Indivision AGA A1200 issue

[blakespot]

I just acquired an Indivision AGA A1200 scandoubler with firmware 1.20 (dated 10/2008).  I installed it without incident and booted up my A1200 that had previously been using a different internal scandoubler, which I removed.  Workbench under OS 3.9 had been running at dblNTSC, I believe - noting too odd.

I got the Individual Computers startup screen, but then nothing - just blackness.  

I rebooted, holding both mouse buttons down and got the boot-menu displayed just fine.  I then proceeded to boot -- still nothing on screen.  I rebooted again back to the boot menu and booted with no startup sequence and got the shell fine.  I ran a few demos - display looks good.

I've tried various boot scenarios to try to get fully into workbench, but it's never worked - and along the lines, often, the machine will just stop putting out a video signal.  I will boot into start menu and can tell that the menu is there from the sounds of the machine as it goes through its boot process, but still zero video signal (different from black screen) -- only a power cycle will put me back into a situation where the board does as described at the beginning here.

Does the Indivision have these issues for most folks?  Any way I can edit the prefs from the shell (no startup sequence) so my HD boot is into some "easier" res -- not that dblNTSC should be a problem.

Ideas?  Thanks.

(I will say that, to my eyes, what I _have_ seen of this board in running demos is a lot nicer looking than the scandoubler I was using previously, somehow. Oh, I'm running a 19" Sony CRT, btw.)



blakespot

[Tajmaster]

I dont have one myself but from reading previous threads about these sorts of issues, the first suggestion is usually to remove and re-install the Indivision, have you tried that?

[Crom00]

I dont have one myself but from reading previous threads about these sorts of issues, the first suggestion is usually to remove and re-install the Indivision, have you tried that?

I had similar issues.

On this forum there were a number of solutions. Depending on what chipset you have the Indivision will have difficulty making full contact on the pins. CSG and HP produced the AGA chips. I forget what chip versions are a better fit with the Indivision.

There were threads here where folks advised to sand down the socket on the indivision a bit so that the board made better contact. Be caerfull as I sanded a bit too much screwing up one of the pins on the indivision. I was able to fix this by attaching a small wire over the pin.

You also have to press down really hard insuring that you get full contact.

Also update to the latest firmware. Even so to  this day there are visual glitches now and then, but not a deal breaker.

[tone007]

Any way I can edit the prefs from the shell (no startup sequence) so my HD boot is into some "easier" res -- not that dblNTSC should be a problem.

I believe from a no startup sequence boot I've been able to "loadwb" into workbench (ignoring/canceling requests to assign folders) and go into prefs and pick and save a more basic screen mode.

As for Lisas, the CSG one (which I have, and had no problems using the Indivision on) is supposed to be the easier one for the Indivision to grab onto, HP is a hair smaller or shorter or something.

[blakespot]

CSG chips here.  It grabs fine.  Like I said, if I cycle power and start over with the double mouse button, I get that screen, so it's not like it's not connected.  

Having trouble finding the drill to upgrade firmware via google. Can someone point me? Also, we might be in a catch 22 on that one.

As far as LoadWB, when I do that after boot with no start, it loads, but no prefs will run - an issue flashes in the title bar faster than I can read it, in repeated attempts.

Tnx.

UPDATE: Oh wait, it seems my Lisa is HP but Gayle and Alice are CSG.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/2372317636/sizes/o/in/set-72157604300573758/

Still, it seems to grab well and I don't believe there's an issue with contact.


blakespot

[tone007]

Easiest things to try would seem to be:

Try a standard RGB/VGA adapter to see if you can get DBLNTSC showing up on your CRT and change modes from there and then test the Indivision or

Swap back to your other scandoubler to pick plain old NTSC and then go at the Indivision from there.

[tone007]

Thinking about it, there's no real reason to use DblNTSC on the Indivision anyway, since regular NTSC gets doubled by the device.  Don't DblNTSC and other 31.5khz modes also slow things down?

[kolla]

Boot without startup-sequence and delete envarc:sys/screenmode.prefs

[blakespot]

Thanks guys.  I got the prefs changed to dblNTSC and that boots just fine.  Flashed up to v1.5 firmware.  Then moved to HighGFX, which works fine, but has those glitches everywhere, as many have reported.  Odd.

Is it me or does this seem to do a better job than a couple other scandoublers at just typical scandoubling PAL?

Still, every so often it stops doing signal at all on reboot, and I have to reboot a few times to get the signal back (w/ v1.2 had to cold start).  Dunno.  




blakespot

[Damion]

Is it me or does this seem to do a better job than a couple other scandoublers at just typical scandoubling PAL?

I think it looks great overall, though text is perhaps not quite as sharp as a few other scandoublers I've used. I hope to rectify this by replacing the ribbon cable with standard VGA/coax cable.

One thing that bummed me out was the omission of a 100Hz mode for CRT use. I have several nice Eizo/Iiyama/Sony/etc CRTs which would have been perfect. I understand the issue of keeping costs down, and the device was probably aimed more towards supporting modern displays, but still...

So, for an ideal experience with the Indivision, you need an LCD with the following (all IMHO):

1. Fast response time for games
2. good resolution scaling
3. fully 24-bit (difficult to achieve while also having #1)
4. supports 50Hz correctly for smooth scrolling
5. not geometrically huge (my subjective preference, don't like huge pixels)

In regard to 3, many LCDs are TN based, and sadly you will notice a loss of colors next to a CRT or *VA/IPS LCD.

A lot of this depends on how fussy you are... there are some Eizo LCDs that should be perfect, but they're very expensive.

Still, every so often it stops doing signal at all on reboot, and I have to reboot a few times to get the signal back (w/ v1.2 had to cold start).  Dunno.

In my case that was a heat-related contact issue which worsened as the computer warmed up. I added a small fan to the area which cured the problem completely.

[blakespot]

Well, I am using this with a Sony 19" CRT (circa 2002) - so many of the issues you list re: LCDs drop away.



blakespot

[Damion]

Very true. I would prefer to use a CRT, 50Hz gaming is just killer on my eyes after a while.