB card working in my Mediator now as well as the Deneb. I've got way more USB slots than devices! I also use a USB-Ethernet dongle for the internet.
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UPDATE.
ok, so I run scanpci and it sees the voodoo 3 card.
I can't cut and paste from the amiga over to this computer (as Im not on the net yet with it. hahaha)
but at the top line it says "PCI Device 0, Function 0 (single function):
the next line says "VendorID : 0x121A ; 3dfx Interactive Inc
So based on that alone I am assuming that means its plugged in correctly and should be a software issue after that.
I started to go through the voodoo install guide supplied with my mediator CD.
I already have os 3.9 installed and picasso 96 powering my picasso IV card, but I did an update install from the os 3.9 cd to add the cybervision 3d card. I changed the name of the card in the devs directory and then restarted and ran picasso96mode. Here is where the problem starts. It does not see the voodoo to attach to. It shows the picasso IV card on Board0 and nothing else.
Where do I go from here?
Thanks for any help.
-Dan
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You might want to find the latest P96 drivers and install them.
I haven't installed a Voodoo card on my Mediator, but in the case of my Radeon card I had to use the latest P96, install the updated driver package from Ebox's website, copy the CV64 monitor driver into DEVS, rename it, run P96 and then create my screenmodes.
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UPDATE.
ok, so I run scanpci and it sees the voodoo 3 card.
I can't cut and paste from the amiga over to this computer (as Im not on the net yet with it. hahaha)
but at the top line it says "PCI Device 0, Function 0 (single function):
the next line says "VendorID : 0x121A ; 3dfx Interactive Inc
Do you see information like this?:
>PCIinfo
Pci Device 1:
VendorID: $121a
VendorName: 3dfx Interactive Inc
DeviceID: $9
DeviceName: Voodoo5
ClassCode: $30000
RevisionID: $1
InterruptPin: 2
SubsystemVendorID: $121a
SubsystemID: $5
MemSpace0: $60000000 - $67ffffff
MemSpace1: $68000000 - $6fffffff
IOSpace2: $40c06000 - $40c060ff
RomSpace: $70000000 - $7000ffff
Pci Device 2:
VendorID: $10ec
VendorName: Realtek Semiconductor
DeviceID: $8139
DeviceName: RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet NIC
ClassCode: $20000
RevisionID: $10
InterruptPin: 3
SubsystemVendorID: $10ec
SubsystemID: $8139
IOSpace0: $40c06400 - $40c064ff
MemSpace1: $70010000 - $700100ff
RomSpace: $70020000 - $7003ffff
Does your Ethernet card show up?
So based on that alone I am assuming that means its plugged in correctly and should be a software issue after that.
Correct.
I started to go through the voodoo install guide supplied with my mediator CD.
I already have os 3.9 installed and picasso 96 powering my picasso IV card, but I did an update install from the os 3.9 cd to add the cybervision 3d card. I changed the name of the card in the devs directory and then restarted and ran picasso96mode. Here is where the problem starts. It does not see the voodoo to attach to. It shows the picasso IV card on Board0 and nothing else.
You should end up with a file called "Voodoo" in Devs:Monitors with tooltypes starting with:
SETTINGSFILE=SYS:Devs/P96Settings
BOARDTYPE=Voodoo
The tooltypes are accessed by clicking once on the Devs:Monitors/Voodoo icon and using the right mouse button to select "Icons->Information...". The BOARDTYPE=Voodoo causes Libs:Picasso96/Voodoo.card to be loaded. You can make sure that this file exists. I believe you are doing the picasso96mode part correctly.
If everything appears correct then I agree that you should update P96 and the Mediator software. I would start with the unofficial P96 here:
http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/Picasso96.htm
and MM CD UP2.1 here:
http://www.elbox.com/downloads_mediator.html
Let us know if that makes a difference.
