SupraDrive 500XP setup problem

[arttu80]

Well, after some head scratching and many late nights I still can't figure out why this stubborn Supra thing refuses to see my KingKong sized 40 Mb Conner CP3040 hard drive?!

Setup;

A500, really basic here. Rev 6 mobo, Kick 2.04 / 1.3, 0,5Mb Chipram, 2Mb SupraDrive mounted "fastram"...

Prob;

First of all, the boot time is slooooow, it takes several minutes to boot darn thing, but then only floppy disk is found... After I load Supra setup disk, I can see and use hard drive normally, but after reboot all is the same (no HDD!).  I tried different SCSI ID jumper settings on Conner drive, no luck. I used termination resistors from original Seagate 20Mb drive (Conner had empty sockets). I even tried external cable mounted termination thing with no luck... So, is there "simple" solution to this game or should I throw my cherished 40Mb monstrosity out of the window and go with ACA500? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[arttu80]

I guess I have older ROM version (AMAB4) I know the upgrade to AMAB6 wouldn't hurt, but I doubt it would solve my problem. This 40Mb Conner drive must be supported because Supra Format utility program recognise it correctly. So maybe I should play with SCSI ID jumpers once more.

[arttu80]

Yes, I remember this interface being a bit finicky with the old ROM.  There is no problem booting and accessing with the original 20 MB Seagate?

I would use the same SCSI ID as on the original Seagate.  You do need Termination on the HD.  What jumpers are set on the HD?  Do you always see the 2 MB of FASTRAM?  What jumpers are set on the 500XP?

The original Seagate drive is dead, wouldn't spin at all just quiet clicking sound and really 20Mb is quite depressing even if it worked.

Yes i see extra RAM all the time and there isn't much jumpers on this, except for RAM and power input. I tried almost all SCSI ID numbers, found that ID 7 works best in regard to boot time, but still no HD at startup (early startup menu doesn't show any HDD).

I just don't understand why I'm able to use hard drive after I play with HDToolBox or SupraFormat tool and then go to WB and it's there, fully R/W ready!? After reboot, no nothing.

[arttu80]

I have the AMAB6 chip for sale.

Oh, I'm interested. You can PM me the price (with shipping) and payment method (PayPal would be nice)!

[arttu80]

Did you buy the latest ROM revision for the SupraDrive XP?  There was someone selling it on this forum a while ago, and on eBay.  Not very expensive and fixes a lot of problems / compatibility.  Do a forum search for the drive name to find those threads.

Last year I set up one of these on a similarly equipped A500 and it worked fine with a 105 MB drive installed (but I had purchased the latest ROM for it some years previously).

Got this hard drive problem solved with AMAB6 ROM!


@ TjLaZer

Thank you very much for the updated chip!