Problem with new CF PCMCIA card reader - CC0: or CF0:

[gurthuk]

Card arrived this morning, plugged it and straight away it appeared on the Workbench desktop. I'm up and running.

- thanks AmigaKit!

[taunusand]

This is good news, nice :-)

[gurthuk]

grrr why is nothing easy.

Sat down to spend an hour or two with the Amiga this afternoon and the PCMCIA reader and CF card seemed to have died somehow.

Not sure what's happened but one minute I could read the card in Workbench then after transferring some files from my Mac (via a USB card reader) the disc on Workbench would hang when trying to open directory after root. Workbench was still running as I could move the mouse / windows.

I reset the Amiga and the CF disc was labelled as CF0:NDOS. I've reformatted the card now on a Mac and PC both with FAT16 and FAT32 but nothing appears in Workbench.

Any ideas folks?  Diskchange CF0: in Workbench runs fine but when I try CF0: I'm told there is no disc in the drive.

When I use the Workbench format tool CF0: is showing as 0k. If I use the PrepCard program it see's something is inserted but can't format it - error writing track 0 or something.

[Rabbi]

Let me get this straight.  Your problems only occurred after transferring some files.  You reformatted the CF card on both your Mac & PC?

    This is just a wild guess, but maybe if you had FAT95 installed correctly, you could access the CF?

gurthuk wrote:
grrr why is nothing easy.

Sat down to spend an hour or two with the Amiga this afternoon and the PCMCIA reader and CF card seemed to have died somehow.

Not sure what's happened but one minute I could read the card in Workbench then after transferring some files from my Mac (via a USB card reader) the disc on Workbench would hang when trying to open directory after root. Workbench was still running as I could move the mouse / windows.

I reset the Amiga and the CF disc was labelled as CF0:NDOS. I've reformatted the card now on a Mac and PC both with FAT16 and FAT32 but nothing appears in Workbench.

Any ideas folks?  Diskchange CF0: in Workbench runs fine but when I try CF0: I'm told there is no disc in the drive.

When I use the Workbench format tool CF0: is showing as 0k. If I use the PrepCard program it see's something is inserted but can't format it - error writing track 0 or something.

[gurthuk]

Is FAT95 not part of the AmigaKit install disk?

I've reinstalled that several times and checked the log output all seems fine. I've also ran the disk as if I didn't have a hard drive and still the card fails to appear.

I'm formatting the CF card again FAT32 and writing to all the all blocks (zero) just to clear anything strange.

It's very odd as the card works fine on both MCc and PC, the PCMCIA card seems fine as it notices the card being inserted when I have PrepCard open.

[Rabbi]

I

gurthuk wrote:
Is FAT95 not part of the AmigaKit install disk?

I wouldn't know since I don't have the kit that you do.

Why don't you download ==> FAT95 <== & install it, then try accessing the CF card, *THEN* get back to this thread with your results by letting us know whether it helped you or not.

I would also strongly suggest re-booting your system once you've installed FAT95 before attempting to access the CF card for the first time (after the FAT95 installation).

[gurthuk]

Problem is how do I get the latest version of FAT95 over onto the Amiga? This is half the reason why I bought a CF card and PCMCIA Reader in the first place...

[Rabbi]

gurthuk wrote:
Problem is how do I get the latest version of FAT95 over onto the Amiga? This is half the reason why I bought a CF card and PCMCIA Reader in the first place...

Hmmm.  In your situation, I can only recomment that you go to one of those big computer shops that stock an external floppy drive with a USB connecter.  It runs about US$35 over here.  Ensure that you cover the high density hole (opposite the slidable read/write hole) with some tape, effectively converting a high density floppy to a double density floppy.  You'll probably need to format that floppy as a double density floppy, since almost all floppies that you buy are already pre-formatted for high density.

Either the above or have someone d/l it & put in on a floppy for you.

I hope that helps.

[gurthuk]

Removed my Hawk 4Mb expansion card and the CF card appears in Workbench!

[ognix]

Hello!

I've got (well, it not me really, but a friend of mine with no Internet access!) a similar problem, and I think it fits this this thread as well.

It regards a PCMCIA 1,2GB Flash Disk ATA from SanDisk: I think it's basically a PCMCIA adapter with flash memory inside.
When inserted in my friend's A1200 doesn't show up in Workbench, but it's recognized by HDToolBox if used with compactflash.device.
The A1200 comes with OS3.1, CFD package and FAT95 installed.

He has another similar flash disk, identical except for size its, 40MB, and that one works flawlessy.

Any clue or hint?

Thanks!
Luca "OgniX"   \8^)

[gurthuk]

All I can say is check the A1200 doesn't have a trapdoor expansion card installed - if it does remove it and try again. Worked in my case.

I check on EAB and found a list of cards and notes saying whether the compact flash card worked with an expansion installed or not. I wasn’t too inclined to believe it but as a last resort gave it a go.

And so last night I for the first time I had Lotus 2 running via WHDLoad – made me smile.

[taunusand]

gurthuk wrote:
And so last night I for the first time I had Lotus 2 running via WHDLoad – made me smile.

Great game, my friends and I used to play it a lot :-)

Now I've got to play Lotus II :lol:

[ognix]

gurthuk wrote:
All I can say is check the A1200 doesn't have a trapdoor expansion card installed - if it does remove it and try again. Worked in my case.

Well, I just spoke with my friend this evening and he managed to make the card working!
But it's the opposite case!
In fact firstly he used an unexpanded A1200 (bare 2MB with no expansions at all), and then he tried on another one with a Blizzard 1230 and it worked! :-)

He told me he put on the Startup Sequence the CardPatch and CardReset patches (both of them AFAIK); but regarding your case with RAM expansion maybe it's a problem related to those patches (or one al least).

Check out this (from CardPatch.readme):
"CardPatch disables these interrupts but does not disable the write protect
input (and GAYLE function). You can still read a level on this input by the
ReadCardStatus() function but interrupts are not generated by any change of
level on this input.

This interrupt can be used by some PCMCIA devices for an identification for
8/16-bit cards. Therefore CardPatch can cause a problem with old turbo boards
(4MB Fast RAM in ZorroII space) and with some rare PCMCIA hardware."
It's just a clue...

BTW I'm also waiting for my CompactFlash card to arrive: I already got the adapter and I hope to manage things working.

Regards,
   Luca "OgniX".   \8^)