Classic Workbench; Problems with aca1233 accelerator.

[paul1981]

You had it working in post #61. From there all that needed to be done was to add the acatune line to the beginning of the Startup-Sequence. It's annoying for me and Mike as well as we've put efforts in to help and still haven't managed to help you yet!

[paul1981]

I see. Yes from floppy. I can only boot from floppy now it seems. When i copied the acatune to the C directory, this happened, after i did a soft reset.
I was checking to see if the other mem would disappear after a reset.

No clue, maybe some confliction with classic wb?

Please boot from your Workbench floppy. Go into Workbench3.0 and then into Utilities, then load the program 'Multiview'. A file requester will appear. Press Volumes and go into drive DH0: ... then drawer 'S' ... then double click the file 'Startup-Sequence'. I'd like to see it.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I'm sure a more experienced user could fix this in like, five minutes, if it was in front of them.  Did you buy the card pre-configured from someone?  Was it cheap?  You may just want to buy another one, and this time make NO CHANGES to it, other than to put the acatune command as the first line in the startup-sequence.

Heck, if it wasn't so expensive and time consuming, I'd almost say just mail me the CF card and I'll fix whatever you've got going on there.    Suffice it to say, I think one of those settings you accidentally changed messed up the startup of the thing.  And it probably is something really, really simple.  But really hard to diagnose via forums.  Man do I miss user's groups.  

Do you have any spare CF cards and set of Workbench disks perchance?

[paul1981]

My battery is about dead so will have to call it a night. Push comes to shove you can post me your CF card and I will fix it for you if necessary, so all is not lost.

[wrath of khan]

Please boot from your Workbench floppy. Go into Workbench3.0 and then into Utilities, then load the program 'Multiview'. A file requester will appear. Press Volumes and go into drive DH0: ... then drawer 'S' ... then double click the file 'Startup-Sequence'. I'd like to see it.

j

[wrath of khan]

I'm sure a more experienced user could fix this in like, five minutes, if it was in front of them.  Did you buy the card pre-configured from someone?  Was it cheap?  You may just want to buy another one, and this time make NO CHANGES to it, other than to put the acatune command as the first line in the startup-sequence.

Heck, if it wasn't so expensive and time consuming, I'd almost say just mail me the CF card and I'll fix whatever you've got going on there.    Suffice it to say, I think one of those settings you accidentally changed messed up the startup of the thing.  And it probably is something really, really simple.  But really hard to diagnose via forums.  Man do I miss user's groups.  

Do you have any spare CF cards and set of Workbench disks perchance?

This is the one http://my.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MyEbay&gbh=1&CurrentPage=MyeBayWon&ssPageName=STRK:ME:LNLK:MEWNX
It cost me 70 euros in total. So not cheap. If all else fails I will send it to Paul.

[paul1981]

j

The ACATune line looks good. PM me and I'll reply with my postal address if you want me to sort it out for you. Like Mike says, I'm sure it's something simple that is wrong but hard for a novice to see. I'm on holiday in 8 days time however, so will need posting immediately and first class.

Is it still not booting at all from the CF drive? Or does it boot but go to a black screen?

[wrath of khan]

The ACATune line looks good. PM me and I'll reply with my postal address if you want me to sort it out for you. Like Mike says, I'm sure it's something simple that is wrong but hard for a novice to see. I'm on holiday in 8 days time however, so will need posting immediately and first class.

Is it still not booting at all from the CF drive? Or does it boot but go to a black screen?

Yup, it boots and then alternates between a black screen and a brown screen several times and then finally goes to a black screen.
Edit. I'll have to open the miggy up to take out the card, so i should check if it came loose, though i doubt it. Failing that I'll send it your way.

I need to untangle my brain after a long days work; I'll break out the screwdriver later.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Well that is no bueno at all.  But it boots fine off floppy disk still?

[wrath of khan]

Well that is no bueno at all.  But it boots fine off floppy disk still?

Yep. It boots from floppy fine.

[paul1981]

Yup, it boots and then alternates between a black screen and a brown screen several times and then finally goes to a black screen.
Edit. I'll have to open the miggy up to take out the card, so i should check if it came loose, though i doubt it. Failing that I'll send it your way.

I need to untangle my brain after a long days work; I'll break out the screwdriver later.

You're saying it boots now, whereas before you said it was at the purple 'insert disk' type screen. Do you think then that putting the 'p' on the ACATune line to delay the startup is actually causing your black screen after it boots? If it is indeed booting from the hard drive now, try changing the ACATune line to just the basic option and cold boot:

C:ACATune >ram:acaoutput.txt

Or better still, before you do that just put a ';' at the beginning of the ACATune line so that it comments the line out (which means it will read the line as a comment and will not execute the ACATune command line). Your Startup-Sequence will then act as if the ACATune line isn't even there, so that we can see if you can boot correctly again without the ACATune line.

;C:ACATune -cache on - burst on....ETC

So, if booting from your Workbench floppy; to edit the CF Hard Drive Startup-Sequence you'd type 'ed dh0:s/startup-sequence' into a shell, or use the Execute Command in the Workbench menu.

