Delfina Lite crashing

[Damion]

Sorry if this question belongs in 1999, but is it safe to say these cards are a bit unstable?

MP3 streams up to 192k will often play for hours, but anything higher causes a crash, usually within 0-40 minutes. There's a little "pop" in the audio, music dies, and CPU load goes to max if you attempt to quit AMPlifier or reset the Delfina.

The Michael Henke patched libs do help somewhat, as did replacing the leaking SMT caps on the card. It's still a bit unreliable though... any thoughts?

[Damion]

Thanks guys. I had read about some problems, but Michael Henke made a comment about the Lite being the most stable (or something along those lines) so I was hopeful.

My Delfina Plus also crashes once in awhile but when it does it seems to lock-up at the point of the sound it is playing so you get a continual loud annoying sound until you shut down the computer.

Mine has also done that. Sometimes it crashes and immediately takes down the whole computer... and from what I'm reading, all Delfina models share similar issues. Really a shame, it's otherwise a nice card, and had some fun software.

Well, maybe I'll finally put a DENEB in the A2000, and try running my Melody Pro on the clockport. The Melody is the exact opposite of the Delfina, perfectly stable 100% of the time. The output is clearer and considerably less noisy as well.

[Damion]

Appreciate the replies.

Yes, default is 40MHz. I tried overclocking with DelfTweak, which proved unreliable. Since the card handled lower bitrate streams (= no overclocking) more reliably, I had to wonder if the overclocking was causing some of the crashes.

This might sound ridiculous, but I replaced the 40MHz DSP with the 66MHz part as found on the Plus, Flipper, and some of the original clockport cards (NOS part with a datecode of 2002, apparently the last year of the 56002).

It's still crashing, but I'm finding clockrate appears to be a factor. For example, at 44 or 52MHz (both enough for 256k streams with no hiccups) the card repeatedly sh!ts rather quickly. So far at 60 MHz (which the old DSP couldn't handle for long), I'm having far better luck, although not perfect.

[Damion]

From what I understand, the patched version of the library doesn't fix the bugs, it just suppresses them (I.E., things are still going bad behind the scenes).

This makes sense, as the same errors happen with the patched lib, it only goes longer intervals before it happens. (Although, the "instant crash" with skipping audio is about eliminated.) As far as net radio, the interval is directly related to the bitrate of the stream. I haven't tried streaming from CD or disk, but will give it a go eventually.

Interestingly, running executive has helped tremendously. Audio still predictably quits, but in almost all cases, I've been able to restart the stream, or select another one without the Delfina crashing and CPU load going 100%. I'm using the "feedback" scheduler, but I have no idea if one might be better than another, or why executive has made a positive improvement at all.

Another thing I've noticed - there appear to be at least 2 versions of the Lite. A later one with two buffer ICs by the edge connector, and the earlier one (mine) with only one IC. As moving the card further down the bus seems to have a positive affect, I wonder if the v1.2 cards ("eXtreme buffers edition") are more stable?

@jsixis

Dude, had I bought one when they were new, I would have been equally annoyed! My A3000 is more tolerant of problematic Zorro cards, maybe it'll work better there. :/

edit: Made it 6 1/2 hours before it finally tanked, only had to restart the audio four or five times in between...

[Damion]

OK, over 10 hours without a hiccup on the same 96k stream, and that includes some IBrowse use as well. Basically it only chokes over 160k, not too bad considering the card is known to be a little problematic. I've also managed several hours of 192 and 256k streams, although it's risky.

[Damion]

Sorry for hijacking this thread but can someone point me to what drivers are best to use with the Delfina Lite?
I bought one several years ago and have hardly used it and the drivers that came with it are probably ancient

Use the patched libs pVC linked to earlier in the thread. The card will be about as stable as it's going to be, with the downside that DelfLoad no longer works.

Mine is good now with bitrates up to 192k, but will crash sooner than later if I do anything else simultaneously. Hoping the Melody works on the DENEB clockport.

[Damion]

Just an update. After a little hiatus from Amigaland, I had a real desire to figure this problem out and enjoy some netradio from my A2000 + Delfina card. :-) Despite my last post, the thing started crashing again, even with low-bitrate streams - it just took longer. In short, bitrates up to 128k are entirely safe, at least for my test period of a few days.

The long story...

The Ariadne 2 card was my biggest problem. I had reproducible crashes during times of high Zorro bus load, which would lock the Delfina, and sometimes the whole system. (Narrowed this one down by process of elimination.) Replaced with an original Ariadne (thanks to a nice Norwegian fellow), and aside from performing measurably better, no more crashes under the above conditions.

 -- Sidenote -- Actually, the Ariadne is the only network card I have that works in my A2000 alongside the TekMagic and PIV. Both my A4066 (fastest of the bunch) and Ariadne 2 cause problems, though they're perfectly fine in my A3000D. The issues with the Ariadne 2 in the A2000 were far more subtle, and it took a looong time to figure out WTF it was.

Delfinit was causing the Delfina to freeze, as soon as it was ran... but only on 2 of 3 resets. :-/ Not sure what the issue was (verified this one over and over), but everything is fine using Delftweak alone.

I also quit overclocking my Amigas. Returned the TekMagic from 60 to 50MHz :-) Too risky wrt the programmable logic, IMHO, and who knows what other kind of weird problems might be caused, especially in a loaded Zorro system. Can't say whether or not this had any real effect, aside from my peace of mind. However, along with replacing the Ariadne 2, the thing -- as far as Amigas go -- is absolutely ROCK SOLID now, just like my A1200 and A3000.

Unfortunately, bitrates above 128k are still not reliable. Oddly, one 256k stream will predictably crash within minutes, while another runs for several hours. No idea why. I figure the card is simply old tech, sw a little buggy... just the legend of the Delfina... :shrug:

To summarize:

Got card, replaced obviously leaking capacitors

Installed Micheal Henke patched lib

Replaced DSP with 66MHz rated part  <--in hindsight this was kind of dumb, fortunately everything went *perfectly* , but I easily could have ruined some rare hardware! Overclocking the card, even mildly, made no difference in the frequency of crashes, with either DSP

Replaced Ariadne 2 with Ariadne

Quit using Delfinit, just Delftweak

Returned accelerator to original clock

and

Stick to 128k bitrate. This just seems to be the reliable limit, same exact behavior in my A3000 as well. At least I know it's usable under certain conditions, just don't ask _too_ much from it and it's a pretty nice old card.