Wicher 500i Issues

CasVegas · 27 June 2019, 00:35

I have recently bought a new Wicher 500i card for my A500. Unfortunately all I get is a red screen with the below error message on it:

Board Number: 1
Manufacturer: 5040
Product: 27
Status: Defective

I have followed all the installation guidelines and installed a new 3.1 ROM from Amiga Forever.

I used a secondhand but tested (not by me) MC68HC000FN-16 chip. No memory installed into the Wicher card.

Tried it in my A500+ with the same results.

Any ideas before I contact the seller?

lesta_smsc · 27 June 2019, 01:10

Try applying a little pressure on Wicher at its connection to Amiga before and during booting. Friend had similar issue and it was because the board wasn't making contact. He made a customised clamp in the end to hold it in place!... let's just say our fingers hurt from all the testing lol.

CasVegas · 27 June 2019, 01:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

Try applying a little pressure on Wicher at its connection to Amiga before and during booting. Friend had similar issue and it was because the board wasn't making contact. He made a customised clamp in the end to hold it in place!... let's just say our fingers hurt from all the testing lol.

Thanks I will try that. I did notice that if you look at the boards end on, the Wicher card does not sit parallel to the main A500 board. The ROM chip protrudes higher than the CPU socket, so it was difficult to properly seat the Wicher card without it being on an angle and the pins on one side not being seated fully..... if that makes sense?

lesta_smsc · 27 June 2019, 02:04

Yes... hopefully what I've mentioned will help but ensure you only press on CPU region so you don't short anything else.

CasVegas · 27 June 2019, 09:06

UPDATE:

I contacted 7-Bit directly and whilst I did get a very speedy response, he told me it is the SIMM memory I am using; despite me telling him I hadn't installed any additional RAM....... so no further on.

Beginning to think this was a massive waste of time and money!

CasVegas · 28 June 2019, 00:12

Might have got it to work now. Comes on and I can boot an old 1.3 Workbench disk and it appears to show 8mb of RAM.

However it refuses to boot from Compact flash? I've never used CF as a hard disk with having an A500. So I bought a new Amiga Forever CF disk with Workbench 3.1 on it. Are there any buttons to press or keys to hold down, or should it just boot from CF if there is no floppy in the drive?

lesta_smsc · 28 June 2019, 00:16

Which kickstart are you using? Press both mouse buttons on boot and a menu should pop up allowing you to select which device to boot from. You'll see if CF card is an option this way too.

CasVegas · 28 June 2019, 12:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

Which kickstart are you using? Press both mouse buttons on boot and a menu should pop up allowing you to select which device to boot from. You'll see if CF card is an option this way too.

I'm using Kickstart 3.1 which is a a brand new ROM chip from AmigaStore.eu, and I'm on a Rev 6a board.

The CF isn't showing as an option in this boot menu. The card is inserted and the LED light is illuminated on the CF adaptor.

lesta_smsc · 28 June 2019, 12:19

Drivers enabled? Is there jumper setting on Wicher I can't remember if there was for HDD. There is for turbo mode.

CasVegas · 28 June 2019, 12:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

Drivers enabled? Is there jumper setting on Wicher I can't remember if there was for HDD. There is for turbo mode.

There are 3 jumpers on the Wicher card:

Position 0 - On/Off turbo card
Position 1 - 25MHz / 12MHz
Position 3 - RAS13 On / Off (single or two sided memory)

Cant see anything else for IDE etc.

lesta_smsc · 28 June 2019, 14:23

Which kickstart are you using? Minimum for IDE I believe is 2.04/2.05

CasVegas · 28 June 2019, 14:37

It's Kickstart 3.1.

obitus1990 · 29 June 2019, 05:14

Wicher is utter crap. I went through no fewer than 50 SIMMS, INCLUDING the one I bought with it from AmigaStore.eu, before I found one that worked and did not give me the same exact issue you have. Good luck. To others considering buying, avoid this picky card like the plague.

lesta_smsc · 29 June 2019, 10:53

The SIMM is not required for CF support since even my friends works without it. But yes I have heard it is picky with which SIMM it would accept. Would have been better to have on-board RAM with jumper selection option.

CasVegas · 01 July 2019, 12:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by kirk_m

Wicher is utter crap. I went through no fewer than 50 SIMMS, INCLUDING the one I bought with it from AmigaStore.eu, before I found one that worked and did not give me the same exact issue you have. Good luck. To others considering buying, avoid this picky card like the plague.

Thanks guys, at least I know I'm not going crazy. I have put an email back to the shop where i bought it, to see what they say.

I am a little concerned that the Wicher card did not work until I put some electrical insulation tape over all the exposed pins on the underside. I don't think it was shorting on anything, but you have to wonder!

Artur Gadawski (Retro 7Bit/Wicher designer) did email me back telling me it is probably my IDE cable which is faulty, so I have ordered another cable and another IDE to CF adapter.

I will try this, but my current cable and CF adapter are both brand new. Whilst they are Chinese, I see lots of people using them on YouTube without issue. So I feel like I'm just p1ssing into the wind on this one.

