A600 serious memory/whdload problem

[DancingManson]

I've had this A600 for a month now and I'm starting to suspect that there is something seriously wrong with the HW. Here's the long story long.

Hardware:
Amiga 600
Chip: A603 1MB chip ram extension
Fast: PCMCIA SRAM 2MB
HD: Transcend 4GB CF
KS: 3.1 for A500/600/2000
PSU: Power supply A500/A600 P/NO 391029-03

Installation:
CF-card is partitioned and formatted in A600. I used Fast File System and maxtransfer setting of 0x1fe00. Then I prepared ClassicWB_68K hdf file in WinUAE and copied it's contents to DH0: (using PCMCIA adapter and IDE0 mode). No problems there. During the ClassicWB hdf prepping, I used the same HW configuration in WinUEA as I have in real life. The OS was launched normally from CF-card in WinUAE and Amiga.

Then I copied some games to DH1: and thought the fun begins...

Problem:
When I try to launch ANY game I got this:
Software failure
Error: 8000 0004 Task: 006b7a60 (or 006bb8ef or 006fbcf0 or 006b9040 etc.)

I've tried to launch the games without the sram card and then e.g. Bubble Bobble, Bloodwych (that comes with ClassicWB) and Kick off 2 works just fine. So I obviously thought there must be something wrong with the fast ram.

Testing:
Next step was to try memtest-application. I though that I should test the chip ram at first just in case. I removed A603, CF and SRAM-memory before running memtest for chip mem. The memtest was running about one hour and all that time it was showing errors like this:
Error at: 001a66f1
Error at: 001a66f2
...

So it's like the whole chip ram is corrupted or something I don't understand
According to the Amiga memory map those errors (obviously) are from the default 1MB chip ram:
0x0004 0000 256.0 Chip RAM
0x0008 0000 512.0 Chip RAM expansion
0x0010 0000 1024.0 Extended Chip RAM for ECS/AGA.

I also tried extracting some lha file from DH0: to RAM: and that caused WB to freeze and soon after that Amiga rebooted itself. This happened also when sram card was not attached.

Last thing I tried was an alternative setup. Using original 2.05 (37.300) kickstart, Sandisk Ultra 4GB CF and ClassicWB GAAE. The result when launching whdload games was exactly the same.

I'm really a newbie. This is my first Amiga ever and as I said I've had it just a month. So I'd be great if you could help me out with this. The problem is most likely on motherboard but I wouldn't know where to begin. Any solution proposal, suggestion, hint etc. is very warmly welcome. :roll: Just ask if you need more information about the issue.

update: The SRAM card was faulty

 

[robinsonb5]

The memtest was running about one hour and all that time it was showing errors like this:
Error at: 001a66f1
Error at: 001a66f2

OK run the test again and see if you can pin down the failing addresses a bit.
If the chipram were all faulty you wouldn't be able to boot at all, and if you did manage it your screen would be scrambled.

Are you sure you saw errors at 001a66f1,etc without the A603 installed? (Without that installed there shouldn't *be* any memory between 00100000 and 00200000)

So run it again, both with and without the A603, and see which range the errors cover. (Since there'll be loads of them, just note down the range covered by the first four digits.)
If 00000000 up to 000FFFFF are OK then your internal chipram's fine. If te errors are restricted to 00100000 to 001FFFFF then the problem's with the extended chipram from the A603.

Hope that's some help.

 

[DancingManson]

The memtest was running about one hour and all that time it was showing errors like this:
Error at: 001a66f1
Error at: 001a66f2

OK run the test again and see if you can pin down the failing addresses a bit.
If the chipram were all faulty you wouldn't be able to boot at all, and if you did manage it your screen would be scrambled.

Are you sure you saw errors at 001a66f1,etc without the A603 installed? (Without that installed there shouldn't *be* any memory between 00100000 and 00200000)

So run it again, both with and without the A603, and see which range the errors cover. (Since there'll be loads of them, just note down the range covered by the first four digits.)
If 00000000 up to 000FFFFF are OK then your internal chipram's fine. If te errors are restricted to 00100000 to 001FFFFF then the problem's with the extended chipram from the A603.

Hope that's some help.

