A4000 Floppy problem

[Hombobo]

Hello all.

Got a replacement board for my A4000D. Installed fine. Comes on to insert disk screen ok, however I cant get the thing to boot at all from the floppy. Its making the usual click noises to check for disks, but if I insert one it acesses the disk as if its just about to start loading, screen goes blank, and then nothing it just sits there waiting.

Ive tried numerous discs but still no joy.

I also hooked up my HD and booted to workbench fine. If I put a disk in the floppy it loads correct into workbench and I can browse the disk ok, so the disk drive itself seems to work. Just strange that I cant boot from it.

Not sure what to do now.

Anyone come across something like this before ?

- Hom

[Argus]

The click-click sound is a good sign.  Do you have the motherboard jumpers set to the appropriate floppy.  I can't remember exactly but I think there's a high density/low density floppy jumper.  Maybe it's set to the wrong type.  If that fails, try an external floppy to see if that'll boot.  Otherwise, maybe there's a fried CIA chip or something else?

[TjLaZer]

What kind of floppy drive do you have?  Make sure you have it at the end of the ribbon cable.

[X-ray]

@ Hombobo

Is this an original A4000 floppy drive or is it a PC drive attached to a third party board such as a Catweasel?

[Hombobo]

Yep its the original A4000 floppy drive, attatched to the board.

Ill try an external one tonight, its just a jumper change on the board isnt it ?

Just a bit odd that I cant get it to boot from floppy (but I can use the floppy once workbench had loaded) otherwise it seems fine.

- Hom

[Thomas]

I think of two possible reasons:

1. you've got a 68060 accelerator and try to boot from a floopy with the original 68040.library on it, so SetPatch crashes immediately

2. your floppy disk is infected with a bootblock virus which does not run on your Amiga and crashes.

For the first case you should make a copy of the disk and delete 68040.library from the copy, then try to boot again.

For the second case you should turn off your computer, then boot from HDD and install a new bootblock to the disk (open a shell window and enter install df0:).

Bye,
Thomas

[Hombobo]

Hi Thomas,

I only have the standard commodore 68030 board.

Ill try the virus thing tonight when I finish work and post the results.

Thanks.

- Hom

[Hombobo]

Thomas,

You were correct. Seemed to be some virus or antivirus on the bootblock that kept locking up the amiga. Fixed now.

Thankyou.

- Hom

[X-ray]

@ Hom

You originally said you tried several disks: are they all infected?

[Hombobo]

Seemed to be yes. I was trying to get workbench loaded off floppy and they just didnt boot with the ones I had (tried 3 different workbench discs 1.2, 2.0 and 3.0). Got hold of some workbench discs off a friend from his 1200 and they work fine.

- Hom