Possible PCMCIA Fault

m0rph · 10 January 2019, 11:58

Dear all,

So I have an A1200 that I am in the process of doing up and changing things around to make it run easier, one thing I have done is swap the internal compact flash for an sd, what I then wanted is to use the pcmcia port to copy stuff quickly so I don't have to keep opening it up to take the card out and connect to my PC and use winuae.

I brought a sandisk pcmcia to cf adapter on ebay with the driver and it would not work, I was at that time using just whdload and copied the drivers to the machine but it would not work so I contacted the guy about it and he said it worked on AmigaOS 2.x and 3.x and ClassicWB so I have also now got and tried AmigaOS 3.1.4 and I burned the rom chips myself but it still does not work.

I have got a new pcmcia adapter and also a new compact flash card all sandisk but it doesn't work.

I thejn brought a pcmcia to usb to make sure the cards and adapters work which they do.

I cannot see anmy bent pins on the Amiga ?

Does anyone have any ideas please ?

Thanks in advance

Daedalus · 10 January 2019, 12:09

A couple of things to check... Have you tried hot-plugging the PCMCIA adaptor? Sometimes this is needed as starting the machine with the card inserted can cause problems.

Do you have CF0: mounted? Is it using Fat95 as the filesystem?

Are you using a CF card that's formatted for PC use, or trying to use the card that used to be used as a hard drive in your A1200? CF cards that are partitioned for Amiga use can't be easily used in the PCMCIA port.

Have you tried adjusting some of the compatibility settings of compactflash.device? Read the documentation to see what you can tweak. There are also debug tools in the compactflash.device archive that might give you more details, like whether the card is recognised at all.

Finally, what sort of expansions are in your A1200? If you have Kickstart 3.1, some RAM expansions and accelerators disable the PCMCIA port for compatibility reasons.

Hewitson · 10 January 2019, 12:57

I bet it's a PC Card rather than a PCMCIA card. Post a picture of it please.

FOL · 10 January 2019, 13:09

It could also be the accelerator used and if cardpatch is loaded or not.

My own A1200 with ACA1221 works with CF cards that do not work on a stock A1200 with ram expansion. I enable cardpatch, it stops working.
Viseversa with stock A1200.

Easiest way to see if the pcmcia card is seen, is to use prepcard in 3.1. It will also let you know if something is plugged in, regardless of drivers.

Allen1 · 10 January 2019, 13:46

As Daedalus mentioned.

"Are you using a CF card that's formatted for PC use, or trying to use the card that used to be used as a hard drive in your A1200? CF cards that are partitioned for Amiga use can't be easily used in the PCMCIA port."

If you are using the CF card that was your internal drive, you need to format it as fat 16 or fat 32 and also install "FAT95" and Compact Flash Device "CFD" on the Amiga, both available on Aminet.

m0rph · 10 January 2019, 13:52

Ok I have taken a pic of the adapter and cf card front and back and the adapter on the back does say pc card, I brought the 2nd replacement exactly the same because I thought the first one may have died as I had a horrible burning smell from it and the original cf card that came with the machine it turns out it was just the cf card so I binned that.

I have a ram expansion which I have also taken a pic of with 8mb in.

I have taken out the standard kick roms and burned my own 3.1.4 roms for the amiga os 3.1.4 that are supplied with it.

I have tried to hot plug and boot with the card inserted but that makes no difference.

As far as file system is concerned do you mean what is running on my sd card as dh0 ??

If so I think it is using the standard one that comes with it, ffs is it ??

The cf card is formatted with fat32 I think it says it uses both for the pcmcia slot, not 100% sure about that though, not sure how to check if cf0 is mounted or not, I have copied fat95 and cf driver files to workbench.

MigaTech · 10 January 2019, 14:18

This seems like an 8MB Fast RAM conflict issue. If you have all files in the correct locations and have tested all hardware. Then it would more than likely be a conflict with Fast RAM. Try using the PCMCIA without the M1207 connected.

Hewitson · 10 January 2019, 14:20

It's a PC Card. Not Amiga compatible.

Daedalus · 10 January 2019, 14:58

"PC card" is a generic term for the form factor - a slightly more marketing-friendly version of "PCMCIA". CardBus is the 32-bit version that's incompatible, and has the ridges on the end to prevent its insertion into a PCMCIA socket. That adaptor looks like it should be compatible.