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ok, I'll be updating the next attempt tomorrow. When I went to one of those links posted to get the latest picasso96 drivers I found those boing bag updates 1-3 caught my eye and I got stupid and distracted and I installed them, and the ROM update and my blew my system up. :(
So I need to reinstall 3.9 tonight and get everything back to square one and then I'll try the suggestions.
Thanks again for the help, I will post the results soon.
-Dan
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@dschallock
Did you already have the "official" BoingBag 1 and 2 installed? The "AmigaOS ROM Update" in DEVS: caused trouble for some users but were worthwhile upgrades. A backup of the old one is created on installation. The "AmigaOS ROM Update" worked for me but I still created a custom AmigaOS 3.9 kickstart which I BlizKick into my MAPROM avoiding the double reset.
The "unofficial" BoingBag 3 is what I use along with Peter K's icon.library (big speed increase on icons but can be found on Aminet separately). It's mostly bug fixes, older stable enhancements and large HD support. The installation is simple. My AmigaOS 3.9 system is VERY stable.
The "unofficial" BoingBag 4 is more beta software and no doubt has new bugs. The installation is complex. It's a much bigger upgrade
It would be good to report what went wrong so it can be improved. Gulliver has done a nice job of gathering up the software but can't test on every system so needs feedback. I do use the P96 upgrade found there and it does fix some important bugs but some of the drivers could have introduced bugs. Keep a backup of drivers and revert to older versions (like on Aminet) if you have problems.
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1. Ariandne - (not the Ariandne II) this is the fastest performing zorro solution. Very nice card.
I think the best/fastest card is the ultra rare Commodore A4066 network card. Great buffers for send/receive
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OK,
I started by re-installing OS 3.1 from the disks. (worked fine)
Then Installed 3.9 from CD (worked fine)
Installed Boingbag 1 (worked fine)
Installed Boingbag 2 (worked fine)
Installed Boingbag 3 (at this point I got errors on the changes I tried to make to the startup-sequence as per the instructions... but when I undid those changes to the startup-sequence it booted fine again).
Installed boingbag 4 (again, changes to startup-sequence did not work, had to revert that file. Also Ghostbuster "whatever that program is" crashed right at bootup, so I dragged that out of the WBstartup drawer, then everything booted up fine.
Next: I installed the latest picasso 96 software from the website listed and got the picasso IV working just fine. Nice output.
Then I installed the mediator 2.1 up archive from the link sent to me above. I went through the automated process of setting the all the default variables. seemed fine.
At this point the Amiga is booting fine, and running fine and any zorro cards plugged in are working.
Next I follow the steps from the voodoo guide. But just like before when I get the picasso96mode screen and go to the "attach to" menu it sees Board 0:picasso but it does not see any additional board ie. the voodoo.
This is the same step that I have been stuck on for about 6 years now! from the moment I plugged in my brand new mediator till now. At one point I thought that the board wasn't getting proper voltage so I bought the mirage 3000D tower conversion from Elbox and shipped to the states.
Then I thought maybe my voodoo was bad so I bought another voodoo 3. Then I bought an old virge card. Then I bought a voodoo 5 card (took me a while and cost quite a bit actually). And I still can't seem to do what I set up to do... get my Amiga on the net!!!
(cough) ok, thanks for letting me vent. Sorry for blowing off steam.
Please tell me I am doing something wrong still, and I didn't order a defective mediator 6 years ago?
-Dan
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I wouldnt use BB4 if I were you....
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I seem to recall having this issue when I first plugged a Radeon into my Mediator. IIRC I had set a jumper on my Mediator board wrong.
I'll dig through the emails I received from Elbox and see if I can find the solution...
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OK, found the correct emails. Remember, this was for the 256MB Radeon card, but the principle should be similar.
In short, they told me to do the following (and this seems to be what you did):
#1: Install the Picasso96 graphic system following its documentation. Choose Cybervison 64 3D as the graphic card.
