Author Topic: Advice for trouble-shooting & booting a A4000T - Success! (Read 10264 times)

Amiwest · « **Reply #14 on:** November 28, 2011, 03:32:00 AM »

http://bboah.claunia.com/a4000tc.html, "workbench.library was moved from ROM, supplied on the Workbench disks and is loaded from LIBS:"
I do not think this is your booting problem but is something to consider when trying to boot from floppy when trying disconnecting drives to find your problem.

mdivancic · « **Reply #15 on:** November 28, 2011, 12:35:45 PM »

Sent you a PM...

Jose · « **Reply #16 on:** November 28, 2011, 08:37:22 PM »

Does it have the disks module ? If not it won't boot.

560SL · « **Reply #17 on:** November 28, 2011, 09:42:42 PM »

Quote from: smerf;669314

Hi,
... I would leave the A4000 on for at least a half hour, then try rebooting. If the A4000 has been sitting for a while without being turned on, somethimes it has a hard time starting (at least mine does) after I leave it turned on for a while turn it off then turn it on, it starts right up.

Same thing with my A4000T.. If its been unused for a couple of months or so, it just won't boot up properly. Leaving her to warm up for a while, then starts like nothing ever happened.

mechy · « **Reply #18 on:** November 29, 2011, 02:00:15 PM »

Quote from: 560SL;669414

Same thing with my A4000T.. If its been unused for a couple of months or so, it just won't boot up properly. Leaving her to warm up for a while, then starts like nothing ever happened.

Its been my experience this is usually caused by bad contact in the cpu slot.carefully adjusting the pins with a fine sewing needle can fix that and use some quality contact cleaner. If you want to fix it permanently,after cleaning, install some proper standoffs instead of plastic pegs and use screws to keep the accelerator in. seems the heating/cooling cycles can gradually work the accelerator out a bit to cause the trouble you mention.

Mech

efrenmgp · « **Reply #19 on:** November 29, 2011, 02:33:20 PM »

Hello amigasociety,

Try with everything disconnected except modules (video/audio & disk) and the 060 card. Remove the 060 card to verify the jumpers below it, I think they should be on the EXT position, if not you can try on the INT position but I'm almost sure it should be EXT.

Do not worry about RAM on the motherboard. The machine has chip ram soldered to the motherboard so no problem there.

Verify the KS chips to see if they are well seated (I got one as non-working and it had one pin outside of the socket). Also, the chips should be version 40.70, I think that's printed on the top.

The machine will take a little while since it has no HDs or Floppy, but if everything is OK, it should come up to the "Insert WB Disk" animation.

Good idea also to check for voltages but do as the previous advice and measure it from one of the molex connectors, or to be completely sure about voltages reaching the motherboard, disconnect the power from the motherboartd itself and measure from that connector.

Good luck with your A400T!

efrenmgp

amigasociety · « **Reply #20 on:** November 29, 2011, 08:13:00 PM »

OK, update #1

Toaster 4000 Card removed, still no boot, same screens as before.

Unpluged SCSI hard drive but left CD and Floppy connected and I now get a new screen.

Am I correct this is the Kickstart Screen asking for Workbench or is this a screen asking for and not finding Kickstart?

I seem to remember a hand asking for workbench.

Anyway, see attached picture.

I put in the floppy drive both the stock A4000T Install and also Workbench 3.1 floppys, the drive whirs a moment, goes back to this same screen with a floppy going into flopy drive.

By the way, where is this kickstart chip so I can push it down and make sure it is seated.

tj

efrenmgp · « **Reply #21 on:** November 29, 2011, 08:24:12 PM »

Quote from: amigasociety;669540

Am I correct this is the Kickstart Screen asking for Workbench or is this a screen asking for and not finding Kickstart?

...

I put in the floppy drive both the stock A4000T Install and also Workbench 3.1 floppys, the drive whirs a moment, goes back to this same screen with a floppy going into flopy drive.

That is the kickstart screen asking for a WB disk, so good news! the machine boots!! :banana:

Now for the second issue, the floppy disks not booting, it can be that either the disks are damaged (or not bootable) or the floppy drive is damaged.

Do you have another computer to test those disks on it and if they work, exchange the floopy drives and test again on the A4KT?

Regards,
efrenmgp

amigasociety · « **Reply #22 on:** November 29, 2011, 08:44:46 PM »

Quote from: efrenmgp;669543

That is the kickstart screen asking for a WB disk, so good news! the machine boots!! :banana:

Now for the second issue, the floppy disks not booting, it can be that either the disks are damaged (or not bootable) or the floppy drive is damaged.

Do you have another computer to test those disks on it and if they work, exchange the floopy drives and test again on the A4KT?

Regards,
efrenmgp

The running Amigas I have is a newer SAM 440ep based system (no floppy drive) and an CD32 (no floppy drive) and a Amiga 1000 with two floppies, internal and external.

