NO expansion cards will work...

[Mitsurugi]

Okay, my Amiga revival started a few months ago and I've hit a brick wall.

I bought an Amiga Technologies A1200 from Vesalia because I wanted a new-looking machine with no yellowing or damage.  Got it and it worked fine.

I bought a 4GB hard disk from eBay with lots of games preinstalled, very happy with it.  Got it and it worked fine.

But I CAN'T use ANY expansion cards.  First I tried a Blizzard 1230, I put it in, turned it on and all I got was a black screen.  Wouldn't boot.

I figured either the card was faulty or there was a power issue, so I recently bought an AmiTek Hawk 8MB memory card like the green one here:

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=944

I KNOW this works, the seller assured me it was tested.  Again, BLACK SCREEN.  Won't boot.

Surely this can't be a power issue any more.  All I've got in is a hard disk and a memory card.

I've run out of options.  Is my A1200 just b0rked?  Or are all AT A1200s incompatible with everything?  I'm thinking of buying yet another A1200, but from eBay, and putting the insides into my new AT A1200 case.

But before I take that drastic step I'd really appreciate some advice from you guys!  Thanks.

[spavatch]

Mitsurugi wrote:
I figured either the card was faulty or there was a power issue

Is it possible to check it in another A1200? Maybe one of your friends has one?

[Mitsurugi]

Impossible, but let's assume the card is fine.  The guy who sold it guaranteed it as working, and it's too much of a coincidence that the Blizzard didn't work either.

[twizzle]

the first thing to check is to make sure that the shielding isnt touching the card as this will cause you some problems

[Mitsurugi]

Checked, it's not.

[Mitsurugi]

UPDATE:

Okay, I had a thought.  I took the 8MB memory off the card and tried to boot.

THIS TIME:

I get a brown screen with white text, and the words:

Expansion Board Diagnostic

Board Number --- Manufacturer --- Product --- Status

1 --- 2194 --- 1 --- Defective

Continue

When I click "Continue", AmigaDos starts and outputs:

C:CardReset failed returncode 10

Now I don't know if the brown screen is common to all cards, and I also don't know if it is showing as "Defective" just because I took the memory off it.  Any ideas?

[lauri_t]

What power supply do you use? My A1200 wouldn't boot at all with just a HD when using my old A500 PSU.

[Framiga]

try to remove those

C:CardReset  (whats? . . . for PCMCIA?)

from your User or S-Sequence. Reinstall the SIMM and try again.

[Mitsurugi]

OKAYYY...!!!

Interesting.  I DO have a PCMCIA card, an MA401, which I'd taken out before I installed the card.  I'd forgotten about the "CardReset" command.

If I put the card back in, I get to workbench with no memory detected.

If I take the card out and remove "CardReset" from my S:startup-sequence - you guessed it, I can boot and I have my memory.  

Which is good news, I have a working card.  But it seems that it's either one or the other.  The memory card or the network card.

The memory card is an 8MB card.  I recall issues with addressing memory over 4MB, and it clashing with the PCMCIA slot.  Maybe this is it.

[Framiga]

AFAIK yep, it is

[countzero]

Mitsurugi wrote:

Which is good news, I have a working card.  But it seems that it's either one or the other.  The memory card or the network card.

if you are lucky, your card has jumper settings for memory. I have a similar microbotics expansion with 8mb on, but it can be reduced to 4mb via jumpers for pcmcia compatibility.

[spavatch]

countzero wrote:
if you are lucky, your card has jumper settings for memory. I have a similar microbotics expansion with 8mb on, but it can be reduced to 4mb via jumpers for pcmcia compatibility.

I have such jumper on my A620 Turbo. It's very convenient to put a special jumper with cable and switch placed outside - you'll be able to jump between memory modes without dismantling the whole unit :-).

[Amiduffer]

[color=008000]If I take the card out and remove "CardReset" from my S:startup-sequence - you guessed it, I can boot and I have my memory. [/color][/i]

And they lived happily ever after

   The End.

[ncafferkey]

countzero wrote:

Mitsurugi wrote:

Which is good news, I have a working card.  But it seems that it's either one or the other.  The memory card or the network card.

if you are lucky, your card has jumper settings for memory. I have a similar microbotics expansion with 8mb on, but it can be reduced to 4mb via jumpers for pcmcia compatibility.

What about the Blizzard? That shouldn't have the PCMCIA problem. Or maybe it really is broken.

[Azryl]

I assume that the Amiga Tech A1200 has KS3.1 roms?

I know that some expansion accelerator cards will not boot with memory installed under KS3.1

DKB1240 is a definate no go with KS3.1 and memory installed until the flash rom onboard is updated

My 2cents :-)