Amiga.org

Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: tonyvdb on December 07, 2014, 08:56:32 PM

Title: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 07, 2014, 08:56:32 PM
so I can't seem to get the CF card with OS 3.1 to boot. It gets to the workbench screen and freezes before loading any icons and the mouse won't move. (The keyboard caps lock flashes)
If I use the trueIDE interface nothing happens at all and I get the install floppy disc screen.

I originally went this option because I thought my hard drive failed but after putting it back in and booting off a workbench floppy I do get all the contents on the hard drive showing up in workbench. Could this mean that just the system folder is damaged so how on that drive? I used SSF as the file system if that helps?
What if any possible things can I do to get this going again without a full format and re install?
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Thomas on December 07, 2014, 09:22:37 PM
So what is your question here? Do you want to repair the CF card or the harddrive? Please decide which way to go and then stay on this way. Or open two threads, one for the CF card and one for the harddrive. But please don't change the route in the middle of one post.

What happens if you try to boot from the harddrive?
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 07, 2014, 09:27:40 PM
Ok, sorry. Let's first work on reviving the original Hard drive if possible.

I ran HD toolbox and did a "verify data on drive" and it came back with no reported errors.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 08, 2014, 08:05:52 AM
I'm confused by this thread, as well. Would you like to go back to using your original hard drive? What happened that you were no longer able to boot from it? Did you receive any error messages? Most likely it's just something in your Startup-Sequence or WBStartup directory that was causing it to not boot.  Either a bad command, incompatible program, or something along those lines.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: paul1981 on December 08, 2014, 10:49:05 AM
Quote from: tonyvdb;779234
Ok, sorry. Let's first work on reviving the original Hard drive if possible.

I ran HD toolbox and did a "verify data on drive" and it came back with no reported errors.

Hello there.

What is the nature of the problem?
How large is the hard drive?
What are the sizes of the partitions upon it?
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 08, 2014, 02:48:03 PM
Quote from: Oldsmobile_Mike;779253
I'm confused by this thread, as well. Would you like to go back to using your original hard drive? What happened that you were no longer able to boot from it? Did you receive any error messages? Most likely it's just something in your Startup-Sequence or WBStartup directory that was causing it to not boot.  Either a bad command, incompatible program, or something along those lines.

At this point I just want something to work properly. I agree that something is amiss in the startup sequence but I cant see anything out of the ordinary. I even disabled the user startup and that did not change. When I start to computer it access the drive an the screen stays blank. If I remove the drive I get the "insert workbench disc screen". If I use my instal discs and have the drive hooked up it loads into workbench properly and shows all my files and programs as they should be but of course its not using the startup off the hard drive rather the floppy.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 08, 2014, 02:51:52 PM
Quote from: paul1981;779262
Hello there.

What is the nature of the problem?
How large is the hard drive?
What are the sizes of the partitions upon it?

Its not a huge drive, I believe its about 5gb but The OS is installed on the first 2GB partition I have made on it.
It was running fine before I let the computer sit for a few months without use.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Thomas on December 08, 2014, 03:01:08 PM
Quote from: tonyvdb;779278
At this point I just want something to work properly. I agree that something is amiss in the startup sequence but I cant see anything out of the ordinary. I even disabled the user startup and that did not change. When I start to computer it access the drive an the screen stays blank. If I remove the drive I get the "insert workbench disc screen". If I use my instal discs and have the drive hooked up it loads into workbench properly and shows all my files and programs as they should be but of course its not using the startup off the hard drive rather the floppy.


Boot from floppy, just to prove that it's still working. Then remove the floppy, reset the Amiga (Ctrl-A-A) and hold down both mouse buttons until the early startup menu appears. Now click on "boot without startup-sequence". A window should appear with a DOS prompt. At the prompt enter

set echo on
execute s/startup-sequence

Now every command executed will be printed to the screen. Watch it and tell us the last command which appears before the computer freezes.

If a reset occurs (like done by OS 3.9's SetPatch), hold down both mouse buttons again and start with set echo on again.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 08, 2014, 04:48:54 PM
Ok thanks, I will give it a try tonight when I get home from work :)
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 08, 2014, 09:31:01 PM
Ok so I did as you suggested and it freezes when it says "C:SetPatch QUIET"
So right at the start it seems
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 08, 2014, 09:42:41 PM
SetPatch does a lot of different things.  These other guys are going to give you better advice, but in the meantime what if you try just commenting it out?  Put a semi-colon before that line in your Startup-Sequence.  Does it boot then?  You probably won't have AGA screenmodes, but just as a test.  Then you can narrow it down to more specific components of SetPatch.

