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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: geir on March 25, 2013, 08:47:14 AM
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Hi.
I bought a Delock CF adapter for my A600 (http://www.vesalia.de/e_ide25sdcfhdd.htm) and are trying to install it. I have mounted it as hardfile in WinUAE and used HDToolbox to partition my card (3 partitions), formatted them and installed WB3.1. But when I insert it into my Amiga it can't find it. I have tried the same with two different CF card, Kingston Compact Flash 4GB (http://www.komplett.no/img/p/200/337673.jpg) and SanDisk Compact Flash Ultra 4GB (http://www.komplett.no/img/p/200/603682.jpg). My PCMCIA adapter doesn't recognize the Kingston card, but the Sandisk works with that adapter. So it should work with the Delock adapter as well right?
Anyone using this adapter with success and can share some info on how they installed it? Or any obvious things I have forgotten or any tip on how I can make it work?
Thanks,
Geir.
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You need to give us more details about your system and how you partitioned your CF.
- What Kickstart version do you have?
- What partition size for first bootable partition?
- What filesystem used? What was the DosType value?
- What values have you used for Max Transfer, Mask, Blocksize
Also have you tried giving a reset (Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga) when you opened your system and disk didn't boot?
Did you have an PCMCIA adapter inside the Amiga when you were trying to boot from the internal CF?
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Hi.
Kickstart 40.63 and currently running (IDE Harddrive) WB 39.29.
First partition was about 500mb, the rest of the 4GB was divided on the next two partitions.
MaxTransfer: 0x1fe00
Mask: 7ffffffe
Blocksize: 512
I have to admit I'm not exactly sure about what I'm doing here, being an Amiga "newbie", but I got these numbers from a guide on one of the forums.
The computer do boot, it just doesn't recognize the CF card so it either display the floppy or boot into the WB install disk I've inserted. But then I can't find the CF in WB.
I didn't have the PCMCIA adapter inserted when I've been trying.
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I don't see anything wrong tbh.
You have Kickstart 3.1 and you're running WB3.0 which is ok and all the settings seem fine for an CF to IDE adapter.
Have you also ticked the box that says "Bootable" on 1st partition declaration?
I guess you're using FFS. On Early Startup Menu (pressing both mouse buttons on boot) can you can the CF partitions or not at all?
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Nope, can't see any CF partitions under Control Active Devices.
Only things listed there is DF0 and CC0, which I don't know what it, but was still there after unconnecting the CF adapter. I'm starting to believe the adapter is broken.
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Please run HDToolbox and check if the drive is listed there. If it is, click on Install Drive -> Create New -> Read Configuration and write down the determined values. Then go to WinUAE and do the same. I'd guess in WinUAE the drive is defined smaller than on the real Amiga. You might be able to repair this if you run DiskPart and use the Clean command on the CF card before you add it to WinUAE. If this does not help, you'll probably have to install it on the real Amiga and not in WinUAE.
If it is not listed in HDToolbox, then indeed something might be broken or incompatible. It's more likely that the CF card is incompatible than that the adapter is broken, though.
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Hi and thanks for your reply.
I can't find the drive in HDToolbox on the Amiga, only in HDToolbox in WinUAE. I used diskpart to clean it before adding it as harddrive in UAE and partition it with HDToolbox and then format and install wb. I've found other posts where people lists the same cards and have them working and the Sandisk card also work with the pcmcia adapter so it should work with the cf adapter too?
I guess I'll just buy a pre formatted cf solution from Amigakit.
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I've found other posts where people lists the same cards and have them working and the Sandisk card also work with the pcmcia adapter so it should work with the cf adapter too?
Some CF cards can be configured to be removable/non removable, PC's won't boot from them when it's set to removable. I don't know if that affects Amiga's.
It could be the cable. I had to replace the one in my A1200 when it started only working sometimes. Also if the cable isn't key'd then make sure you have it plugged the right way round.
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I don't know if that affects Amiga's.
It does. Sometimes.
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Is there a chance that this DeLock adapter has any jumpers for Master/Slave?
If it's on Slave it might be your problem there.
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Some CF cards can be configured to be removable/non removable, PC's won't boot from them when it's set to removable. I don't know if that affects Amiga's.
It could be the cable. I had to replace the one in my A1200 when it started only working sometimes. Also if the cable isn't key'd then make sure you have it plugged the right way round.
But it should be detected in HDToolboox even though it's not bootable?
The cable works, I'm using the same cable as my working IDE HDD.
Is there a chance that this DeLock adapter has any jumpers for Master/Slave?
If it's on Slave it might be your problem there.
That was my initial thought, but haven't find any jumpers, or pin to put one on, on it.
But my trouble just keep adding up. I just installed my new A604 expansion, but the Amiga won't recognize that either :(. My 600 simply doesn't want any new friends it seems. Hopefully the ACA620 that's on it's way will be recognized.
Btw, I ordered the preformatted CF drive from Amigakit. I was getting the accelerator anway, plus it is pretty cheap.
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Have in mind that the standard original version of HDToolBox will not work with CF cards, you will have to patch it with this first: http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/HDToolBoxPatch
An alternative can also be to use HDInstTools instead: http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/hdinst
As for the A604, I will recommend that you try cleaning the connector on the A600 motherboard before installing it.
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Have in mind that the standard original version of HDToolBox will not work with CF cards, you will have to patch it with this first: http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/HDToolBoxPatch
An alternative can also be to use HDInstTools instead: http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/hdinst
I did not know that, thanks for the tip.
