X-Surf 3cc IDE Problems

brett71 · 01 July 2010, 00:27

I recently purchased an A3000 and all it came with was a keyboard, mouse, a couple of hard drives and a set of Workbench 3.1 installation disks.

I've ditched one of the drives (52MB) and set up the other (4GB) as the main drive of the system and installed AmigaDOS 3.1.

The next thing I wanted to do was get it on my network, so I bought an X-Surf 3cc card, however, the drivers came on 2 CD's and I do not have a CD drive for the 3000. The best method I have is to copy 720k of stuff to a PC-formatted disk, then copy it to the 3000.

I pulled a CD drive out of an old Dell machine I had handy, connected it to the IDE port of the X-SURF. I followed the instructions that came with the X-Surf to copy the XSURFIDE files to the Sys:Expansion directory which should be all it takes to activate the IDE interface and get my CD drive working. I have confirmed that the xsurf_atapi.device appears to be loading (I see it in SYSINFO).

Unfortunately, after doing this and rebooting, my CD drive is not showing up, so I am still unable to install the rest of the drivers for the network card. Manually mounting CD0: does not help. I have tried modifying the tool types of my CD0: device to use xsurf_atapi.device instead of scsi.device, but that doesn't seem to help and HDToolbox does not see the drive. I have also tried downloading and installing AmiCDFS 2.4 from Aminet. My drive does seem to show up now, but as CD0:NDOS.

Could someone please help me out on where I went wrong, or better yet, a step-by-step on how to take a fresh AmigaDOS 3.1 install and get the IDE interface on the X-Surf working and then get the network drivers working?

Thanks!

vk3heg · 01 July 2010, 13:11

Two things come to mind:

1: Is the CD drive really IDE (some really old one's are not)?

2: Did you get pin one on the cable on pin one on the ide interface of the xsurf?

When I tested my xsurf with a ide drive. it worked but was slow.

brett71 · 01 July 2010, 13:25

Thanks for the reply...

1. Yes, this CD drive is really IDE. I pulled it out of a Dell that is probably only 4-5 years old.

2. I am fairly certain that I got pin 1 of the cable on pin 1 of the IDE interface. If you are looking down on the card with the network ports at the right end of the card, pin 1 (indicated by a 1 silkscreened on the board, and also indicated on the installation instruction sheet) should be to the right end of the connector. The red-striped wire of the IDE cable is on that end.

I think I'm going to try removing AmiCDFS and install CacheCDFS and see if that helps any.

When I boot the 3000, it seems like something tries to read the CD in the drive, but fails.

thomas · 01 July 2010, 15:24

You should first run the FindDevice utility to find out if your CD drive is recognised at all. Changing file system will not help if the IDE driver does not see the drive.

If FindDevice sees the drive it also tells you which device/unit to use in your CD0 mountfile.

Did you set the jumper on the drive to master or slave? Master would mean unit=0, slave unit=1. Cable select does not work on the Amiga.

brett71 · 01 July 2010, 18:29

I am guessing that the FindDevice program comes with the IDEFix'97 software? I have not installed any of that yet. Should this be my first step, then? i.e. 1. install complete Workbench 3.1, 2. install IDEFix'97?

thomas · 01 July 2010, 18:44

You don't need to install IDEfix. Just unpack the archive and run the utility.

brett71 · 01 July 2010, 23:44

OK, I tried a different drive and cable (more for aesthetic reasons, the first one I tried was absolutely filthy). I have a DVD-RW plugged into the IDE controller, copied FindDevice over, selected xsurf_atapi.device in the ExecDevice section and the device window DOES list the DVD-RW drive.

brett71 · 01 July 2010, 23:53

Success!!!

I'm not sure if part of the problem was the original drive and cable I was using, but the DVD drive is working! After I did the FindDevice, I just made sure that the CD0: device was using xsurf_atapi.device and was set for Unit=1 (slave) and it came right up and read my install CD's!

vk3heg · 02 July 2010, 08:38

IDE cables tend to go like that sometimes. Have even had brand new ones, that were faulty.

Having a CD/DVD on the Ami, makes life so easy with installing/transfering data.

