Unable to use PCMCIA CF Reader

[fgh]

Keitha1200: Never heard of a 'CF patch' for pcmcia, which patch is that exactly?

WeiXing3D: You still haven't answered what happens if you leave the card in during boot.
It's interesting to know at what point the machine hangs, as this would give important clues.
Does holding down both mouse buttons and booting without startup-sequence with the card inserted produce a freeze at one point, or are you able to access amigados?
And what about disabling CF0 like I asked in the previous post. Does it still freeze after a reboot after moving CF0 out of devs/dosdrivers?

[WeiXing3D]

Originally Posted by fgh

Keitha1200: Never heard of a 'CF patch' for pcmcia, which patch is that exactly?

WeiXing3D: You still haven't answered what happens if you leave the card in during boot.
It's interesting to know at what point the machine hangs, as this would give important clues.
Does holding down both mouse buttons and booting without startup-sequence with the card inserted produce a freeze at one point, or are you able to access amigados?
And what about disabling CF0 like I asked in the previous post. Does it still freeze after a reboot after moving CF0 out of devs/dosdrivers?

1. what happens if you leave the card in during boot? The computer hangs up and shows the the rond clock like waiting for something. Never works. It's waiting forever if left alone.
2. Does holding down both mouse buttons and booting without startup-sequence with the card inserted produce a freeze at one point, or are you able to access amigados? Yes, I can access AmigaDOS
3. what about disabling CF0 like I asked in the previous post. Does it still freeze after a reboot after moving CF0 out of devs/dosdrivers? SAME AS ANSWER IN POINT 1 ABOVE. IT HANGS UP.

[fgh]

Ok good, so it shouldn't be related to the CF0 driver, as it hangs also without it running.
Also if it was some hardware conflict (power issue, caps damage, etc) I think it would freeze when booting without startup-sequence as well.
So this is pointing in the direction of your WB installation or other conflicting software.

You might be able to access the card if you mount CF0 after a boot without startup-sequence.
I'm just not completely sure what parts of amigaOS needs to run for CFD to run successfully..

Try putting CF0 back in devs/dosdrivers, reboot and start without startup-sequence.
Type 'mount CF0:' and afterwards try to access it. (type 'CF0:', enter, then 'dir' for instance)

Edit: Do you have another amiga installation you can try the adapter with?
Or is there a second partition on your harddrive you could install a fresh WB install to?

[WeiXing3D]

Originally Posted by fgh

Ok good, so it shouldn't be related to the CF0 driver, as it hangs also without it running.
Also if it was some hardware conflict (power issue, caps damage, etc) I think it would freeze when booting without startup-sequence as well.
So this is pointing in the direction of your WB installation or other conflicting software.

You might be able to access the card if you mount CF0 after a boot without startup-sequence.
I'm just not completely sure what parts of amigaOS needs to run for CFD to run successfully..

Try putting CF0 back in devs/dosdrivers, reboot and start without startup-sequence.
Type 'mount CF0:' and afterwards try to access it. (type 'CF0:', enter, then 'dir' for instance)

Edit: Do you have another amiga installation you can try the adapter with?
Or is there a second partition on your harddrive you could install a fresh WB install to?

@fgh
I cant use DOS without a problem and also I got confirmation that CF0: is mounted. Dir is empty.

@fgh
My bad: I MEANT: I CANuse AmigaDOS without any problem. CF0: is mounted, but shows of course, DIR empty

[fgh]

Ok, was the card supposed to have files on it?
What does 'info' say now?

Try copying a file from your harddrive to cf0: to see if it works.
Try 'copy c:loadwb cf0:' and then 'cf0:loadwb'.

[WeiXing3D]

Originally Posted by fgh

Ok, was the card supposed to have files on it?
What does 'info' say now?

Try copying a file from your harddrive to cf0: to see if it works.
Try 'copy c:loadwb cf0:' and then 'cf0:loadwb'.

