A3000T Help

[don27dog]

I finally got around to replacing the blown power supply in my 3000T with an ATX power supply. All seemed to go well until I tried to boot. I hear the HD spin up but I have a black screen staring back at me. After a couple of tries I went into early startup and sure enough the hard drive was there. I then tried booting with no start up sequence. When I type loadwb I get a system request saying "please insert volume ENV in any drive". I click retry several times to no avail. Click cancel and I am stuck at a command prompt. I then try two or three more HD's and another controller with the same results. I then booted to workbench off a 3.1 floppy and sure enough the HD shows and I can access all the files. After playing around for a few hours I am getting no where so I format another drive and do a fresh install of 3.1. Everything installs smoothly but when I try to reboot of the HD same results. Black screen. One more time boot with no startup sequence same system request saying "please insert volume ENV in any drive". I click cancel this time and WB loads but I have no ram I reload off 3.1 floppy and I am showing 2 megs graphics and 8 megs other. I am open to any ideas as I am stumped.

[Motormouth]

Is there a problem with one of the 12 volt lines???   How is the ATX power supply adapted?
Do all of the expansion boards show up in early startup?

Is the mediator's power input set up properly ?

[don27dog]

I checked all voltages with multimeter before I connecting to the MB. Have not tested under load. All expansions show under early start up but I have stripped every one out with the exception of GVP SCSI controller. I have also tried booting from fastATA controller with same symptoms.

[SACC-guy]

When you set the drive for the 3.1 install, did you check the bootable box???

Just for my info, Why the gvp scsi controllor, why not the on board scsi?

[Motormouth]

... Have not tested under load. ...

I would try to test under load, and feel if the connectors on the ATX adapter ends (either the motherboard side or ATX side) are getting hot.  This may seem like a little thing but this could be something as simple as a continuity problem.

Also do you have another ATX power supple to try?  Some of the older or  cheaper supplies have issues with proper voltage or noisy voltage.  I don't know how sensitive the A3000T motherboard would be.

I also suggest looking for blown Caps on the A3000T.  The old power supply may have damaged a cap or two when it blew.

[Amiga_CDTV]

Good job on the PSU, I am also running my A3000T on an ATX supply.

Depending on which SCSI controller(s) you use, you should see if they are all terminated properly.

You can 'assign env: ram:' before loadwb to get pass that requester.

[don27dog]

When you set the drive for the 3.1 install, did you check the bootable box???

Just for my info, Why the gvp scsi controllor, why not the on board scsi?

I am using the GVP controller because it has 8 megs of ram onboard. Years ago I tried adding zipram to the motherboard and either the ram is faulty or I don't have it configured properly but either way the machine has booted for years without the onboard zips.

Yes all drives I have been trying are checked as bootable and show in early startup as bootable.

[don27dog]

I would try to test under load, and feel if the connectors on the ATX adapter ends (either the motherboard side or ATX side) are getting hot.  This may seem like a little thing but this could be something as simple as a continuity problem.

Also do you have another ATX power supple to try?  Some of the older or  cheaper supplies have issues with proper voltage or noisy voltage.  I don't know how sensitive the A3000T motherboard would be.

I also suggest looking for blown Caps on the A3000T.  The old power supply may have damaged a cap or two when it blew.

I will check caps when I get home tonight. The original power supply died when two cards connected to the mediator shorted against each other.

[don27dog]

Good job on the PSU, I am also running my A3000T on an ATX supply.

Depending on which SCSI controller(s) you use, you should see if they are all terminated properly.

You can 'assign env: ram:' before loadwb to get pass that requester.

I will try assigning env again tonight but I think I have tried that already. What I can't figure out is I have ram when I boot from floppy but when I boot from HD memory is gone.

[scuzzb494]

I have my inch thick 3000T A4 Service Manual here dated July 91. It is obviously for a stock 3000T though expansions are discussed. Nothing appears to discuss your issue though I will have a further look.

Probably not related, but, I have two A3000Ts and have taken the battery off both. I don't use either though a comment was made when I did this that the battery did serve some functionality other than a clock. I have no idea to be honest, I was more worried about battery damage. Just a thought.... thinking about where data maybe stored to keep the system operational. Others would know better.

When I get some time I may scan the manual and stick it on the website.

Good luck.

[Amiga_CDTV]

There are some SCSI controller settings that are stored in the battery backed-up memory. There is a prefs util (SCSIPrefsMUI) to set those and it will also tell if the settings have been lost due to a battery fail.

On my board the battery is removed but I soldered in a pin header where I connected an external battery (fitted into the side of the case).

[dschallock]

Did you used to have another scsi device attached to the end of the chain?  It's possible that if you did the termination is not present anymore.  I use a warpengine with the scsi controller.  I have a CDRom at the end of the chain with a big ol' physical terminator at the end.  When I boot up with the CDROM turned on everything boots fine.  If I turn on the system with the CDROM turned off I get nothing.  Then if I boot from a floppy I can see the drives (like you described) but it won't boot from them unless the CDROM is attached and "on" at the end of the chain.  In my case I believe this to be a termination issue.  Have you looked into termination on your chain?

[SACC-guy]

I am using the GVP controller because it has 8 megs of ram onboard. Years ago I tried adding zipram to the motherboard and either the ram is faulty or I don't have it configured properly but either way the machine has booted for years without the onboard zips.

Yes all drives I have been trying are checked as bootable and show in early startup as bootable.

Did you ever re-visit the memory install on the motherboard? Do you want to?
The zip memory on the 3000 was considered the fastest memory on any of the amigas.

While the zorro memory worked, it isn't the fastest.

Maybe we (amiga.org) could help you get it working?

[mechy]

Did you ever re-visit the memory install on the motherboard? Do you want to?
The zip memory on the 3000 was considered the fastest memory on any of the amigas.

While the zorro memory worked, it isn't the fastest.

Maybe we (amiga.org) could help you get it working?

Here here: using zorro2 mem in a z3 machine downright cripples it speed wise. its horrible. not to mention the onboard 3k scsi is faster than the gvp scsi, again citing the zorro2 bottleneck.

best to populate either the zip ram and or get a good accelerator with onboard memory.

[mechy]

Did you remember to set the jumper so it gets the tick signal from video instead of the psu when you changed to a atx?

check the psu under load at the motherboard connector, its easy to insert multimeter probes in the back of the connector. use any of the blue wires for ground probe.

It sounds like a bad workbench install to me,since you duplicate the problem each time. make sure maxtransfer is set right,although most scsi controllers seem to handle this regardless.

Do all the drives have the same filesystem? ffs,sfs,pfs?

Termination could cause the odd behavior,but hard to say since you have this trouble on multiple drives.