Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Sidewinder on February 21, 2004, 08:01:29 PM
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Today I was trying to format a disk and in the middle of the format the computer froze. When I tried a reset it failed to boot. All the drives spin up and the monitor brightens slightly when I turn it on, but I get no screen color messages or anything to indicate what may be wrong. Does anyone have any ideas how to troubleshoot this kind of problem?
Thanks.
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I feel your pain.....
Try opening the case (always fun!) and disconnect stuff.
Start with any ZORRO cards (one at a time)
and then work up to any drives.
Of course turn off the Amiga and ground yourself before pulling the power cord out, that way it will ground ya!!
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After removing all the expansions, check obvious things like the CPU board is seated correctly and the power supply has stable +5V and +12V.
There is an issue with 22µF SMD electrolytic capacitors on the A3640 board which can cause the card to fail. Would be worth investigating further if you're using one of these.
Do a search on the A.org forums and you should find a big discussion we had a few months ago about this.
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@sidewinder open case
pull everything out I mean everything including floppy and slotboard have only your a4000motherboard and accelerator in your A4000. pull out all but the last simm the one for the chip RAM. Do you get insert workbench?
kgrach
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Thanks everyone. I finally figured it out. I did as you said and took everything out and started puting them back in and testing it. It turned out to be the floppy drive. I think it's on its last leg. Anyway, I did happen to have a spare Amiga floppy drive so I stuck that in and it works now. Or at least it boots. The only problem is that the new drive is a High Density drive and the old on was only Double Sided. The new drive can read disks just fine, but not write to them. Does anyone know what I need to do to get a High Density drive to work on an Amiga?
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The 4000T needs a jumper thrown to change from a DD to HD disk drive. I think the BBoAHW has details.
Failing that, if you have a PowerComputing drive, you'll need a little program called HighDensityPatch to enable writing to the drive.
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Matt_H wrote:
The 4000T needs a jumper thrown to change from a DD to HD disk drive. I think the BBoAHW has details.
Failing that, if you have a PowerComputing drive, you'll need a little program called HighDensityPatch to enable writing to the drive.
Huh? I just threw out the crappy Amiga Tech pc floppy (you know, with the extra pcb on the floppy port) and stuck a proper Amiga HD drive in there (a chinon FZ-357A).
Works perfectly, no jumpers were moved.
-Paul
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Hi Sidewinder,
is the floppy flat-cable in good condition?
A couple of years ago, i got a similar problem. A good cleanings to the floppy drive and after replacing the old flat-cable, fixed it. (even if on an A4000D, is more easy to damage a flat cable than in an A4000T like yours)
Ciao
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@ PaSha
Really? I thought there was a jumper to distiguish between HD and DD drives. Maybe that's only for DF1?
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This (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/a4000tc.html) page from the Big Book is pretty detailed, there's mention of a HD/DD switch for the second floppy, but none for df0:
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I think the older HD drives for Amiga - from Power Computing at least - did need some software to work, into User-startup. But my later model in my A500T doesn't need.
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@ that_punk_guy
Er.. yeah. That's what I was thinking of. I guess I should confirm my info next time. :-)