[wrath of khan]

You're saying it boots now, whereas before you said it was at the purple 'insert disk' type screen. Do you think then that putting the 'p' on the ACATune line to delay the startup is actually causing your black screen after it boots? If it is indeed booting from the hard drive now, try changing the ACATune line to just the basic option and cold boot:

C:ACATune >ram:acaoutput.txt

Or better still, before you do that just put a ';' at the beginning of the ACATune line so that it comments the line out (which means it will read the line as a comment and will not execute the ACATune command line). Your Startup-Sequence will then act as if the ACATune line isn't even there, so that we can see if you can boot correctly again without the ACATune line.

;C:ACATune -cache on - burst on....ETC

So, if booting from your Workbench floppy; to edit the CF Hard Drive Startup-Sequence you'd type 'ed dh0:s/startup-sequence' into a shell, or use the Execute Command in the Workbench menu.

Ok. I accessed the startup sequence via the shell, having booted from floppy. I removed the "P". I then turned the power brick off and then back on. It now goes straight to the insert floppy disc screen. There was no hardrive activity at all.

One curious thing, and Ive double checked, If put the W.B 3.1 floppy in the drive and then power on at the brick, It boots into the cf hardrive desktop.
Here the W.B 3.1 floppy icon is selectable. If I attempt to load anything via the cf desktop it says programs/tools not found etc. Here i can access the cfcard startup sequence via the w.b 3.1 floppy.

However, if I turn on the amiga at the brick and then insert the W.B 3.1 floppy, it boots staright into the W.B 3.1 floppy desktop. Here there is no visible sign of the cf desktop. Strange.
And here i cannot access the cfcard startup sequence via the w.b 3.1 floppy.

And yes indeed, adding the ";" to the startup sequence has fixed the cf card. Its working fine again. Damn good thinking chap!

But we are back to the same problem...I have to manually add the other mem via the maprom * command.

Perhaps the acatune startup command would have to be placed somewhere else in the startup sequence. Perhaps classic workbench is
loading something else first? Or there is some kind of confliction?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

And yes indeed, adding the ";" to the startup sequence has fixed the cf card. Its working fine again. Damn good thinking chap!

Perhaps the acatune startup command would have to be placed somewhere else in the startup sequence. Perhaps classic workbench is
loading something else first? Or there is some kind of confliction?

adding the ";" semi-colon to the startup-sequence hasn't fixed anything. All it does is disable the command from running. Basically you're right back to square one again.

ACATune needs to be run as the first line in startup-sequence. It just has to. Well, I suppose it could be run later, but then you're loosing most of the benefits of the thing in the first place. I'm still going to go with "You have an incompatibility with ClassicWB" here, on this one. In one of your earlier screenshots you posted a picture of the first portion of your startup-sequence. This looks absolutely nothing like a normal Amiga startup-sequence should look, and included the line:

C:Execute S:Maxmem-Sequence

I have no idea what that is. Never heard of it, and is just one possible source of your compatibility issues.

Now personally I've never used ClassicWB and I never would. I think it's absolute rubbish, but that's just my .02 cents, I'm pretty opinionated about this stuff. I think you could get everything working perfectly if you went with a normal installation of Workbench. But barring that, you might want to start googling terms like "classicWB issues with ACA card". Maybe someone else has already had this same problem and there's an answer posted somewhere?

[wrath of khan]

adding the ";" semi-colon to the startup-sequence hasn't fixed anything. All it does is disable the command from running. Basically you're right back to square one again.

ACATune needs to be run as the first line in startup-sequence. It just has to. Well, I suppose it could be run later, but then you're loosing most of the benefits of the thing in the first place. I'm still going to go with "You have an incompatibility with ClassicWB" here, on this one. In one of your earlier screenshots you posted a picture of the first portion of your startup-sequence. This looks absolutely nothing like a normal Amiga startup-sequence should look, and included the line:

C:Execute S:Maxmem-Sequence

I have no idea what that is. Never heard of it, and is just one possible source of your compatibility issues.

Now personally I've never used ClassicWB and I never would. I think it's absolute rubbish, but that's just my .02 cents, I'm pretty opinionated about this stuff. I think you could get everything working perfectly if you went with a normal installation of Workbench. But barring that, you might want to start googling terms like "classicWB issues with ACA card". Maybe someone else has already had this same problem and there's an answer posted somewhere?

No luck googling...Perhaps i could message the e-bay seller, it was he who set up the card in the first place. Worth a try?

Lol. Googling "classic workbench issues with aca1233" brings up this thread...circular hilarity.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

No luck googling...Perhaps i could message the e-bay seller, it was he who set up the card in the first place. Worth a try?

Couldn't hurt I suppose.  Tell him you're trying to modify the startup-sequence to add the ACAtune command but after it's added the system won't boot.  What you need is someone who's an expert at both ClassicWB and that particular piece of hardware that you own, however.  I'm surprised there's not more ClassicWB users chiming in here.  Maybe they've all been scared off by the length of this thread, lol.  

[paul1981]

And yes indeed, adding the ";" to the startup sequence has fixed the cf card. Its working fine again. Damn good thinking chap!

But we are back to the same problem...I have to manually add the other mem via the maprom * command.

Perhaps the acatune startup command would have to be placed somewhere else in the startup sequence. Perhaps classic workbench is
loading something else first? Or there is some kind of confliction?

It's good news that your system is still working after using the ';' to comment out the line. I did say though to try this afterwards (in your Startup-Sequence):

C:ACATune >ram:acaoutput.txt

This will simply add the extra memory at every boot.  So try that, and see if that works. We'll take it from there.

P.S. The maprom feature is nothing to do with adding the extra memory.