A500 Plus and A590 with ZuluSCSI not booting

[MarkT]

Hi,

Another project, another conundrum!

I've got an A500 Plus with an A590, plus some other bells and whistles, that just doesn't want to seem to boot from a ZuluSCSI. I'll set out all the facts on the setup below, followed by diagnostic information that I've gathered so far.

HARDWARE

- A500 Plus: Rev 8A motherboard, professionally recapped in June 2024. Genuine OS3.1 ROM fitted.
- A590: Rev 7 board with original v6.0 ROMs. Also full 2MB of Fast RAM fitted by me in the DIP sockets.
- New ZuluSCSI board with "high endurance" micro SD card fitted via an SD adapter.
- Brand new PSUs for both of the above from Retropassion.
- AmigaKit 1MB Chip RAM expansion.
- KiCAD 14MHz 68000 Accelerator with 1MB Slow Ram.

HARDWARE NOTES

The A590 and KiCAD accelerator were bought from eBay, with no particular guarantee that they worked. However, read on...

BASIC DIAGNOSTICS

- Amiga Test Kit can see all Chip, Fast and Slow RAM. All memory tests are passed. I note that Agnus and Paula get a bit warmer than I remember, but not so much that you can't keep your finger on them.
- ShowConfig can see the A590 (it's two devices for disk controller and RAM expansion). They're also in the Early Startup Menu, listed as "Working".
- SysInfo can see both "xt" and "scsi" v6.0 Devices, so the ROMs do appear to be at least superficially working. All speed tests also pass. Between this and ATK etc being fine, I get the impression that the hardware is functional.
- The ZuluSCSI generates a log and does see the HDA file.

DRIVE SETUP

- Original image was created by WinUAE. 100MB HDA file "hd0.hda". I did a Workbench 3.1 installation on it, and WinUAE booted it without issues. However, when inserted into the ZuluSCSI it wouldn't boot.
- Using HDToolbox on the real A500, I can see the ZuluSCSI drive and did appear to be able to set up a single 100MB partition. However, it then promptly didn't appear for formatting after so I couldn't continue.
- "hd0.hda" is set up an ID=0, LUN=0 - as per defaults.

Does anyone know where I may be going wrong please? I don't think it's a hardware fault, and the videos I've watched of people setting it up didn't allude to any special steps.

Thanks.

Mark

[samaron]

The BlueSCSI wiki says the following for an A590 with v7 ROMs:
[SCSI]
System="Generic"
EnableSCSI2=0 ; Off
PrefetchBytes=0
[SCSI0]
SectorsPerTrack=32
HeadsPerCylinder=1

Perhaps you need to apply the same or similar settings? Assuming the ZuluSCSI also has the option for a configuration file in *.ini format. If so, I assume the config settings are the same between the projects but should be double checked.

[SpeedGeek]

The A590 with original v6.0 ROMs is a problem. ZuluSCSI expects you to have at least v7.0 ROMs installed. I'm not sure about the Kicad 14MHz accelerator either but you can remove it and use the stock 7MHz 68000 just to be sure.

[MarkT]

Originally Posted by samaron

The BlueSCSI wiki says the following for an A590 with v7 ROMs:
[SCSI]
System="Generic"
EnableSCSI2=0 ; Off
PrefetchBytes=0
[SCSI0]
SectorsPerTrack=32
HeadsPerCylinder=1

Perhaps you need to apply the same or similar settings? Assuming the ZuluSCSI also has the option for a configuration file in *.ini format. If so, I assume the config settings are the same between the projects but should be double checked.

Thanks. I've just tried these settings, but they don't make a difference. The ZuluLog says that "Generic" is not a known preset, but other settings were recognised. I may need to do some more research here!

As an aside, I was having trouble setting up my Hardfile so it was being seen by WinUAE. A bit of research pointed me to the "Full Drive/RDB" mode, and its importance for use on a real Amiga. So that works fine and I installed WB3.1 again.

Went back to the A590, thinking "this RDB setting must be it!". So I was disappointed to discover that it booted then came up with a "Bad Sector" error. So I did a warm reset and this time it came up with a different Bad Sector. I powered off, left for a moment and started up again...DH0 now isn't visible in the Early Startup Menu and it won't boot at all.

Have ran out of time for today to work on it. I'm hoping this isn't going to be an obscure an issue as it was with the A2000/A2630/GVP SCSI I did last year!

[MarkT]

Originally Posted by SpeedGeek

The A590 with original v6.0 ROMs is a problem. ZuluSCSI expects you to have at least v7.0 ROMs installed. I'm not sure about the Kicad 14MHz accelerator either but you can remove it and use the stock 7MHz 68000 just to be sure.

It could be ROM-related. Do you know anyone who still sells them please?

I'm not looking forward to removing that accelerator if it comes to it. Levering such things out of old DIP sockets is a horrible job.