Another A4000 project!

[Kin Hell]

Hey Kinny - I'm using the video slot SD on the CV64/3D

Well everything is working so far except Warp3D and if I plug in the Z3 Fastlane it don't boot (black screen)

Fun and games....

....because you are on the fringe of DMA being right or NOT & putting Elbox into the equation just totally F'ks up DMA. Without DMA being right, the Z3 is left flapping in the wind....

DMA Laws get totally Kunt0rd with Elbox. - Ask rkauer.

For a TRUE DMA Experience, you need a G-REX4000D for everything to work correctly. No other PCI board does.

Kin

 

[fitzsteve]

Lame!

Oh well I guess ZorRam in this machine and use the Z3 Fastlane in the Desktop

Cheers Kin!

 

[Kin Hell]

Yeah m8! - It's sad, but with Elbox in ur Miggy, DMA is a complete Fudge & via their Driiver's.

It's sad but a fact of Elbox's Legacy & they should be shunned for it, so go for a G-REX 4000D with either a CSMKIII or if you really want to splash out, a CSPPC.

CSMKIII all the way for me, not including OS4.1 Classic as things stand atm, but then that's something none of us know Jack about to be sure.

Kin

 

[fitzsteve]

Cheers Kinny,

I went for the Apollo because well it was cheap and also becuase I hope to get some 80-90mhz overclocking going

I'm sure I'll own a CSMkIII or (working) CSPPC one day

Steve.

 

[Kin Hell]

Either way Bud, it's Horses for Courses & you have to pick one or the other. When it come's to DMA, ....support it in every manner you can.

If it goes into the realm of Elbox & some Kludged drivers, ....tell Elbox to fro.

Kin

 

[rkauer]

I have a LT4 on my (badly joined together) A1200T. Currently with a Radeon 9250 128Mb. It is working and giving a lovely 96Mb extra RAM.

But on the "best" ElB***cks way, WHDLoad will not work with this memory added to the system, if some WB program/resident uses it. WHDLoad then simply will freeze the machine.

I'm thinking in add 127Mb video RAM to video RAM and so nothing will be added to system, as I have 128Mb on the A1200's accelerator (Blizz1260), so I think I don't need to worry about lack of memory, right?

Nobody get a solution yet.

But I have my other Amigas to use WHDLoad with, so no biggie.

 

[Kin Hell]

Iirc, Video Ram on your PCI Graphics when used as Fast Ram in your Amiga is a bit of a kludge. It might be as good as 16Bit Ram, which is slower than the 24Bit RAM on the Fastlane. Chip Ram (Graphics Ram) is also 24Bit but slower than 24Bit Fast Ram on the Fastlane. Lot's of cun-fusions all round but reading back to your recent Mediator post, why not remove the X-Surf & fit a PCI NIC in place instead. This might allow you to run the Elbox board with a 512Mb window as is intended for Voodoo 5500 use.

Just a thought.

Kin

 

[fitzsteve]

Cheers,

I'll try again at the weekend, I'll have to pull both the CV64/3D and the X-Surf for 512mb Mode because with the CV64/3D in place I get a RamLib error on loading workbench

Plenty of fun and games for the bank holiday weekend

Steve.

 

[merlinkv]

DMA Laws get totally Kunt0rd with Elbox. - Ask rkauer.

For a TRUE DMA Experience, you need a G-REX4000D for everything to work correctly. No other PCI board does. :wink:

Kin

Hi Steve,

As Kin said, no DMA boards can be run with Mediators, only the onboard SCSI DMA present in CPU boards like CS MK-II SCSI Kit, CS MK-III or CS-PPC.

Some users report the DENEB is working in DMA Mode (Z3 slot) but I test this option on three A4K's and.... works, but very unstable, system crashes many times.. So, my DENEB's are working in Z3/PIO mode.

Best wishes

 

[fitzsteve]

Hi Steve,

As Kin said, no DMA boards can be run with Mediators, only the onboard SCSI DMA present in CPU boards like CS MK-II SCSI Kit, CS MK-III or CS-PPC.

Some users report the DENEB is working in DMA Mode (Z3 slot) but I test this option on three A4K's and.... works, but very inestable, system crashes many times.. So, my DENEB's are working in Z3/PIO mode.

Best wishes

Thanks or the info mate

 

[hikey]

Hi Steve,

As Kin said, no DMA boards can be run with Mediators, only the onboard SCSI DMA present in CPU boards like CS MK-II SCSI Kit, CS MK-III or CS-PPC.

Some users report the DENEB is working in DMA Mode (Z3 slot) but I test this option on three A4K's and.... works, but very inestable, system crashes many times.. So, my DENEB's are working in Z3/PIO mode.

Best wishes

Thanks or the info mate

I've had no problems running Deneb in DMA mode with the Mediator 4000Di. I did have to change the 'alternative config' jumper on the mediator though (can't remember if I had to set the jumper or remove it)

 

[merlinkv]

@hikey

Hi my friend.

What hardware have you installed (CPU, Z3, PCI)? Can you check the jumper config?

