Cyberstorm questions, no video or SCSI

[mousehouse]

I recently acquired a Cyberstorm card for my A4000D... I'm probably to dumb to use it properly and so I'm having issues with it...

Basically what I did is pop out my A3640 card and put the CS in and wired my harddisk (Quantum SCSI) to the CS using a UW cable. That didn't do the trick as I did not get any video on the screen. I played with the termination a little bit and actually got to the point where I see it is doing something with the drivewhen booting.

I now disconnected the SCSI drive from the card and booted with several floppys. For some reason my 3.1 Install disk will hang the system? Booting with a network-install floppy I found some time ago works great.

I tried holding the ESC key on bootup, which shows the menu allright. So the card works...

Now I played with my A2091 SCSI controller and my disk on it, and I can get it to boot but not show any video. When I boot using "no startup sequence" I get basic video, hurrah! But as soon as I do a regular boot the workbench switches to a mode I guess that my TFT will not support.

In Preferences -> Screen Mode I have selected PAL, the monitors drawer has only the PAL monitor in it. I think the CS is messing with it, as I can see a new monitor "BootVGA" listed in the preferences.

I use a PicassoIV in my A4000, is it interfering with my CS? Anybody have any tips on getting SCSI up and running on it?

Difficult card to get going is my basic feeling...

[mousehouse]

It is a 68060 card with PPC on it. Apologies for not mentioning.

The SCSI is a real challenge indeed... So if I understand correctly I would need a cable with 3 headers and terminate on the drive and using a cable terminator? Very strange design IMHO. Would that be the way to go? Without SCSI the card does not do much in my A4000 ;-)

Funny thing is that the machine runs OK if I disconnect all drives and boot from floppy using the "Network Boot Disk"... I checked the disk, there is not a single library on the disk in LIBS...

I already put the 040 and 060 libraries on the HD, but I think the CS is messing up my video settings somehow with the "VGABoot" thing. I'll put the A3640 in again to run the installers etc. and see what happens.

[mousehouse]

First post was made after hours of trying anf failing ;-)

Apparently there can be issues with the Picasso IV's flicker ficker module and some software on the CSPPC that tries to promote graphics to 31KHz AGA modes...

http://eabmobile.abime.net/showthread.php?p=239415#post239415

This manifests itself on my system because the boot menu is not displayed properly, my TFT is a simple 31KHz VGA thingie...

Recap...

1.
I played ignorant, just put the CSPPC in my A4000 (checked the two clock jumpers). Recabled the UW-SCSI HD from my A2091 to the CSPPC, unplugged the A2091 and switched on power. After a few automatic reboots (ROM inits I guess) the machine GURU'd.

2.
I unplugged most things (IDE CDROM, HD) and left the PicassoIV in (I need it for the FF) switched it on again, machine boots into Kickstart3.1 "insert floppy screen". Hurrah!

3.
Recabled CDROM, reinserted A2091, recabled HD to the A2091, switched power on. Machine boots from HD, I can see it does from the HD LED. No screen. Monitor displays black screen (but with sync) or displays "Input Not Supported".

4.
Tried the same with booting "without startup-sequence" which brings up a screen. Now I want to run the CSPPC tools, but as my Workbench is not loaded my CDROM (free IDE-FIX97) does not work. Because I swapped board around the CDROM is no longer on scsi.device but on 2ndscsi.device. I have no clue on how to change that.

5.
Hacked away a bit, copied 68040.library and 68060.library from the CSPPC System Disk 4.31 to my HD. Booted, still no screen.

Booted without startup, mounted things myself and went to Prefs -> Screenmode. Made sure I selected only a PAL 640x256 resolution. Still "Input Not Supported". Removed Picasso monitor from Monitors. Idem.

6.
Workbench 3.1 and Install 3.1 don't boot. They hang. The following disk works great and boots to a workable screen (altough the screen stays black for a very long time - I suspect the disk has files that cause a screenmode-change to a basic PAL screen).

http://jpv.wmhost.com/NetworkBootDisk/

Current status,

I cannot boot anything when a drive is connected to the SCSI port on the CSPPC. The machine hangs forever. Even when I connect a blank harddrive the Kickstart 3.1 floppy insert screen never appears.

I cannot boot from HD on the A2091 as the screenmode is somehow set to something that does not work on my TFT - or is messed up by my Picasso IV SD / FF.

I can boot using the A2091 when I select "No startup-sequence".

I can boot some floppy's.

The screen issue is the most annoying, the CSPPC SCSI definitely in spot nr. 2 !

Any more tips?

[mousehouse]

Did you try turning of the vga emulation part of CStormPPC by pressing ESC and entering the boot menu? As far as I remember, there was such an option.

I can select something like "31KHz monitor attached" and "No 31KHz monitor attached" which both behave exactly the same...

[mousehouse]

"I played ignorant, just put the CSPPC "
That's what counts, reading the instructions might help...
Without 060 s/w installed before the accelerator is plugged you can expect weird things to happen. And that software is best to be latest version.

Agreed, and after my first GURU I read the complete CSPPC manual which actually states that the only thing needed is to set the clock jumpers.

Thing is, I now have the proper libraries installed and still no proper video. Any clues?

[mousehouse]

Maybe CStprmPPC has got an old firmware?

That's what I am expecting too... I need to figure out a way to reliably boot the machine so that I can update the firmware.

Ah well, on to some more freestyle old-skool computing :afro:

[mousehouse]

Some succes at last!!

I downloaded the 68040 and 68060 libraries again (from the CSPPC System Disk) and reinstalled them. I checked and there was a stale 68040.library which killed the whole system.

Now I'm still running on my A2901 SCSI controller, and the video on the Boot Menu is still unreadable, but we're making progression ;-)

Any tips on the boot menu?

update:

Updated the CSPPC firmware to the latest version I found on phase5.a1k.org, from 26/04/2002. Same video problem.

Cannot get the SCSI to work, but that is most likely a termination problem as described by another poster. The CSPPC does not have any termination itself (duh!) and required two (!!) active terminators with itself being somewhere on the SCSI bus. Strange, even the A2091 does a better job than that...

As I don't have those terminators I ordered two, so a few more days before I can try again on the SCSI part.

[mousehouse]

I think you can press spacebar during display of CSPPC early boot menu. It'll toggle between amigamode and "pc mode" display. Try it.

You my friend, are brilliant.

[mousehouse]

For anybody searching in the future ;-)

I was able to get a Compaq Foxcon cable, this one:

http://www.nowthatsit.nl/?c=69&i=2161

It has an active terminator for LVD and SE mode on one end, my UW-SCSI drive is terminating the other end. I can confirm this cable works great with the CSPPC and provides fantastic transfer rates to and from my (noisy) Quantum AtlasIV drive.

Now I only want to add a heatsink/fan combo to the 68060 CPU on the card - if anybody has any tips on what can be made to fit without lifting the 060 from the socket...

[mousehouse]

I have a 486 fan on it. Try to google 40x40 mm fan, might be for VGA also.

40x40mm fans that have clips to connect to the CPU are quite hard to find actually! I've sent an email to Amigakit if they have anything available. There are some nice ones on Ebay but I don't feel like paying $15 just for shipment.