The CF card is empty. It was previously formatted in a laptop PC using quick format.
I did this: Try 'copy c:loadwb cf0:' and then 'cf0:loadwb'. But nothing happened. In any case my HDD is named Main and I have to partitions: Data1 and Data2

[fgh]

Ok so no surprise there was no files listed..

Forget about running loadwb, just type 'list cf0:' after you copy the file.
If files are successfully copied you have a working, compatible CF card that you can transfer files with. You just have some conflicting software in your current WB install.

What did 'info' say by the way?

[WeiXing3D]

Originally Posted by fgh

Ok so no surprise there was no files listed..

Forget about running loadwb, just type 'list cf0:' after you copy the file.
If files are successfully copied you have a working, compatible CF card that you can transfer files with. You just have some conflicting software in your current WB install.

What did 'info' say by the way?

- Info lists nothing
- No files were copied

Is it time to think that the cf card is not good perhaps?


@keitha1200
Where is that CF patch. I found someone who si goint to copy that in a floppy for me. Please send me the link in Aminet.

Originally Posted by keitha1200

You need to install the 'freely available' CF patch! (Manually)

My 1200 was the same as yours, until I installed the patch (Manually).

After I installed patch, I tried the CF card and my 1200 'froze-up' (like yours)

I switched the power off, then on; and it 'still' works fine.

if you have floppy drive on your PC, you can download the CF from Aminet, then crossdos it, or just ask someone in the states to mail you a 880k disk copy.

[edit] One is assuming you know about the memory card (8mb) and PCMCIA conflict?

[fgh]

What do you mean info lists nothing? It should list the mounted disks, at least your harddrive and DF0:

You said CF0: was mounted, so there was no error message when you typed mount cf0:?

[WeiXing3D]

Originally Posted by fgh

What do you mean info lists nothing? It should list the mounted disks, at least your harddrive and DF0:

You said CF0: was mounted, so there was no error message when you typed mount cf0:?

INFO does show the CF0: then It says No disk. It also lists all my other devices and status of each one

No error messages when I type CF0:

[fgh]

Ok if it seems CF0: is mounted correctly ( No error message when typing MOUNT CF0: ) and info shows CF0:No disk with the FAT formatted card inserted, I don't know.
I'd have to get a machine out of the closet and play with it a bit.

Which version is compactflash.device? (type 'version compactflash.device')

[WeiXing3D]

@keitha1200
Where is that CF patch. I found someone who si goint to copy that in a floppy for me. Please send me the link in Aminet.

Originally Posted by keitha1200

You need to install the 'freely available' CF patch! (Manually)

My 1200 was the same as yours, until I installed the patch (Manually).

After I installed patch, I tried the CF card and my 1200 'froze-up' (like yours)

I switched the power off, then on; and it 'still' works fine.

if you have floppy drive on your PC, you can download the CF from Aminet, then crossdos it, or just ask someone in the states to mail you a 880k disk copy.

[edit] One is assuming you know about the memory card (8mb) and PCMCIA conflict?

Originally Posted by fgh

Ok if it seems CF0: is mounted correctly ( No error message when typing MOUNT CF0: ) and info shows CF0:No disk with the FAT formatted card inserted, I don't know.
I'd have to get a machine out of the closet and play with it a bit.

Which version is compactflash.device? (type 'version compactflash.device')

It says compactflash.device 1.21

[fgh]

Ok, that version is 9 years old. I would try the current version 1.27.

Of course your card may be incompatible with some pcmcia operation or compactflash.device, but it didn't sound like a typical case as your machine hangs on insertion..

[WeiXing3D]

Originally Posted by fgh

Ok, that version is 9 years old. I would try the current version 1.27.

Of course your card may be incompatible with some pcmcia operation or compactflash.device, but it didn't sound like a typical case as your machine hangs on insertion..

@fgh. Thank you. Now I have to find an old PC with a floppy drive to download and copy those files since that's the only mean I have to port them into my A1200, for now

Once I have the files copied in a floppy is there an installer included in the update? How do install what is needed?

