Arrrgh! (FastATA 4000 MK-VI 8.0 and issues with keyboard.)

[slaapliedje]

So I'm pretty much about ready to stab something.

I ordered the FastATA 4000 MK-VI with the new 8.0 boot rom, figuring it was the last thing I needed in my Amiga to make it really fast.

I've had nothing but issues with it so far, finally got a working copy of workbench on it (pretty much bare minimum OS3.9 with up to BB3 installed, the 68060 libraries, mediator, and network.  Don't have the Poseidon bits installed yet.)

But I can't get it working with the PIO modes.  Basically, it's connected to the controller board, but the driver isn't loaded, when I run FastATA.driver, the drive locks up shortly after about long enough for me to try to change the PIO mode).  The windows can be moved, but nothing works, and the drive light is stuck on.

Amigakit support staff said that the only time they've seen that, it was because of the PSU.  So I thought, in my naivety, that i could power the compact flash with my PC, and then power on the Amiga (shouldn't hurt, right?)

Well, in the middle of me typing out 'fastata.driver' in the no startup-sequence shell, and then I started typing... 'prefs/fastataprefs' but it came out 'prefs/astata... then I stopped and thought, hey, where's my F?  no where to be found it seems.  I've tried unplugging the system and waiting a bit (like 2 minutes), tried popping out the battery (I don't think that does anything but saves the clock, right?), and reseating the keyboard cable.  none of which works.

Just seems to be the F key too.  maybe it'll magically work by the time I get home from work, but I figured I'd ask the experts.  Any ideas?  I believe I read somewhere that the A4000's keyboard has it's own controller in it.  If this is the case, is there a way to reset it somehow?

Any help is much appreciated, and hey if anyone could help with the initial issue of getting the Compact Flash card working with the FastATA at a nice PIO Mode, I'd be forever greatful!

slaapliedje

[danbeaver]

Odd timing.  I got one from Amigakit last week and also thought it was problematic, but my slot was dirty and after a scrub it worked perfectly, even switching from PIO 4 to 5 on a 300 GB drive (CF worked fine).  Perhaps what Amigakit meant was not that there was too little power, but a power supply that has gone, or is going out of spec.  I had an A4000D that acted up in a weird fashion that was unpredictable and hooked it up under load to find that the 12 and 5 volt lines began to vary wildly after it warmed up.  A $25 USD refurb on it fixed everything.  Some stuff (probably with hefty capacitors) can tolerate fluctuations, and other stuff can't.

[danbeaver]

OH, that fantastic PIO 5 speed works out to less than 7 MB/s in my testing, which is still better than 2.4.

[Lurch]

Get one of these:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=615

...and then go buy a decent modern brand spanking ATX PSU :-)

Did this with my A1200 and never looked back.

[Lurch]

OH, that fantastic PIO 5 speed works out to less than 7 MB/s in my testing, which is still better than 2.4.

Get just under 10 MB/s with a 060@80MHz / FastATA. Think it was 9.9 MB/s or something could never break the 10 MB/s barrier. :-/

[slaapliedje]

The one time I managed to get drivespeed to work, it clocked at just under 7mb/s and I think that was PIO 4.  But what was said about it getting hot and varying weird, that could very well be it.  It's been off for 8 hours now, and even unplugged, guess it's time to test it.

slaapliedje

[slaapliedje]

Anyone have any idea about the F key?  I mean how random is that?  Is there any kind of rom/ram thing that can be cleared in the keyboard's controller?

slaapliedje

[danbeaver]

Get one of these:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=615

...and then go buy a decent modern brand spanking ATX PSU :-)

Did this with my A1200 and never looked back.

Why would you use an A4000 power connector on an A1200?

I just buy a new Hercules 500W silent mATX PSU off ichyBay for $25 with shipping and fit it directly into the A4000D's housing; by splicing the wires one of these looks like an original, is dual voltage, is almost silent, and now that I've done a few, takes less than 30 minutes.

[slaapliedje]

Why would you use an A4000 power connector on an A1200?