Try taking "Quiet" out of it, maybe?
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 08, 2014, 09:51:24 PM
Success!
That worked. It booted up a bit slower than normal but it's up and running
So now the question, what does the SetPatch quiet mean?
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: danbeaver on December 08, 2014, 10:07:49 PM
The QUIET part means don't report the items patched in memory, but SetPatch patches about 2 dozen things with updates.

Once you get your WorkBench screen without SetPatch, have you opened a CLI Shell window and tried running SetPatch with a "?" to see the options available and tried them to see if one allows the use of SetPatch?
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 08, 2014, 10:14:19 PM
How do I run SetPatch ? I'm in the shell window now
Sorry if I'm not up to speed on this as it's been years since I did any stuff in this area of the Amiga
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 08, 2014, 10:39:36 PM
Quote from: tonyvdb;779321
How do I run SetPatch ? I'm in the shell window now
Sorry if I'm not up to speed on this as it's been years since I did any stuff in this area of the Amiga

Just type setpatch ? into the shell. You've probably figured that out by now, already. ;) Be prepared to hit Ctrl+C to break out of it, unless you actually want to run it.

If you go ahead and run it without the QUIET option, it will show you a list of everything it's patching (although obviously in this case, it might crash).

It might also help to type version c:setpatch to know what version you're running.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 08, 2014, 11:00:24 PM
This is what I see when running SetPatch
http://www.amiga.org/gallery/images/3551/1_image.jpg
It seems to freeze after that.

It's Version 44.16

This is the first page of the Startup sequence if that helps at all
Note that I still have SetPatch bypassed
http://www.amiga.org/gallery/images/3551/2_image.jpg
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 08, 2014, 11:25:46 PM
I don't know if it will help at all, but I have SetPatch 44.38 on my system.  Shoot me your email address and I'll send you a copy to try.  You're going to want to rename your old one as "setpatch.old" or something, first, so you don't overwrite it.  ;)
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 08, 2014, 11:29:25 PM
PM sent.

Odd, there already is an SetPatch-old file?
Things that make you go Hmmmmm
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 08, 2014, 11:31:52 PM
Quote from: tonyvdb;779328
PM sent

Where is the SetPatch file stored so I can edit the name.

There you go, just sent you two versions. 44.38 and 44.39.  I don't remember what 44.39 was, I think it had a slight modification to support a newer graphics.library, or something, but for some reason I was still using 44.38 and my system is 100% stable. Your mileage may vary. ;)

SetPatch is stored in SYS:C directory
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 09, 2014, 12:12:21 AM
Well, that's a no go for either file.
.39 gave me a recoverable failure but then did not go farther and .38 does the same thing as before, just a black screen
Thanks for trying anyhow
Clearly it is the SetPatch file that's the issue. Not sure what else to try?
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 09, 2014, 12:37:19 AM
Drat.  SetPatch is trying to activate something that is not working.  Wait, this is in a 4000?  I vaguely, vaguely seem to recall someone else having a similar problem a few years ago.  Their system was crashing at SetPatch.  That's because SetPatch was trying to activate the AGA graphics routines, and something in the chipset on their motherboard had failed.  The system worked, just not "the AGA part".  This seems probable for you, as well.  It's unlikely the command itself is bad, what whatever component it's trying to activate has issues.

Afraid I'm not going to be of much help beyond this, try searching the forums or wait for someone else to come along who can help you fine-tune the SetPatch command to see where it's failing?

