Amiga 1200 slow initialization if a 4GB compact flash card is not connected

[Stardust]

EDIT: Added more detail as I investigate the problem.

My A1200 has got a problem where if some of my Compact Flash cards are not connected as a hard drive the computer on power on and will wait 34 seconds for the Workbench 3.1 start up screen to show. But if a 4GB, 32GB or 4MB compact flash cards are plugged in the computer quickly goes to the start up screen as normal. I have installed a Worbench 3.1 on the 4GB compact flash card. I have a 8GB compact flash that does not make the problem go away. And I have a Individual ACA1221ec accelerator that does not make a difference.

Has anyone had this problem on their A1200?

[thomas]

If nothing is connected to the internal IDE bus, Kickstart waits a long time before it starts to boot from another device. That's known behaviour.

[Lisko]

Originally Posted by thomas

If nothing is connected to the internal IDE bus, Kickstart waits a long time before it starts to boot from another device. That's known behaviour.

But if he at least has a df0 floppy drive connected even with no hdd it shouldn't take 34 secs. The problem could be if he doesn't have a cf plugged in the adapter but the empty CFIDE adapter it's still connected to the ide bus because the adapter still introduces itself to the system and the Amiga still tries to boot from there until it timeouts.

[Jope]

The empty CF IDE plugged in is the same thing as nothing connected to the IDE bus at all.

From kick 3.1 onwards scsi.device searches for IDE hard disks for 30 seconds before it allows the startup to continue.

[Lisko]

Originally Posted by Jope

The empty CF IDE plugged in is the same thing as nothing connected to the IDE bus at all.

From kick 3.1 onwards scsi.device searches for IDE hard disks for 30 seconds before it allows the startup to continue.

I completely forgot that but since my a1200 came with kick 3.0 probably I didn't noticed such a long timeout and when I upgraded to 3.1 (I use blizkick to maprom newer versions) I also added in an HD and never used the miggy without again.

[Stardust]

I found a pair of Kickstart 3.0 ROM's and tried them in my A1200 without a compact flash hard drive. It takes 10 to 12 seconds for the startup screen to show. And a basic installation of Workbench 3.1 on a CF boots fine with Kickstart 3.0 ROM's. So my A1200 seems to be fine *phew*

Thinking about it I can't remember ever using my A1200 without a hard drive. Understandably I thought it strange that it took 34 seconds for the startup screen to show without a hard drive using 3.1 ROMs. I have learned something new.

[Leon Besson]

Have known Amiga 3.1 systems to boot quicker if using fast EPROMs instead of the originals.

[Stardust]

With no compact flash hard drive plugged in Kickstart 3.2 (47.96) takes 39 seconds to show the startup screen after power on.

A weird thing happened that when I put the 3.1 Kickstart ROM's back in it went straight to startup screen with no delay. The CF hard drive was connected so I had to do a soft keyboard reboot for that to boot. That happened about 4 times. After which it went back to "normal". I am going to carefully replace the mainboard capacitors.

[idrougge]

Why the long wait? What purpose does it serve, and does it serve any purpose in the year 2022?

[Stardust]

The long wait is strange. It would be really annoying for a computer shop to show a Amiga A1200 that has to wait 35 seconds before it can boot from a floppy disk. Most A1200 computers sold did not include a hard drive.

Are there other A1200 owners using Kickstart 3.1 or new 3.2 who do not have a 34 second start screen wait time after they power the computer on?

[Leon Besson]

Originally Posted by Xav

The long wait is strange. It would be really annoying for a computer shop to show a Amiga A1200 that has to wait 35 seconds before it can boot from a floppy disk. Most A1200 computers sold would not include a hard drive.

Are there other A1200 owners using Kickstart 3.1 or new 3.2 who do not have a 34 second start screen wait time after they power the computer on?

A lot of the A1200’s for sale at the time we’re running 3.0 ROMs My first A1200 in 1993 was running 3.0 ROMs It was bought brand new.

The way to get around the wait is to just fit a IDE 44 pin cable with a CF or SD holder, you don’t need to insert a card. Or you can buy IDE terminators that push over the connector.

[Stardust]

Yesterday I got a TF1260 accelerator. Now I am on a new learning curve in getting it to work with my A1200. This helpful youtube video [ Show youtube player ] shows how to create custom ROMs for the Terriblefire TF1230 so the computer can boot from the IDE interface on the accelerator board. I assume the TF1230 has the same IDE logic as the TF1260. Now the computer can boot from this new IDE interface but it still needs to do a soft reboot before finally loading Workbench 3.2. So not quite there but making progress

The pair of custom ROM eeproms I created had an extra ehide.device and a old version of scsi.device was replaced with version 44.20. Also workbench.library_40.5 was removed to make space. That is not essential. With no Compact flash card plugged into the A1200 IDE interfance or SD card adapter with a SD card plugged in to the TF1260 the Kickstart 3.1 splash screen now shows in 14 seconds after power on.