IDE Lockup on 10GB partition

[MartinW]

Hi there,

For a while now I have thought my A1200 was getting flaky and I was going to upgrade the power supply as a starting point but last night it dawned on me where the problem lies, I'm just not sure what the culprit is yet.

System: A1200, ACA1233@40Mhz / 128MB ram. 3.1.4 kick using Maprom (which was mapped during the install of 3.1.4 so the install will have thought it had physical 3.1.4 ROMs).

I am using the standard IDE in the system. Like many people I have a 16GB CF card divided up as (roughly) SYS:2GB, DATA:2GB, GAMES:the rest. All partitions are PFS3. I don't recall if they are PFS3AIO or what version - how can I check this? The was clean, now has BestWB 1.0 + 1.1 but it was doing this before BestWB too.

I have found that as soon as I write to the large games partition the IDE locks up. The system doesn't lock up, you can use the mouse but you can't do anything else. If you CTRL-A-A, the system is slow to reset and it just sits on a black screen without coming back. The only way to recover is to hit the power switch.

Where do I start?? I'm assuming this is a software issue but I'm not 100% convinced because of the reset not working.

[lesta_smsc]

Could this be due to max transfer rate being set too low?

[Mark sealey]

ooooh ok.....as far as i know the boot partion needs to be less than 1GB....mine is 500mb...thats plenty.....PFS3 aio.......the rest of my SD card is setup equal sizes...(32gb)....i also have a old school HDD (80gb) set up the same way....i have a Furia 020/33 and use Shadow Rom......with OS3.1.4 rom.....What SCSI.device are you using....? the one that comes with OS3.1.4 ?

Always "quick format" SD cards too

[MartinW]

OK, let's try and look. scsi.device - not sure where it came from. the disk wasn't a fresh partition for 3.1.4 so I know it worked OK on some previous incarnation which would have probably been 3.9 - I decided I wanted to go back a bit simpler and 3.1.4 came along at just the correct time so DH0 was formatted (quick) and 3.1.4 installed. DH1 and DH2 were left alone.

'version scsi.device' reports 45.7 - I don't know if BestWB installs one or if this is still the one from 3.1.4 but note, I'm pretty sure it was doing this before the BestWB install.

Details for DH2: (also the others by the look of it)

• File System: PFS\03
• Fast File System: checked
• Identifier: Can't read this as it's got a grey hash pattern over it
• Mask: 0x7FFFFFFE
• MaxTransfer: 0x1FE00
• Reserved blocks - start: 2
• Reserved blocks - end: 0
• File system block size: 512

[Mark sealey]

on my A600 furia the BestWB1.1 messed up my Boot partion.....i had to format/restore it...i know it changes the SCSI.device....probably to a different one thats on the os3.1.4 ROM....I would STILL have the boot partion <1gb.

[MartinW]

Can anyone tell me which versions of scsi.device and PFS I should be using for large disk access using 3.1.4? I only ask because I just want to check if I am ok or not first.

I'm beginning to err back on the side of this being a hardware issue (which will be a real PITA if it is!). It appears it's most certainly not a black and white case of not being able to write to DH2 as I first thought. I just booted up from cold and copied a game to DH2 and that worked fine. So I changed a bunch of icons on DH2, also fine. Hmm...

SO, I played a game for 5 or 10 minutes. Unintentionally, I'm easily distracted and after the second game (Mobeus, but I doubt it matters) the machine just goes black. No sound or display and I had to reset. THEN I went back in, tried to change an icon on DH2 and sur enough, it locks up and I had to power down (you can still move windows about but you have the clock pointer and can't do much else).

So now I'm back to thinking power (ok, not too bad) or something heat related (oh, I hope not).

So just wondering if there is any way to confirm my software side first?

[MartinW]

I've actually just remembered that I've got a second A1200 up in my workshop / games room that I can swap the CF card into and see if it does the same thing. If it does then it's either the PSU (easily changed) or software. From memory the other A1200 has either dodgy sound or dodgy colours which is why it's not in use. Should probably get it fixed really

[gulliver]

Double post.

[gulliver]

Originally Posted by Mark sealey

on my A600 furia the BestWB1.1 messed up my Boot partion.....i had to format/restore it...i know it changes the SCSI.device....probably to a different one thats on the os3.1.4 ROM....I would STILL have the boot partion <1gb.

BestWB does not alter at all any scsi.device version.

[MartinW]

Originally Posted by gulliver

BestWB does not alter at all any scsi.device version.

Thanks for confirming

I've just grabbed my spare A1200. I probably need to open them both up to swap stuff over but then I can hopefully determine if this is software or hardware.

[MartinW]

Hmm, OK, well hate to say it but I'm going to have to monitor this one over time. It's looking decidedly like a hardware issue. I swapped 1200's and PSUs and I haven't seen the problem since. I don't know whether to be happy or sad

[Mark sealey]

Originally Posted by MartinW

Hmm, OK, well hate to say it but I'm going to have to monitor this one over time. It's looking decidedly like a hardware issue. I swapped 1200's and PSUs and I haven't seen the problem since. I don't know whether to be happy or sad

Souinds good....on my A600 Furia I had a modded pc psu.....as my A600 is a beast.....was never quite stable.....so I tried a A500 psu....rock solid now.