ACA1232 not stable

[amiga1]

Hi. Could I get some advice? I just purchased an aca1232 and it seems very unstable. It constantly reports an error: Program failed (error #80000002). Wait for disk activity to finish." With the option to reboot or suspend. When rebooted, the guru pops up and reports: 8000.0002 Task: 0801c8f8 (the task is always different). It happens from a floppy or from the HD(15gb) or from the CFHD (4gb). However, if the a1200 does get past the "Program Failed" error, there are no hard drives shown, just the ram and floppies.

At first I thought it was my 3.0 rom's so I just bought and swapped in 3.1's. It didn't help. I partitioned the HD & cf with PFS3ds and set the max xfer to 0x1fe00 and also changed it to a lower rate without any success. I've tried ffs partitions, etc. nothing stops these crashes.

I have a cobra 030 that works well under the 3.0 roms, but with the 3.1 it's just a purple screen. When I remove the SIMM, then the A1200 boots and without any errors, but obviously I have no fast ram to use.

The current setup is: AGA Indivision, wireless pcmcia, hxc floppy, real df1, aca1232, 4GB CF with pfs3ds, & 3.1 roms. ACATune is mapping the 3.1 roms at boot.

Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers

C

[FOL]

Originally Posted by amiga1

Hi. Could I get some advice? I just purchased an aca1232 and it seems very unstable. It constantly reports an error: Program failed (error #80000002). Wait for disk activity to finish." With the option to reboot or suspend. When rebooted, the guru pops up and reports: 8000.0002 Task: 0801c8f8 (the task is always different). It happens from a floppy or from the HD(15gb) or from the CFHD (4gb). However, if the a1200 does get past the "Program Failed" error, there are no hard drives shown, just the ram and floppies.

At first I thought it was my 3.0 rom's so I just bought and swapped in 3.1's. It didn't help. I partitioned the HD & cf with PFS3ds and set the max xfer to 0x1fe00 and also changed it to a lower rate without any success. I've tried ffs partitions, etc. nothing stops these crashes.

I have a cobra 030 that works well under the 3.0 roms, but with the 3.1 it's just a purple screen. When I remove the SIMM, then the A1200 boots and without any errors, but obviously I have no fast ram to use.

The current setup is: AGA Indivision, wireless pcmcia, hxc floppy, real df1, aca1232, 4GB CF with pfs3ds, & 3.1 roms. ACATune is mapping the 3.1 roms at boot.

Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers

C

Has your mobo had any timing fixes done?

[fitzsteve]

You probably need to do the timing fixes:

http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/am..._mobo_fix.html

Also the Cobra needs a Firmware update to work with 3.1 Roms, it's on the install Disk IIRC.

All the best,

Steve.

[Coltch]

Had the same problems with my 1D4 A1200 (KS3.1)and an ACA1231, no problems with my 1D1 (KS3.0) - which points to what FOL & fitzsteve suggest with the timing fix.

[amiga1]

Great help. I'll get my game on here after my son & I come back from The Hobbit and I'll get started. Thanks for your help. I'll post the results.

Q: So the Cobra can be updated/flashed from disk or do I burn new ROM's? Seems the later makes sense.

Cheers,

c

PS: No, there were no timing fixes or anything changed to this mobo. It's an original ntsc a1200. Looks like I get to play with my soldering iron again

[amiga1]

Well, the timing fix did not help. The board is a rev 1d1 and it randomly crashes constantly, but only with the ACA1232 board. If the power is off for about 5 minutes, it works for a few minutes, then reports:

DH0
programmed failed (error #80000002).
Wait for Disk Activity to finish.

This error is most common on boot up--whether I'm booting from floppy or from dh0. Rebooting after the error has the workbench showing that I have no hard drive installed on the ide bus.

After everything that I read on this timing problem, it pretty much said that it did not really matter with the 1d1 rev. However, all the symptoms pointed to the fix so I went ahead and removed E123C & E125C. lol Now I'm wondering if I now have introduced some timing issues. However, after testing, it seems very stable without the aca1232 board.

The CD to IDE card reader I received from amigakit has two of the m/s pins bridged with solder with a jumper in the same position? Is this standard? There is no mark stating which is pin 1, 2 or 3 lol.

Well, it would seem that I'm back to square one here. Very odd situation that I cannot find a previous problem to anywhere.

Any ideas?

[amiga1]

By removing those two caps from the 1d1 board PFS partitioned drives:

1) work and mount with the ACA1232 board, however the board crashes my a1200 quickly and consistantly.

2) After updating the Cobra 030 the 3.1 roms work well, but I have no access to my drives.

3) After partitioning to FFS, the drives are seen by both boards. The aca 1232 is extremely unstable, but the cobra 030 works great.

Is this just a defective board?

[FOL]

Originally Posted by amiga1

By removing those two caps from the 1d1 board PFS partitioned drives:

1) work and mount with the ACA1232 board, however the board crashes my a1200 quickly and consistantly.

2) After updating the Cobra 030 the 3.1 roms work well, but I have no access to my drives.

3) After partitioning to FFS, the drives are seen by both boards. The aca 1232 is extremely unstable, but the cobra 030 works great.

Is this just a defective board?

Thats not the full timing fix, removing two caps.
You also have to replace two resistors with ferrite beads. In some cases 125C needs to be left on.

The CF HDD will be fine, I short them out, as the jumper sometimes doesnt make good enough contact. Theres no point in the jumper as its a single slot card holder.

[amiga1]

Originally Posted by FOL

Thats not the full timing fix, removing two caps.
You also have to replace two resistors with ferrite beads. In some cases 125C needs to be left on.

The CF HDD will be fine, I short them out, as the jumper sometimes doesnt make good enough contact. Theres no point in the jumper as its a single slot card holder.

I thought the resistors were for the 2b rev's. All the reading I did before I went and did this all said just the 123c and the 125c. What was the value of these cap's? I might replace 125c and see if that does something.

I'll keep digging around, but the 1d1 boards are supposed to be fine without any fixes. Mine might be the exception maybe.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by amiga1

I thought the resistors were for the 2b rev's. All the reading I did before I went and did this all said just the 123c and the 125c. What was the value of these cap's? I might replace 125c and see if that does something.

I'll keep digging around, but the 1d1 boards are supposed to be fine without any fixes. Mine might be the exception maybe.

Which timing fixes are we talking about, think you have gotten confused.
We are talking about ACA cards, you need the timing fixes for that.

In the ACA thread you will find the correct fixes. Off the top of my head I cant remember values, but replacing R121 and R122 with ferrite beads (60ohms I think) should solve all your instability problems, as well are other changes, remove C123 and C125 (C125 not needed to be removed in some cases).