Help! Just bought a Sam440ep-flex, what now?

[Lurch]

Hi som99, was it a private sale? $300 Is what I'm looking at spending. Would love to have that setup, think I'm finally getting to end of my classic stage. Too buggy :-/

[spirantho]

Is your CD on J23 then (which is correct)? Anything else and it won't boot as that's where it expects the optical drive.

If UBoot doesn't boot on J23 then check the sii3114 environment variables from the uboot command prompt and make sure all ports are enabled. Also of course check your boot order is set correctly....

[Fairdinkem]

I had a similar issue with my Sam 440ep and this is what resolved it.

Sam 440ep's are very picky as to what video cards work in the fast PCI slot (the top one.) I had a Radeon 9250 like you have and this the solution that worked for me.

Move your graphics card down to the second from the top slot and try booting your AmigaOS 4.1 install CD.

Good luck.

PS. I noticed you had a second graphics card you might want to try that one in the fast slot.

[som99]

Is your CD on J23 then (which is correct)? Anything else and it won't boot as that's where it expects the optical drive.

If UBoot doesn't boot on J23 then check the sii3114 environment variables from the uboot command prompt and make sure all ports are enabled. Also of course check your boot order is set correctly....

Thanks for the reply,

U-Boot prefs menu have very little options, an all seems correct, from the command prompt if I write "ide info" both the hard drive and the DVD-drive shows up no problems :/
How do I check if all SATA ports are enabled? Since both drives are in correct port and shows up I guess they are working.

If you haven't done yet, post this thread at http://www.amigaworld.net. There you can find all the support you want for OS4.1 related issues. The crowd there is quite nice.

I used to have a SAM460ex with OS4.1.6, but I sold it very recentely to have money to afford the new fpg board which is now starting to ship

Another good site is http://www.amigans.net. They also have a social group in Facebook; just look for them there under Amiga OS4.1.

Have fun with your system!

I haven't tried any other forums yet but I guess I gotta ask them if I can't solve this here.

Thank you ill try to have fun with the sam440 bord as soon as I get anything booting

Hi som99, was it a private sale? $300 Is what I'm looking at spending. Would love to have that setup, think I'm finally getting to end of my classic stage. Too buggy :-/

Yes it was a private sale and the best offer ive gotten so far for any AOS4 hardware thats why I took it

To bad your getting to the end of the line with your classic hardware, ive followed your big thread for ages but nothing I say can make you stay at classics if you are sick of all the hazzle

I will keep my eyes open for new deals if you want, but if you want to get NG cheep why not get like a mac mini and MorphOS?

I had a similar issue with my Sam 440ep and this is what resolved it.

Sam 440ep's are very picky as to what video cards work in the fast PCI slot (the top one.) I had a Radeon 9250 like you have and this the solution that worked for me.

Move your graphics card down to the second from the top slot and try booting your AmigaOS 4.1 install CD.

Good luck.

PS. I noticed you had a second graphics card you might want to try that one in the fast slot.

Thanks for your reply, ive tried both another card and different slots

Edit: Made a account on Amigaworld tho after writing a long thread I got a message when posting "Your posting privileges has been revoked for 1 days" SO I guess I can't post the first day joining

[spirantho]

Can you do a "printenv" from the UBoot command line please and show us what it says?

Edit: Another thought - have you tried connecting one CD-ROM to J200 and one to J203? Then booting from the one in J200, removing the disk, putting it in J203 and then Ctrl+Amiga+Amiga (i.e. soft reset, not hard reset)?

[lionstorm]

good deal and welcome onboard AOS4 train !

I dont have a SAM but an A1XEG4 and when something like that happens, I usually go to UBoot and use/reset to default settings. Most of the boot problems come from bad or obsolete variables which I would guess, since you bought it second-hand, therefore having the UBoot settings of the previous owner.

good luck
Lio

[som99]

Can you do a "printenv" from the UBoot command line please and show us what it says?

Edit: Another thought - have you tried connecting one CD-ROM to J200 and one to J203? Then booting from the one in J200, removing the disk, putting it in J203 and then Ctrl+Amiga+Amiga (i.e. soft reset, not hard reset)?

sii3114ide_conf=1000
sii3114ide_xfer=G000

Don't have that many SATA cd/DVD-drives :/

Edit: changed sii3114ide_conf to 1002 and saved and now it works!

good deal and welcome onboard AOS4 train !

