Help needed for an A1200 and how to use an ethernet card in the PCMCIA port

[Nearly-Right]

I have an A1200 and I have an Ethernet 3Com 3CCE589EC PCMCIA card which I want to use with it.

I have never needed or used the PCMCIA port on OS3.x for anything other than a Squirrel SCSI before, and I of course know there are problems with the ccresets with PCMCIA Ethernet cards with an A1200.

I have installed the CardReset, and CardPatch files onto my OS3.9 system with the entry in my Startup-sequence after the setpatch entry as follows: CardReset TICKS 15 FORCE AUDIO YES, and on the next line CardPatch, but when I boot my machine with the card fully inserted in the PCMCIA slot it stops/hangs just after the Workbench screen title appears, and before any graphics/backdrop/icons appear.

If I insert the card after bootup, and virtually as soon as I use my Spider/Mediator based USB mouse the system locks up/hangs.

I have an 060/240Mhz PPC Blizzard card (Revision 1 I seem to remember), and I have seen that there may be problems with using the software with such a card/CPU so wondered if there is a hardware fix that sorts the problem out?

Or any other advice about how to correctly fit and use the 3Com Ethernet card correctly, preferably from someone using such a card, thanks.  :-?

[DoogUK]

i found my squirrel scsi device was stopping my ethernet card from functioning.

in the end i partitioned my hard disk and copied over the contents of os3.9 and then formatted my wb partition and reinstalled os3.9 without the squirrel.....the network card worked fne after that.

i hope someone can advise you on modifying your wb installation to correct this then i can copy. :-D

[Nearly-Right]

Thanks for your info, DoogUK but I don't have a Squirrel fitted to the machine I refer to, as it is in a tower, and using the PCMCIA port is a nuisance, though accessible (JUST).

I don't even have the squirrel.device still installed on the HD, so that is obviously not causing the problem.

I should ask, do you have a Mediator board fitted or not?

The Mediator or some of the cards fitted in it may have a bearing on the PCMCIA Ethernet card clashing with some of that hardware, as mine is almost fully populated with a VooDoo 3 3000, Soundblaster PCI 128, Spider 2.0 USB, TV/FM card, and PCI RTL8139 Ethernet card. I have an 060 which I read somewhere might cause a clash with the CardReset, CardPatch fixes, but I can't be sure.

Do you have any hardware fitted in your A1200 to fix the PCMCIA problems, or is it all software fixed ?

Which A1200 board revision is yours, and has it had any hardware fixes done to it?

I have heard that a hardware fix, a capcitor fitted to the Gayle chip and an adjoining pin can sort the problem, but I don't want to melt the machine just yet, though I'm OK with a soldering iron.  8-)

[Hodgkinson]

Apart from that fact that im still on OS3.0 and KS3.0 (And no scsi...) I use a 3C589D card regularly with cardpatch+cardreset+3C589 drivers+AmiTCP+SMBFS. Works all the time - Just make sure that if you happen to use SMBFS, throw as much of the stack command at it that you can.

Never quite figured out the link between cardpatch and cardreset. The docs seem to imply that both are required to function, but they're not explicitly stated.

Re the hardware fix for the reset problem, see Amigakit - They've got two different ones!

EDIT: Not sure about this, but cardpatch and cardreset might be sensitive with respect to which one is started first...I might be able to dig out my startup sequence; but I’m a bit busy tinkering with the A1200’s PSU at the minute.

Anyway, just thought I’d chip in,
Hodgkinson.

[Nearly-Right]

Hi Richard, thanks for the info, and yes I'd like to know if there is a particular order the commands should be shown in, in order to work correctly.

By the way, do you have the hardware socket on the Gayle chip on your A1200 to solve the hardware side of the problem, or is your solution merely software based? ;-)

[DoogUK]

i'm using a standard desktop amiga with an id4 revision board and an apollo 1240@28.

the timing fixes are evident on my board but not sure if its had the reset fix.

i just re-insert the network card after a soft reset.

[Hodgkinson]

Hi there,
The PCMCIA problem is fixed only by software on my A1200D. AAMOF, I was thinking about getting one of these hardware fixes, but then I decided that if I did, apart from needing a big hole cutting in the RF shield, it would also mean that certain scan-doublers couldn't be fitted.
(Heh, there’s now a whacking great heat sink over the three custom chips...Designed in such a way that the RF shield can still be used... :-) )

The startup sequence looks something like this:
(Top of form and version info)
C:SetPatch QUIET
Run >NIL: C:Cardpatch
Run >NIL: C:cardreset

I didn’t bother with all the switches at the time. It just seemed to work OK so that’s how its stayed.

Btw, im sure that when I was messing with networking for the first time on my A1200 that the PCMCIA card occasionally wouldn't be initialised correctly on cold-boot. Other times it was OK. After I added cardpatch/reset, everything worked fine every time.

PS. What software are you planning on using for networking? AmiTCP/SMBFS are fine providing you don’t mind only being able to control the movement of files from the Amiga end (Other machines can't see the Amiga). Also, SMBFS really needs DOPUS configured alongside it to make it user friendly. Apart from that, SMBFS is great.

Hodgkinson.

[Trev]

@Nearly-Right

If your Mediator has DMA jumpers (not sure if they all do), make sure they're set properly for PCMCIA card use (check the documentation).

After that, I'd start by removing CardPatch and CardReset from your startup. Insert the card after startup and verify it's there using CardInfo from the cnet.device distribution. (It's a general purpose utility and not tied to cnet.device.) If it's there, start your stack. If everything still works, fiddle with CardPatch and CardReset. Speaking of, don't you only need one or the other? I don't recall.

Trev

[Hodgkinson]

Just remembered. I was planning on using a 3C589D card in my A1200T (Micronik tower) for networking, but I just couldn't get it to work. The system wouldn't work with PCMCIA SRAM cards either. And a motherboard swap diddn't help.

However, I did make a backplane extender for one of these cards in advance (See my *earlier* photos), and I just thought it might give you an idea with your setup.


Hodgkinson.

[rkauer]

Trev wrote:

 Speaking of, don't you only need one or the other? I don't recall.
Trev

 You need both.

 CCreset is an utility to reset the PCMCIA connector/cards (due a bug in 1200's Gayle) via software.

 CardPatch is an utility to prevent slowdowns in the whole Amiga while a PCMCIA card is attached to the system (not always happen). So use it only if you have problems with a specific ethernet (PCMCIA) card.

[Krischan76]

Working with my previous accelerator, a 1230/IV, I experienced red screens at cold start. The Amiga only started smoothly when the card  was removed before switching on the computer.

With the installation of the 1260 and all software related, this phenomenon has vanished.

[Angus]

Nearly-Right wrote:
Or any other advice about how to correctly fit and use the 3Com Ethernet card correctly, preferably from someone using such a card, thanks.  :-?

Have you got Neil Cafferkey's 3Com driver installed (Aminet)?

I wasn't quite clear if you had installed a driver.