Tandem IDE controller card

[edd_jedi]

I'm having trouble getting a Tandem IDE card and CD-ROM up and running in my Amiga 4000. I have plugged the card in to a Zorro slot, and copied the 'AT' driver file to the System > Expansion folder. But when I run the CD Rom install, the scan doesn't pick up the CD drive. I know that all of the hardware and connections are fine, as when I plug in the old HD that the Amiga came with, the CD drive works. So it seems to be the software at fault.

Worth noting is that for some reason the CD-ROM is plugged in to the IDE connector on the IDE card rather than the CD-ROM connector. But it only works plugged in to the IDE one with the old HD, and doesn't work in either running the installer on the new HD.

Any suggestions? I'm running CWB by the way.

[cosmicfrog]

have u pluged an ide cd into the cd connector? if so plug it into the ide one
the cd is for old mitsashita drives

[edd_jedi]

Thanks for the reply. I have tried both connectors, it isn't recognised in either, although as said it works fine when my old HD is plugged in which is already configured correctly. So it seems to me it must be a driver issue.

[cosmicfrog]

yep driver issue then

the device will be octagon.device
or if you are using the octapussy update it be scsi.device

[edd_jedi]

Sorry I'm not sure what you mean by that. Should I be looking at another app to see if the card/drive are being recognised rather than the Tandem installer?

[amiman99]

I think you need to use tandemcd.device for your CDROM, not the AT. AT is for HDs not CDROMs.
I used to have that Tandem IDE controller, the best way to find the driver is to use the FIND CD utility and select the tandemcd.device if my memory serves right, it's been like 18 yeas or so since I had that board.

[cosmicfrog]

yep what amiman99 said

then if you look at the mount file it creats for the cd you will see it uses octagon.device

heres a link to all the stuff you will need
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/tandem

[edd_jedi]

OK great thanks guys, will give it another bash and let you know how I get on.

[lifeschool]

Hope you get things sorted Edd, I used to have one of those cards too. What has been said is right, the AT command is just for HDs, and there should be a TandemCD.device in the Devs directory somewhere. If you follow the link above you can find the install disks in DMS format. In my experience my Tandem didn't use Octagon.device (although I did also have an Oktagon 2008 board from the same company which DID use this device). So maybe it depends on the model revision of your board. If you can't get the sofware to install properly, perhaps you can somehow clone the WB which is working?

[edd_jedi]

Thought I'd made some progress, but still stuck.

I have determined that although the CD-ROM drive is a Tandem one, it is not one of the three 'supported' models that plug in to the CD-ROM connector on the Tandem card. So that must be why it was connected to IDE when I got it. So I ran the ClassicWB built in CD-ROM installer to install oktagon.device. Now whenever I boot to Workbench, before it loads it says 'Cannot open oktagon.device unit 0 - Abort'. I have tried booting both with and without the IDE AT driver file in the Extensions folder.

Any ideas? If not, how do I remove oktagon.device to stop the boot up warning?

[amiman99]

Check if there is a CD0 icon in Devs/DosDrivers folder. Move it to other location and reboot Amiga.

Why not get a cheap IDE CDROM and plug it to IDE port? Then you could use tandemcd.device.

[Orcish75]

IDEFix-97 supports the Tandem IDE controller, tandemat.device

http://aminet.net/disk/misc/IDEfix97.lha

You might need to remove all oktagon.device drivers before installing IDEFix-97.

I'm using IDEFix-97 on my Tandem controller with a slim IDE DVD-writer drive in my A2000. Works like a dream.

Cheers

[edd_jedi]

It's working! IDEFix97 did the job. Running the scan in the Tandem software couldn't find it, but IDEFix did. Thanks a lot for your help guys.

[Orcish75]

Excellent! Glad you got it working!