A1200 having issues with both PCMCIA/CF cards and SDBox

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dougal

dougal

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Hiya, long time not posted here. Got issues with my A1200 and PCMCIA Compact Flash and SDbox...

Lets start with the setup:

A1200 - Recapped with TF1230 accelerator and Kickstart 3.1
WB3.1 with ClassicWB installed (Freshly installed as I thought it may fix the issues)
DF0 Selecter to switch between external drive Gotek as DF0 or internal floppy as DF0: (Tried with this disconnected and connectd)
Compact Flash IDE drive 8GB
Stock A1200 PSU.

So, first the issue:

Compact Flash PCMCIA is detected but cannot read it. It gives me CF0:???? .. Cannot format using Amiga. Sometimes detects wrong size in the format option but regardless unusable and unable to format. Tried different cards and different adapters. Both adapters I tried never had issues before.

SDBox (plugged into Parallel Port)... Says SD0:???? and cannot format .. says not a DOS Disk. Cannot read. Worked fine in my A500.

FAT95 copied to L:
SDBox Driver copied to DEVS
Compactflash.device copied to DEVS
CF0: (including .info) copied to DEVS/DOS DRIVERS
SD0: (including .info) copied to DEVS/DOS DRIVERS

No other issues. Workbench works fine, Games work fine, Sound works fine, video is fine and even PCMCIA Wifi card works perfectly fine.

I tested the PSU measuring the 5V from the Amiga back side of the power connector and am getting 4.9ish volts. So I do not think this is the issue.

I've spent hours and hours and hours trying to fix this issue but I cannot. I cannot even tell if the issue is hardware or software related. I cannot be certain about the Compact Flash card as my known working on Amiga one had died (or so I thought and I threw it away). But the SDBox I know worked absolutely fine on my A500 using the same SD card.

I wonder if one of you Amiga Guru's would be able to give me some guidance.
 
Last edited:
ddni said:
have you checked that there are no bent pins in your PCMCIA port?
Click to expand...
I did not. But wouldn't that also affect the Wifi network card which is working perfectly fine in the PCMCIA slot ? It also doesn't explain the issue with SDBox
 
Suspect that your CF card has died but to confirm, try formatting it to FAT32 over on a pc.

If that fails, try using the DISKPART command on your pc to wipe all partition information and attempt to format again.

A word of caution: DISKPART can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing, so if in doubt ask.
 
Boing-ball said:
I take it you have checked the A1200 hardware with either ATK or DiagROM?
Click to expand...
I could do but I don't have the harness/s for certain tests

EDIT:

CIA TIMER TEST **ALL TESTS PASSED**
Serial Parellel - Need dongle
RTC - No Clock

No other interesting tests on Amiga Test Kit
 
Okay. So you are probably looking at a possible Gayle bug for the PCMCIA. There are clip on adapters to help fix this.

Have you tried the software fixes from Aminet Cardreset and card patch ?

Aminet - util/boot/CardReset.lha

aminet.net aminet.net

Aminet - util/boot/CardPatch.lha

aminet.net aminet.net

Normally the 2 are used for PCMCIA network cards. But may help.

Or as @miggymad has eluded to, it could be as simple as a faulty or incompatible CF or SD card.

As for the SDBox. Then perhaps a problem in hardware could be effecting both PCMCIA and Parallel operations.
 
Boing-ball said:
Okay. So you are probably looking at a possible Gayle bug for the PCMCIA. There are clip on adapters to help fix this.

Have you tried the software fixes from Aminet Cardreset and card patch ?

Aminet - util/boot/CardReset.lha

aminet.net aminet.net

Aminet - util/boot/CardPatch.lha

aminet.net aminet.net

Normally the 2 are used for PCMCIA network cards. But may help.

Or as @miggymad has eluded to, it could be as simple as a faulty or incompatible CF or SD card.

As for the SDBox. Then perhaps a problem in hardware could be effecting both PCMCIA and Parallel operations.
Click to expand...
I have a clip on adapter already for the fix.
 
Still no go. My A1200 refuses to read or format SDBox or PCMCIA CF cards. But the CF card (HDD) on the internal IDE works fine. Everything else is working. Both SD0 and CF0 show up as ????

CARDS Tried:

Aliexpress 128MB Compact Flash Card (Looks like same branding as the 8GB CF card I am using as my A1200 IDE/CF drive which works fine)
Aliexpress Compact Flash to MicroSD adapter (has micro SD slots marked I & II)

Aliexpress 8GB MicroSD card (Unbranded)
MediaRange 4Gb MicroSD Card (This card previously worked perfectly fine on the SDBox when used on my A500)

Recap.... I have FAT95 in L: and both the compactflash.device and the sdbox device in DEVS: and CF0: and SD0: both in DEVS:/Dosdrivers

I have even tried booting off a bootable CF PCMCIA floppy (to rule out any issues on the files on my hard drive) but same issues arise.

Hardware:

A1200 KS3.1 + ClassicWB installed. TF1230 accelerator with 128Mb of ram. DF0/Gotek switcher. Standard Commodore PSU. CF/IDE internal drive.

Installed on board is " A1200 PCMCIA CC_RESET FIX ADAPTER" from AmigaKit

Note: This same A1200 with same setup previously had NO issues with reading PCMCIA CF cards albeit the card I used to use died and I threw it away. I have now ordered a CF card from AmigaKit hoping this will fix the issue. But it does not explain the SDBox not working (which works on my A500). Also note that PCMCIA Wifi card is working perfectly fine in same Amiga 1200 and I looked at the pins and they look fine.

EDIT: With regards the PCMCIA/CF thing.. I tried same CF cards and adapter on another A1200 (No expansions.... KS3.0) using a boot disk and same issue with the four ???? question marks. So in this case, possibly the CF card is to blame. But still not explain SDBox also not working. I could not try SDBox on the other A1200 as I dont have a boot disk and it has no HDD.
 
Last edited:
Update.... I found an old 64mb SanDisk CF from an old CCTV DVR we were throwing away at work. Popped it into the Amiga and it works perfectly!
 
FWIW the CF cards that have never failed me are the blue and white label ones from AliExpress.

Never had any problems, they've always worked first time.
 
miggymad said:
FWIW the CF cards that have never failed me are the blue and white label ones from AliExpress.

Never had any problems, they've always worked first time.
Click to expand...
I used one of those for the IDE drive in my A1200 and that works fine. I can't remember its size, probably 8GB.

But I have another one (128Mb) that I wanted to use and it doesn't work at all. Does not even show up as a drive.
 
Using SD or CF cards are a hit of miss on the Amiga. I use only SanDisk CF and SD cards. This brand is most compatible for Amiga's.

Using CF or SD with PCMCIA CF card reader up to 16 GB. When using a SanDisk CF card, then use a SanDisk 16 GB Extreme. Others like Ultra doesn't work with PCMCIA CF Card reader.
At the moment I use Sandisk 32 GB CF on IDE.
 
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