Break It Down Again

[MiAmigo]

Or, perhaps a better title to this posting would be 'Meltdown!' I think I prefer to use the title of one of the songs from my favorite 80's band, Tears For Fears. Anyway, in my last post, I was having trouble playing music CDs on my system. I actually found at least two viable solutions to the problem (which I can share if anyone's interested), but I never got a chance to use them. I was in the process of shutting down my machine, so I could move a jumper, and my system just...died. After rebooting, it took me a bit to realize that my first HD partition was missing. This, of course, was where I installed OS 3.9, and, since the environment itself was still running, I knew that the partition was still there, especially since DH1 and DH2 were also still present. After running a few tests, I determined that my I'd indeed had had a meltdown, of my hard drive. After a few futile attempts to save my installation, I scrapped it, and started over from scratch, all the way down to pre-WB 3.1. (I had, this early in the process, absolutely nothing to lose, except a few environmental configs). So, I reinstalled, solved the CDDA problem, but now...

A whole slew of new problems, which may, or may not be related to my installing BB1 and BB2, and also having upgraded the software for my CyberVision 64/3D. Here's a short list of what I'm dealing with:

1. Can't make my VGA monitor hold an image, it crashes the system, or just goes black. Usually, I have to power down. Note: I was scrupulous in checking my monitor's refresh rate, and other specs.

2. Can't launch any programs by double clicking. System either hangs, or gives me the RABSOD ('red and black screen of death').

3. HD died again. This may be caused by the fact that I still have to do a soft-reboot (CTRL-A-A), after a hard reboot, to get the machine to mount the CD. I think I may have to replace this (hard) drive, and I definitely need a better solution to the CD mounting problem.

4. My floppy drives (which I spent over an hour each disassembling down to the screws, and blasting with three cans of compressed air) refuse to read or write any disks EXCEPT the WB installation disks. I don't know if its the drives, or the (rather old) floppies that came with the system. (Thing is, I have been able to format the disks to 720 on one of my PCs, and do some small, 'randomly successful' file transfers with them.) Lately, I've taken to burning a CD on one of my PCs, and leaving the session open, for transporting/transferring files.)


Right now, I'm going to 'slowly back away', and try to reclaim the scattered shards of my life in time for the holidays (bah! humbug!). And, grit my teeth until 'company' goes home, so I can get back to what's REALLY important!  
 :pissed:

[golem]

I know you probably don't want to hear it, but with so many different "subsystems" playing up I'd begin to suspect my motherboard if it was my system.

[amiga1260]

A friend of mine has the exact problems. I think the motherboard has been broken. But you could try other IDE cables, maybe that is the problem.

[MiAmigo]

In the final analysis, it may well turn out to be the motherboard. But, I prefer to work from 'easiest' to 'hardest' - the same top down approach I use with working with PCs. Research, and circumstantial evidence would seem to indicate that, until I moved up to OS 3.9, (with its attendant upgrades for software and utilization for external video devices, and accelerator cards), and the application of Boing Bags 1 & 2 (which, on their own, bring an entire slew of new problems and conflicts), everything was okay. While I ran WB 3.1 there were no hard drive problems, and no conflicts of resources caused by 'extra' exotic hardware. The CD mounting problem has existed from the very beginning. The hard drive, which is rather old, could, indeed, be faulty. Both of these situations are a lot easier to remedy/replace, so, should be considered second, and tackled second. Before that, I'm going to try a clean 'reinstall' of OS 3.9 without Boing Bags, and with the original software that came with CyberVision 64/3D. The 'upgraded' version called for the use of a secondary software package called the 'Enforcer', which, even if not at fault, is adding yet another variable to an already volatile mix. Now, after having done all that, and these various problems STILL exist, I would then consider such hardware options such as the motherboard, RAM, CPU, and/or the other add-ons, such as the accelerator (a G-Force 030, with 16MB RAM onboard.). I just have to wait until after Christmas to do it. :-?

[nex4060]

I have had the excact same problem!

1) DH0: files vansih and then the partition: My HD was too big for the orginal amiga ide controller (A4000 ide) hence writing data to the other partitions would overwrite data in the beginning of the drive! don't use any of the disk above 4GB with standard amiga IDE interface.

2) Had some trouble with getting the CV64/3D working (black screen no drive clicks), as it turns out I needed the newest drivers for the card AND for the CS MKII.

3) After I installed OS3.9 and the CV64/3D drivers "CV-drivers". I could not dobble click any of the new icons from OS3.9 it would just crash. I changed the gfx drivers to Picasso96, and volla! it worked perfektly.

anyhow.. I hope that you can use this to something.

[Framiga]

IIRC OS3.9 BB2 requires CGX 4.2 pre7 at least

[MiAmigo]

Thanks for the tip on Picasso96. I'm actually cheating...its Christmas morning, and I'm working on my Amiga! I know I said I wouldn't, but, whatever! Anyway, I'm now in the process of doing a low-level format, then a bad block remap of my HD. I still think its okay. Next, I'll re-re-reinstall WB3.1, my AmiCDFS for the CD, then OS3.9. After I see how steady it is, I'll put my CyberVision drivers back in. Also, I've had to re-think my boot up sequence (for the CD mounting problem). First, I'll boot the Amiga, then turn on the CD (its external scuzzy), then, when both are powered up, and there's no HD activity, I'll do a soft reboot. That should mount the CD, without impacting the HD. (I have a theory my hard drive problems may be caused by my soft-resetting the system just to get the CD mounted.). I haven't given up yet, although I think my family has just about given up on me. This computer is older than my kids!  :lol:

[MiAmigo]

Any idea where I can download or get the latest drivers? I currently have v4.1, rev70a.

[MiAmigo]

Well, I'm ready to switch over to the gfx drivers. Do I have to do this from the original install routine, or is there a setting I can go to after the install is completed?

[nex4060]

if you mean installing the gfx drivers? then you can do it any time.

http://www.picasso96.cogito.de/

[MiAmigo]

Thanks. I'm checking it out now.  :pint:

[MiAmigo]

Hey, thanks for the fantastic info! It worked out great. Next time you come to Chicago, lunch is on me!  :-D  :-D  :-D  :-D

[nex4060]

hehe.. sounds great!  :-D