Advice for trouble-shooting & booting a A4000T - Success!

[amigasociety]

Picked up a non working A4000T yesterday.  Was told it did not boot and they believed it to be a software harddrive issue.

Connected it to a 1080 monitor today and tried to boot it.  Floppy whirs, hard drive live flickers. CD light comes on sometimes, all the while I have a purple raster on the screen.

Eventually the screen goes dark and nothing.

Tried without 3.1 floppy and with it.

Looked inside, don't see anything burnt up and all looks clean.  Has a 68060 board with ram in it.  Noticed NO ram in the motherboard slots.  Does it need some to boot?  Only ram was on 68060 board.

They also have some Toaster 4000 card inside.

Before I go and pull the videotoaster card and reseat the 68060, any other advice for a newbie?

Does the purple raster tell me anything and then blank video afterwards?

Thanks

TJ

[amigasociety]

I would remove all the expansion cards and hard drives first then reseat the kickstart chip.  

All you need is the cpu, chipram and the floppy.  If I remember correctly purple lines means the kickstart isnt executing properly.

If the KS chip is bad, can one boot the A4000T if I find a kickstart floppy?

What version of kickstart floppy would I need if that is the case?

Or will it work from KS chip only?

tj

[amigasociety]

No, kickstart is loaded from chips.
Just remove the zorro cards, reset the 060 card...should boot to insert workbench screen.

You will need a workbench disk with the 060 libs and the 040 fakea nd real libs.

Sounds like I need to join the SACC club and bring the 4000T to the next meeting so we can see about getting it booted.

I don't have any idea on how to make a workbench disk with 060 libs and 040 fakea.  :angry:

TJ

[amigasociety]

OK, update #1

Toaster 4000 Card removed, still no boot, same screens as before.

Unpluged SCSI hard drive but left CD and Floppy connected and I now get a new screen.

Am I correct this is the Kickstart Screen asking for Workbench or is this a screen asking for and not finding Kickstart?

I seem to remember a hand asking for workbench.

Anyway, see attached picture.

I put in the floppy drive both the stock A4000T Install and also Workbench 3.1 floppys, the drive whirs a moment, goes back to this same screen with a floppy going into flopy drive.

By the way, where is this kickstart chip so I can push it down and make sure it is seated.

tj

[amigasociety]

That is the kickstart screen asking for a WB disk, so good news! the machine boots!! :banana:

Now for the second issue, the floppy disks not booting, it can be that either the disks are damaged (or not bootable) or the floppy drive is damaged.

Do you have another computer to test those disks on it and if they work, exchange the floopy drives and test again on the A4KT?

Regards,
efrenmgp

The running Amigas I have is a newer SAM 440ep based system (no floppy drive) and an CD32 (no floppy drive) and a Amiga 1000 with two floppies, internal and external.

But, I am guessing the stock 4000T floppies I have will not read in an ancient A1000, will they?

I do have that 2nd Amiga (untested) I picked up, a A4000D based HUMONGUS case beast that has a drive in it but no idea yet if she boots or runs.

But, other than hearing the drive whir and seeing the light come on, that is all I can get.

How about from AmigaDOS.... since I can boot to with no startup sequence.... what command do I send to it to read the floppy drive?  Could I do that to see if she can read the drive?

tj

[amigasociety]

Good news!!!  She boots from floppy.  
 :-P

Stole the floppy drive from the A4000 I also acquired and she boots from the A4000T Workbench 3.1 floppy.

So, I think we have a winner here.

Before I go further, I now have to find someplace that sells HD Floppies so I can make dups of the A4000T floppies.

All I need now is to screw them up.

Who in town will have any floppies (hehehe).

Anyway, I re-connected the SCSI drive, it is seen, used HDTools and formated the drive, started an install (using my master A4000T floppies) and during install it came back with a message my A4000T Workbench 3.1 is write protected.  Which it is, I made sure it was.

Worried that I might screw up my one and only floppy, I halted operation.

