Amiga 4000T not booting

[Vlabguy1]

Nice to see things working out with your machine..

[Kristian95]

I've set my WB to run at 1024 x 768 at 24bit colours. I've not been able to fiddle around with making a custom setup with my P-IV board as I run out of time before the screen goes black. It looks perfectly fine when it boots, and if I start WHDLoad games I don't get the screen going black at all, so I am a bit miffed at this
Hope someone has some good ideas of what to try. Btw, my WB install was made in WinUAE, I tried installing PIV software in WinUAE but it of course has trouble finding the PIV board, any ideas whether I could make a custom screen thingie in WinUAE ??

[Kristian95]

I know I ought to have the capacitors changed... but I am not that good with a soldering iron... I'd have to find someone close by who could help me out (beer, wine or the like could easily be supplied hehehe)

[Kristian95]

I found the cause of my problem but I don't know how to solve it

It seems that the gfx settings from my P-IV card are at a too high refresh rate for my lcd monitor, as when I run it on a crt monitor the image stays there just fine.
I have tried many times to access the early start menu for the P-IV board (both holding down left or right or both shift keys or tapping them) to no avail When I try using PicassoModeTNG I can't seem to be allowed to save settings, I read the guide on the Amiga but was left none the wiser Can someone help me out please ??

[sniken]

this is what i think:

you can't enter either csppc or p-iv early startup because you are using a keyboard adapter with a ps/2 keyboard and not an original amiga keyboard (or?).

csppc is set to default 31khz out on the the rgb port of your amiga, caasing problems when p-iv is scan doubling to your lcd monitor. you have to set csppc not to default 31khz. hold down the esc-key (may not work because of the above).

[Kristian95]

I am using an Amiga keyboard bought at Vesalia.de.
Is there anyway I can make the CSPPC board not default to 31KHz on the Amiga RGB-port apart from accessing the early boot menu ??

Btw, the only bootmenu I can get to show is the Amiga bootmenu itself (both mouse buttons pressed).

EDIT: I have tried with the esc key, I get a black screen with a white line at the top, pretty strange. This was the result I got on a standard PC crt monitor.
What is the easiest way for me to connect the Amiga to a TV in the US, using the Amiga rgb port ??

I got a bit of help with PicassoModeTNG so I have it working on my lcd screen... I'm still miffed at how come I cannot get to the two early boot menus though!!

[sniken]

if you can see the amiga early startup you should be able to see the others too :/

i used to have a rgb-to-scart cable, but i guess you don't have a scart input? got an a520 available? try using a rgb-to-vga (the one that came with the a1200/a4000) instead of connecting to your p-iv if the signal is indeed 31khz.

[Kristian95]

I think I have found out why I don't have the early boot menu for my CSPPC card... the rom version is 44.60 which is not a rom that has the boot menu.
I wonder whether there is a similar thing with P-IV rom versions??

[sniken]

i'm afraid i do not know.

[Kristian95]

np, thanks for your suggestions and tips

[MozzerFan]

The PIV does not require a special rom-version to show the
bootmenu. It can be a bit tricky though to get it to
display the bootmenu at all. I have a lyra ps/2 keyboard
adapter, and the only way that i can get to the piv
bootmenu is by pressing 1 of the shift keys while resetting
the system. If I press the key too late or too early,
the bootmenu won't show and the system just boots straight
into workbench. As already said, if the normal amiga
bootmenu shows up, then the piv bootmenu should show up
too.

Edit: Thought I could get the piv bootmenu only when
pressing both shiftkeys, but pressing 1 shift-key
is enough. It doesn't matter which one.
It's just the timing of when to press the key what's
important.

Regards,
Lloyd

[Kristian95]

ok... can I beat the timing issue by repeatedly hitting a shift key ??
I have tried many times now and never seen the menu.
I've also tried flashing the card with P4Update 7.4 but the flashprg stalls prior to flashing, nearly gave me a heart attack as I feared improper flashing had been done.
I've just flashed my CSPPC card to the newest version so that I can get to a boot menu for that card too... we'll see if that goes any smoother.

[MozzerFan]

Yes, repeatedly hitting the shift key also should work,
but you have do it very quickly. I just tried it on
my system and it worked 2 out of 3 times.
Good luck.

Edit:Maybe you'll have more luck, if you repeatedly pressed
both shift keys (very quickly). It was easier getting the
bootmenu pressing both keys than with pressing only 1.

Regards,
Lloyd

[Kristian95]

I just tried accessing both my CSPPC and P4 menus with no luck.... could having an eFlash card installed be the reason ??

EDIT: When I hit the shift key / Esc key (CSPPC) I hit it 4-5 times per second, no luck though

[MozzerFan]

Not to my knowledge. But if you want to be sure, you can
always ask Elbox. But I really think it's your timing of
pressing the keys. You're not the only one having this
problem. The only reason I can do it fairly easy, is that
I have the concierto addon and it plays a system startup
sound, so I can sort of figure out when to press the shift
key.

Regards,
Lloyd

[Kristian95]

hehehe ok, I guess it doesn't make things easier for me that my A4000t takes a loooong time to boot... it hangs for a long time before even beginning the booting sequence, my guess is it waits at least 30 seconds I wonder what I can do to eliminate that.
Currently I use the A4000t IDE for my CF disk, I guess if I used the CSPPC SCSI it would boot faster ??