What have I done to my A1200? Aaaargh!

[wurzel]

Hi guys,

I have a nice setup (see my sig).
I wanted to add an internal 40gb ide drive, so I could back up nightly instead of weekly to an external USB. I have IFEFix99, and wanted to have 3 hard drive & 1 CDRW.

I tried various combinations but either the miggy wouldn`t boot or the existing 2nd drive wasn`t found etc etc. I guessed it something to do with Master/Slave so I tried various combinations of jumper settings. Then I realised I have to use HDToolBox to install the drive.

So I fitted it all, ran HDTBx & erased the drive - only to discover Id wiped my the disk with my Boot & program partitions! Aaargh! Ok, no worries, I have an up to date backup on USB, so I have to install WB onto the disk & start copying.

But, I can`t boot from my WB3.1 disks, it goes straight to a shell & the keyboard won`t work What`s going on???

Finally, I guess I was switching it on/off too many times, because now, I think the 200Watt power supply has blown ( And thinking about it, is a 200W power supply enough for what I have? Anyway, I`ve ordered a 300W from AmigaKit but I`m hoping you guys can help me prepare a plan to get it working again.

Thanks, it was a long ramble but I think I covered everything!

[uncharted]

First thing I would check is whether the keyboard adaptor is still fitted correctly, and hasn't come loose when you were tinkering inside the box.  Does the caps-lock light come on when you press the key?  If you can get into the early startup sceen try pressing a key to see if it toggles between PAL and NTSC.

[wurzel]

uncharted wrote:

mmm, thanks, good ideas there which I hadn`t thought of.
Cheers

[wurzel]

Well, *Ihave some success; I fitted the new power supply (ATX) and eventually, it powers up. I still have a problem with it not booting but I suspect it`s something not plugged in correctly.

My questions now are:
 
The ATX supply has a large plug which fits perfectly into the socket on the Mediator 1200SX, but it wouldn`t power on until I plugged a 4 pin plug onto the Power SW pin (2 of them). However, that plug doesn`t ssem to fit tightly & I`m worried that either I`ve plugged the wrong thing, or, it will come of requiring me to take the case off to plug it in again.

Also, I cannot use the front Pn/Off switch now, as nothing is plugged to it from the ATX power supply. Can I do anything there to enable the switch?

Thanks.

[motorollin]

I don't know what you mean by "I plugged a 4 pin plug onto the Power SW pin (2 of them)". Was this something you connected to the Mediator? All you should need is the ATX power connector and the switch from the front of the case to the two switch contacts on the Mediator. No power or switches should be connected to the A1200 motherboard or anywhere else (except your drives of course).

--
moto

[wurzel]

motorollin wrote:
I don't know what you mean by "I plugged a 4 pin plug onto the Power SW pin (2 of them)". Was this something you connected to the Mediator? All you should need is the ATX power connector and the switch from the front of the case to the two switch contacts on the Mediator. No power or switches should be connected to the A1200 motherboard or anywhere else (except your drives of course).

--
moto

There is a 4 pin plug running from the ATX supply, which I plugged to the 2 pins on the Mediator, labelled Power SW. Until I did that, the miggy didn`t switch on. It`s just that the plug only sits loosely on the 2 pins & I feel as if it could fall off in time.

The 4 pin plug from the power supply has 4 wires, but 2 yellow & 2 black, so it seems to be duplicated. Maybe they go to the switch on the front?

However, AmigaKit got back to me & explained the old switch on the front can`t be used with an ATX supply, but they do sell switches to go on the front. So I`ll have to get one of them!

Thanks, still trying to get it working & it`s been 8 hours now

[motorollin]

wurzel wrote:
There is a 4 pin plug running from the ATX supply, which I plugged to the 2 pins on the Mediator, labelled Power SW. Until I did that, the miggy didn`t switch on. It`s just that the plug only sits loosely on the 2 pins & I feel as if it could fall off in time.

The 4 pin plug from the power supply has 4 wires, but 2 yellow & 2 black, so it seems to be duplicated. Maybe they go to the switch on the front?

Oh dear. This is a power plug like you would connect to a P4 connector on a motherboard. It carries 12v if the wires are yellow. If you connected that 12v supply to the power switch connector on your Mediator then you have probably damaged the Mediator.

wurzel wrote:
However, AmigaKit got back to me & explained the old switch on the front can`t be used with an ATX supply, but they do sell switches to go on the front. So I`ll have to get one of them!

If your power switch is an old AT switch (if it latches rather than being a temporary switch) then AmigaKit are correct it will not work.

--
moto

[wurzel]

motorollin wrote:

wurzel wrote:
There is a 4 pin plug running from the ATX supply, which I plugged to the 2 pins on the Mediator, labelled Power SW. Until I did that, the miggy didn`t switch on. It`s just that the plug only sits loosely on the 2 pins & I feel as if it could fall off in time.

The 4 pin plug from the power supply has 4 wires, but 2 yellow & 2 black, so it seems to be duplicated. Maybe they go to the switch on the front?

Oh dear. This is a power plug like you would connect to a P4 connector on a motherboard. It carries 12v if the wires are yellow. If you connected that 12v supply to the power switch connector on your Mediator then you have probably damaged the Mediator.

wurzel wrote:
However, AmigaKit got back to me & explained the old switch on the front can`t be used with an ATX supply, but they do sell switches to go on the front. So I`ll have to get one of them!

If your power switch is an old AT switch (if it latches rather than being a temporary switch) then AmigaKit are correct it will not work.

--
moto

You`ve got me worried now However, checking what I did, I plugged the 2 black wires over the pins. The Amiga simply would not switch on any other way. Is the Mediator ok, do you think?

