A1200 freezes when using PCMCIA Network card

[bhindi_bhaji]

Hi all,
 
Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction!
 
I've decided to try to get my A1200 online.
 
I found a bunch of Netgear FA410TX PCMCIA network adapters at work so I thought why not have a go.
 
I downloaded the CNET drivers, checked the compatibility and sure enough this adapter is listed...bonus!!
 
However...
 
As soon as I insert it the pointer freezes. If I remove it everything comes back to life.
 
If I try to boot with it inserted it just sits there until I remove it.
 
I know people suggest not hot swapping on the Amiga, but I've never had a problem doing it with the PCMCIA CF adapter I have which works a treat.
 
I have a 4GB CF card with Classic WB installed on the IDE interface and an ACA 1231/42 in the trapdoor, I'm thinking there might be a conflict somewhere.
 
If I remove either of these devices the thing becomes useless to me so I don't want to do that!!
 
I've also downloaded CardReset & CardPatch and updated the startup sequence.
 
Please help!!
 
Edit: Forgot to mention, I have 3.1 ROMS, Board Rev: 1D.1

[paul1981]

Hi all,
 
Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction!
 
I've decided to try to get my A1200 online.
 
I found a bunch of Netgear FA410TX PCMCIA network adapters at work so I thought why not have a go.
 
I downloaded the CNET drivers, checked the compatibility and sure enough this adapter is listed...bonus!!
 
However...
 
As soon as I insert it the pointer freezes. If I remove it everything comes back to life.
 
If I try to boot with it inserted it just sits there until I remove it.
 
I know people suggest not hot swapping on the Amiga, but I've never had a problem doing it with the PCMCIA CF adapter I have which works a treat.
 
I have a 4GB CF card with Classic WB installed on the IDE interface and an ACA 1231/42 in the trapdoor, I'm thinking there might be a conflict somewhere.
 
If I remove either of these devices the thing becomes useless to me so I don't want to do that!!
 
I've also downloaded CardReset & CardPatch and updated the startup sequence.
 
Please help!!

I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to plug in or remove the pcmcia network adapter whilst the power is on. I may be wrong, but I'm sure I read it somewhere.

You might want to do a search to see if the Netgear FA410TX card has actually been used and tested by an Amiga user before, and not just listed as compatible.

[bhindi_bhaji]

I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to plug in or remove the pcmcia network adapter whilst the power is on. I may be wrong, but I'm sure I read it somewhere.

You're probably right, but it won't boot if I have it inserted at power on.
 

You might want to do a search to see if the Netgear FA410TX card has actually been used and tested by an Amiga user before, and not just listed as compatible.

This is what it says in the compatibility list:
 
NetGear FA410TX (10/100baseT)

I (rolf.anders@physik.uni-augsburg.de) have successfully used these
cards with cnet16.device:
 
There is one thing though. In the LHA archive the *.device files were listed under devs/network. Should I remove them from the network drawer and put them straight into Devs? I have a feeling it won't matter anyway as it seems like a hardware issue rather than software.
 
I may just order the Easynet kit from Amigakit and try that, it's not expensive!
 
Thanks.

[paul1981]

You're probably right, but it won't boot if I have it inserted at power on.
 

 
This is what it says in the compatibility list:
 
NetGear FA410TX (10/100baseT)

I (rolf.anders@physik.uni-augsburg.de) have successfully used these
cards with cnet16.device:
 
There is one thing though. In the LHA archive the *.device files were listed under devs/network. Should I remove them from the network drawer and put them straight into Devs? I have a feeling it won't matter anyway as it seems like a hardware issue rather than software.
 
I may just order the Easynet kit from Amigakit and try that, it's not expensive!
 
Thanks.

Hmm...even so, with the card inserted at power on it shouldn't freeze. Is it freezing during the startup-sequence or is it not even getting that far? Try holding down both mouse buttons upon power on and do a boot without startup-sequence. If you get the AmigaDOS prompt then it's something in your startup-sequence that is making your computer freeze.
If you can't even get to the Amiga Early Startup Control then something else is obviously wrong, like you say something isn't happy hardware wise.

[bhindi_bhaji]

Hmm...even so, with the card inserted at power on it shouldn't freeze. Is it freezing during the startup-sequence or is it not even getting that far? Try holding down both mouse buttons upon power on and do a boot without startup-sequence. If you get the AmigaDOS prompt then it's something in your startup-sequence that it making your computer freeze.
If you can't even get to the Amiga Early Startup Control then something else is obviously wrong, like you say something isn't happy hardware wise.

Thanks for getting back to me, it seems certain PCMCIA cards won't work with certain board revisions.
 
It seems I'm one of the unlucky ones after doing a bit of googling...not sure how I didn't find that before!
 
It pointed me to a post by "draxx" from back in 2003 on here:
 
http://www.amiga.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-3770.html

[TCMSLP]

Just out of interest, have you tried removing the ACA accelerator?

There were issues with some accelerators with >4Mb RAM and PCMCIA as the addresses clashed.  However, I'm 99.9% sure the ACA wouldn't suffer from this but worth trying without anyway...

[bhindi_bhaji]

Just out of interest, have you tried removing the ACA accelerator?
 
There were issues with some accelerators with >4Mb RAM and PCMCIA as the addresses clashed. However, I'm 99.9% sure the ACA wouldn't suffer from this but worth trying without anyway...

I did think about, but didn't simply because it will be fairly useless without it.
 
However I will give it a go and report back!
 
Edit: Same result without ACA accelerator.

[yssing]

When my PCMCIA NIC is inserted before powerup, my A1200 freezes, so my solution is to insert it when I need it. i.e after powerup, the PCMCIA is hotplugable, even with SRAM cards.

I only use CardPatch not CardReset.

[bhindi_bhaji]

When my PCMCIA NIC is inserted before powerup, my A1200 freezes, so my solution is to insert it when I need it. i.e after powerup, the PCMCIA is hotplugable, even with SRAM cards.
 
I only use CardPatch not CardReset.

Mine freezes if it's inserted before or after powerup.
 
It's most likely a compatibility issue, not to worry though it didn't cost me anything.
 
I'll grab the one from Amigakit at some point.

[Karlos]

My PCMCIA network card (no name) seems to work fine via cnet.device. It's permanently attached.

I might have to crack it open and see what the chipset is.

[utri007]

I would say it is broken. Have you tried it with laptop?

Symbtoms sounds familiar.

[bhindi_bhaji]

I would say it is broken. Have you tried it with laptop?

Symbtoms sounds familiar.

Not tried it with a laptop, however I've tried 3 of the exact same model card. Same result for each one sadly.

[Karlos]

Which version of the cnet.device are you using?

http://aminet.net/package/driver/net/cnetdevice

[Damion]

I found a bunch of Netgear FA410TX PCMCIA network adapters at work so I thought why not have a go.

Mine never worked, either. Fought with it a few nights before giving up and buying a different card which worked perfectly. From what I recall, there may of been more than one version of the FA410TX (pretty sure I've read a few other similar stories as ours).

[bhindi_bhaji]

Which version of the cnet.device are you using?

http://aminet.net/package/driver/net/cnetdevice

I tried several from the archive from that link.

Mine never worked, either. Fought with it a few nights before giving up and buying a different card which worked perfectly. From what I recall, there may of been more than one version of the FA410TX (pretty sure I've read a few other similar stories as ours).

That makes sense.

I posted a link further up to someone else having the same issue from back in 2003. It's sort of reassuring that I'm not alone!!

I'm not too fussed, it's not like I actually paid anything...although I will have to now when I find one that works!!