Thanks for response. I made some test runs and the results are bit confusing:

First without A603:
Error at: 00100000
...
Which doesn't make sense because there's no memory to address when using only default 1MB chip:

0x0010 0000 1024.0 Extended Chip RAM for ECS/AGA.​

With A603:
Error at: 00200000
...
Which also desn't make sense for same reason:

0x0020 0000 8192.0 Primary auto-config space (Fast RAM)​

So could it be that chip ram is actually ok and the MemTest for some reason gives errors from memory areas that does not exist?

------------

I also tested my SRAM (fast ram) card and it says:

FAST: 1864424. Biggest block: 1861648
Obtained: 0x006397f0, 1861648 bytes
Error at: 008263e0 -> 0

Software failure
MemTest-00
Program failed (error #80000004)
Wait for disk activity to finish.
Suspend | Reboot

This is more interesting. It seems that the SRAM card could actually be broken.

 

[robinsonb5]

First without A603:
Error at: 00100000
...
Which doesn't make sense because there's no memory to address when using only default 1MB chip:

Well it makes perfect sense that there'd be an error if it's trying to test memory that doesn't exist!

With A603:
Error at: 00200000
...
Which also desn't make sense for same reason:

Well likewise, it's obviously not a very bright memory tester! Encouragingly, though, it appears that the RAM which does exist is working fine

I also tested my SRAM (fast ram) card and it says:

FAST: 1864424. Biggest block: 1861648
Obtained: 0x006397f0, 1861648 bytes
Error at: 008263e0 -> 0

Well... weird! Again, if it's a 2MB card its address range should be 0x00600000 to 0x007FFFFF - and 0x008263e0 once again shouldn't exist.

I don't know whether a 2MB card would end up shadowing the 2MB into the second 2MB of the PCMCIA address space - if so, then the error could maybe indicate a fault with the card. But if the memtest program weren't blindly testing ranges that don't contain memory I think your test would have come back clean. What does ShowConfig have to say on the subject of RAM? Maybe try and find another memory tester?

 

[DancingManson]

I found test program called MemCheck12 and it didn't show any errors from fast ram.

Output from ShowConfig:

RAM:
Node type $A, Attributes $5 (FAST), at $600200-$7FFFFF (~2.0meg)
Node type $A, Attributes $703 (CHIP), at $400-$1FFFFF (~2.0meg)

hmm.. looks like the fast ram memory are does not start from 0x00200000

 

[robinsonb5]

hmm.. looks like the fast ram memory are does not start from 0x00200000

Yes, that's normal for a PCMCIA card - the PCMCIA slot allows RAM to appear between 0x00600000 to 009FFFFF (for up to 4 meg), then has some attribute registers and IO space (for things like network cards and CF adapters) immediately after that.

Going back to your problem, are you absolutely sure you've got MaxTransfer set correctly on all partitions? (It's a per-partition setting, not something you set once per device.)

 

[DancingManson]

Going back to your problem, are you absolutely sure you've got MaxTransfer set correctly on all partitions? (It's a per-partition setting, not something you set once per device.)

I'm 99% sure but there's always the chance I've made a mistake somewhere.

I've searched around the internet and this is the most similar case I've come up with:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=38521

The problem there was actually MaxTransfer parameter and the solution was

Make sure maxtransfer is set to 0xfe00 before writing to the CF. Also try using "IDE0" harddrive controller option.

So I guess I'll do it all over again. Are these steps correct:
1) Partition CF in A600 using WB3.1 floppies. I've used 100 / ~1900 / ~1900 partitions. Set MaxTransfer to 0x1fe00.
2) Format CF in A600. Using Fast File System
3) Turn off "bootable" option from DH0: (Otherwise I can't boot from HDF-file when both are attached to WinUAE)
3) Prepare ClassicWb installation to HDF-file in WinUAE.
4) Copy contents of HDF-file to CF-card DH0: drive in WinUAE
(HD-controller for HDF-file: UAE, HD-controller for CF-card: IDE0)
5) Put CF-card back to A600 and boot from WB3.1 floppy to enable "bootable" option
6) Let's play

 

[robinsonb5]

I'm 99% sure but there's always the chance I've made a mistake somewhere.

Well before you start over, fire up HDToolbox - you can check the partition parameters from there - as long as you don't change any geometry parameters it shouldn't hurt the data.

Make especially sure that you have the right number of zeros - there are guides around that get it wrong. (should be 0x1fe00, which is one block short of 128K.)

