Blizzard 1260 and FastATA mkIV issues

[thgill]

So, received my 1260 today and having some troubles.


I have all the 040 and 060 libraries installed from http://phase5.a1k.org/index.php?driverslibraries

The line in my startup sequence for the FastATA is at the top.


Problem is:

Power machine on and I briefly see some activity from the HD and floppy and then nothing. Wait several minutes and no boot, just sitting at a black screen.

Hit Ctrl+A+A and within a couple seconds I am in workbench. Tested the 1260 in Sysinfo and I am getting the numbers that I should be. Even HD transfer rates are just above 7MB's a sec.

This setup was previously working quite well with an ACA1232 card.


Here is what I have done to try and resolving it:

• Comment out the FastATA ATA3.driver in the startup-sequence - Machine boots up perfectly fine then. Obviously slowed HD speed though.
  
• Move the ATA3.driver reference to below Setpatch in the startup-seq - didn't make any difference
  
• Moved the ATA3.driver line to the bottom of the startup-seq just before the loadwb line appears. Machine still freezes at boot up. Though I see more HD activity before it does (which I guess makes sense since it's at the bottom of the startup seq).

Hardware specs:

Commodore A1200
Blizzard 1260/66 with 64 meg ram
FastATA 1200 mkIV
IDE to SDHC adapter and Class 10 SDHC 32GB card
External 80w picopsu
3.0 roms
3.1 ClassicWB ADVSP


Any thoughts?

It's pretty clear to me the issue revolves around the FastATA addon in some relationship. I am just not sure how to resolve it.

 

[dzankou]

66 to 50MHz oscilator

66 to 50MHz oscilator

I am not sure now, but I have heard something similiar
fix was to change 66MHz to 50MHz

if it is possible try

 

[roy_bates]

are you using a real harddrive?

these have spinup times,doing a reset while its starting gives the drive time to be seen in the system.

if you have a faster drive try that.

 

[thgill]

are you using a real harddrive?

these have spinup times,doing a reset while its starting gives the drive time to be seen in the system.

if you have a faster drive try that.

Please reread the OP. I specifically mention using a SDHC card and IDE to SDHC adapter.


I wonder if switching to a CF card setup would relieve this issue.

 

[roy_bates]

are you using a real harddrive?

these have spinup times,doing a reset while its starting gives the drive time to be seen in the system.

if you have a faster drive try that.

Please reread the OP. I specifically mention using a SDHC card and IDE to SDHC adapter.


I wonder if switching to a CF card setup would relieve this issue.

its worth a try,ive had this problem with slow drives(ones that take a little longer to spin up)

its the same thing,it as all about how long the machine takes to see the drive the faster the system the faster the drive has to be.

an amiga wont wait for the drive to be ready basicly,if its not there in time the machine just carrys on booting.

 

[geminister]

Could be that the SDHC card is working less than well with the FastATA. I've got a 66MHz Blizzard 1260 and a FastATA mkIV too, and it works great with my newer mechanical hard drive.

 

[thgill]

an amiga wont wait for the drive to be ready basicly,if its not there in time the machine just carrys on booting.

But in that case, doesn't it usually kick you to the insert Workbench disk screen?

I have had setups before where the hard drive or CF card wasn't detected quickly enough at boot and usually it would skip straight to the Insert workbench floppy screen. It doesn't do that at all with this setup.

Could be that the SDHC card is working less than well with the FastATA. I've got a 66MHz Blizzard 1260 and a FastATA mkIV too, and it works great with my newer mechanical hard drive.

It's odd because this very same SDHC card and adapter along with the FastATA works perfectly fine with an ACA1232 accelerator.


Perhaps I will pick up a high speed CF card and try it.

I assume a Sandisk Extreme (60mb/s) card should be a suitable test subject.

 

[fitzsteve]

Maybe a contact issue between fastata and mobo, remove carefully, clean socket with IPA and refit
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---------- Post added at 13:30 ---------- Previous post was at 13:29 ----------

Also try less one pio speed
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[ByteRyder]

I also had this issue with my setup. If I remember correctly you have to place the ATA driver command after SetPatch but I'll have to check my startup-sequence when I get home.

