Random lockups - help needed!!

[Unit21]

Once again I turn to the vast knowledge of the Amiga.org- members for help. ;-)

I got my old Amiga 4000T & Co. out of the closet the other day. The Amiga is fitted with a PPC and a Mediator. The Gfx-card is a Voodoo3 2000.
It also has some TV-card and an RTL-based network card.
Both the Cyberstorm and the Amiga mainboard is fully populated with Memory.

When using the machine it seems to hang at random. I cannot spot the error,
and snoopdos is of no help cause the machine crashes with a black screen or freezes.

It has an IBM deskstar ATA100 IDE-drive for some reason (not SCSI).
This drive is connected with a 40 pin IDE-cable.  Can this be a problem? Should I connect it with an 80pin cable instead??

I remember that random lockups were usually connected with dodgy RAM. Does anyone remember if the CyberStorm uses FPM or EDO RAM?

All creative advice is greatly appreciated!!
Thanks in advance!!

[bloodline]

Unit21 wrote:
Once again I turn to the vast knowledge of the Amiga.org- members for help. ;-)

I got my old Amiga 4000T & Co. out of the closet the other day. The Amiga is fitted with a PPC and a Mediator. The Gfx-card is a Voodoo3 2000.
It also has some TV-card and an RTL-based network card.
Both the Cyberstorm and the Amiga mainboard is fully populated with Memory.

When using the machine it seems to hang at random. I cannot spot the error,
and snoopdos is of no help cause the machine crashes with a black screen or freezes.

It has an IBM deskstar ATA100 IDE-drive for some reason (not SCSI).
This drive is connected with a 40 pin IDE-cable.  Can this be a problem? Should I connect it with an 80pin cable instead??

I remember that random lockups were usually connected with dodgy RAM. Does anyone remember if the CyberStorm uses FPM or EDO RAM?

All creative advice is greatly appreciated!!
Thanks in advance!!

I was gonna say that I found the cause of my Random lock ups... but then I noticed that you can't uninstall Windows Media player :lol:

[Unit21]

Hey hey!!

Can we focus on my problems for once...  :-D

[Piru]

It has an IBM deskstar ATA100 IDE-drive for some reason (not SCSI).
This drive is connected with a 40 pin IDE-cable. Can this be a problem?

No.

Should I connect it with an 80pin cable instead??

No need.

[x56h34]

I got my old Amiga 4000T & Co. out of the closet the other day

What is it doing in the closet!?!?! :-)

Try and reseat all the cards in the PCI slots, if the system has been in storage for a while.

Cyberstorm accelerators can use both EDO and FPM RAM. If EDO is used you get no extra benefits though, as it is treated exactly the same as FPM.

Get a UW-SCSI3 hd and install everything from scratch. It would be a shame for that SCSI-3 controller to sit idle.

[vince_6]

I had the same problem so try my recipe.First of all resemble your Mediator and clean all golden sockets. Then check your simms if they are identical because I had lots of crashings with different simms. And if is a software prob try out StackAttack from aminet.   :-D

[Hammer]

bloodline wrote:

Unit21 wrote:
Once again I turn to the vast knowledge of the Amiga.org- members for help. ;-)

I got my old Amiga 4000T & Co. out of the closet the other day. The Amiga is fitted with a PPC and a Mediator. The Gfx-card is a Voodoo3 2000.
It also has some TV-card and an RTL-based network card.
Both the Cyberstorm and the Amiga mainboard is fully populated with Memory.

When using the machine it seems to hang at random. I cannot spot the error,
and snoopdos is of no help cause the machine crashes with a black screen or freezes.

It has an IBM deskstar ATA100 IDE-drive for some reason (not SCSI).
This drive is connected with a 40 pin IDE-cable.  Can this be a problem? Should I connect it with an 80pin cable instead??

I remember that random lockups were usually connected with dodgy RAM. Does anyone remember if the CyberStorm uses FPM or EDO RAM?

All creative advice is greatly appreciated!!
Thanks in advance!!

I was gonna say that I found the cause of my Random lock ups... but then I noticed that you can't uninstall Windows Media player :lol:

Have you installed Media Player 9?

[Roj]

I go through something like this about once every few months. My A4000 will run without any trouble for months, and then at some point will just lock up. It'll reboot, but a few minutes later it's frozen again. The freezing cycle increases until it freezes in mid-boot.

After a mild panic each time, I realize that I might have to push the accelerator down more firmly on the expansion slot, and that usually solves the lockups. I probably should go find myself some better standoffs. Mine are starting to show some wear and tear.

[Unit21]

I think I found the problem...

