A4000 in a tower issues

[tonyvdb]

Hi everyone, its been at least a couple years since Ive been on here and my A4000 has been sitting almost that long without use.

Today I turned it on and I get the Inovision screen (I have the video adapter that clips directly on the video chip so I can display on a normal LCD monitor) but after that nothing. it stays black. The keyboard works as I can use the three finger solute to reboot.  

I did the "hold both mouse buttons down" trick and I do get the boot options screen. If I also boot from a workbench disk i do get access to the other drive I have on board. I can hear both drives spin up.

A little more history with my machine:
I put it in a tower and have a video toaster flyer installed (SCSI drives are in a separate tower), I have a board that comes off the original zorrow slots and allows the cards to sit properly in the tower (I dont remeber the name of this board).

I hope not to spend money to get this going again but if I have to replace the drive then so be it.

Thanks for your help

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I did the "hold both mouse buttons down" trick and I do get the boot options screen. If I also boot from a workbench disk i do get access to the other drive I have on board. I can hear both drives spin up.

So if I understand correctly, if you boot from a Workbench disk you're able to boot normally?

[tonyvdb]

So if I understand correctly, if you boot from a Workbench disk you're able to boot normally?

Yes but I dont see the OS drive show up just the secondary drive.

[danbeaver]

Have you taken it apart and tried to diagnose it from the component level?  Using motherboard, floppy and one hard drive?  Then once working at the basic level, added back each piece until you found the one that needs cleaning/chips reseated/replacement?

Someone will suggest your PSU is defective and the motherboard capacitors need replacing at some point, too.

[tonyvdb]

The Power supply is a newer ATX 400watt unit that I retrofitted to work on the A4000.

[danbeaver]

So you have checked it at the base level?  And it only asks for a floppy?

[tonyvdb]

no, I guess I need to do that first. Its been so long Ive forgotten how to trouble shoot this machine.

[tonyvdb]

Ok, I disconnected all drives and including the CDrom and yes I do get the 3.1rom screen asking for a floppy.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

If it boots and works normally off of a floppy disk, then your problem is probably somewhere in the software on your boot drive, or that the boot drive has become faulty over time. Can you boot with no startup-sequence (by holding down both mouse buttons) and accessing DH0: that way?
 
 Edit: just saw your other comment about the OS drive not showing up.  Have you checked all the cables to it?

[tonyvdb]

If I connect the drive only the HD led flashes as its accessing something but the screen stays blank, If I plug the CDrom drive the HD led stays solid but I suspect its because the os is not loading the ASIM CDFS software?
No change if I force it to boot off the drive

[danbeaver]

Sounds like a eulogy is in order.

[tonyvdb]

so a dead drive I guess? now comes the fun part. finding an IDE drive LOL

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

so a dead drive I guess? now comes the fun part. finding an IDE drive LOL

Sounds like.  It happens.  I got frustrated and stopped using Amiga's for almost 10 years when all of my hard drives died at the same time in early 2003, taking with them my entire software collection from the '90s.    Any chance of testing the drive in another Amiga, or through WinUAE?  That's one way to make 100% sure.

[tonyvdb]

I do have Amiga forever on my PC is winUAE part of that? I regret selling my CyberstormPPC and its SCSI controller, was much more reliable.

[amigadave]

I do have Amiga forever on my PC is winUAE part of that? I regret selling my CyberstormPPC and its SCSI controller, was much more reliable.

Yes, AmigaForever is based on WinUAE.