 

[thgill]

Maybe a contact issue between fastata and mobo, remove carefully, clean socket with IPA and refit

That doesn't make any sense.

Remove the Blizzard and install ACA, it works fine. Uninstall the ACA and reinstall the 1260 and now I have to press Ctrl+A+A to boot. I don't see how cleaning contacts on the FastATA or rom sockets fit into that.

I also had this issue with my setup. If I remember correctly you have to place the ATA driver command after SetPatch but I'll have to check my startup-sequence when I get home.

Tried that and it didn't seem to help at all.

 

[fitzsteve]

I assume a Sandisk Extreme (60mb/s) card should be a suitable test subject.

Should be however I got best results with a 133x Verbatim

---------- Post added at 13:46 ---------- Previous post was at 13:44 ----------

Maybe a contact issue between fastata and mobo, remove carefully, clean socket with IPA and refit

That doesn't make any sense.

Remove the Blizzard and install ACA, it works fine. Uninstall the ACA and reinstall the 1260 and now I have to press Ctrl+A+A to boot. I don't see how cleaning contacts on the FastATA or rom sockets fit into that.

Sometimes connection issues can cause the symptoms you suggest however yes it is a little strange it works with one turbo board and not another.

Perhaps it's a timing issue with the 060?

My FastATA didn't work at all with my ACA1230 on a 1D1 motherboard (system locked up on loading the FastATA driver if the ACA was installed but worked fine with the Blizzard 1260!)

Opposite to your case!

 

[thgill]

Perhaps it's a timing issue with the 060?

My FastATA didn't work at all with my ACA1230 on a 1D1 motherboard (system locked up on loading the FastATA driver if the ACA was installed but worked fine with the Blizzard 1260!)

Opposite to your case!

Damn these fickle addons.

 

[roy_bates]

ive got one slow spin up drive that doesent show the kickstart screen, it only boots if you do a soft reset

 

[thgill]

Picked up a new 8GB Sandisk Ultra card tonight and did a fresh install of ClassicWB Full on it. Installed the necessary libraries, but didn't install the FastATA software.

Popped it in the 1200 and the machine boots ups fine. 060 is recognized and working great. Installed the FastATA software and once again it hangs at bootup. Press Ctrl+A+A to reboot and machine boots up fine.


So it would appear the SDHC adapter and card isn't the issue as it's duplicatable on a fast CF card setup.

 

[fitzsteve]

You have ks3.0 right? Do you have any ks3.1 to test?

Maybe you use the aca to load in ks3.1 before loafing the fastata driver and that could be why it works.
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[thgill]

You have ks3.0 right? Do you have any ks3.1 to test?

Maybe you use the aca to load in ks3.1 before loafing the fastata driver and that could be why it works.
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Yes, kickstart 3.0.

I don't have any 3.1 kickstarts on hand.


Frustration level rising...

---------- Post added at 05:49 ---------- Previous post was at 05:29 ----------

We must have a member here that's running an A1200 with a Blizzard 1260 and FastATA. I am curious to see what there startup-sequence looks like.


My next move is to do a completely bone stock Workbench 3.0/3.1 install. No ClassicWb, no extra addons. Stock. Install the libraries for the 060 board and then install the FastATA software and see how it fares.

 

[fitzsteve]

I recommend getting a set of 3.1roms and running os3.9 anyway, it's perfect for your setup
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[geminister]

We must have a member here that's running an A1200 with a Blizzard 1260 and FastATA. I am curious to see what there startup-sequence looks like.

I've got that setup, but unfortunately my motherboard is being repaired (due to sound issues) so I can't check right now.

However, I'm using 3.1 roms and AmigaOS 3.9. The FastATA driver might not be compatible with 3.0 roms and a 060. Who knows?

 

[thgill]

Another update:

Did a completely clean stock install of Workbench 3.1. Only things I installed was the 040 and 060 libraries and FastaATA software.


Exact same results as before. I guess this rules out some kind of conflict with the included software with ClassicWB.


Disable the FastATA in startup sequence and everything it peachy. Reenable it and I have to press Ctrl+A+A to get booted up.

 

[thgill]

Also tried using Blizkick to kick a 3.1 rom into memory in case that helped any.

Same results.