The accelerator is getting a bit oldish so I took it out and cleaned the contacts around on the board.
I also sprayed the accelerator- port on the mainboard.
The machine has been running stable for a few hours now...

I´ll just have to wait and see what happens.... ;-)

Thanks for the advice guys!

[bloodline]

Hammer wrote:

bloodline wrote:

Unit21 wrote:
Once again I turn to the vast knowledge of the Amiga.org- members for help. ;-)

I got my old Amiga 4000T & Co. out of the closet the other day. The Amiga is fitted with a PPC and a Mediator. The Gfx-card is a Voodoo3 2000.
It also has some TV-card and an RTL-based network card.
Both the Cyberstorm and the Amiga mainboard is fully populated with Memory.

When using the machine it seems to hang at random. I cannot spot the error,
and snoopdos is of no help cause the machine crashes with a black screen or freezes.

It has an IBM deskstar ATA100 IDE-drive for some reason (not SCSI).
This drive is connected with a 40 pin IDE-cable.  Can this be a problem? Should I connect it with an 80pin cable instead??

I remember that random lockups were usually connected with dodgy RAM. Does anyone remember if the CyberStorm uses FPM or EDO RAM?

All creative advice is greatly appreciated!!
Thanks in advance!!

I was gonna say that I found the cause of my Random lock ups... but then I noticed that you can't uninstall Windows Media player :lol:

Have you installed Media Player 9?

I don't know, What ever Crap comes with XP... now I use Winamp 2.95.. no more random freezing...

[Hammer]

bloodline wrote:

Hammer wrote:

bloodline wrote:

Unit21 wrote:
Once again I turn to the vast knowledge of the Amiga.org- members for help. ;-)

I got my old Amiga 4000T & Co. out of the closet the other day. The Amiga is fitted with a PPC and a Mediator. The Gfx-card is a Voodoo3 2000.
It also has some TV-card and an RTL-based network card.
Both the Cyberstorm and the Amiga mainboard is fully populated with Memory.

When using the machine it seems to hang at random. I cannot spot the error,
and snoopdos is of no help cause the machine crashes with a black screen or freezes.

It has an IBM deskstar ATA100 IDE-drive for some reason (not SCSI).
This drive is connected with a 40 pin IDE-cable.  Can this be a problem? Should I connect it with an 80pin cable instead??

I remember that random lockups were usually connected with dodgy RAM. Does anyone remember if the CyberStorm uses FPM or EDO RAM?

All creative advice is greatly appreciated!!
Thanks in advance!!

I was gonna say that I found the cause of my Random lock ups... but then I noticed that you can't uninstall Windows Media player :lol:

Have you installed Media Player 9?

I don't know, What ever Crap comes with XP... now I use Winamp 2.95.. no more random freezing...

As I recall, Windows XP Pro only comes Media Player 8 and MS Windows 2003 comes with Media Player 9.

[Tomas]

As I recall, Windows XP Pro only comes Media Player 8 and MS Windows 2003 comes with Media Player 9.

I thought windows 2003 was a server OS?? Can anyone tell me why exactly it is bundled with a mediaplayer??  :-o

[that_punk_guy]

Tomas wrote:

As I recall, Windows XP Pro only comes Media Player 8 and MS Windows 2003 comes with Media Player 9.

I thought windows 2003 was a server OS?? Can anyone tell me why exactly it is bundled with a mediaplayer??  :-o

Because it would make far too much sense for a server to be focused on server tasks only :-D Strange that Win2K comes with the standard no-skins Media Player. Must have been an unforseen attack of good sense on MS's part.

[bloodline]

that_punk_guy wrote:

Tomas wrote:

As I recall, Windows XP Pro only comes Media Player 8 and MS Windows 2003 comes with Media Player 9.

I thought windows 2003 was a server OS?? Can anyone tell me why exactly it is bundled with a mediaplayer??  :-o

Because it would make far too much sense for a server to be focused on server tasks only :-D Strange that Win2K comes with the standard no-skins Media Player. Must have been an unforseen attack of good sense on MS's part.

MediaPlayer2 was (and still is) the pinicle MicroSoft's software acheivements... no wonder it had to be shuffled off to that big hard drive in the sky, and replaced with one that doesn't work.

[Hammer]

Tomas wrote:

As I recall, Windows XP Pro only comes Media Player 8 and MS Windows 2003 comes with Media Player 9.

I thought windows 2003 was a server OS?? Can anyone tell me why exactly it is bundled with a mediaplayer??  :-o

Media Player 9 is a free upgrade for NT 5.x (Win2K, WinXP) and Win98SE(I think)/WinME.

Win2k3 Enterprise Edition includes Media Streaming Server services, i.e. it’s logical to include the latest Media Player 9 for testing purposes.