CD32 + Terrible Fire 328 = Possible Whdload incompatibilities

Captain_ Kal · 26 November 2023, 18:11

This is something I discovered while messing around with my CD32. I have upgraded it with a Terrible Fire 328, and a CF card as a hard drive.
I have installed the latest version of whdload, both in OS3.2 and OS3.1. Native installed games (installer on disk or copying files and assigning to harddisk folder), run fine (excluding the usual AGA incompatibilities, of course)!!

But when I try to run a whdload game, I get all sort of errors. For example, I get the following errors:

"F-15 Strike Eagle II" , "The Krystal", : black screens, although I can still quit these games.

"ArmourGeddon" : Illegal Instruction at $4B90 occured

"Gunship 2000 AGA" : error during 'resload_Loadkick Invalid kickstart image kick40068.a1200

Suffice to say that, I also tried these games, on WinUAE and a real A1200 equiped with a blizzard 50MHz 68030 board.

Any ideas?

jotd · 26 November 2023, 18:49

TF328 isn't very stable, that's true. Invalid kickstart image is an error that is probably not of the TF fault. Isn't there a maxtransfer issue (detected by kickstart CRC) that could corrupt diskimages and crash other games?

Just trying to help, but I have a TF328 and it crashes on whdload games. I don't use it for that, only to debug stuff on CD32 (very useful for that)

derSammler · 26 November 2023, 18:50

"Illegal Instruction" is normally fixed by adding "NoCache" tooltype.

"Invalid kickstart image" - do you have the file in devs/Kickstarts and also the patch tables from skick?

Oh, and how did you set MaxTransfer? Because if that is wrongly set, data corruption will happen, which can make everything randomly fail with all sorts of funny errors.

Captain_ Kal · 26 November 2023, 20:59

Quote:

"Invalid kickstart image" - do you have the file in devs/Kickstarts and also the patch tables from skick?

The whole devs/Kickstarts folder is copied to my CD32, A1200 and my WinUAE configuration. I get this error only in my CD32.

Quote:

"Illegal Instruction" is normally fixed by adding "NoCache" tooltype.

I will try it!!

Quote:

Oh, and how did you set MaxTransfer? Because if that is wrongly set, data corruption will happen, which can make everything randomly fail with all sorts of funny errors.

Quote:

Isn't there a maxtransfer issue (detected by kickstart CRC) that could corrupt diskimages and crash other games?

OK!! That came out of the blue!! I thought that the board was plug and play!! How do I set MaxTransfer?

alexh · 26 November 2023, 21:02

When you partition your HDD it's there in HDToolBox. All Gayle IDE implementations that use scsi.device in kickstart, including A600, A1200, TF328 etc. require max transfer of 0x1fe00

Without it, it seems like it's working but as soon as the Amiga starts to write anything over 128Kbytes boom!

derSammler · 26 November 2023, 21:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_ Kal

I thought that the board was plug and play!! How do I set MaxTransfer?

You set it via HDToolBox.

This is unrelated to the TF328 but applies to pretty much any IDE port you connect a CF card to. It's even mentioned in the WHDLoad docs:

https://whdload.de/docs/en/bugs.html

Try MaxTransfer = 0x07FEC and Mask = 0x07FFFFC as given there.

str0m · 27 November 2023, 10:44

I have a TF330 and found lots of games gave me the black screen with the CF adapter. I bought an IDE to SD one instead and it's much better. Get the odd game with an illegal instruction which is probably more likely to be a config/file issue but 99% of the black screen issues went

I think it's a hardware/psu issue really as I sent mine back to the builder to take a look at it all worked fine on his CD32 with my CF adapter

Mine was a pre-configured image so your black screen issues could be something else but I suspect it is the same problem I had

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165579814472

derSammler · 27 November 2023, 10:57

I can tell you for sure by testing over 300+ WHDLoad installs that "illegal instruction" is in 99% of all cases due to enabled cache.

File issues can trigger every error message WHDLoad is able to display, as it will be completely random when corrupted code is executed. Of course, that means it can show "illegal instruction" as well, but that does not change what the main culprit of that normally is.

Using the same collection of WHDLoad installs on WinUAE as on my A500 with PiStorm, I get black screens on many games that run fine on the PiStorm (and in very few cases, the other way around). That's just how it is: WHDLoad works great, but not on every config out of the box with all games. You need to get into its tooltypes, as there is simply no combination that works on every system.