The card is no good to me if it does not boot from compact flash.

CasVegas · 04 July 2019, 17:13

Finally got it working! Was the compact flash adapter..... well had two faulty compact flash adapters. Third times a charm!

Seems to be some glitches with games using WHDLoad, don't know if this is because I only have 512k Chip ram?

Been advised by Artur to update the firmware to sort some compatibility issues and install the software so I can mess with the speed settings.

Unfortunately I'm unable to do that at present, as I have an iMac, not a PC.

patrik · 04 July 2019, 18:33

What specific part of the upgrade cannot be done on a mac?

CasVegas · 04 July 2019, 19:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrik

What specific part of the upgrade cannot be done on a mac?

I was under the impression there isn't anything available to allow me to write to the CF and add files or images using the Mac, like WinUAE for a PC.

lesta_smsc · 04 July 2019, 19:15

FS-UAE. Available for many platforms and a great GUI.

CasVegas · 04 July 2019, 19:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

FS-UAE. Available for many platforms and a great GUI.

I read somewhere that this couldn't be used? I actually use this to emulate games.

Have you used this yourself?

27 June 2019, 00:35	#1
CasVegas Registered User Join Date: Jun 2019 Location: Leeds Posts: 46	Wicher 500i Issues I have recently bought a new Wicher 500i card for my A500. Unfortunately all I get is a red screen with the below error message on it: Board Number: 1 Manufacturer: 5040 Product: 27 Status: Defective I have followed all the installation guidelines and installed a new 3.1 ROM from Amiga Forever. I used a secondhand but tested (not by me) MC68HC000FN-16 chip. No memory installed into the Wicher card. Tried it in my A500+ with the same results. Any ideas before I contact the seller?

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27 June 2019, 01:10	#2
lesta_smsc Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 3,173	Try applying a little pressure on Wicher at its connection to Amiga before and during booting. Friend had similar issue and it was because the board wasn't making contact. He made a customised clamp in the end to hold it in place!... let's just say our fingers hurt from all the testing lol.

27 June 2019, 02:04	#4
lesta_smsc Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 3,173	Yes... hopefully what I've mentioned will help but ensure you only press on CPU region so you don't short anything else.

27 June 2019, 09:06	#5
CasVegas Registered User Join Date: Jun 2019 Location: Leeds Posts: 46	UPDATE: I contacted 7-Bit directly and whilst I did get a very speedy response, he told me it is the SIMM memory I am using; despite me telling him I hadn't installed any additional RAM....... so no further on. Beginning to think this was a massive waste of time and money!

28 June 2019, 00:12	#6
CasVegas Registered User Join Date: Jun 2019 Location: Leeds Posts: 46	Might have got it to work now. Comes on and I can boot an old 1.3 Workbench disk and it appears to show 8mb of RAM. However it refuses to boot from Compact flash? I've never used CF as a hard disk with having an A500. So I bought a new Amiga Forever CF disk with Workbench 3.1 on it. Are there any buttons to press or keys to hold down, or should it just boot from CF if there is no floppy in the drive?

28 June 2019, 00:16	#7
lesta_smsc Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 3,173	Which kickstart are you using? Press both mouse buttons on boot and a menu should pop up allowing you to select which device to boot from. You'll see if CF card is an option this way too.

28 June 2019, 12:19	#9
lesta_smsc Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 3,173	Drivers enabled? Is there jumper setting on Wicher I can't remember if there was for HDD. There is for turbo mode.

28 June 2019, 14:23	#11
lesta_smsc Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 3,173	Which kickstart are you using? Minimum for IDE I believe is 2.04/2.05

28 June 2019, 14:37	#12
CasVegas Registered User Join Date: Jun 2019 Location: Leeds Posts: 46	It's Kickstart 3.1.

29 June 2019, 05:14	#13
obitus1990 Registered User Join Date: May 2016 Location: Mandeville USA Posts: 203	Wicher is utter crap. I went through no fewer than 50 SIMMS, INCLUDING the one I bought with it from AmigaStore.eu, before I found one that worked and did not give me the same exact issue you have. Good luck. To others considering buying, avoid this picky card like the plague.

29 June 2019, 10:53	#14
lesta_smsc Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 3,173	The SIMM is not required for CF support since even my friends works without it. But yes I have heard it is picky with which SIMM it would accept. Would have been better to have on-board RAM with jumper selection option.

04 July 2019, 17:13	#16
CasVegas Registered User Join Date: Jun 2019 Location: Leeds Posts: 46	Finally got it working! Was the compact flash adapter..... well had two faulty compact flash adapters. Third times a charm! Seems to be some glitches with games using WHDLoad, don't know if this is because I only have 512k Chip ram? Been advised by Artur to update the firmware to sort some compatibility issues and install the software so I can mess with the speed settings. Unfortunately I'm unable to do that at present, as I have an iMac, not a PC.

04 July 2019, 18:33	#17
patrik Registered User Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Umeå Age: 43 Posts: 922	What specific part of the upgrade cannot be done on a mac?

04 July 2019, 19:15	#19
lesta_smsc Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 3,173	FS-UAE. Available for many platforms and a great GUI.

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