(I installed P96 2.1c package)
#2: After the Picasso96 installation, start Picasso96 installation once again and choose the "Update an installed version". Select only "Monitorsettings" and choose the frequency supported by your monitor.
#3: After successful installation you need to:
a: Find the CVision3D and CVision3D.info in the DEVS:Monitor drawer, rename these files to Radeon and Radeon.info respectively.
b: Change in the tool type window of Radeon.icon:
BOARDTYPE = from CVision3D to Radeon.
c: Copy the enclosed Radeon.card driver to the Libs:Picasso96 drawer.
(I copied the one from the 1.33 package)
d: Double click on the Radeon icon (in Devs:Monitors drawer).
e: Start the Picasso96Mode program (in SYS:Prefs drawer) and select:
Attach setting to Board0: Radeon.
Exit Picasso96Mode by SAVE.
This is where my setup failed and I got "NO BOARD" reported, which seems to be the same problem you have.
I then used the MedConfig program to dump an error log, emailed it to them and they sent this back:
Thank you for the MedConfig report.
You have not updated drivers (running quick install script) from MM CD 1.33.
Copy
http://elbox.com/download/newest/pci.library to Libs:
http://elbox.com/download/newest/Radeon.card to Libs:Picasso96
http://elbox.com/download/newest/sb128.audio to Devs:AHI
and all should start to work.
It seemed that the old installer wasn't putting the new files where it should. After manually copying them I got the Radeon to show up in P96.
However, the card still didn't work, but they also spotted this:
Your Radeon card cannot work because you have wrongly setting of the WINSIZE jumper on the Mediator Core Logic board.
This jumper has to be closed (set to 512 MB, not 256 MB).
Change it and your Radeon will start working with pci.libarry 8.1 and with 9.0 (with added memory).
So, make sure you change the tooltype for the monitor icon (4b), try manually copying the correct files for your card into the various folders mentioned (libs: & Libs:Picasso98) and finally try playing with the WINSIZE jumper.
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Thanks Darren for looking up that email. I started doing it last night and will finish tonight.
Question: About those jumpers... using a voodoo card is there a particular jumper arrangement I should be looking for or should I maybe just try it both ways?
Also you mentioned that even when you had the jumper in the wrong position the jump still showed up in picasso96mode attach menu right? I still have never seen the card appear in that menu... but scanpci saw something at some point.
The last time I ran scanpci now after the re-install of everything it seems to go into some kind of loop. printing the same message on the cli over and over again. Can't break it actually, I eventually have to reboot. Not sure if you have ever seen something like this.
-Dan
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magnetic- why do you recommend against the use of BB4 out of curiosity?
-Dan
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Thanks Darren for looking up that email. I started doing it last night and will finish tonight.
Question: About those jumpers... using a voodoo card is there a particular jumper arrangement I should be looking for or should I maybe just try it both ways?
Also you mentioned that even when you had the jumper in the wrong position the jump still showed up in picasso96mode attach menu right? I still have never seen the card appear in that menu... but scanpci saw something at some point.
The last time I ran scanpci now after the re-install of everything it seems to go into some kind of loop. printing the same message on the cli over and over again. Can't break it actually, I eventually have to reboot. Not sure if you have ever seen something like this.
-Dan
I bought my Mediator off eBay, so to be honest I have no documentation on the jumpers.
I also never saw the card initially, but then it appeared after I did the first set of things above.
Personally, I got my Mediator up and running after installing the OS3.9 version of ClassicWB, adding the Internet stuff of the OS3.9 CD and applying BB1 & BB2.
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Here's another idea for you. While I was waiting for my Radeon to arrive, I put in a "no-brand" ViRGE 1MB garphics card pulled from an old Pentium 1 PC. I followed the instructions for installing the ViRGE and it worked fine. I also tried another "no-name" ViRGE card and it worked with no tinkering. If you have one of these relics lying around then it might at least show that the Mediator is working OK.