One last thought - try removing all expansion cards and see if that makes a difference?
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 09, 2014, 12:42:14 AM
Yup, it's a 4000d
I'll give that a try I guess. Worst case I try doing a full reinstall on a new hard drive and transfer over the files after.
Thanks so much for trying
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 09, 2014, 12:46:43 AM
Quote from: tonyvdb;779341
Yup, it's a 4000d
I'll give that a try I guess. Worst case I try doing a full reinstall on a new hard drive and transfer over the files after.
Thanks so much for trying

You can try it, but I think you might have a hardware problem.  Try this again, hold down both mouse buttons to boot with no startup-sequence, and execute nothing but the SetPatch command.  You get a crash then?  I don't know if a "full reinstall" is going to help you.  Here's a screenshot of mine, you can see SetPatch touches on a lot of different hardware registers:
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 09, 2014, 01:11:13 AM
The moment I hit enter after typing SetPatch it freezes
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 09, 2014, 03:33:32 AM
Try these alternate ways of running SetPatch listed in post #2 and #3 of this thread:

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=23107
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 09, 2014, 03:40:31 AM
Also try C:SetPatch NOAGA

Edit: just saw your earlier note.  Did you try your "SetPatch-old" file?
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 09, 2014, 04:19:19 AM
Last dumb question - you mentioned this system has been in storage for a while.  Was there any battery leakage?  Has battery been removed already?
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 09, 2014, 02:29:59 PM
SetPatch-0ld file still fails the same way.
I removed the battery years ago and replaced it with a rechargeable coin battery.

Tonight I will try running SetPatch with Nocash and the others you mention and see what happens.

This coming weekend I will probably take all the Video Toaster stuff out as well as the GVP SCSI card I have and see if that changes anything

Also remember Im still trying to get OS3.1 working. I have not ventured into a fresh instal of 3.9
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 09, 2014, 04:51:15 PM
Is your ROM 3.1?

Here's one more to try.  Couldn't hurt, right?  http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/SetPatch_43.6b
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Thomas on December 09, 2014, 05:19:44 PM
Quote from: Oldsmobile_Mike;779392
Here's one more to try.  Couldn't hurt, right?  http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/SetPatch_43.6b


It can hurt. Version 43 and below don't load the ROM update.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 09, 2014, 05:26:00 PM
Quote from: Thomas;779398
It can hurt. Version 43 and below don't load the ROM update.

I just saw he's using 3.1.  3.1 didn't have a ROM update, AFAIR?

Either way, there's no reason I can think of why a freshly powered on system with no Startup-Sequence is locking up as soon as he types SetPatch.  Is there a way to get verbose output from SetPatch to see at what point it's freezing?

By my count he's tried four different versions of SetPatch now, all with the same outcome.  This on a system that was previously working fine, before being put into storage for a period of time.  I've been throwing different versions of SetPatch out there, but what I really think is there's a hardware problem that needs further troubleshooting.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: paul1981 on December 09, 2014, 05:33:28 PM
What CPU card is in your machine? Sounds like a 68040.library issue to me.
Do you have a 68040 CPU or a 68030 CPU in your machine? If you have a 68030 then make sure to delete the 68040.library as it's not needed and will crash your system (type this in a shell: "delete libs:68040.library").

If you do have a 68040 CPU then do a version check to make sure you're using the correct library: ("version libs:68040.library full") and let us know what you find.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 09, 2014, 06:54:51 PM
I have 3.1 roms installed
Its an 040 board and given it boots up into windows if I disable setpatch that says the 040 is working right?

Im at work at the moment so wont be able to test any suggestions till later but keep them coming. Im learning lots as we go.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: mechy on December 09, 2014, 06:58:18 PM
Quote from: tonyvdb;779417
I have 3.1 roms installed
Its an 040 board and given it boots up into windows if I disable setpatch that says the 040 is working right?

Im at work at the moment so wont be able to test any suggestions till later but keep them coming. Im learning lots as we go.

Well there is the problem,you are trying to boot into windows on a Amiga - sorry!, couldnt resist :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 09, 2014, 06:59:57 PM
Quote from: mechy;779419
Well there is the problem,you are trying to boot into windows on a Amiga - sorry!, couldnt resist :rolleyes:


LOL yup. see what years of Windows abuse will get you.
I much prefer workbench
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 09, 2014, 07:21:43 PM
Quote from: tonyvdb;779417
I have 3.1 roms installed
Its an 040 board and given it boots up into windows if I disable setpatch that says the 040 is working right?

