FastATA 4000 mk-VII

[quantum8]

I've received a secondhand card with 9.0 bootrom onboard and have installed it in my a3000 and having issues getting it to work.


It came with a driver disk but i don't have a functional floppy drive, only goteks. Does anyone have the latest drivers + manual that I could use to try troubleshoot this?


I could only find the version 3.1 drivers on the elbox website and the changelog mentions: "ver.3.1 (06 Jul 2012)- support for BootROM 7.0" which I think is too old for my setup.


I have tried booting from a workbench install ADF and loading the 3.1 driver but I'm unable to see, or format my drive in HDtoolbox using 2nd.scsi.device as it gurus shortly after detecting the drive.

[shaf]

It might require a Fat Buster Rev 9 to function properly in an A3000, depending on your A3000 Manufacture date the Buster is usually rev. 7.

[AmigaHope]

Did Buster rev 7 -> 9 really affect PIO devices that much?

[quantum8]

Originally Posted by shaf

It might require a Fat Buster Rev 9 to function properly in an A3000, depending on your A3000 Manufacture date the Buster is usually rev. 7.

Yes you're correct that it has a 7 installed.



I have a 9 on the way so hopefully this does alleviate the issue.

[AwakeningStar]

I also have one FastATA 4000 mk-VII with ROM 9.0

Tried to install it with my A4000 with AmigaOS 4.1 FE and CyberStorm PPC, Tocatta, Commodore Ethernet board, V-Lab Motion

The downloaded FASTATA driver 3.1 does not detect the board.

Any clues or any new driver?

[Wrangler]

I've got a FastATA VII and I've never got it to work consistently in any Amiga, so curious if you get yours working OK @quantum8.

I've not heard about Buster 7 incompatibility though - where's the evidence of that?

[stevelord]

What Buster version do you have? Also can you try 3.x? I've used 3.9 and 3.2 successfully with mine

[Wrangler]

I'm not totally sure now, long time since I tried to get it to work but possibly any of rev 6/7/9/11! It's possible there's a problem with the card, but I'd also like to know if Buster has to be >7.

[Jpor]

Originally Posted by AwakeningStar

I also have one FastATA 4000 mk-VII with ROM 9.0

Tried to install it with my A4000 with AmigaOS 4.1 FE and CyberStorm PPC, Tocatta, Commodore Ethernet board, V-Lab Motion

The downloaded FASTATA driver 3.1 does not detect the board.

Any clues or any new driver?

I take it you have registered the serial number with Elbox? If not do so now as they maybe able to help with a later driver by emailing it to you. They did this with my 2nd hand spider 2 and FASTATA cards I bought off eBay.
Sometimes Elbox play a nice game of we won’t put the latest driver in the website unless it’s a genuine registered product.

I’m also surprised no one has mentioned upgrading to a Buster version 11? Have this in my A4000 which makes things a lot easier to live with.

[A10001986]

The FastATA "driver" is IIRC no driver, it just sets the PIO mode for the devices connected. Any version will do.

I have, however, never come across a device that worked reliably with PIO4 or PIO5. PIO3 is solid, though. (I run it with SATA-IDE converter + SSD and SD card readers.)

[stevelord]

I use PIO 4 and it's pretty solid on my setup. It's *very* choosy about CF cards though.

[stefcep2]

I have an earlier model on an A4000. It *has* to be in the third zorro slot from the top. Otherwise it doesn't work.

[A10001986]

Originally Posted by stevelord

I use PIO 4 and it's pretty solid on my setup. It's *very* choosy about CF cards though.

I never tried CF cards, for some reason I don't like them. But it might as well be that those support higher PIO modes better than SATA/IDE converters, as the latter probably focus more on DMA modes.

[slaapliedje]

Try it in different Zorro slots! I have two, and neither really work as well as the Buddha (mainly due to how the IDE ports are on the top vs the side) but the Bootrom 9.0 one seems way pickier (at least on the 4000)

http://elbox.com/download/FA4000_3.1.adf
There's the ADF for the drivers)

[A10001986]

Thanks, I already had this, and I already had tried different slots, no difference.

It depends on the connected device up to what PIO mode it actually works. I had one SATA-IDE converter that worked fine in PIO4 as long as I didn't write to the device. Another one worked both ways in PIO4 - for 10 minutes, then it died. Others refuse to work immediately in PIO4. All of them work fine in PIO3 (apart from the dead one, that is).

I don't use the FastATA that often and only for backups, so I am fine with PIO3.

I have several versions of Buddhas in my A2000s and they don't work that perfectly either. Order of cards (A2630, X-Surf-100, Oktagon 2008, Buddha - it works in exactly one order, if the Buddha is present) is very important, some required a CPLD update with work at all, and they are really slow.

The least trouble make the ATABus 2008 ones, of which there are clones available for DIY.