The memory expansion is likely causing the issue. Kickstart 3.1 disables the PCMCIA port when there's 8MB of fast RAM fitted, because using SRAM cards in the port would conflict with the fast RAM. It is possible to patch the OS to remove this check, but to see if it's the problem, you can try it without the board installed as suggested. It might also be possible to jumper the board for less RAM, so you could still use it with maybe 2 or 4MB of fast RAM and the PCMCIA port active.

The filesystem on the internal SD card (the Amiga's hard drive) isn't the issue.

m0rph · 10 January 2019, 15:36

Ok I have just taken out the ram expansion, recopied the files off of the driver disk supplied rebooted and still no joy, the files given to me are:

compactflash.device - this went in sys:devs
fat95 - sys:l
cf0 - sys:devs/dosdrivers
cf0.info - as above

when i plug the pcmcia in it is very tight not sure if that's standard on amigas

m0rph · 10 January 2019, 15:46

another thing i have just tried the prepcard program and the pcmcia was out when i plugged it in I get some info from the card

Daedalus · 10 January 2019, 15:54

Okay, that shows that the Amiga at least sees the card, so the adaptor is compatible. At this point I would suspect the CF card isn't fully compatible with compactflash.device. If you don't have the latest version, try updating it, then try the compatibility tweaks in the documentation. Unfortunately not all CF cards are compatible, though more compatibility is being added all the time.

m0rph · 10 January 2019, 18:57

Ok I am now making some progress, I have got the cf to pop up in workbench on the desktop but not with the 32gb sandisk cf card it only works with the cf to sd adapter i got with pc card that i got with the pc card adapter, the compactflash.device was a few years out of date so i replaced it with the latest one from aminet, i also have tried copying the cf0 that comes with it and there is a mention of def_CF0.info but nothing is working yet.

the icon on the desktop says cf0:uninitialized i have no option to format if i try and if I try using prepcard i get the acrd is write protected, there is a lock switch on the sd adapter but I have m,ade sure its off

Daedalus · 10 January 2019, 22:02

Hmmm... CF to SD adaptors should be pretty decent when it comes to compatibility. Are you inserting the SD card before inserting the whole lot into the Amiga?

PrepCard can't do anything with cards like this, it's only designed to deal with SRAM cards so don't worry about that. Def_CF0.info isn't important to the working of the adaptor, it's only used for giving all CF cards a nice icon under OS 3.9.

Hewitson · 11 January 2019, 01:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daedalus

"PC card" is a generic term for the form factor - a slightly more marketing-friendly version of "PCMCIA". CardBus is the 32-bit version that's incompatible, and has the ridges on the end to prevent its insertion into a PCMCIA socket. That adaptor looks like it should be compatible.

I stand corrected. For some reason I recalled PC Card and CardBus being the same thing. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused.

m0rph · 11 January 2019, 08:30

Ok I have tried both, plugging it in with the cf card plugged in and without.

No confusion i appreciate any assistance.

Do you think i may need to adjust my cf0 info file a bit i am running the standard one and read in another forum here about pcmcia support

/* compactflash.device $VER: 1.21 (19.10.2002) */
/* fat95 file system by Torsten Jager */

FileSystem = l:fat95
Device = compactflash.device
Unit = 0
Flags = 0
LowCyl = 0
HighCyl = 0
Surfaces = 1
BlocksPerTrack = 1
BlockSize = 512
Buffers = 20
BufMemType = 1
BootPri = 0
Stacksize = 4096
Priority = 5
GlobVec = -1
DosType = 0x46415401

m0rph · 11 January 2019, 08:58

when i plug the cf card in i get nothing when i plug the sd to cf adaoter in i get the icon on the desktop

FOL · 11 January 2019, 17:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by m0rph

when i plug the cf card in i get nothing when i plug the sd to cf adaoter in i get the icon on the desktop

Thats working then. It just doesnt like the first card you tried.

m0rph · 11 January 2019, 17:47

sorry i missed a bit on that last post i was writing it this morning as i was rushing out the door.

i get the icon with the sd-cf adapter but i get cf0:uninitialized icon if i try to format it i am not allowed to

m0rph · 11 January 2019, 20:39

I have just resintalled os 3.1.4 from scratch and installed the latest drivers from aminet and i get the same error, the files i installed are as follows

compactflash.device - this went in sys:devs
fat95 - sys:l
cf0 - sys:devs/dosdrivers
cf0.info - as above

