ARGH!!!! NO NO NO!

[Nick]

Hello

This could be VERY VERY bad! VERY bad indeed! So bad
that......Anyway.This is bad.....Maybe!?

Last night I was doing something in ImageFX. When
all of a sudden it crashed. Nothing unusual really as ImageFX
isn`t the most stable of programs. Thing is its not returned. I
can`t get it to boot. It sometimes starts to boot and gets to use
my BVision to display the usual stuff just before it loads
Workbench + DOpus. It stops in one of 3 different places when it does get there though. It always
does at least a yellow alert guru message. This is annoying the hell out of me. It used to (as in
this morning) be able to boot from my OS3.0 FD. Also I could do no startup sequence this morning
too. This has also become impossible as when it gets the the CLI it either goes black or/and shows a
red alert guru. I`am about to do some drastic unplugging now. I did a check on a partition and it
came up with no errors. This was only a hunch as when it can be bothered to boot partially it does
complain about not being able to find a directory. This was a futile attempt really. DOH!

Has anybody else had this type of problem? I bet somebody has, but I bet it could have easily been
for a completely different reason. I have been given no specific errors. No Invalid partitions or HD
errors. No device problems (not that it tells me anyway). I haven`t installed anything big lately.
Nothing which hasn`t been tested already anyway.

Anybody have any clues?I NEED help. This is at a VERY bad time! I`m about 1hr away from completing a
project. BAD timing as I don`t have a backup of it either. That has only just dawned on me. I only
have an old backup of it. OH THIS COULD BE VERY BAD!

Oh I`m starting to get VERY worried now. This is about 2GB of work. Im not sure if that includes the
400mb of old (and quite pointless stuff I have on CD already). Basically this has to work or I`m
dead!

Thanks

[whabang]

What kind of setup do you have?
Have you tried to remove/swap some of your RAM?

[Nick]

I haven`t taken anything out yet. I`m going to after I`ve been on here for a bit. I`m not looking forward to this!

[whabang]

OK here's some general troubleshooting tips from a tech support guy:

1) Check inside th computer to see if anything is loose. If so, put it back.

2) Check the temperature of the CPU. 030's and 040's can get incredible hot and your present cooling system may have failed.. ( Dunno about 060's, though )

3) Check all socketed chips and IC's for chip creep.

4) Check your RAM. It can cause more trouble than you think.

5)Finally, if everything else fails, try to remove anything that can be removed. Does it boot? If so, reinstall the disconnected HW piece by piece until the the computer stops working...

Hope that it'll help a bit...

whabang wrote:
What kind of setup do you have?
Have you tried to remove/swap some of your RAM?

Afore you start tearing things apart too much
you might try holding down both mouse buttons
as you turn on the power and try booting without
a startup sequence.  I've had it happen that some
file either start-sequence or user-startup runs
gets corrupted and completly blows up the startup.

If it boots okay without startup sequences then
comment out any likely suspects and reboot with
them, repeat as needed.

A problem I have from time to time is the firmware
on my CyberStorm PPC card.  Every now and then
it just doesn't want to boot.  I can usually kick it in
the butt by bringing up the firmware menu, not change anything then reboot it.

Luck!

Bob :-)

[Mad-Matt]

This problem is now happening on my BlizzPPC, but is entirly my fault.

Ive clocked the 68k and although i have a few fans keeping it cool, its obviously burning up on the inside.  Im lucky if the system boots, but with the case of system seems to work for a few hours ok.

It seems the clock cristal that i put in is a bit dodgy as sometimes it needs abit of a pull to get sys to come on (connection inside the xtal cassing bad) thats what i get for using second hand parts

Memory is another factor, i have to use 70ns mode in formware prefs else i get ramlib crashes n allsorts

eventualy ill get round to putting old xtal back in, but i hate soldering, especially with the fine work needed on these cards

matt
-------

[Nick]

PHEW with a capital "F"! I did an almost complete rebuilt which took me all day. So much for that last hour or so on this project. I`m about ready for bed now. I can`t be bothered now.

I took it to bits and introduced bits here and there. Strangely when I gave it my bootable HD it
took a few resets before it agreed and booted with HD, FD or even no startup. The same goes for my
other HD. After a couple of reboots it worked. After that it was a matter of plugging in my IDE stuff
and then my other stuff. All up and running again. I don`t want that again. Neither does my keyboard
and desk as it took a brunt of my anger. The sliding shelf isn`t as smooth as it used to be. Thanks
to who ever made these keys easy to clip back on. :-D

Thanks guys. Thanks for the help. I hope this never happens again!

[yssing]

a suggestion.. rip your HD out of your AMiGA and plug it into to a PC and mount it using WinUAE, then copy all your files...

/Frederik

[L8-X]

Phew! Glad you`ve got it sorted out mate! :-D

#1 rule.....backup!!!!

 :-D  :-D  :-D

[KennyR]

a suggestion.. rip your HD out of your AMiGA and plug it into to a PC and mount it using WinUAE, then copy all your files...

And lose the ability to use PPC and 3D accelerated games and apps? WinUAE plays old games and demos, it's no subsitute for a PPC Amiga.

[KennyR]

Hi Nick,

I'm glad you fixed it. It sounded like just a software problem - a corrupted library or something. If you can get to the bootmenu on a BVision, generally there's nothing wrong with it.

In all cases I would try booting with no startup-sequence and manually run each step until I find the problem.

[yssing]

And lose the ability to use PPC and 3D accelerated games and apps? WinUAE plays old games and demos, it's no subsitute for a PPC Amiga.

Yeah I know that... But is was meant as a backup way, some sort of last solution to get the files back...

BTW MESA runs fine on WinUAE...

[gnarly]

I think he meant copy it all to the PC disk for backup :-)

[yssing]

I think he meant copy it all to the PC disk for backup

Yes I did :-)
It works fine for me...

[Nick]

OUCH! my hand hurts!

Yes folks its back. Its gone bad again. It has always complained about not being about to find a directory in one of my partitions.
It has started to boot again in OS3.0 from FD. I boot from there and use my RAM for the extra libraries commands etc, to run some stuff. Anyway.
I, as a test tried to rename that directory. It complained about an error. I then thought "got you!". I did various moving of files around and formats.
Thats after finding no errors with a thorough scan first. That didn`t work either.

Thing is if it were software would it go bad for a while then mend its selfto torment me so much? I`m not sure. This is I can access my HD via OS3.0. It just won`t boot.
Tomorrow I`m going to try and format my OS partition (thank god I backed it up a couple of weeks ago!) and copy across OS3.0. If it boots then it could be software, I suppose.

As for backing up stuff onto a PC? I like the way you guys say these things so casually like everybody on here has exactly the same hardware. Our only PC isn`t mine and its a Windows98 laptop.
Also I don`t know how you can entrust your data to such a device. :-D I have backed up most of my project. Problem is I didn`t get chance to put THE very latest version on a CD. Its only on a zip250.
The first thing I could copy it onto at the time, when I got it going. I`m much less worried about losing it, but still I`d like it on a CD.

This better be sorted soon, as my hand has a nice cut on a knuckle from hitting my keyboard. Strange as no keys came off today, and I hit it MUCH harder!