But, I am guessing the stock 4000T floppies I have will not read in an ancient A1000, will they?

I do have that 2nd Amiga (untested) I picked up, a A4000D based HUMONGUS case beast that has a drive in it but no idea yet if she boots or runs.

But, other than hearing the drive whir and seeing the light come on, that is all I can get.

How about from AmigaDOS.... since I can boot to with no startup sequence.... what command do I send to it to read the floppy drive? Could I do that to see if she can read the drive?

tj

efrenmgp · « **Reply #23 on:** November 29, 2011, 09:09:02 PM »

Quote from: amigasociety;669545

The running Amigas I have is a newer SAM 440ep based system (no floppy drive) and an CD32 (no floppy drive) and a Amiga 1000 with two floppies, internal and external.

But, I am guessing the stock 4000T floppies I have will not read in an ancient A1000, will they?

I do have that 2nd Amiga (untested) I picked up, a A4000D based HUMONGUS case beast that has a drive in it but no idea yet if she boots or runs.

But, other than hearing the drive whir and seeing the light come on, that is all I can get.

How about from AmigaDOS.... since I can boot to with no startup sequence.... what command do I send to it to read the floppy drive? Could I do that to see if she can read the drive?

tj

I'm not sure if the 4000T disks will at least boot on the A1000. Surely WB won't load buy maybe you'll end up with some error and that would mean that the floppies are bootable so the failure would be on the floppy drive itself. You could take the floppy drive from that 4KD machine and test.

Question: If you leave the 4KT turned on with no floppy inside the drive, can you hear the constant clicking every second or so?

Other thing you can do is prepare a new floppy on the A1K, format it and run the Install command to make it bootable. In a shell window type Install DF0: and follow the prompts. Then use that disk on the 4KT, it should boot to a Shell window, that will tell you that your floppy drive is OK and then the floppies are either bad or not bootable.

Ancalimon · « **Reply #24 on:** November 29, 2011, 10:22:11 PM »

ffs system disks won't boot with anything below kickstart2.0

You'll just hear three drive clicks and nothing else.

efrenmgp · « **Reply #25 on:** November 29, 2011, 10:48:30 PM »

Quote from: FaLLeNOnE;669555

ffs system disks won't boot with anything below kickstart2.0

You'll just hear three drive clicks and nothing else.

Thanks I wasn't sure of that

So using the A4KT floppies with the A1K won't tell you anything useful

Regards,
efrenmgp

Ancalimon · « **Reply #26 on:** November 29, 2011, 11:42:37 PM »

I think it's the battery. You need to remove the battery (if you haveb't done it yet, it's dangerous to leave it there) and install a new battery (preferably mod it so that you can use safe coin batteries)

After that you need to boot from an ide harddrive, run the report+ tool from aminet and save some bits to the NVRAM.

It may sound a bit complicated (well.. it does) .. It's either that your scsi hdd is defective or it's the problem I described about the battery. Also you probably need a new floppp drive. First check its cables.. Also there should be some kind of add on adapter fitted on the disk module of A4000T. It could be missing or there could be a problem with that.

amigasociety · « **Reply #27 on:** November 30, 2011, 08:14:58 PM »

Good news!!! She boots from floppy.
:-P

Stole the floppy drive from the A4000 I also acquired and she boots from the A4000T Workbench 3.1 floppy.

So, I think we have a winner here.

Before I go further, I now have to find someplace that sells HD Floppies so I can make dups of the A4000T floppies.

All I need now is to screw them up.

Who in town will have any floppies (hehehe).

Anyway, I re-connected the SCSI drive, it is seen, used HDTools and formated the drive, started an install (using my master A4000T floppies) and during install it came back with a message my A4000T Workbench 3.1 is write protected. Which it is, I made sure it was.

Worried that I might screw up my one and only floppy, I halted operation.

Tell me, does the installer floppies need to be in write mode to allow me to install?

I find that odd.

Anyway, time to find some floppies and learn how to make some dups.

tj

amigasociety · « **Reply #28 on:** November 30, 2011, 08:19:19 PM »

BTW, what floppy disks do I need. The stock A4000T have a HD on the covers. One side is taped off. My guess I can buy any old HD floppy and tape off and use them?

TJ

SACC-guy · « **Reply #29 from previous page:** December 01, 2011, 02:36:16 AM »

All 4000Desktops and early 4000towers came with hi-density drives.
In amiga speak that was 1.76k (1.44 for pc's)
Until they ran out of that special drive.
BTW, the 4000T was also the only Amiga that does not have an external connector for an outside floppy drive.
Other amigas came with 88ok floppy drives. Which as you discovered can be swapped.

You can still find DD floppies or use HD's with the second hole covered trick.

m