[keitha1200]

Here's some picture I've taken of my 600.

Never been plugged into an Amiga until now. Hence Amiga see card but can't read it.

CFD Driver/icon




Card gone

put card back in. now fo
rmatting it


Pop'in into PC


copied the files over to cf card

Back in 600


You need to have the cfd file like mines and 'CF0' in dev/dos

PS: Be careful if your going to buy a USB floppy drive, they can be a nightmare to set-up! should check your PC it might have a standard floppy connector

[fgh]

Installation would simply be to copy the new compactflash.device to devs:
But as your computer hangs even without compactflash.device active it will probably not remove the hangs.

I just tried booting without startup-sequence now on an a600..
Typing mount cf0: is enough, FAT formatted card is recognised and works.
So with a compatible CF card you should be able to transfer files to your amiga like this at least.

But as info still shows 'no disk' after booting without startup-sequence and typing mount CF0: with the card inserted, I guess you have bad luck with the card as well. (it might help with the latest CFD though..)

One last thing - can you check the contents of the file CF0? Here is the correct one:

Originally Posted by CF0

/* compactflash.device $VER: 1.21 (19.10.2002) */
/* fat95 file system by Torsten Jager */

FileSystem = l:fat95
Device = compactflash.device
Unit = 0
Flags = 0
LowCyl = 0
HighCyl = 0
Surfaces = 1
BlocksPerTrack = 1
BlockSize = 512
Buffers = 20
BufMemType = 1
BootPri = 0
Stacksize = 4096
Priority = 5
GlobVec = -1
DosType = 0x46415401

You can also change 'Flags 0' to 'Flags 2' and try again. (It might accept some more cards according to the CFD readme).

When it comes to what is causing the hangs from within workbench, I would look for and remove/disable any software that might be accessing the pcmcia slot. (have a look in in devs/dosdrivers, etc)

If you give up on the pcmcia+CF there is also the possibility of mounting your harddrive in a PC and working with it from WinUAE.

Edit:
Just stumbled across this post where someone else had instant freezes with a transcend card with v1.21, and it worked with v1.27.
This is promising. But you specifically said the freezes also happened after disabling CF0 (removing it from devs/dosdrivers) and rebooting. Are you really sure about this?

[WeiXing3D]

Thank you all for the detailed answers. At this point I can only assue that my brand new CF card, Transcend 2.0GB 133x, is not good, or my A1200 doesn't like it.

I'm using EasyNet in CF0: and it connects fine; the timer shows the time I;ve been online. I haven't figured out yet how to transfer files from the host computer to my A1200, but that's a different issue. IMHO, this ie reason to believe that my CF0: works!

BTW, I ran a freshh installation of the CompactCard Patch and CompactCard Reset, since I found that those 2 files are included in the installation floppy of EasyNet. I rebooted following the prompts of the installer, but still I cannot the CF card in CF0:, and the computer still freezes when I insert the card in the adapter.....Please someone come and rescue me....

Or I guess, I will have to wait for the original EasyADF PCMCIA and 128MB card to see if I can get that up.

Any other suggestions???

Edit: @fgh is it possible that the installation of EasyNet network card is interefing with the running of a credit card in the same drive location?

[fgh]

Please read my last post again, all of it this time.

[WeiXing3D]

@fgh Thank you for your help and patience. I can now say with absolute certainty that it was the card...I received in the mail today a compact flash card of the exact same manufacturer, Transcend, 2.0 GB, but 80x instead of 133x, and it was recognized from the get go.

I'm a happy camper now.

It's nice to come across nice people like all the ones who stepped in to help. So my thanks to @cammy too.

Originally Posted by fgh

Please read my last post again, all of it this time.

[WeiXing3D]

@fgh et all. Case closed. It was the card. Today I tried a Transcend 2GB but 80x and it's flying! Thanks to all who offered me his/her support