Very weird problem

alkis21 · 22 July 2010, 17:02

Out of all the Amiga problems I have troubled you with in the past, this must be the weirdest one of all. I really have no idea why this is happening. Although it is not really WHDLoad related, perhaps the WHDLoad errors I am getting will help us understand what is going on.

I have an Amiga 1200 with 10MBs RAM, and I recently acquired a 3.2GB hard disk. I was finally able to add a massive amount of WHDLoad games in my disk, and everything was working fine. However, as I was left with very little space I decided to use a 4GB disk instead. So I mounted them both on a PC and used WinUAE to copy everything from the smaller disk to the bigger one.

The 4GB disk is now connected to my Amiga and most things appear to be working fine. However, several of the games that work in the old disk (and the identical WinUAE setup that I have) refuse to work in the new one, and I can't for the life of me understand why as both disks contain the exact same files and they were even copied in a proper Amiga environment (Directory Opus to be exact)!

Here are some games that work fine in the smaller disk and return errors in the bigger one:

Code:

Fightin' Spirit
Exception "Illegal Instruction" ($10)
at $2808 occured.

Fightin' Spirit AGA
error dyring 'resload_LoadKick'
invalid kickstart image

Dangerous Streets AGA
Exception "Illegal Instruction" ($10)
at $1FFFC$ (Task 'exec.library') occured.

As the errors seem to occur to games that use kickstarts, I tried coping the kickstart files again and even reinstalling WHDLoad to no avail.

The only thing I can think of is that some files were copied as read only and need to be unprotected - but which ones? I checked the kickstart files and they are unprotected. I repeat that the exact same files -all 3GB+ of them- exist in the other hard disk and the games run without any problems.

Any help will be appreciated.

alkis21 · 23 July 2010, 07:26

Wow, I really managed to stump you with this one, didn't I? So no ideas at all as to why this may be happening?

Toni Wilen · 23 July 2010, 08:27

Usual max transfer not set problem?

alkis21 · 23 July 2010, 08:38

Huh?

Toni Wilen · 23 July 2010, 08:48

Open hdtoolbox, select first partition, find max transfer value somewhere in hdtoolbox settings, make sure value is 0x1fe00 (or less), remember to press return after changing it, do the same for all partitions. save changes. Some files might be damaged and need to be copied again.

Very common problem.

alkis21 · 23 July 2010, 09:00

Wow, thanks, I'll give it a try tonight.

alkis21 · 23 July 2010, 09:18

Uh, one more question: any idea where HDToolbox saves that information? I wouldn't want to overwrite that file when copying all the files back to the hard disk.

thomas · 23 July 2010, 10:45

It's stored in the partition table. You cannot overwrite it by copying files or even formatting partitions. Only HDToolbox and similar programs can change it.

alkis21 · 23 July 2010, 16:48

It did the trick. Thank you so much, Toni and Thomas.

Bamiga2002 · 24 July 2010, 10:34

Is the maxtransfer problem only related to internal IDE of the A1200? Would this problem also apply to Idefix + PFS3 combination?

thomas · 24 July 2010, 10:36

The IDEfix readme says that you won't have any MaxTransfer problem with it, so probably it does not apply.

Bamiga2002 · 24 July 2010, 11:18

What about BlizzardPPC scsi? Sometimes i get these kind of WHDLoad-errors also and i could rule out the maxtransfer error setting it to a lower value. Does it have an effect on file read/write speed if i set 0x1fe00 maxtransfer?

thomas · 24 July 2010, 12:15

Quote:

Does it have an effect on file read/write speed if i set 0x1fe00 maxtransfer?

Not noticable. It just means that it does not read more than 127.5 kb in one command. It only affects files which are larger than that. There is a little more overhead if the driver needs to split a large amount of data into smaller commands. But as I said, it's not noticable. It will be noticable if you set MaxTransfer to 0x200 (512 bytes, i.e. one block). But not with 64k or 128k.

Amiga1992 · 28 September 2010, 20:49

Thanks to everyone who pointed me to this, I will try out tonight if my WHDLoad games load with this changed. I only get the kickstart error though, not the others.