SetPatch enables certain features of the 040, so no, not necessarily.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 09, 2014, 08:07:22 PM
Ok, I will report back later this evening what I get after trying some of the things you all suggest.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 10, 2014, 12:35:47 AM
Ok, I tried using SetPatch version 43.6b and no change.
I checked the version of the 68040 lib and it gave me "68040 library 37.30 (01/18/1993)

I also tried the several SetPatch changes and none of them got me any farther.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 10, 2014, 02:54:30 AM
Hummm, okay.  You mentioned before you were able to boot to Workbench normally with a floppy disk, correct?  Try booting off your HD, but hold down both mouse buttons and do "No Startup-Sequence".  Then put the floppy disk in the drive and try running just the SetPatch off the floppy disk (cd to DF0:C directory).  Does that work?  What version is on the disk?

What version of the OS were you booting off with this disk, BTW?
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 10, 2014, 07:06:27 PM
Im booting OS 3.1 on the hard drive.

I had a thought, could my Indivision AGA have gone bad or become disconnected off the chip somehow and that cause this issue? Its buried behind the Mediator board so hard to look at unless I remove it and all the Toaster cards.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on December 10, 2014, 07:54:40 PM
Quote from: tonyvdb;779509
Im booting OS 3.1 on the hard drive.

 I mean when you boot off a floppy disk.  Didn't you say previously that you were able to boot off a floppy disk without issues?  What version is this disk, and have you tried running just the SetPatch command off of it?
 
Quote from: tonyvdb;779509
I had a thought, could my Indivision AGA have gone bad or become disconnected off the chip somehow and that cause this issue? Its buried behind the Mediator board so hard to look at unless I remove it and all the Toaster cards.

Sounds like you've got a lot of stuff going on with this system.  Indivision is one of the few pieces which isn't "touched" by SetPatch, since it should be transparent to the system at this level.  In other words, possible but not likely.  I'd try removing all the cards, reseat the processor card, check for bad or leaky caps, and try booting with just a base configuration without all the add-ons.  If it boots normally without them, add the boards back one-by-one until the problem reoccurs.  If you're lucky it's just a loose processor board or something along those lines.  Very common problem in A4000's.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 10, 2014, 08:10:30 PM
Quote from: Oldsmobile_Mike;779513
I mean when you boot off a floppy disk.  Didn't you say previously that you were able to boot off a floppy disk without issues?  What version is this disk, and have you tried running just the SetPatch command off of it?

Ok, it was a 3.1 floppy.
I will try that tonight and see what goes.
 


Quote
Sounds like you've got a lot of stuff going on with this system.  I'd try removing all the cards, reseat the processor card, check for bad or leaky caps, and try booting with just a base configuration without all the add-ons.  If it boots normally without them, add the boards back one-by-one until the problem reoccurs.  If you're lucky it's just a loose processor board or something along those lines.  Very common problem in A4000's.


Yup, thats my next process this weekend when I have the time. Oh the joys of removing stuff LOL
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: paul1981 on December 11, 2014, 12:43:14 PM
Your 68040.library version seems ok, but it doesn't rule out that it's not corrupted.
Corruption of files could be caused by incorrect mask setting if using a CF card as a hard drive on the internal IDE (A1200, A600, A4000).

Are you using SFS? Are you using your CF now or a real hard drive? I believe SFS has different versions depending on which CPU your Amiga has...so it's worth checking you're using the correct version.

Try replacing the 68040.library with the one from your OS Install disk (I think it resides on that disk anyway).
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 11, 2014, 02:14:05 PM
Im using the Hard drive and its formatted using SFS It seems the TrueIDE adapter I got is not working so Ive abandoned trying to get the CF card going till I sort this out first.

Ill give replacing the 68040 file a try tonight (I did not have time to do anything with it last night). Thanks for everyone's help with this.
Title: Re: Issues with startup
Post by: tonyvdb on December 14, 2014, 08:20:51 PM
Ok, so I got somewhere this weekend with it.

I pulled out the GVP SCSI card with the extra ram and then returned the SetPatch back to the original one. And it now boots up fine however the workbench is sowing only chip ram the "other mem" is reporting 0?
Why would that be?

I tried the CF card that I have with AmigaKits new OS 3.1 and it also boots fine into workbench but also shows 0 other mem

Update: striped it down to the main board only and got the fast ram to show up after taking them out and putting them back in. Gotta love the sockets they used!
So now just trying to get OS3.9 on the blank CF card and then I'm going to try to get that dumb TrueIDE adapter to work. Ugh! It should be so simple LOL