My everyday use A4KD have Mediator 4000D and:

Buster 11, KS 3.9
CSPPC 128MB
V-Lab Motion
Toccata
Voodoo3 3000
Radeon 9200
DENEB
ZoRAM 256MB
All HDD's & DVD's are UW-SCSI

When I config DENEB in DMA mode, system boots & run but, as I said, is unstable and crashes many times.... in PIO mode runs for days without switch off.....

If you know a solution to work with DENEB in DMA mode..... please... share your info......

All the best

 

[hikey]

@hikey

Hi my friend.

What hardware have you installed (CPU, Z3, PCI)? Can you check the jumper config?

My everyday use A4KD have Mediator 4000D and:

Buster 11, KS 3.9
CSPPC 128MB
V-Lab Motion
Toccata
Voodoo3 3000
Radeon 9200
DENEB
ZoRAM 256MB
All HDD's & DVD's are UW-SCSI

When I config DENEB in DMA mode, system boots & run but, as I said, is unstable and crashes many times.... in PIO mode runs for days without switch off.....

If you know a solution to work with DENEB in DMA mode..... please... share your info......

All the best

I have Master jumper closed, Winsize jumper closed, swap config jumper closed.

Cyberstorm MK3
Radeon 9200
Deneb
10/100 Ethernet

The only thing I did to get DMA working on the Deneb was close the swap config jumper, before this the Amiga would freeze with Deneb in DMA mode.

 

[merlinkv]

@hikey

Thanks for the infor my friend

I will try again this evening/night.

Best wishes

 

[hikey]

It seems it is because of your Zorram you're having problems. See this reply from Michael Bohmer on Amiga.org:

Buster 11, DENEB and DMA will lead to lockups in hardware if ZorRAM is being used heavily.
This is a "feature" of Buster 11, a remnant of the famous Buster 9 lockup which was claimed to be removed while stepping to rev11. It is still there, harder to trigger, but it will hit you just as a matter of time and statistics.
But: I have written a new firmware for DENEB which can cope with that situation. The DENEB FPGA takes over some buster work, and allows (according to all our tests in lab and at customers) stable operation of DENEB DMA and Zorro III RAM.
Firmware is available on request for testing, and will be published as free upgrade for all DENEB customers as time permits (i.e. I need to find some time to recompile the FPGA sources in a cleaned up version )

Michael


So, you need to contact Michael for the updated firmware to try.

 

[merlinkv]

@hikey

Thanl a lot my friend.

Of course, I will contact with him......

Best wishes

 

[Rakeim132]

Beautiful installation !

May I ask what is the model of this JVC TV and how it is connected to the Amiga ? Thanks.

 

[fitzsteve]

Beautiful installation !

May I ask what is the model of this JVC TV and how it is connected to the Amiga ? Thanks.

Hi! Thanks for the kind words.

This was hooked up through the VGA input via a PicassoII but this TV will also take the Amiga native input with an RGB-VGA converter (but dos not flicker fix)

Its a JVC LT-19DK8WJ beware though I've has issues getting my old games consoles and Amiga's to work via Scart, I have to use the VGA or S-Video ele they're in black and white

Other then that, its a great set - oh and HD so great for PS3/X-Box

Steve.

 

[fitzsteve]

Small update

Small update

Just a little update here, after the drama with PCI I went back to pure Zorro on this system.

I just installed a Deneb which arrived today - great bit of kit, really fast compared to the Subway USB and Thylacine USB that I've used.

Really responsive, as soon as you plug a device its up and running, no waiting, no system slowdown. Awesome

A little annoyance is that I had to pull the Z3 fastlane, the manual says that it cannot run together with the Deneb on a Buster 11 setup which sucks, and as expected no boot when I tried it

So I'm now missing my extra 128mb of Ram, I guess since I was not using the SCSI I could look at a ZorRam, but 128mb on the Apollo 4060 is enough I guess

Oh and also tried to install my FastATA 4000 but after installing the drivers the system gets in a reset loop so I had to pull that too lol oh:

Ya gotta love these systems, I wonder if its possible to find 7 Zorro cards that all work together so I can fill this system up? 3x 256mb ZorRam's in the empty slots maybe?

---------- Post added at 13:45 ---------- Previous post was at 12:37 ----------

Well as a workaround I put the Deneb in PIO mode and its working with the Z3 Fastlane

Of course its using the CPU now and not FPGA so its not going to be as fast, but still seens just as quick to me...

I'm thinking or having a switcharound between the other A4000 though to find the best combination of hardware - should keep me busy for a while lol...

Anyway Moar Pics! Of course with the extra hardware installed:

And everything working!

 

[fitzsteve]

Hi All!

Just a minor update here

Some modified USB adapters I bought arrived today so I finally setup my USB card reader as I want it.

I had this little USB Hub in my PeeCee box but apears to only be USB 1.1 so will need to swap it out but it'll let me setup things and test everything out.

And the Card Reader installed at the front bay:

So lets get some bits connected!

Yay! \o/ It works

As I say its only USB 1.1 Hub so will need to swap it out with something to get the full speeds... (currently 1mb/sec)

For example with my ICY Box I'm pulling 5.7mb/Sec

Hope you enjoyed my little Saturday update

Steve.