Commodore A4000T troubleshooting

[bitman]

Today I picked up a Commodore Amiga 4000T (pictures) - it was bought as untested/not working, since we couldn't get it up and running at the seller.

After some troubleshooting (replacing processor, mem and disabling all cards), I found out that it only  works if I kill the IDE disc (have tried 2 HDs).

The machine is stripped down - so only Floppy and SCSI CD rom is connected to the drive module. And the IDE disc is connected to the IDE pins on the mobo.

But it wont boot with the IDE attached - any known issues (have consulted the manual)

[bitman]

Yes, just black screen.

[bitman]

is that an original Commodore A4000T?

Yes, very original.

[bitman]

@Akiko

Thanks - this is what the beauty looks like:

[bitman]

HD jumper is set to Master - have a few other HD's and CD-cards that I can test out. Will also test it with an extra power supply, but the drive spins up without problems.

Will also test the IDE cable.

[bitman]

Here's a few more pics from the inside. Note that the sticker on the back says EU and the silverlabel has a note about "funkenstort".

To my knowledge, the seller worked at CBM Denmark.

The two mobo pictures is available as highres at BBOAH

[bitman]

The door, has a minor missing part - but it's easily fixed.

What's on the disk is still unknown (it won't boot with the disk attached).

Besides the A4T I also got an A4000D and a A2000 from the same guy, so it's exiting to see what these disk have of goodies. Got some printed material "confidential developer notes" for CD32 and a few CBM internal demo CD's for CDTV.

[bitman]

Now this is strange:

Attached a third IDE HD, and the machine stated loading WB - unfortunately the HD has a WB that is set up to a high resolution, so I had to connect the Amiga to a Multiscan monitor (MicroVitec) - but as soon as I attach it to the Microvitec - the disk wont start. If I switch back to Philips CM8833-II the disk starts again?

Strange!

[bitman]

@Matt_H

Yes, I used a standard straight-through VGA adapter that works fine with my A1200's, have now switched to a CBM Silver adapter, which makes the A4000 work with the MicroVitec (should probably just have used the 1942 that came with the A4000....)

I can now boot from one of my IDE disks - will set the other disk up as slave and see if I can fix it.

I read somewhere that workbench.library needs to be on disk, since it's missing in the ROM - that could explain why WB shows up, but never gets 100% working.

But conclusion is - A4000T works, with the right combination of monitors and HD's

Thanks for the help everyone.

[bitman]

With the help of romsplit and an A1200 with the latest ROM's i managed to extract a workbench.library file that works with the 4000T - but is still looking for the original install disks.

[bitman]

Will try your install procdure, when re-installing.

[bitman]

@Erol

Thanks for the tips. I'll just check and see if I have the A4000 manual - it also seems like I now have the correct disks for 4000T.

I'll avoid the VGA adapters and put in my spare Cybervision 64