CF card reader no longer recognising CF card

AndyC

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AmiBayer
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Jul 16, 2008
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United Kingdom
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Fife
Looking for a little help folks. I've been happily using a PCMCIA CF card reader with a Transcend 8gb card to transfer files between my PC and Amiga for a few years now.

I replaced my ACA1233n card with a Blizzard 1260 on Thursday, installed the MMU libs and made the necessary changes to my startup-sequence to get it running.

I went to use the CF card but, nothing. The card isn't being recognised (no disk present in device cf0).


It can still be read on the PC side, and it worked before so I don't think it's a compatibility issue. The PCMCIA slot itself is working as I was able to get back online with the wireless LAN card. A visual inspection of the pins in the PCMCIA slot didn't indicate a problem, as did an inspection of the pins inside the card reader.

I've tried disabling the Blizzard, booting with no startup sequence and manually mounting the device. No joy either. I've also tried using the cf-rescue-disk, but to no avail.

Prepcard recognises a card is present, but if I try to format the device, it also doesn't recognise a card is inserted. I also reinstalled the CF card drivers (most recent version from Aminet) but that didn't help either.

Are the readers themselves susceptible to failure? As that's the only think I can think it is.

If anyone here has any experience of this I'd be grateful for any assistance - I've got nothing!


Thanks in advance!

 
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Have you perhaps bent a pin on the adapter or motherboard? They're pretty delicate.

Prep card is for preparing SRAM cards as system memory so not used in this situation.

Assume you still have the CFD driver installed and FAT32 file system?
 
Hi Steve,

I've visually checked the pins on the port and the reader itself. The wireless LAN card is working fine too, so I'd expect that to be having issues with any bent pins etc (see below):

WhatsApp Image 2020-05-24 at 21.01.17.jpg WhatsApp Image 2020-05-24 at 21.03.32.jpg

Most recent CFD driver and FAT32 are both installed - the only change to the system was swapping out the ACA for the Blizzard...

Very puzzling!

AndyC
 
Hate to mention the obvious, but if you put the old accellerator back in, does it work again?
 
Hi,

The ACA is all packaged up and ready to post to its new owner today.

Let me see if I can give it a try.

Cheers,

AndyC
 
If it does work with the old accelerator and not without any (or the Blizzard disabled) that would be a strange situation unless the ACA is correcting some kind of timing issue?

Also the MUI Libs, might be worth commenting out anything from your startup sequence and see if that is the cause. Or create a boot disk with just the CF card drivers and see if transfers work that way.
 
So,

I removed the Blizzard and the hard disk and booted from the CF-rescue disk - success, the CF card was visible and browsable in Workbench. I then added the HD back in, did the same and could still read the CF card.

When I reinserted the Blizzard and booted into the CF-rescue disk, no joy - the card doesn't appear in Workbench, and if I try to go to CF0: in shell, it says no disk in device CF0:.

To recap:

- The card reader is working without the blizzard connected, so we can conclude the reader isn't faulty
- I didn't see the need to reconnect the ACA 1233n given the above
- We can also conclude that the PCMCIA port is OK
- The CF reader does not work with the Blizzard inserted

I have also considered that my power supply may not be up to the task. I'm using an old A500+ power brick, but I have also tried my A1200 power brick to no avail.

In terms of peripherals connected, I have:

- CF Card IDE Adapter with 8Gb CF card fitted
- Indivision AGA Mk2Cr
- Blizzard 1260 with 128Mb SIMM

AndyC

- - - Updated - - -

I think my reply crossed with yours.

The CF-Rescue disk has a simple startup-sequence that mounts CF0: and loads the required libraries for the CF card reader.

It's a 1D4 board with no timing fixes that I'm aware of...

If it does work with the old accelerator and not without any (or the Blizzard disabled) that would be a strange situation unless the ACA is correcting some kind of timing issue?

Also the MUI Libs, might be worth commenting out anything from your startup sequence and see if that is the cause. Or create a boot disk with just the CF card drivers and see if transfers work that way.
 
In my experience, ACA cards can be very forgiving as it's been designed into them in regards to board timings. Blizzards IMO require more precision so timing fixes and a cap replacement should always be top of the things-to-do list.

Are the power supplies you have there the lightweight or heavy versions? Having the heavier ones make a BIG difference when it comes to the more power demanding add-on's such as 1260's.
 
Hi there,

I've been using the 500+ PSU, but I have a refurbished A1200 PSU as well. I've just tried a Meanwell RT65B with no success.

I've also tried with the maprom jumper fitted and removed.

I'm getting really weird behaviour now - previously if I deactivated the card on bootup, it made no difference. But now, if I do that, I can see the CF card in Workbench, and it will read from it, but only if I take it out and put it back into the reader. And even then, the system hangs if I double click on the icon, until I take it out and put it back in again, at which point it comes back to life.

Bizarre!

AndyC
 
I see from the MMULibs archive contents list that there are ACA specific and non-ACA configuration files within ENVARC ... Do you have the correct one loaded when you have swapped cards to the Blizzard?
 
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Which AmigaOS do you use? If it is AmigaOS 3.1, try to set the maxtransfer rate to 00x01fe00 and copy the driver cfd and FAT95.
If this doesn't work, then try a Sandisk as CF in the PCMCIA card reader.
 
Do you have cardreset installed? I think the ACA was doing this for you and the manually removing the card and replacing is also doing this routine, add cardreset to your startup sequence, hopefully this will help.

http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/CardReset
 
There's one MMU-Configuration file in ENV-Archive - I've had a look at it, and most of it is commented out. I'm not seeing any other files that relate to the Blizzard.

Reading the MMULib docs, it appears you can substitute the MMU 060 library with the Phase 5 one if you experience difficulties. It works fine with MMUlib. I'll give that a shot.

Cheers,

AndyC

I see from the MMULibs archive contents list that there are ACA specific and non-ACA configuration files within ENVARC ... Do you have the correct one loaded when you have swapped cards to the Blizzard?

- - - Updated - - -

Hi there,

I'm on OS 3.9 - where would I set the maxtransfer rate?

CFD and FAT95 are installed. The CF card I have is an 8Gb Transcend, which is compatible, and has been in regular use for 2+ years.

Cheers,

AndyC

Which AmigaOS do you use? If it is AmigaOS 3.1, try to set the maxtransfer rate to 00x01fe00 and copy the driver cfd and FAT95.
If this doesn't work, then try a Sandisk as CF in the PCMCIA card reader.

- - - Updated - - -

Hi Steve,

Cardpatch and Cardreset are running in the startup-sequence.

I'm going to try the Phase5 060 library to see if that works.

Cheers,

AndyC

Do you have cardreset installed? I think the ACA was doing this for you and the manually removing the card and replacing is also doing this routine, add cardreset to your startup sequence, hopefully this will help.

http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/CardReset
 
So, the Phase5 060 library didn't make any difference.

Still flummoxed!

Would the cardreset/ cardpatch combo do the same as a hardware fix? I'm contemplating ordering the fix that attaches to the gayle chip...

Cheers,

AndyC
 
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