I just buy a new Hercules 500W silent mATX PSU off ichyBay for $25 with shipping and fit it directly into the A4000D's housing; by splicing the wires one of these looks like an original, is dual voltage, is almost silent, and now that I've done a few, takes less than 30 minutes.

Now that's a fantastic idea, one of the goals that I've always had was to make my Amiga quiet.  Loudest components right now would be hard drive (with the CF card, that'll go away), the CD-Rom (which I was considering getting a slim line or something) and the PSU, which I attempted to replace the fan already, but it still spins at max speed and is rather loud.

I'm kind of freaked about the keyboard though.  

slaapliedje

[NovaCoder]

OH, that fantastic PIO 5 speed works out to less than 7 MB/s in my testing, which is still better than 2.4.

Yep you can never get quite the speed that's advertised (15 MB/s).  

I brought one for my 1200 and got about 9 MB/s using a SSHD (module) with my 80Mhz 1260.

I couldn't get the thing to fit with my Indy Mrk2 so I didn't bother using it in the end (it's still sitting in the box on the shelf!).



For reference the IdeFix Express is meant to go up to 5.1 MB/s but the best I could ever squeeze out of mine is 4.6 using an ACA1230 @ 56 Mhz, my Apollo 1260 managed about 4.3 MB/s but my Blizzard is down to 3.9 MB/s.

Oh well, still better than the crappy 1.9 MB/s standard IDE speed

[danbeaver]

Now that's a fantastic idea, one of the goals that I've always had was to make my Amiga quiet...

I'm kind of freaked about the keyboard though.  

slaapliedje

Could you go into more detail on the issues with your keyboard?  If it is just one key, then it needs cleaning; not a difficult task but requires patience due to the number of screws.  Commodore only used real keyboards (Cherry) for the A2000 and only a few were made.  The rest used carbonized rubber contacts that get dirty and needs cleaning:  gently rubbing the bottom contacts with a rubber pencil eraser, then wiping off the residue with a bit of isoPrOH -- alcohol.

[slaapliedje]

Ha ha, so you responded before I could point out that I figured 'wtf, I'll see what I can do." and popped off the key... it felt.. off.  like not as springy as the others.  I swear earlier I had tried applying more pressure to it, but this time it worked... at least part of the time.  wasn't as responsive as the other keys still.  So I popped it off a second time, after looking at what would take to take the whole thing apart...

Noticed a tiny piece of something wedged between the white plastic part that goes up and down, and the black part surrounding it... knocked it out and blew it away and what do you know!  Key works...

Now to fix the rest of the crap, and see if I can't get this thing going.

slaapliedje

[slaapliedje]

Yep you can never get quite the speed that's advertised (15 MB/s).  

I brought one for my 1200 and got about 9 MB/s using a SSHD (module) with my 80Mhz 1260.

I couldn't get the thing to fit with my Indy Mrk2 so I didn't bother using it in the end (it's still sitting in the box on the shelf!).



For reference the IdeFix Express is meant to go up to 5.1 MB/s but the best I could ever squeeze out of mine is 4.6 using an ACA1230 @ 56 Mhz, my Apollo 1260 managed about 4.3 MB/s but my Blizzard is down to 3.9 MB/s.

Oh well, still better than the crappy 1.9 MB/s standard IDE speed

Ha, pretty much what I expected.  I think part of my issue are the cables, they seem... spotty a bit.  Didn't have any luck at all until I tried the cable that was attached to the old girl.

slaapliedje

P.S.  As a side note... I know it's SUPPOSED to be silent... but I swear I can still hear a clicking noise when the CF is loading...

[danbeaver]

Are you using a 133 cable (my board came with an ASUS, like I didn't already have several) that has the 80 lines?  The wires on this type of cable are thinner, but twice as many to protect the signal.

[slaapliedje]

Yup, same here.  Asus cable, and yeah, though the other 80 pin one that I have seemed more stable.  I also have several Asus ones laying around somewhere.  They have awesome motherboards.

slaapliedje