As for the A604, I will recommend that you try cleaning the connector on the A600 motherboard before installing it.
I did, using a pencil eraser as recommended in the "manual". Still no go. I'll have to ask Schoenfeld or Vesalia's (reseller) support about what may be the problem.
That's 2 out of 2 in my quest for an upgraded A600 :rolleyes:
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With the A604 in place how much memory is showing.
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+/- 600.000. Sysinfo says 1MB total memory.
This may be a dumb question, but what's the chip in lower left corner? http://www.vesalia.de/e_a604.htm
That's missing from mine: http://inkognito.no/a604.jpg
Edit: Ok, real time clock. Strange that it's on the card on Vesalia's product page, but not on mine..
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No it's not strange.
A604 has 2 positions for RTC chip (1 is for an SMD soldering while other is for a through-hole soldering). The 1st one being on the Top left while the other is on the bottom left.
You can see the difference from both the images.
I guess Jens did that to cover both availabilities of RTC chips
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How do your capacitors look?
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The reason I asked about the memory is because I have a simlar setup to you and I'm also new to the scene like yourself
Let's talk about the A604 first of all. With just the A604 in place with the ECS in place I have 1,440,070 or there about meaning that I have 2Meg of chip mem. The other mem is showing 0 After messing with the setting in WinUAE I think this is correct. (anybody else please feel free to correct me otherwise) As for the chip missing so is mine however if you look on the two different pictures you have the other chip is missing in the upper left and is in place in the other picture.
As for the delock. I found that when plugging it into the A600 I was able to put it into two different position into the motherboard. Apparently this is common. As for my own configuration I'm getting a lot of 1111 Error which from all accounts seems to be a hardware issue. Anyway I hope this helps somewhat.
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How do your capacitors look?
They look fine to my untrained eyes, but they're as old as the board I'd guess. How to know if they're no good? Is this memory issue a typical bad capacitor(s) behavior?
Thanks for all your answers, really appreciate it :)
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The reason I asked about the memory is because I have a simlar setup to you and I'm also new to the scene like yourself
Let's talk about the A604 first of all. With just the A604 in place with the ECS in place I have 1,440,070 or there about meaning that I have 2Meg of chip mem. The other mem is showing 0 After messing with the setting in WinUAE I think this is correct. (anybody else please feel free to correct me otherwise) As for the chip missing so is mine however if you look on the two different pictures you have the other chip is missing in the upper left and is in place in the other picture.
As for the delock. I found that when plugging it into the A600 I was able to put it into two different position into the motherboard. Apparently this is common. As for my own configuration I'm getting a lot of 1111 Error which from all accounts seems to be a hardware issue. Anyway I hope this helps somewhat.
Cool to hear that more people have found new interest for the Amiga (and OCS/ECS) :)
~1,400-1,500 chipmem sounds about right when running WB. The other mem is fastmem (and slowmem?) so no increase there until you get some fastmem expansion (like with the ACA620 accelerator). Yeah, the "missing" RTC chip wasn't that missing afterall :D.
I found this in the ACA620 thread: (http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=849411&postcount=2709)
Here is a curious side effect. My A604+Indivision ECS would not work before on this mobo (although they worked fine on a 1.5 mobo). The extra chip mem was not recognized. Since I installed the ACA620, the expansion and the scandoubler work just fine. Now this is mind boggling. I have no clue why.
Hope this will be true for me too as I have an ACA620 on its way. Sounds a bit unstable though. What then when the ACA620 is disabled. Hm.
You mean multiple IDE connectors? I only have one, the same one I use for the HDD. I used that one out while testing the CF, but still no go.
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There are actually more pins on the board than on the connector and it can be move up a little so that it connects a little closer to the power supply i actually ended up getting the kipper2k http://kipper2k.com/amigaforsale/
My next purchase would be the 4 meg without the 68020 back in the day the 68000 was a lot more stable as most games were written with the 68000 in mind. I was playing pushover and I noticed how fast it was playing. Anyway hope this sheads some light.
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Hm. Didn't know about that site. Very interesting! Pretty cheap too. Thanks for the heads up :)
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An update on the original post. I got a CF adapter from Amigakit and that one worked fine. So I guess the other adapter was either incompatible or defect.
I also got my ACA620 accelerator, which works fine, but the A604 expansion still isn't recognized :(
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Raise a ticket with your supplier and ask for support.
If the A604 is problematic, I'm sure they can arrange a checkup and a replacement if it certainly is.
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They look fine to my untrained eyes, but they're as old as the board I'd guess. How to know if they're no good? Is this memory issue a typical bad capacitor(s) behavior?
Thanks for all your answers, really appreciate it :)
If they look like the pictures here then they are toast.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
Ironically the Amiga is so old that there is less chance of them being affected. At work we had an entire department need new motherboards because they had bought new PCs a few years earlier.
Capacitors can dry out but show no visible sign, then you have to start testing them. It's only really a problem if they have been in a hot environment, it affects crt monitors more than old computers.
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Most of my capacitors looks fine, but there's one that didn't look quite as good as the others (top rigtht): (http://www.inkognito.no/capacitors1.jpg)
The rest of the capacitors on the board looks like the other ones.
Can that alone be responsible for the non recognized A604?
Yeah, I'll contact Vesalia and see if they can help me. If it is the capacitors I guess I have to send my board to Amigakit or something for a recap. And if they can be faulty without any visible signs too, there's no way for me to find out without sending the board to someone.