Strange Floppy Drive Problem

[neofree]

Hi I have an Amiga 3000 I am trying to get up and running.

I have tried many bootable floppies that work flawlessly in other Amigas.

The 3000's floppy drive makes all the sounds like it is supposed to...  But it will not boot any floppies.  

If I put a disk in first then turn the computer on, it will try to read the disk and fail.

If I turn the Amiga on it boots to the Kickstart screen and if I put a disk in there, what is strange it will take about 10 seconds for it to realize a disk is there and then try to boot it and fail.

I've replaced the cable, and tried an Amiga 2000 disk drive with the case open.  Same problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

I've tried WB2.1, 3.0 and 3.1 disks.

The 3000 has 3.1 ROMs BTW.

Someone suggested I swap the CIA chips and if it works just replace the bad CIA.  Gonna try that here in a bit.

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

OK swapped CIA's.  Didn't help.

Out of ideas...

Will the 3000 with 3.1 ROM's boot to a CD? I do have an external SCSI cd-rom drive...  Also have a SyQuest optical drive.

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

Hmm maybe all it is is SCSI problem?  I do have a SCSI HD attached.  It is a 9GB Ultra Wide from a modern PC.  Am using an 68pin-50pin adaptor and cable to connect it to the Amiga.  It does spin up.. and should work in a PC.  Maybe it wont work in Amiga?  I have another SCSI HD that was used in an Amiga but wont spin up in this Amiga unless I attach the external SCSI drive.  I have no spare terminators for anything so no way to troubleshoot there.

I actually just sold the 2000..But these disks worked in it before I sold it.  Messed with the 3000  first but gave up when had this trouble.  So I fixed up the 2000 and sold it first.

Is Paula a socketed chip I can replace easily?  Can they be found cheap?

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

Thanks for the advice. Is the PSU specs on amiga hardware?

dillinger:
And you're a member to this site... Because??  

[neofree]

I have a question about the floppy drive cable.  

According to this page:
http://www.amigau.com/aig/hardwarefaq.html

"Plug this connector with a cable twist into DF0: (so that it remains DS0) "

This suggests to me that I need a twist in my cable.  I have a single floppy drive with a untwisted cable.  Is this OK?

I will stil check the jumper but I beleive I've done that in the past.

I am not sure on the SCSI drive.  It is new and does not have a place for a terminator.  I have a LVD terminator ans i'm not sure it's safe to use in this situation.  It does spin up though, I dont know about newer drives but older ones I had would not spin if not terminated properly (or terminated when shouldn't have been).

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

OK the drive is definately set to DF0.  But I have a NO TWIST cable.  Does that matter? In my research I read J351 can cause boot problems, so I checked it but it's already set to NODF1.

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

Went ahead and ordered a Paula chip from SoftHut..

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

No, I have a standard 3000.  Sorry I found that page in google search didnt know it was 3000T only.

[neofree]

Well my 2000 drive must have been bad too...

After I got the Paula chip and replaced it, the same problem continued.

So I took the drive out of my Amiga 500 and put it in the A3000, and now it boots perfectly!

But now I can't get it to recognize a SCSI HD!

Will post a new thread about that now..

Thanks,

Neofree