10 January 2019, 11:58	#1
m0rph Registered User Join Date: Aug 2018 Location: eastbourne Posts: 16	Possible PCMCIA Fault Dear all, So I have an A1200 that I am in the process of doing up and changing things around to make it run easier, one thing I have done is swap the internal compact flash for an sd, what I then wanted is to use the pcmcia port to copy stuff quickly so I don't have to keep opening it up to take the card out and connect to my PC and use winuae. I brought a sandisk pcmcia to cf adapter on ebay with the driver and it would not work, I was at that time using just whdload and copied the drivers to the machine but it would not work so I contacted the guy about it and he said it worked on AmigaOS 2.x and 3.x and ClassicWB so I have also now got and tried AmigaOS 3.1.4 and I burned the rom chips myself but it still does not work. I have got a new pcmcia adapter and also a new compact flash card all sandisk but it doesn't work. I thejn brought a pcmcia to usb to make sure the cards and adapters work which they do. I cannot see anmy bent pins on the Amiga ? Does anyone have any ideas please ? Thanks in advance

10 January 2019, 13:52	#6
m0rph Registered User Join Date: Aug 2018 Location: eastbourne Posts: 16	Ok I have taken a pic of the adapter and cf card front and back and the adapter on the back does say pc card, I brought the 2nd replacement exactly the same because I thought the first one may have died as I had a horrible burning smell from it and the original cf card that came with the machine it turns out it was just the cf card so I binned that. I have a ram expansion which I have also taken a pic of with 8mb in. I have taken out the standard kick roms and burned my own 3.1.4 roms for the amiga os 3.1.4 that are supplied with it. I have tried to hot plug and boot with the card inserted but that makes no difference. As far as file system is concerned do you mean what is running on my sd card as dh0 ?? If so I think it is using the standard one that comes with it, ffs is it ?? The cf card is formatted with fat32 I think it says it uses both for the pcmcia slot, not 100% sure about that though, not sure how to check if cf0 is mounted or not, I have copied fat95 and cf driver files to workbench. Attached Thumbnails

10 January 2019, 15:46	#11
m0rph Registered User Join Date: Aug 2018 Location: eastbourne Posts: 16	another thing i have just tried the prepcard program and the pcmcia was out when i plugged it in I get some info from the card Attached Thumbnails

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10 January 2019, 12:09	#2
Daedalus Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Dublin, then Glasgow Posts: 6,334	A couple of things to check... Have you tried hot-plugging the PCMCIA adaptor? Sometimes this is needed as starting the machine with the card inserted can cause problems. Do you have CF0: mounted? Is it using Fat95 as the filesystem? Are you using a CF card that's formatted for PC use, or trying to use the card that used to be used as a hard drive in your A1200? CF cards that are partitioned for Amiga use can't be easily used in the PCMCIA port. Have you tried adjusting some of the compatibility settings of compactflash.device? Read the documentation to see what you can tweak. There are also debug tools in the compactflash.device archive that might give you more details, like whether the card is recognised at all. Finally, what sort of expansions are in your A1200? If you have Kickstart 3.1, some RAM expansions and accelerators disable the PCMCIA port for compatibility reasons.

10 January 2019, 12:57	#3
Hewitson Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 41 Posts: 3,772	I bet it's a PC Card rather than a PCMCIA card. Post a picture of it please.

10 January 2019, 13:09	#4
FOL PSPUAE DEV Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Wales / UK Age: 45 Posts: 5,999	It could also be the accelerator used and if cardpatch is loaded or not. My own A1200 with ACA1221 works with CF cards that do not work on a stock A1200 with ram expansion. I enable cardpatch, it stops working. Viseversa with stock A1200. Easiest way to see if the pcmcia card is seen, is to use prepcard in 3.1. It will also let you know if something is plugged in, regardless of drivers.

10 January 2019, 13:46	#5
Allen1 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Blyth England Age: 68 Posts: 786	As Daedalus mentioned. "Are you using a CF card that's formatted for PC use, or trying to use the card that used to be used as a hard drive in your A1200? CF cards that are partitioned for Amiga use can't be easily used in the PCMCIA port." If you are using the CF card that was your internal drive, you need to format it as fat 16 or fat 32 and also install "FAT95" and Compact Flash Device "CFD" on the Amiga, both available on Aminet.

10 January 2019, 14:18	#7
MigaTech Only Amiga !! Join Date: Apr 2017 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 588	This seems like an 8MB Fast RAM conflict issue. If you have all files in the correct locations and have tested all hardware. Then it would more than likely be a conflict with Fast RAM. Try using the PCMCIA without the M1207 connected.

10 January 2019, 14:20	#8
Hewitson Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 41 Posts: 3,772	It's a PC Card. Not Amiga compatible.

