Voodoo3 / Mediator 4000Di

[nyteschayde]

Hi all I have a few questions. I have ordered a Voodoo3 card on eBay and a Mediator 4000Di for my A4000D. I think my Picasso IV is going bad and from looking at pictures of the mediator I think I will have to not use the Picasso IV anymore anyhow. My first question is;

does the voodoo3 give video output without any drivers being loaded? Right now I am using the PicassoIV as my flicker fixer. I don't have an Amiga compatible monitor and if I need one to setup the voodoo3 drivers then I fear I won't be able to use it.

I think the picassoIV is going bad because although I can see the floppy disk prompt (sometimes), once I boot (say off a floppy) I can type things like 'dir' and watch the drive churn as though its listing off the files but the screen is black the whole time.

Finally a last question; should I be able to use an IDE hard drive and an IDE CD-ROM drive using a standard Master/Slave cable and jumper configuration with the default Amiga 4000D IDE adapter? Its a rev D (030 onbaord). I am also using a Cyberstorm MkI 040/40 as my accelerator.

[Lando]

nyteschayde wrote:
Hi all I have a few questions. I have ordered a Voodoo3 card on eBay and a Mediator 4000Di for my A4000D. I think my Picasso IV is going bad and from looking at pictures of the mediator I think I will have to not use the Picasso IV anymore anyhow. My first question is;

does the voodoo3 give video output without any drivers being loaded? Right now I am using the PicassoIV as my flicker fixer. I don't have an Amiga compatible monitor and if I need one to setup the voodoo3 drivers then I fear I won't be able to use it.

The Voodoo3 will give no output until Picasso96 and the Voodoo drivers have been installed and you've selected a Voodoo screenmode in prefs.  You will have to plug it into a TV.

I think the picassoIV is going bad because although I can see the floppy disk prompt (sometimes), once I boot (say off a floppy) I can type things like 'dir' and watch the drive churn as though its listing off the files but the screen is black the whole time.

If you're booting off a floppy then the drivers for the PIV aren't being loaded, and the Amiga is running in an AGA screenmode - so you see a black screen.

If you had a TV plugged into the Amiga you'd see it.

Finally a last question; should I be able to use an IDE hard drive and an IDE CD-ROM drive using a standard Master/Slave cable and jumper configuration with the default Amiga 4000D IDE adapter? Its a rev D (030 onbaord). I am also using a Cyberstorm MkI 040/40 as my accelerator.

Yes you should.

[orange]

PIV (with builtin scandoubler) should display AGA without any drivers even early startup menu, so his PIV is broken.

[skabby]

nyteschayde wrote:

I think the picassoIV is going bad because although I can see the floppy disk prompt (sometimes), once I boot (say off a floppy) I can type things like 'dir' and watch the drive churn as though its listing off the files but the screen is black the whole time.

Big fat warning: if you don't know what you're doing, get some expert help to do this, its some old, delicate, expensive hardware we are talking about here...

Try to start the amiga with the case removed, and _gently_ try to bend the PIV card a tiny bit (dont touch any electrical components, alternately use a cardboard to isolate your hand)
I have nearly the same symptoms, and it seems to be some bad connections in the zorro-busboard/PIV that causes native (aga) srceenmodes to not reach proberly to the FF/SD. PIV modes is working great, but I currently have a bit of cardboard stuck between the motherboard and PIV to bend the PIV a bit upwards to get aga working...  :-o

Additionally, perhaps the problem is in the zorroIII video-bus, try to remove the metal-bar above the Z3-bus and bend _gently_ on that board too.

Alternately, I've thinking about using the ribbon-cables that is used in ZorroII configuration, in case the electrical problems is between the removeable video-connector-board and the card itself. But I didn't receive those cables from the previous owner, and I'm not sure if it will work correctly anyway... the cardboard-hack will do for now...

Anyone with similiar problems?

[orange]

I had somewhat similar problem; the bad contact. used isopropyl and it seems to work great now.
I'm using PIV in AmigaTEchnologies A4000 and the problem is that there is no hole in case for fastening the card with screw, I'm considering using hot glue or even soldering.. :roll:

[nyteschayde]

I tried removing the video card and cleaning the contacts as well as gently flexing the board. I could get by using a TV but not sure how to connect the amiga to it given that

a) the A4000D (Rev. D) doesn't have any composite out.
b) I don't have a 23-pin amiga video to composite out converter.

Interesting thing is the Amiga shows the floppy screen but wont show any other native screen format. Such as the early boot menu screen or the non-RTG screens.

Any thing else you can think of that I might try?

[nyteschayde]

Do you have any pictures that could help define the "location" of the bend in question? I purchased an A520 composite out adapter and a composite->vga adapter so that I can use the native AGA modes on the amiga in case the scan doubler portion of the PIV is what has gone bad. If on the other hand I must simply use the AGA modes until I get my Voodoo3/Mediator set up well so be it I guess.

Too bad actually but oh well, what can ya do. BTW, anybody know if you can use the voodoo output and the native output at the same time?

[doctorq]

nyteschayde wrote:

BTW, anybody know if you can use the voodoo output and the native output at the same time?

If you by that mean if you can have both the Voodoo display and the video port output displayed all the time (for instance have the video output on a TV and the Voodoo output on a monitor) then yes. It's simply a matter of setting a tooltype.

However, it is only possible to use one of the screens at a time. You can't have a game running on the video port, and still have Workbench displayed and usable at the same time.

[Lando]

doctorq wrote:

nyteschayde wrote:

BTW, anybody know if you can use the voodoo output and the native output at the same time?

If you by that mean if you can have both the Voodoo display and the video port output displayed all the time (for instance have the video output on a TV and the Voodoo output on a monitor) then yes. It's simply a matter of setting a tooltype.

However, it is only possible to use one of the screens at a time. You can't have a game running on the video port, and still have Workbench displayed and usable at the same time.

You can depending on the game - as long as it doesn't switch off multitasking then you can carry on using Workbench on the voodoo while the game / demo runs on the AGA output on the other screen.  I've been able to do this with a few games and scene demos.

Most games and demos, however, switch off multitasking so all you see on the Voodoo is a white screen until they exit.

[Lando]

orange wrote:
PIV (with builtin scandoubler) should display AGA without any drivers even early startup menu, so his PIV is broken.

Yes, sorry, I had forgotten the PIV had a built-in scandoubler.