Help !! No scsi.device on A1200 PPC+ 233/060

[Effy]

I still have got a scsi-to-ide controller unused, so I could perfectly put a 40 Gb IDE drive in that and connect it to the scsi of my BlizzPPC, but how would I have to connect an IDE cdrewriter ?? To the standard 2,5" port ?? That is actually the reason why I need such a Powerflyer, not just only because scsi harddrives are expensive,  but also because a scsi cdrewriter becomes rare on the market !!  :-(

[lempkee]

effy: ok to answer this short, i have a powerflyer and i have a ppc , works fine...
ALL u need to do now is.... simple...

flash the ppc card to latest rev , if you need help...email me.

as a side note , this u have to do with it no matter what...if u want a mediator in it aswell,
it seems u have one of thoose rare cards (like me) who never was flashed by a user/factory , anyway its easy and it takes u 2-5 seconds.

cheers

[lempkee]

fragma: on a1200 the powerflyer DISABLES the internal a1200 ide port + the powerflyer needs a wire from the a1200 internal ide port.

the pf4000 aint simmilar, just like the power for the ppc cards on a4k and 1200...totally diffrent power issues (floppy cable).

cheers

[Effy]

 :-)  Lemkee, you made my day (I hope) !! Gonna do a mail as soon as possible !! I have no idea of when or if the card has been flashed. I only know that it's a card from the so called 2nd generation that has less flaws than the first ones who were sent back to DCE and would stay there for more than a year (or are still there) ...
But about that cable to to motherboard ide controller(3rd pin on top right if it's inside tower), isn't that only to give info to the led that shows harddrive activity ?? That cable got broken on the Z4 Powerflyer but I thought I didn't need it anyway ...  :-o

[edderkop]

well the scsi.device on the BlizzPPC cards are called blizzppc.device.

[lempkee]

effy: correct , the led cable..., mine doesnt work , but its supposed to be on pin 27 or something, i forgot which one...but i can always read in the manual to find out...

email me if any more probs...

[Effy]

Edderkop : I know that scsi on Blizzard PPC is called BlizzPPC but the standard device to connect IDE devices on a A1200 or other Amiga is always called 'scsi.device'. This comes from the time that the A500 only allowed real scsi harddrives to its system and in order to keep compatibility backwards they kept the name 'scsi.device' on later Amiga's like A1200, even if it is actually a IDE.device ...

Lemkee : first, when I have time, I shall try to mount a Blizzard 1230 in place of the Blizzard PPC to see if the Powerflyer on the motherboard still works or not.

[PaSha]

@Effy
Hold the 'esc' key during startup, and you will be in the BlizzardPPC boards menu.
There is a setting to disable IDE (scsi.device) someplace in there, called 'SCSIpatch' IIRC in the 'system' menu. (In order to shorten the boot time when no IDE drives are connected).

@FrAmiga
You can create an 'IDE terminator' with a IDE cable and two resistors. Have a look on aminet, search for 'IDE terminator' or 'IDE killer'
This stops the Amiga for searching for drives on the onboard IDE.

-Paul

[Effy]

PaSha : have done the test with the ESC key and I do get into a menu that I have never seen before, but the first option, the scsi one, is that for the IDE scsi.device or for the BlizzPPC scsi.device

[Effy]

Have tried again by playing around with the jumpers on the cdrewriter. Have placed it on master, slave, cable select, DMA (yes, 4 options). None of the attempts results in seeing the device, but it only happens when jumper is set to master that the system needs more than 10 seconds to 'search' for any device, but the result is the same. If I insert a driver disc of the PowerFlyer Lite then I get the error message that the ATA controller can not be found.

[Effy]

A weird turn in this event. Let me explain, though it doesn't make much sense ...
Lemkee thought it might be that my BlizzPPC needs to be reflashed in order to see the Powerflyer. Could have been and still can be. To make sure it was the BlizzPPC his fault I removed the turbocard and mounted the slightly slower Blizzard 1230/4, the one that has a problem with the Zorro4 and Z4 Powerflyer. Result, still no cdrewriter at the scsi.device. I used the same boot-harddisc which was an old 237 Mb Quantum harddisc with the most simple OS 3.1 and AsimCDFS V3.x. AsimCDFS is a great program that almost never has let me down, so I can't put any blame on this program which I had bought legal in the days of my A500+. So, the computer in Micronik tower boots up with the 1230/4 using a hd connected to 1230scsi.device and when in workbench I use ScsiEnquire to check what is connected to scsi.device. When I run this program it shows all my devices that may be of any use, but it only showed the 1230scsi.device, just like it showed BlizzPPC.device when the PPC was connected. In other words, maybe the PPC needs to be reflashed but the 1230 had the same problem. I tried not to give up and decided to disconnect the ide cdrewriter and connect an ide harddisc instead. Normally I took an unformatted (pc format) harddisc but this time I took the spare IBM DALA 512 Mb harddisc that came with the tower, not very big, meant to backup the running OS, but most important it was formatted in Amiga OS. I connected that hd to port 1  device1 (or zero) and rebooted again with two mouse buttons pressed to see if the early startup menu could 'see' any hd connected to scsi.device. To my impressive surprise it did 'SEE' the IBM DALA hd !!! When in Workbench a few seconds later the icon was also there. I turned it all off and connected the cdrewriter again, this time as slave and rebooted again. Result : IBM DALA was still there but no cdrewriter. Suddenly it came to me :
ofcourse it won't see any cdrom or cdrewriter, Amiga OS 3.1 standard never sees it, you need IDEfix library to make it see or OS 3.9, but to install OS 3.9 you need cd support .... damn  :-o I was speechless .. should have known this a long time before ...

[Effy]

Eureka !! It ####ing works !!!!!!!!! I now have got my Blizzard PPC running inside my stone aged Micronik tower without any Zorro slots, but WITH the Powerflyer (2 IDE ports, full version with no Gb limit), and I also managed to squeeze the Bvision too over the Powerflyer !! Rebooted and I now have got the Bvision working too !! It's only Os 3.1 from its original discs, but that's for later !!!!!!! Cool !!!  :-D
Now I am supposed to have a real fast Amiga with endless storage capacity (actuallly it's a 160 Gb limit per harddrive) and 4 IDE ports. Now I only need an ethernet card and that should be enough to start with, won't it ??!  :-D
I really must thank you all for the great support you all give me !! It really gives me the feeling that this is all one big family and I shall try in return to help as many people as possible !!! :-D