Fast ATA MK IV & Compact Flash issue.

[bbond007]

I finally got around to installing my new Fast ATA MK IV!

Everything went well with getting it to fit inside the 1200 desktop case with my subway and other stuff.  I was able to get the subway to fit by filing down the Fast ATA around the clockport slightly.

I did decide to switch back to CF because my SSD drive is just as physically large as regular HD and that made everything fit better. The Fast ATA requires you to remove the RF shielding and the stock HD mount is not usable either.

I don't know if this is relevant, I doubt it, but :

I took the opportunity to bridge E127R and witch fixes that strange flickering problem that occurs when in multiscan mode (when the computer changes temperature). My soldering skills are not what the used to be, and that nearly ended in disaster, but I managed to get back on track with the purchase of a radio shack desoldering tool. Here is the info on that mod:

http://aminet.net/package/docs/hard/flickerfix

With the SSD drive and the standard IDE I was getting around 890K/sec throughput according to SysInfo. With the CF I was getting around 1.5mb/sec.

When I installed the Fast ATA and board and software that number jumped up to around 3.7mb sec with the SSD. It may even go faster. I only tried PIO mode 4...

The CF drive is even faster getting around 5mb/sec on my "system" drive and 6mb/sec on my "work" drive in PIO mode 5.
 
The problem with the CF drive seems to be the same problem I was having with the EIDE99 device and the CF (so I doubt this has anything to do with  E127R mod) . With the driver enabled in the startup-sequence the computer will never cold boot.  It just hangs and if you do a warm-boot everything seems to work fine. With the driver commented out the machine will cold-boot but it seems like you loose all the advantages to having the FastATA including the speed boost.

I don't seem to have this issue with the SSD drive. It will cold boot every single time. I think this may have been the reason I switched to the SSD in the first place.

I would like to use the CF but the cold-boot issue is kinda a bummer. Has anyone had this issue? Is there any fix? I suppose it might be simpler to make something to mount the SSD or maybe I should just look for one of those disk-on-module things...

FYI, this is my original thread about the Fast ATA.

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=58687

Thanks!

-nate

[bbond007]

I seem to remember having a similar problem on my MK 3 FastATA in PIO5 with a standard 3.5 inch hard drive, but it was back in 2004 so my memory is hazy.

IIRC I just put a reboot command in the startup sequence before the driver.

Not an ideal fix but it did the trick.

Well, that is better than nothing.

Only one part I don't understand. What keeps the machine from being in a constant reboot cycle?

Thanks

-nate

[bbond007]

What is your accelerator card ?

And what's the speed of your CF ?

I a "GVP-M Typhoon A1200 030 40MHz" from softhut but it really looks a lot like the DEC Typhoon. It has a 64MB SIMM and a 40mhz 68882 FPU.

I'll have to check the speed of the CF when I get home. I know its a SanDisk Ultra 4GB, I just to see which one...

thanks,

-nate

[bbond007]

Some FailAt trickery if memory serves correctly.

Have you tried emailing Elbox support yet? They are quite helpful usually.

I'll do that.

thanks

-nate

[bbond007]

I'll do that.

thanks

-nate

I emailed them, no response yet.

I went ahead and ordered this DiskOnModule thing.

http://www.provantage.com/transcend-ts4gdom44v-s~7TRSD0EV.htm

hopefully it won't have the cold boot issue.