I've searched around the internet and this is the most similar case I've come up with:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=38521

Ah, now the "mask" parameter may have some bearing - try changing that on your existing partitions to 0x1FFFFF (5 F's) - this should limit the disk buffers to chipram; it could be that having disk buffers in the SRAM card is causing issues. It's worth eliminating anyway.

EDIT: it can't hurt to try 0xfe00 for the MaxTransfer either. It shouldn't make any difference, but it's worth a try!

 

[Snoozy]

Two things strike me here..

1) Make sure you press the enter key when setting max transfer values, to make the values stick

2) Make sure you have all the kickstart files in the wb devs folder. They should be in a file called kickstarts. (WHDLoad does not install these when you install it)

 

[DancingManson]

No luck with either of maxTransfer values nor 0x1FFFFF max parameter.

When fast ram card is attached I get the same error as before:
Software failure
Error: 8000 0004 Task: 006b7a60 (or 006bb8ef or 006fbcf0 or 006b9040 etc.)

You've been very kind trying to help me but again I'm out of ideas.
Is there anything else to do than give up with this fast ram card and try to find a new one?

 

[robinsonb5]

to help me but again I'm out of ideas.
Is there anything else to do than give up with this fast ram card and try to find a new one?

Yeah that's a shame. I'm out of ideas too - it's annoying not being able to get to the bottom of a problem like that.

 

[Snoozy]

Please check in your workbench Devs folder, open Kickstart folder and then type the names of the files you have installed there. I will check with mine and if you have any missing i may be able to help you

 

[DancingManson]

Please check in your workbench Devs folder, open Kickstart folder and then type the names of the files you have installed there. I will check with mine and if you have any missing i may be able to help you

The files in the kickstart folder are:
kick33180.A500.RTB
kick33192.A500.RTB
kick34005.A500.RTB
kick40063.A600.RTB
kick40068.A1200.RTB
kick40068.A4000.RTB

Those are the default files from ClassicWB 68K v26 which I'm currently using.

 

[Snoozy]

I think this could be your problem. Am at work at moment but will check when I get home. Please pm me ur email address

 

[fgh]

Those kickstart files are only used for games requiring a rekick (incompatible with your active kickstart ROM)
If you consistently check the same games with and without the SRAM, it should not make a difference.

You do not use a pirated whdload keyfile do you?
It's strange if the SRAM should affect this, but I've read somewhere that when using banned keyfiles WHDLoad generates 'random' errors to give the pirates a hard time, so from what I know I cannot rule it out.

Some other things you could try

• Try another PSU
• Check if the capacitors are damaged. (Use google image search to see some bad/leaking capacitors and compare with your a600)
• Download a couple more RAM-checkers just to be sure, there are several on aminet if I recall correctly.

Good luck!

PS:

3) Turn off "bootable" option from DH0: (Otherwise I can't boot from HDF-file when both are attached to WinUAE)

This is not required, you can select boot partition and other things from the amiga early boot menu (press both mousebuttons during boot)

 

[Snoozy]

From what i understood its not just the RTB files that are needed but also the corresponding kickfile roms which were not listed above.

As frodegh mentioned you should ensure you purchase a whdload key, i think it was only 15 euros or so. You will then be emailed the relevant whdload files from bert

 

[DancingManson]

You do not use a pirated whdload keyfile do you?
It's strange if the SRAM should affect this, but I've read somewhere that when using banned keyfiles WHDLoad generates 'random' errors to give the pirates a hard time, so from what I know I cannot rule it out.

I'm not using pirated keyfile. Just the default ClassicWB 68k configuration. Whatever it has, I'm using it

Some other things you could try

• Try another PSU
• Check if the capacitors are damaged. (Use google image search to see some bad/leaking capacitors and compare with your a600)
• Download a couple more RAM-checkers just to be sure, there are several on aminet if I recall correctly.

I'll try to get another PSU from somewhere and also check the capacitors. I've already tried few RAM-checkers but I guess I could try few more.

Good luck!

I'll need that

PS:

3) Turn off "bootable" option from DH0: (Otherwise I can't boot from HDF-file when both are attached to WinUAE)

This is not required, you can select boot partition and other things from the amiga early boot menu (press both mousebuttons during boot)

Thanks for the tip.

btw. I bought another SRAM card from ebay. I'll let you know it that works any better.

 

[DancingManson]

Root cause found. The SRAM card is faulty.

I tested with new SRAM card that I bought from ebay and the memory errors are gone

Thanks to everybody for helping. You've been very kind.