A1200 + FZ354 drive won't load "James Pond 3" AGA : misaligned, RDY missing, or ... ?

[reno]

Hello,

I've been scratching my head for a few days with this problem :

I have 2 original disk sets of "James Pond 3" for A1200 that are both failing to load. Immediately after booting (into a black screen), the Amiga is stuck trying to load the same track (no step motor noise), with the disk drive led blinking in a loop but no progress.

I've carefully cleaned the disks, rewritten them from IPF files using a Greaseweazle and 2 differents PC drives that usually work fine for this purpose.

Reading the disks back from the PC drives, the resulting .SCP file looks visually fine in the HxCFloppyEmulator GUI tool (all green, 0 bad sectors), and loads perfectly in FS-UAE.

My first thought is that the Chinon drive could be misaligned compared to the PC drives used to write the disks.
But the disk read test in AmigaTestKit seems ok, finding 11/11 sectors on that disk whether on track 0, 40, 79 and all tracks load with green "0"s.

To test the opposite scenario, I tried formatting that same disk in the Amiga, then reading it back on the PC drive : in the HxC tool visualisation, I do see some thin black gaps between some tracks, and some white dots all around the disk. But no bad sectors, and the SCP file converts back to ADF/IPF perfectly fine using Keir Fraser's "disk-utility"

Something interesting however in ATK is that it tells me "No READY signal. PC or Escom drive ?"


The A1200 is a 1D4 board and indeed originally an Escom with a PC drive, but I had the motherboard patch removed so I could use a standard Amiga drive instead. The drive is NOT the original one but a Chinon FZ-354.

If I can read its jumper config correctly, it's : DS0, MM, RDY, TTL/C-MOS.
So, it should have a working Ready signal, right ? It detects when a disk is inserted just fine. I don't know what else to test. I didn't do the other advanced disk tests in ATK yet.

What do you think ?
Is this game known to be fussy with disk drives ?
Could my Amiga drive be misaligned ? Or BOTH my PC drives ?
Do I have wrong jumper settings on the Chinon that I didn't notice until now ? (I've read conflicting info on whether MM or MD is the correct one)
Why does ATK complain about the READY signal ?
This is with KS 3.2 ROMs, I also tried 3.1, 3.2.1, 3.2.2 through Pistorm32 maprom : no difference.

What should I try next ?
I have another 1200 in storage that I haven't yet tested the disks with, or I guess I could swap the drive with my 600's. But before I do that, did I miss something obvious ?

Thanks !

[Jope]

Did you remove the jump wire or reroute it? If it is removed, then there will be no RDY from the internal connector.

[reno]

Originally Posted by Jope

Did you remove the jump wire or reroute it? If it is removed, then there will be no RDY from the internal connector.

I don't know the history of this drive. My 1200 was originally an Escom with a Panasonic JU- drive I think. When I sent it for recap, I asked for the Escom motherboard fix to be reversed and the Panasonic drive to be adjusted as well, to restore full Amiga compatibility. But the person who did it didn't have time to fix the drive, so instead they sent me this FZ-354, which I assumed until now was fully set up for Amiga.

Can you remind me which jumper to check (or any good tutorials ?)

Here's what I don't understand : I believed that having no RDY signal caused other problems, like not being able to detect a disk being inserted when you're on the KS boot screen. But I don't have any such problems. I didn't notice anything wrong until trying to load this particular game.

[reno]

Originally Posted by Boing-Ball

Swap the floppy drive to rule out the drive. Then you’ll know.

Yes, that was the obvious thing to try next !
I tried the game on another A1200 (2B with Panasonic JU drive) and it boots fine ! ATK sees the RDY signal on this one. So at least that rules out my disks !

Now I need to determine if the issue with this particular game and my FZ-354 is the lack of RDY signal, or an alignment issue.

I guess I need to try swapping the drives between the 2 A1200s next.

[reno]

Making progress but not in the direction that I'd like :

I tried the Panasonic JU-253-043P from the other 1200 in mine, and it's showing the exact same problem as the Chinon : ATK doesn't see a RDY signal, James Pond 3 doesn't boot. So the drive is not the problem !

I guess it's my 1D4 motherboard that has an issue. What should I look at next ?

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by reno

Making progress but not in the direction that I'd like :

I tried the Panasonic JU-253-043P from the other 1200 in mine, and it's showing the exact same problem as the Chinon : ATK doesn't see a RDY signal, James Pond 3 doesn't boot. So the drive is not the problem !

I guess it's my 1D4 motherboard that has an issue. What should I look at next ?

If you have an escom 1200, check this :


[ Show youtube player ]

this : http://amigaga.chez-alice.fr/classic...e/a1200fix.htm

[reno]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

If you have an escom 1200, check this :

Thank you, I think that solves the mystery !
The fix on my Escom board was only half done : the original jumper wire has been removed, but RDY was not reconnected as shown in the video.

I'll try that asap.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by reno

Thank you, I think that solves the mystery !
The fix on my Escom board was only half done : the original jumper wire has been removed, but RDY was not reconnected as shown in the video.

I'll try that asap.

This answers my question about the jumper. :-)

[reno]

Originally Posted by Jope

This answers my question about the jumper. :-)

Ahh when I read your comment I thought you mentioned something on the drive PCB ! It all makes sense now