Errors with WHDLoad games on real A1200, fine on emulator

Hi all, this may not be due to WHDLoad at all, but posting here initially.

I've got an A1200 that I recently added 4mb of fast ram to (a cheap RCA120 board) in the hopes of finally getting WHDLoad working nicely. I had it installed before installing the RAM and from what I remember it worked ok, except for the games that required extra ram.

When testing in an emulator with the CF card hard drive, games work with no problems - but on the real A1200, almost no WHDLoad games work. Most error with "Address Error" exception messages (Exception "Address Error" ($800C) at $FDFF6EB2 occured) or with invalid kickstart image messages (error during 'resload_LoadKick' invalid kickstart image 'devs.kickstarts/kick40068.a1200') - but the kickstart images are in the right place, and like I say, work ok on the emulator.

Any ideas what I can try? Would reinstalling WHDLoad help? Or could this be a fault with the memory?

[jotd]

invalid kickstart image messages: probably maxtransfer issue: data corrupt => invalid CRC.

on an emulator, I don't think that the maxtransfer parameter leads to corruption.

[daxb]

First, I would run a memory checker tool. Maybe the RAM is faulty?

[Toni Wilen]

Set WinUAE HDF ATA mode to "ATA2+Strict" to emulate ATA behavior that triggers max transfer problem.

Thanks, I'll check both of these things out, although I'm using a Mac and FSUAE, but maybe it has that option somewhere. Any recommendations for memory checking software?

Looks like this was indeed the incorrect Max Transfer value for CF hard drives. Changed to 0x1FE00 using http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/hdinst and now all loading fine.
Thanks for the help

[daxb]

This for example but there should be more to find:

http://aminet.net/package/util/misc/pmemtest
http://aminet.net/package/util/moni/CheckMem

http://aminet.net/search?query=memory+test

[Misclegend]

winuae is more compatible than the real hardware
ie on my A1200 there are whdload games which for unknown reason don't work there however the same game/idem files works fine on winuae

now I don't care very much what works and what not works, if doesn not work I simply delete it from the A1200 hardisk
also I noted that on my A1200 some games don't work using whdload V18 but works if I use whdload V17

WHdload V17 works better and is more compatible on my A1200 so in my A1200 I have installed whdload V17 + cracked keyfile I found on the web, but on winuae I use whdload V18 and there are no problems

[haynor666]

What exact 18.x version You use ?

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Misclegend

A1200 I have installed whdload V17 + cracked keyfile I found on the web, but on winuae I use whdload V18 and there are no problems

Why do you need the cracked keyfile?

WHDLoad has been free for some years now, and all restrictions without legally registering removed

In fact if you use this cracked keyfile, it will cause issues; as recently pointed out in this thread.

[Retroplay]

Free since 18.2.

[quantum8]

Came across this exact issue and setting the max transfer using HDinst on wb3.5 worked a treat.