01 July 2010, 00:27	#1
brett71 Registered User Join Date: May 2010 Location: Ames, IA, USA Posts: 521	X-Surf 3cc IDE Problems I recently purchased an A3000 and all it came with was a keyboard, mouse, a couple of hard drives and a set of Workbench 3.1 installation disks. I've ditched one of the drives (52MB) and set up the other (4GB) as the main drive of the system and installed AmigaDOS 3.1. The next thing I wanted to do was get it on my network, so I bought an X-Surf 3cc card, however, the drivers came on 2 CD's and I do not have a CD drive for the 3000. The best method I have is to copy 720k of stuff to a PC-formatted disk, then copy it to the 3000. I pulled a CD drive out of an old Dell machine I had handy, connected it to the IDE port of the X-SURF. I followed the instructions that came with the X-Surf to copy the XSURFIDE files to the Sys:Expansion directory which should be all it takes to activate the IDE interface and get my CD drive working. I have confirmed that the xsurf_atapi.device appears to be loading (I see it in SYSINFO). Unfortunately, after doing this and rebooting, my CD drive is not showing up, so I am still unable to install the rest of the drivers for the network card. Manually mounting CD0: does not help. I have tried modifying the tool types of my CD0: device to use xsurf_atapi.device instead of scsi.device, but that doesn't seem to help and HDToolbox does not see the drive. I have also tried downloading and installing AmiCDFS 2.4 from Aminet. My drive does seem to show up now, but as CD0:NDOS. Could someone please help me out on where I went wrong, or better yet, a step-by-step on how to take a fresh AmigaDOS 3.1 install and get the IDE interface on the X-Surf working and then get the network drivers working? Thanks! Last edited by brett71; 01 July 2010 at 03:57.

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01 July 2010, 13:11	#2
vk3heg Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Australia Age: 55 Posts: 222	Two things come to mind: 1: Is the CD drive really IDE (some really old one's are not)? 2: Did you get pin one on the cable on pin one on the ide interface of the xsurf? When I tested my xsurf with a ide drive. it worked but was slow.

01 July 2010, 13:25	#3
brett71 Registered User Join Date: May 2010 Location: Ames, IA, USA Posts: 521	Thanks for the reply... 1. Yes, this CD drive is really IDE. I pulled it out of a Dell that is probably only 4-5 years old. 2. I am fairly certain that I got pin 1 of the cable on pin 1 of the IDE interface. If you are looking down on the card with the network ports at the right end of the card, pin 1 (indicated by a 1 silkscreened on the board, and also indicated on the installation instruction sheet) should be to the right end of the connector. The red-striped wire of the IDE cable is on that end. I think I'm going to try removing AmiCDFS and install CacheCDFS and see if that helps any. When I boot the 3000, it seems like something tries to read the CD in the drive, but fails.

01 July 2010, 15:24	#4
thomas Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 6,985	You should first run the FindDevice utility to find out if your CD drive is recognised at all. Changing file system will not help if the IDE driver does not see the drive. If FindDevice sees the drive it also tells you which device/unit to use in your CD0 mountfile. Did you set the jumper on the drive to master or slave? Master would mean unit=0, slave unit=1. Cable select does not work on the Amiga.

01 July 2010, 18:29	#5
brett71 Registered User Join Date: May 2010 Location: Ames, IA, USA Posts: 521	I am guessing that the FindDevice program comes with the IDEFix'97 software? I have not installed any of that yet. Should this be my first step, then? i.e. 1. install complete Workbench 3.1, 2. install IDEFix'97?

01 July 2010, 18:44	#6
thomas Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 6,985	You don't need to install IDEfix. Just unpack the archive and run the utility.

01 July 2010, 23:44	#7
brett71 Registered User Join Date: May 2010 Location: Ames, IA, USA Posts: 521	OK, I tried a different drive and cable (more for aesthetic reasons, the first one I tried was absolutely filthy). I have a DVD-RW plugged into the IDE controller, copied FindDevice over, selected xsurf_atapi.device in the ExecDevice section and the device window DOES list the DVD-RW drive.

01 July 2010, 23:53	#8
brett71 Registered User Join Date: May 2010 Location: Ames, IA, USA Posts: 521	Success!!! I'm not sure if part of the problem was the original drive and cable I was using, but the DVD drive is working! After I did the FindDevice, I just made sure that the CD0: device was using xsurf_atapi.device and was set for Unit=1 (slave) and it came right up and read my install CD's!

02 July 2010, 08:38	#9
vk3heg Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Australia Age: 55 Posts: 222	IDE cables tend to go like that sometimes. Have even had brand new ones, that were faulty. Having a CD/DVD on the Ami, makes life so easy with installing/transfering data.

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