Tell me, does the installer floppies need to be in write mode to allow me to install?

I find that odd.

Anyway, time to find some floppies and learn how to make some dups.

tj

[amigasociety]

BTW, what floppy disks do I need.  The stock A4000T have a HD on the covers.  One side is taped off.  My guess I can buy any old HD floppy and tape off and use them?

TJ

[amigasociety]

Radio Shack had a deal on 10 pack of HD floppies.  $1.99 so I purchased 2 boxes, all they had left.

Funny thing is the sign neat the floppies on the shelf said $9.99.

Anyway, making copies of the A4000T Floppies as we speak.

Will let you all know how install goes later.

tj

[amigasociety]

Man I feel sooo close but can't seem to get Workbench 3.1 installed on the internal SCSI drive to boot.

I am able to boot to the Workbench 3. fine, made copies of all floppies, boot the system from the Workbench Floppy, use HD Tools and made 3 partitions (500MB, 500MB, 1000MB), then rebooted from Floppy again and formatted the HD partitions naming them Workbench, Work, & Storage.  

While booted from Workbench floppy insert the Install floppy and did a Intermediate install (novice would not work as it tried to install to the floppy and not let me select the Workbench bootable hard drive partition).  Install seems to go fine.  Reboot and I get the following error when it tried to boot from the HDD.

In red letters:
Error 8000 000B
Tasj 08025BD0

Hold Left Mouse Button to reboot and it keeps going back to that until I put the floppy in.

What is it on the 3.1 floppy disk that is not transferring over to the hard drive that allows it to boot?  

Remember this is a 68060 Cyberstorm MKII.  Obviously enough is on the floppy to boot so why not the install it just did?

TJ

[amigasociety]

Whew, I got some work to do it appears.  :roflmao:

Problem is, the A4000T will not boot from my Install Floppy, only the Workbench Floppy, so that is where my problem starts.

I know the floppy drive and floppy is fine, data is there and all, but my guess is there is something on the Workbench Floppy that the INstall floppy is lacking.

Not sure how I would get past that.

tj

You must boot from the "Install 3.1" disk and install AmigaOS3.1 that way.  Do no boot from Workbench3.1 disk and install AmigaOS3.1  

If you boot from your Workbench 3.1 disk, it will become the SYS: and it is something you don't want.


When creating partions, make sure the first partion (leftmost) is "bootable" and definitely smaller than 2gb. Make it fastfilesystem and don't forget to install fastfilesystem on the RDB as well.

Leave the logical names as DH0: DH1: DH2: (or HD0: HD1: HD2:) you can rename the "labels" as Workbench Work , etc...




If the above gives you the same result, there could be an incompatibility with the stock 68040.library and the setpatch command with your accelerator.





try renaming the 68040.library and 68060.library inside the libs directory to 68040.library.bak and 68060.library.bak (not the floppies)

turn on the machine and hold two mouse buttons.
boot with no startup-sequence

type the following:
---------------------------------------------
sys:
libs
dir 68#?
---------------------------------------------

you'll probably just see the 68040.library there I think.

rename it with the command:

---------------------------------------------
rename 68040.library 68040.library.bak
---------------------------------------------

Wait 5 seconds for all disk activity to finish and reboot. (if you reset too soon after the drive writes something, you risk invalidating your fastfilesystem formatted partion and that's a bad thing)

You will need the three libraries that are needed by your 060 board.

http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/cyberstorm2






things that I "absolutely" needed to make my Amiga working properly: (with these disks, it felt like I could... CONQUER THE WORLD!)

1- AmigaOS3.1 floppies

2- A TCPIP stack (Miami and later MiamiDX on floppies (with the three keyfiles now on aminet) were what I had)

3- An external dialup modem with correct cable that I could use to go online and download stuff.

4- (optional:  TERM  ... a terminal program that allowed me to "ahem" download stuff it was so much fun. )

5- An old version of AWeb or IBrowse so that I could download stuff.