10 January 2019, 14:58	#9
Daedalus Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Dublin, then Glasgow Posts: 6,334	"PC card" is a generic term for the form factor - a slightly more marketing-friendly version of "PCMCIA". CardBus is the 32-bit version that's incompatible, and has the ridges on the end to prevent its insertion into a PCMCIA socket. That adaptor looks like it should be compatible. The memory expansion is likely causing the issue. Kickstart 3.1 disables the PCMCIA port when there's 8MB of fast RAM fitted, because using SRAM cards in the port would conflict with the fast RAM. It is possible to patch the OS to remove this check, but to see if it's the problem, you can try it without the board installed as suggested. It might also be possible to jumper the board for less RAM, so you could still use it with maybe 2 or 4MB of fast RAM and the PCMCIA port active. The filesystem on the internal SD card (the Amiga's hard drive) isn't the issue.

10 January 2019, 15:36	#10
m0rph Registered User Join Date: Aug 2018 Location: eastbourne Posts: 16	Ok I have just taken out the ram expansion, recopied the files off of the driver disk supplied rebooted and still no joy, the files given to me are: compactflash.device - this went in sys:devs fat95 - sys:l cf0 - sys:devs/dosdrivers cf0.info - as above when i plug the pcmcia in it is very tight not sure if that's standard on amigas

10 January 2019, 15:54	#12
Daedalus Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Dublin, then Glasgow Posts: 6,334	Okay, that shows that the Amiga at least sees the card, so the adaptor is compatible. At this point I would suspect the CF card isn't fully compatible with compactflash.device. If you don't have the latest version, try updating it, then try the compatibility tweaks in the documentation. Unfortunately not all CF cards are compatible, though more compatibility is being added all the time.

10 January 2019, 18:57	#13
m0rph Registered User Join Date: Aug 2018 Location: eastbourne Posts: 16	Ok I am now making some progress, I have got the cf to pop up in workbench on the desktop but not with the 32gb sandisk cf card it only works with the cf to sd adapter i got with pc card that i got with the pc card adapter, the compactflash.device was a few years out of date so i replaced it with the latest one from aminet, i also have tried copying the cf0 that comes with it and there is a mention of def_CF0.info but nothing is working yet. the icon on the desktop says cf0:uninitialized i have no option to format if i try and if I try using prepcard i get the acrd is write protected, there is a lock switch on the sd adapter but I have m,ade sure its off

10 January 2019, 22:02	#14
Daedalus Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Dublin, then Glasgow Posts: 6,334	Hmmm... CF to SD adaptors should be pretty decent when it comes to compatibility. Are you inserting the SD card before inserting the whole lot into the Amiga? PrepCard can't do anything with cards like this, it's only designed to deal with SRAM cards so don't worry about that. Def_CF0.info isn't important to the working of the adaptor, it's only used for giving all CF cards a nice icon under OS 3.9.

11 January 2019, 08:30	#16
m0rph Registered User Join Date: Aug 2018 Location: eastbourne Posts: 16	Ok I have tried both, plugging it in with the cf card plugged in and without. No confusion i appreciate any assistance. Do you think i may need to adjust my cf0 info file a bit i am running the standard one and read in another forum here about pcmcia support /* compactflash.device $VER: 1.21 (19.10.2002) / / fat95 file system by Torsten Jager */ FileSystem = l:fat95 Device = compactflash.device Unit = 0 Flags = 0 LowCyl = 0 HighCyl = 0 Surfaces = 1 BlocksPerTrack = 1 BlockSize = 512 Buffers = 20 BufMemType = 1 BootPri = 0 Stacksize = 4096 Priority = 5 GlobVec = -1 DosType = 0x46415401

11 January 2019, 08:58	#17
m0rph Registered User Join Date: Aug 2018 Location: eastbourne Posts: 16	when i plug the cf card in i get nothing when i plug the sd to cf adaoter in i get the icon on the desktop

11 January 2019, 17:47	#19
m0rph Registered User Join Date: Aug 2018 Location: eastbourne Posts: 16	sorry i missed a bit on that last post i was writing it this morning as i was rushing out the door. i get the icon with the sd-cf adapter but i get cf0:uninitialized icon if i try to format it i am not allowed to

11 January 2019, 20:39	#20
m0rph Registered User Join Date: Aug 2018 Location: eastbourne Posts: 16	I have just resintalled os 3.1.4 from scratch and installed the latest drivers from aminet and i get the same error, the files i installed are as follows compactflash.device - this went in sys:devs fat95 - sys:l cf0 - sys:devs/dosdrivers cf0.info - as above

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