It's certainly not the TF328 that is to blame here. It's just a memory expansion with IDE, not an accelerator. It's not breaking compatibility. Btw, you may want to use the "WHDLoadCD32" executable instead of "WHDLoad" on the CD32...

And if you do not even set MaxTransfer right, not even WHDLoad is to blame.

Captain_ Kal · 28 November 2023, 15:51

Thanks guys!! I will implement your recommendations and I will get back to you!!

26 November 2023, 18:11	#1
Captain_ Kal Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Athens, Greece Age: 54 Posts: 157	CD32 + Terrible Fire 328 = Possible Whdload incompatibilities This is something I discovered while messing around with my CD32. I have upgraded it with a Terrible Fire 328, and a CF card as a hard drive. I have installed the latest version of whdload, both in OS3.2 and OS3.1. Native installed games (installer on disk or copying files and assigning to harddisk folder), run fine (excluding the usual AGA incompatibilities, of course)!! But when I try to run a whdload game, I get all sort of errors. For example, I get the following errors: "F-15 Strike Eagle II" , "The Krystal", : black screens, although I can still quit these games. "ArmourGeddon" : Illegal Instruction at $4B90 occured "Gunship 2000 AGA" : error during 'resload_Loadkick Invalid kickstart image kick40068.a1200 Suffice to say that, I also tried these games, on WinUAE and a real A1200 equiped with a blizzard 50MHz 68030 board. Any ideas?

27 November 2023, 10:57	#8
derSammler Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 1,667	I can tell you for sure by testing over 300+ WHDLoad installs that "illegal instruction" is in 99% of all cases due to enabled cache. File issues can trigger every error message WHDLoad is able to display, as it will be completely random when corrupted code is executed. Of course, that means it can show "illegal instruction" as well, but that does not change what the main culprit of that normally is. Using the same collection of WHDLoad installs on WinUAE as on my A500 with PiStorm, I get black screens on many games that run fine on the PiStorm (and in very few cases, the other way around). That's just how it is: WHDLoad works great, but not on every config out of the box with all games. You need to get into its tooltypes, as there is simply no combination that works on every system. It's certainly not the TF328 that is to blame here. It's just a memory expansion with IDE, not an accelerator. It's not breaking compatibility. Btw, you may want to use the "WHDLoadCD32" executable instead of "WHDLoad" on the CD32... And if you do not even set MaxTransfer right, not even WHDLoad is to blame. Last edited by derSammler; 27 November 2023 at 11:07.

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26 November 2023, 18:49	#2
jotd This cat is no more Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: FRANCE Age: 52 Posts: 8,410	TF328 isn't very stable, that's true. Invalid kickstart image is an error that is probably not of the TF fault. Isn't there a maxtransfer issue (detected by kickstart CRC) that could corrupt diskimages and crash other games? Just trying to help, but I have a TF328 and it crashes on whdload games. I don't use it for that, only to debug stuff on CD32 (very useful for that)

26 November 2023, 18:50	#3
derSammler Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 1,667	"Illegal Instruction" is normally fixed by adding "NoCache" tooltype. "Invalid kickstart image" - do you have the file in devs/Kickstarts and also the patch tables from skick? Oh, and how did you set MaxTransfer? Because if that is wrongly set, data corruption will happen, which can make everything randomly fail with all sorts of funny errors.

26 November 2023, 21:02	#5
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,581	When you partition your HDD it's there in HDToolBox. All Gayle IDE implementations that use scsi.device in kickstart, including A600, A1200, TF328 etc. require max transfer of 0x1fe00 Without it, it seems like it's working but as soon as the Amiga starts to write anything over 128Kbytes boom!

27 November 2023, 10:44	#7
str0m Registered User Join Date: Oct 2016 Location: Newcastle, UK Posts: 278	I have a TF330 and found lots of games gave me the black screen with the CF adapter. I bought an IDE to SD one instead and it's much better. Get the odd game with an illegal instruction which is probably more likely to be a config/file issue but 99% of the black screen issues went I think it's a hardware/psu issue really as I sent mine back to the builder to take a look at it all worked fine on his CD32 with my CF adapter Mine was a pre-configured image so your black screen issues could be something else but I suspect it is the same problem I had https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165579814472

28 November 2023, 15:51	#9
Captain_ Kal Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Athens, Greece Age: 54 Posts: 157	Thanks guys!! I will implement your recommendations and I will get back to you!!

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