6- AsimCDFileSystem or CacheCDFilesystem on floppies to configure my CDROM

7- A floppy with DiskMaster3

8- a floppy with commands like lha, latest setpatch from aminet.

9- the correct 68060 and 68040 libraries for my card on a floppy.

10- IdeFix on a floppy (I'm still not sure if I actually needed this)
...

11- Many years later, AmigaOS3.9 CD




After installing AmigaOS3.1 and booting properly from the harddrive with no floppies inserted (if it crashes, try renaming the 68040 and 68060 libraries like I told you and try again)  you'll find a thing named PC0 in you Storage/Dosdrivers directory. If you doubleclick that and insert a pc formatted floppy (I think you have a high density floppy drive so your Amiga can read 1.44mb pc disks), your amiga is able to read its contents.  This is how you can transfer files from your PC to your Amiga.  The CrossDos version that came with AmigaOS3.1 is old and it only supports 8 character long filenames. You'll need CrossDos7

My Windows7 64 can not format floppies from its icon. I have to open a CMD and format using the dos command.

[amigasociety]

Yes, only my A4000T Workbench 3.1 Floppy boots this computer.  The Install floppy does not although it is fully readable, copyable, I can see all the files on it, transfer to another floppy, etc....

The drive is reading and writing it appears fine.

I formatted floppies today and made copies of all my floppies so it seems to be running well.

tj

[amigasociety]

Well, if your Install floppy disk will not boot your A4000T, it either has something wrong with it, or it is not the correct Install floppy for an A4000T.

The 3.1 Install floppy for a A4000T is different than the Install floppy for any other Amiga computer.

If you downloaded these floppy images from the Internet, you probably don't have the one you need for the A4000T.

Sorry I can't provide more help, I am half asleep and can't think straight at the moment.  Too much pasta for dinner dulls the brain.

Mine are OEM Amiga floppies, not copies.

But yes, I guess it can be bad.

So, how can I buy another copy, downloaded to a Mac OS X machine, and somehow create a floppy for my Amiga?

I do have an older OS 9/X Cube with a USB floppy on it.   Not really sure that would help of course.

Is there a way to go "around Workbench 3.1"?  Meaning, jump up to OS 3.5 or 3.9 without having to install 3.1?  Can I buy this someplace?

And if yes, do these newer OSes have 060 libraries or whatever is needed to install and make bootable a Cyberstorm 060 based A4000T?

My manual that comes with the Cyberstorm basically said you needed to install their software before installing the 060 card but I don't have that luxory anymore as I have no 040 to go back to.  Not even sure that is the issue since my system boots from workbench A4000T floppy so.

Hey Sac Amiga group, any of you here reading this thread?

Any of you running A4000T?

I would like to bring the A4000T to your next meeting.  :hammer::hammer:

tj

[amigasociety]

sigh
Yes, several sacc members have seen your post.
Yes, you are welcome to come to the dec 5th meeting (as I posted several times before)
It's normally a shared holiday meet (after amiwest)
please refer to the sacc dot org page for location info
Please contact Chuck so he can arrange to have the help you need (ie ask the 4000T owner(s) to make an effort to attend)
(if you haven't brought all the items you need and no-one else has either...)tools, monitors, cables, disks, extras, etc...
Yes, we have 4000T owning members.

m

I will have to see if I can find Chucks contact info on your page.

See you tomorrow.

Tj

[amigasociety]

Thanks for Sacc-Guy and the SACC Amiga Club I now have a working A4000T from hard drive.  Enjoyed 3+ hours of Amiga time last night as I joined their club for their Dec meet.  

Was nice to meet people, learn Amiga, and come home with a running system.  

Hands on help is always the best!

Ended up needing the special 060 library like some said allowed the hard drive to boot.  So was close, real close, but having that helping and teaching hand guide things made it happen.

Now I have a better idea of how this all works.

Now it is time to play!

tj

*also thanks to those here that helped me.  Without this community, I would be babbling on the side of the road with a nice A4000T being used as a seat to sit on.  :hammer: