A1200 Slow Boot

[rockape]

Hi save2600,

Wish someone would solve an issue I've had for years on one of my A2000's with a SCSI CD-ROM. Delay is damn near 30 seconds before the computer finally boots. SCSI is terminated properly as is the CD drive and I've tried every configuration under the sun contrary to common sense, logic or not. Using an A2091 card with 7.0 ROMS too. WTF? If I keep a CD in the drive, the computer boots much faster, but not as fast as it is "supposed" to for an Amiga.

See  http://wonkity.com/~wblock/SCSI/SCSIExamples.html

Quote

"Since most Amiga controllers scan the SCSI bus for bootable devices starting with address 0 and proceeding to address 7, it is advised that you assign address 0 to the boot hard drive, and set "HiID" or "LastDrive" to "On" for this drive in the Rigid Disk Block (RDB).

This will prevent the system from looking for other hard drives with a higher boot priority, making for the quickest booting possible, and preventing the system from trying to boot off of a higher-numbered CD-ROM drive. (Check the Aminet disk/misc directory for RDB utility programs.)"

Off topic but I hope this helps.


Regards, Michael

aka rockape

[save2600]

Thanks rockape, you're a genius! Even though the unit # was 0, needed to set LastDisk to YES in the RDB. I was off on my estimate too, system used to take about 50 seconds to boot (cold), now only takes about 17 seconds cold or 12 seconds warm!   :banana:

(Sorry OP for the off-topicness)

[scuzzb494]

This is normal, the 3.0 Kickstart has a large reset delay to give any attached hard drive time to spin up. When the A1200 was designed back in 1992, hard drives took a long time to spin up.

As already stated in this thread, if you add a hard drive, the reset cycle will complete much quicker.

I remember bring freaked out by the huge reset delay when I first switched my A1200 on (23 years ago almost to the day!), after having just upgraded from an A500.

Sadly in this case it's not normal. The boot from cold to get to the disk insert screen is way way too long. Had it been it's normal cycle I wouldn't have posted here.

I was only reflecting yesterday on the age of my first 1200. My original A1200 is 22 years old next month. Bought for £550 back in November 1993 as part of a Desktop Dynamite pack and fitted with an 80MB hard drive. Still used daily and currently running in the workshop though now with external SCSI drives, CD, ZIP connected via the SCSI KIT on the Blizzard. Still using the original Microvitec monitor. I did order the machine with an Amiga monitor, and even paid a £50 deposit. Sadly Commodore went bust and I couldn't get a monitor for love nor money at the time.

Anyway... the faulty computer will be fitted with a 2.5" when I can find one. I did fit a 2.5" to another A1200 this week and that's been a dream though the floppy decided to play up. Never a dull day. Been like that since I bought my first ZX81... which I also still have and was working last time I fired her up. Don't you just love computers.

This is my ZX81... I actually fitted a proper button press keyboard rather than the flush type that was really annoying.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/a_scuzz_oct02/a_scuzz_oct10_44.jpg

You can see the flush type keys on the box image.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/a_scuzz_oct02/a_scuzz_oct10_42.jpg

And here is my original Desktop Dynamite box. You can just read the 80MB on the label. I still have the original 80MB drive. Sadly I bust a pin trying to fit it the wrong way round in an MTEC external casing. Broke my heart. Never mind.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/boxes/a211_box07.jpg

And this is my A1200 which will be 22 next month. Has worked without fault for all those years. Amazing really. Nothing but nothing has gone wrong... touch wood.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/my_amiga_large.jpg

All the best.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I noticed you had this picture on your website:

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/car_m2015_03/car0615270.jpg

Is it this A1200?  What is the motherboard mod seen in the picture?  Could your issues somehow be related?

[Blizz1220]

If you mean yellow/green wire it was shipped that way , not a mod.

Mine has one , so did most ones I saw.And it still works for decades :roflmao:

[scuzzb494]

I noticed you had this picture on your website:

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/car_m2015_03/car0615270.jpg

Is it this A1200?  What is the motherboard mod seen in the picture?  Could your issues somehow be related?

I believe that is an A1200 sitting on the bench awaiting a floppy drive. Not the one in question. I have like over 25 A1200s so tricky sometimes working out which one is which. I have seen quite a few mods to 1200s over the years. I discovered a very strange one the other day just south of the PCMCIA which was busted on a machine.

The motherboard probably came from this old tower that was faulty....

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/a_scuzz_jan05/a_scuzz_feb10_01.jpg

I swapped the boards out at the time and may have left it out. Dunno, I have a load of motherboards. For some reason it found its way back into a case and when I tested was working.

My cardboard Amiga [ joking ]

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz185.htm

The computer that has the slow boot has become the games machine for a while, mostly Chaos Engine at the moment. Without the hard drive no great issues. Working without fault. Have my A2000D and A4000D on test at the moment and they are working.

I think I am starting to realise that its hard drives on stored machines that are going to kill the collection. I am now going to have to put them on rotation to make sure they are all still working.

[AmiDude]

That happens when you're hoarding  so much Amiga's...