After much research, I find I need to order an ATX power switch to hook up, so have ordered one from AmigaKit.

The problem I have is that I wiped the Boot & Program disks, so I`m having to reinstall everything. I have full backups, but it`s on a USB disk which currently, I cannot access from the Amiga. So I can`t tell if the board is damaged or if the mish mash of installs on the boot disk isn`t working. The miggy hard drive light flickers as normal, but I get a blank screen (on AGA & graphics card modes on the TV/Monitor).

Thanks.

[motorollin]

wurzel wrote:
checking what I did, I plugged the 2 black wires over the pins. The Amiga simply would not switch on any other way. Is the Mediator ok, do you think?

You might be alright then. The two black wires are ground and do not actually carry any current. The two wires are probably shorted out somewhere (connected together) which is why the Amiga turned on. The black wires connected the two POWER SW pins together and had the effect of pressing the power switch.

wurzel wrote:
After much research, I find I need to order an ATX power switch to hook up, so have ordered one from AmigaKit.

Indeed to need an ATX PSU. Once you have got it fitted connect the ATX connector (the long white plug with lots of wires coming from the PSU) to the Mediator. Then find the wire coming from the power switch on the front of the case and it should have a connector on the end which will fit on the POWER SW connector on the Mediator (any way round - polarity doesn't matter as it's just a switch).

wurzel wrote:
The problem I have is that I wiped the Boot & Program disks, so I`m having to reinstall everything. I have full backups, but it`s on a USB disk which currently, I cannot access from the Amiga. So I can`t tell if the board is damaged or if the mish mash of installs on the boot disk isn`t working. The miggy hard drive light flickers as normal, but I get a blank screen (on AGA & graphics card modes on the TV/Monitor).

You may be getting the blank screen because the system is not powered correctly. Just do as above and remove all power sources other than the one to the Mediator (so pull out the original A1200 PSU and if you have one the power going IN to the motherboard floppy power connector) and then it should power on.

--
moto

[wurzel]

Well, I`ve got the miggy booting & installed OS3.9 from the CD, then managed to copy across my orignal boot disk. But it looks like you might be right - I think the mediator may be broken.

I cannot set the graphics card & I can`t use the Spider USB ports, nor can I use PCInfo as it just freezes my miggy. But, I`m using an ATX power supply plugged into the mediator with the correct switch - so power is going through the mediator to the miggy.


I would have thought if I damaged the mediator, then no power would go to the miggy?

The miggy was booting before, but it couldn`t display anything as screenmode was set to use Voodoo; if I remove that from Monitors, the miggy booted (but the display was wrong until I reset it in screenprefs).

Any help gratfefully received!

[Boot_WB]

You could try running the mediator config program included on the MMCD (I think it's called mediatorconfig).
Just run it in report mode (there should be two modes iirc - "report only" and "set prefs and report" or something like) - this at least will check to see if you have all the correct libs installed.

You said you copied your original "boot" disk form backup - does this include and overwrite all you libs: and c: directories? If not, then you may be missing libraries which were on your original installation.

Btw - as alternative for anyone who finds themselves in a similar position with the power switch thing - just connect the "reset" or "turbo" switch to the "power switch" header on the mediator - hey presto, ATX switching power supply in your power tower with no need for fancy adapters.

EDIT: Why are you bothering with connnecting drives to the internal IDE connector when you have the Blizzard Scsi kit (as per your sig)? Much faster and better and supports autobooting.

[wurzel]

Boot_WB wrote:
You could try running the mediator config program included on the MMCD (I think it's called mediatorconfig).
Just run it in report mode (there should be two modes iirc - "report only" and "set prefs and report" or something like) - this at least will check to see if you have all the correct libs installed.

Yes, I did that & it worked fine, reporting correctly on all the Libs:

You said you copied your original "boot" disk form backup - does this include and overwrite all you libs: and c: directories? If not, then you may be missing libraries which were on your original installation.

Yes, I had an up to date CD of my boot disk, so I copied everything across using "replace".

EDIT: Why are you bothering with connnecting drives to the internal IDE connector when you have the Blizzard Scsi kit (as per your sig)? Much faster and better and supports autobooting.

Because I think I ruined my SCSI disk, but that was only 4gb whereas the IDE disk is 40gb.

[wurzel]

Ok, latest update.

I actually managed to get it to boot AND load Trident. Unfortunately, it didn`t find the Spider USB so I managed to run PCIInfo. This finally, reported all the boards found correctly, except the Spider. So, guessing that the spider wasn`t fitted correctly, took it out & reseated it. Now, the miggy won`t boot!!!! ggrrrrrr!!

Anyway, I`m guessing the Mediator IS ok, & something else is loose inside.

Back to the drawign board

[wurzel]

Ok, after many weeks, it`s boiled down to this:

1. I have a loose SCSI adapter on my Blizzard, which, unless "JUST RIGHT", prevents the miggy from booting, and

2. It appears as if the Spider card is broken.

At least, PCIInfo runs fine and detects all cards, except when the Spider is in, then PCIInfo just freezes. Mixing around the cards in the PCI slots shows the mediator board is fine, and everything only seems to work if the Voodoo is in the top slot.

Anyway, I`ve managed to re-install all my programs, but without USB connection, I can`t get the boot drive 100% as it was before. Windows can`t copy certain files to the CD I used

Anyway, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter!

[motorollin]

The best way to solve problems like this is *always* to remove everything, then add components back one at a time and re-test. That would have allowed you to spot the loose SCSI card and the dodgy spider. Still, glad you tracked the problem down :-)

--
moto