I dont have a SAM but an A1XEG4 and when something like that happens, I usually go to UBoot and use/reset to default settings. Most of the boot problems come from bad or obsolete variables which I would guess, since you bought it second-hand, therefore having the UBoot settings of the previous owner.

good luck
Lio

Thank you for your welcome, ive also tried to update u-boot to the latest version but still the same problem

[som99]

The booting issue solved, changed the sii3114ide_conf to 1002 to tell uboot that there where a hdd on the first SATA port and bam everything seems to work so far!

Thanks to all who tried to help me

[spirantho]

Yay! Now enjoy

[som99]

Yay! Now enjoy

Thank you for all your help! Im a happy camper right now, currently taking a beer and playing around ion the OS, trying to get the SoundBlaster audigy2 to work

Edit: Trying to figure out what updates to install and not, since ive read about some problems with these sams and update 3 onwards (forcing me to use a 33MHz PCI slot for the GFX card etc).

[spirantho]

I don't have a Flex, but I know update 6 runs beautifully on my 440ep!

[som99]

I don't have a Flex, but I know update 6 runs beautifully on my 440ep!

Thanks, im playing around with it now, ill let you know how it goes
Also planning on putting a CF/SD reader on the motherboard USB header since it could be handy.

I have been talking to the seller and ill buy a PCI Catweasle from him later on and use on the Sam, could be a nice feature

Edit: Update one done and no issues, ill continue

[spirantho]

Get the Catweasel if you can - they're very hard to find! And naturally make sure you're using drivers from my website (http://www.retroreview.com/iang/Catweasel/) or later (they're still improving whenever I get chance...)

[utri007]

Has you connected your DVD drive to correct sata slot? Boot ability is only J20 and J23.

Also you should know this, to get uboot your keyboard should be in internal J19A or
external J18.

Get you copy of flex manual from here http://www.acube-systems.biz/download/flex_manual_0.2.pdf

You should also download finetune tool from acube wesite, it makes PCI graphics much faster, more than double

http://acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=hardware&pid=2

DO NOT install PCI update, it will make your PCI slot even more faster, but CPU clock will be reduced and there is no fallback option.

I have excatly same setup, it is nice little machine and surpricingly powerfull, surfing web and watching avis are fluent.

[som99]

Get the Catweasel if you can - they're very hard to find! And naturally make sure you're using drivers from my website (http://www.retroreview.com/iang/Catweasel/) or later (they're still improving whenever I get chance...)

Thanks for your effort and input, I will surely get one and finally digitize all my DD floppies

Has you connected your DVD drive to correct sata slot? Boot ability is only J20 and J23.

Also you should know this, to get uboot your keyboard should be in internal J19A or
external J18.

Get you copy of flex manual from here http://www.acube-systems.biz/download/flex_manual_0.2.pdf
I have excatly same setup, it is nice little machine and surpricingly powerfull, surfing web and watching avis are fluent.

Thanks for your reply, all is solved, I was using correct SATA and the top USB port, the problem was resolved by setting the sii3114ide_conf to the right sata port (1002) sow now everything works well!

I must say that the sam440 800MHz was snappier then I thought it would be, so im happy digging into the world of AOS4 now, now all I am missing to be happy in my Classig and NG setup is a 040 A4000D

Edit: Update 3 done, brought a new boot screen
Edit: Doesn't seem to get past boot screen now, lets check startup-seq and see if I can figure out what is the issue

Edit: Dammit, it was as I had read about, after update 3 I could not get past boot screen but when I switched the card to a 33MHz PCI slot it starts but randomly freeze, mostly before AmiDock is initialized :S

Edit: Fixed the video related problems by setting DMA0 for GFX (setenv save Picasso96/UseDMA 0). Now installing update 4 *crossing fingers*

[Lurch]

Yes it was a private sale and the best offer ive gotten so far for any AOS4 hardware thats why I took it

To bad your getting to the end of the line with your classic hardware, ive followed your big thread for ages but nothing I say can make you stay at classics if you are sick of all the hazzle

I will keep my eyes open for new deals if you want, but if you want to get NG cheep why not get like a mac mini and MorphOS?

That's a good price for that setup, have a quicksilver tower G4 running MorphOS but never really got into it. So was looking at AmigaOS 4.x and with the Sam I can also put it into a case I like and not have a Mac logo looking at me ;-)

Has been a long road with my classic journey, at the moment trying to complete my A1200T but it's like head butting the desk at times. But will attempt to finish it and hopefully post some pictures :-)

But if you can keep an eye out that would be awesome.

Have you managed to install AmigaOS?