22 July 2010, 17:02	#1
alkis21 Zone Friend Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Athens, Greece Age: 49 Posts: 1,408	Very weird problem Out of all the Amiga problems I have troubled you with in the past, this must be the weirdest one of all. I really have no idea why this is happening. Although it is not really WHDLoad related, perhaps the WHDLoad errors I am getting will help us understand what is going on. I have an Amiga 1200 with 10MBs RAM, and I recently acquired a 3.2GB hard disk. I was finally able to add a massive amount of WHDLoad games in my disk, and everything was working fine. However, as I was left with very little space I decided to use a 4GB disk instead. So I mounted them both on a PC and used WinUAE to copy everything from the smaller disk to the bigger one. The 4GB disk is now connected to my Amiga and most things appear to be working fine. However, several of the games that work in the old disk (and the identical WinUAE setup that I have) refuse to work in the new one, and I can't for the life of me understand why as both disks contain the exact same files and they were even copied in a proper Amiga environment (Directory Opus to be exact)! Here are some games that work fine in the smaller disk and return errors in the bigger one: Code: Fightin' Spirit Exception "Illegal Instruction" ($10) at $2808 occured. Fightin' Spirit AGA error dyring 'resload_LoadKick' invalid kickstart image Dangerous Streets AGA Exception "Illegal Instruction" ($10) at $1FFFC$ (Task 'exec.library') occured. As the errors seem to occur to games that use kickstarts, I tried coping the kickstart files again and even reinstalling WHDLoad to no avail. The only thing I can think of is that some files were copied as read only and need to be unprotected - but which ones? I checked the kickstart files and they are unprotected. I repeat that the exact same files -all 3GB+ of them- exist in the other hard disk and the games run without any problems. Any help will be appreciated.

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23 July 2010, 07:26	#2
alkis21 Zone Friend Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Athens, Greece Age: 49 Posts: 1,408	Wow, I really managed to stump you with this one, didn't I? So no ideas at all as to why this may be happening?

23 July 2010, 08:27	#3
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,534	Usual max transfer not set problem?

23 July 2010, 08:38	#4
alkis21 Zone Friend Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Athens, Greece Age: 49 Posts: 1,408	Huh?

23 July 2010, 08:48	#5
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,534	Open hdtoolbox, select first partition, find max transfer value somewhere in hdtoolbox settings, make sure value is 0x1fe00 (or less), remember to press return after changing it, do the same for all partitions. save changes. Some files might be damaged and need to be copied again. Very common problem.

23 July 2010, 09:00	#6
alkis21 Zone Friend Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Athens, Greece Age: 49 Posts: 1,408	Wow, thanks, I'll give it a try tonight.

23 July 2010, 09:18	#7
alkis21 Zone Friend Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Athens, Greece Age: 49 Posts: 1,408	Uh, one more question: any idea where HDToolbox saves that information? I wouldn't want to overwrite that file when copying all the files back to the hard disk.

23 July 2010, 10:45	#8
thomas Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 7,006	It's stored in the partition table. You cannot overwrite it by copying files or even formatting partitions. Only HDToolbox and similar programs can change it.

23 July 2010, 16:48	#9
alkis21 Zone Friend Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Athens, Greece Age: 49 Posts: 1,408	It did the trick. Thank you so much, Toni and Thomas.

24 July 2010, 10:34	#10
Bamiga2002 BlizzardPPC'less Join Date: May 2004 Location: Finland Age: 46 Posts: 3,210	Is the maxtransfer problem only related to internal IDE of the A1200? Would this problem also apply to Idefix + PFS3 combination?

24 July 2010, 10:36	#11
thomas Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 7,006	The IDEfix readme says that you won't have any MaxTransfer problem with it, so probably it does not apply.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)

24 July 2010, 11:18	#12
Bamiga2002 BlizzardPPC'less Join Date: May 2004 Location: Finland Age: 46 Posts: 3,210	What about BlizzardPPC scsi? Sometimes i get these kind of WHDLoad-errors also and i could rule out the maxtransfer error setting it to a lower value. Does it have an effect on file read/write speed if i set 0x1fe00 maxtransfer?

28 September 2010, 20:49	#14
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,646	Thanks to everyone who pointed me to this, I will try out tonight if my WHDLoad games load with this changed. I only get the kickstart error though, not the others.