CF Card doesn't work... (Sandisk Ultra 8GB 50 MB/S)

[opossumita]

Hi all, I've been a long time lurker as a WinUAE junkie before this, i think i registered an account some years ago but probably got deleted for inactivity!

Anyway, I just had the chance to acquire a real Amiga 1200, so i purchased a CFtoIDE 44 pin adapter from ebay and a CF card from amazon to prepare the hd for WHDLOAD.

The CF is a Sandisk Ultra 8GB 50 mb/s (not an Ultra II) and I wire it to the pc through a Lindy USB multiflash card reader (it's detected as a "Removable device" by Windows7).

So, i clean the CF card with diskpart under DOS shell, I open WinUAE and I set everything to partition and format the CF through install.adf WB floppy. Now there is NO WAY to make HdTools detect the CF as a IDE0 device, i tried also with HdinstTools, and no, the CF card simply gets not detected... Both in HdTools and Hdinsttools the buttons come greyed and i can't do anything more.

But if in WinUAE i set the HD interface oprtion as UAE and i change scsi.device to uaehf.device in HdTools Info tab, the card magically gets detected. In this way I've been able to make the partitions (even with PFS3), install Classic Workbench and everything, making the CF card working like a charm as HD on Winuae...

When i plug the said prepared card in the real Amiga all i can get is a black screen (the Amiga is reading from the Hd though, since the yellow led is on)... More over, plugged out of the Amiga and wired back to the pc the card gets not detected at all... The only thing to do with it at this point is to format again.

Now i guess it's a CF incompatibility problem, can anyone confirm that? In that case I have the option of sending it back to the seller and get a new tested-ready made one from an Amiga specialized vendor.

Thanks for attention.
A.

[Toni Wilen]

Now there is NO WAY to make HdTools detect the CF as a IDE0 device, i tried also with HdinstTools, and no, the CF card simply gets not detected... Both in HdTools and Hdinsttools the buttons come greyed and i can't do anything more.

Usual causes are mismatched Kickstart ROM and main board type (wrong chipset extra).

When i plug the said prepared card in the real Amiga all i can get is a black screen (the Amiga is reading from the Hd though, since the yellow led is on)... More over, plugged out of the Amiga and wired back to the pc the card gets not detected at all... The only thing to do with it at this point is to format again.

It is most likely hardware incompatibility problem (or bad contacts etc) if empty CF (diskpart cleaned) gets stuck with HD led on and it is not possible to enter early boot menu or see "insert disk" screen button, even after waiting at least 30 seconds.

Amiga shouldn't do any HD accesses until after screen color has changed to lighter grey.

[supaduper]

Have you tried reducing the size of the first partition , like below 1 gb ? I see you have used PFS ,and is this the handler for >4gb ? as you have 8gb cf

[opossumita]

Thanks for the replies.

I tried with
Kickstart v3.1 rev 40.68 (1993)(Commodore)(A1200)
and
Kickstart v3.0 rev 39.106 (1992)(Commodore)(A1200)[!]

roms... in Adv. Chipset tab, i tried with both "compatible settings" and enabling A600/A1200 IDE... i also tried to enable "Include removable drives" and "Automount removable drives" no way to make hdtools detect the CF as IDE0...

The only thing i can visualize on actual Amiga is the "Insert flopppy disk" purple screen without the CF adapter plugged in (can't test it since i don't have floppies)... I've just tried to clean the CF with diskpart and mouint it as it is...Same thing, the Amiga gives just a black screen, while the system should behave in a different way as far as i have understood...So might be a defective adapter? Sorry for my ignorance but the seller sent me an adapter with just 39 holes, not 40, saying that it's normal since the missing hole is for a not connected pin and made me do a hole myself with a needle to plug the adapter in... I'm very confused

[opossumita]

Supadupa i tried with both Standard file System and Pro.. No problems in partitioning the disk, whatever the sizes, once the CF is mounted as UAE...

[opossumita]

This is the adapter...

[kipper2k]

That is a pretty standard connector, there is one pin that is not required so it should be ok. I think Fitzsteve has a post somewhere on how to prepare a new CF card. There are some CF cards that i have had that i couldnt prepare, in the end i used a cloned image of a working card to get them recognized.

[supaduper]

Did you remove the one pin from the IDE header to fit it ?, also these cf cards do have a failure rate from new, pity you have no one to give you another one to try

[Toni Wilen]

Do you mean you also get black screen if CF adapter is connected without CF?

[opossumita]

Ok I managed to see the CF card as IDE0 setting the Chipset as OCS and Chipset extra as A1200... What's next... ?

Nope I didn't remove anything on the Amiga.. I made a hole with a needle in the covered part and fitted it in... Do I have to brake the pin on the Amiga either?

Nope i get black screen with the CF IN the adapter...With the CF without the adapter I'm going to try now...

Ok it's the same with or without the CF card plugged in the adapter... Once the Amiga is on the yellow led is bright but all i can see is a black screen.

[supaduper]

Originally Posted by opossumita

Nope I didn't remove anything on the Amiga.. I made a hole with a needle in the covered part and fitted it in... Do I have to brake the pin on the Amiga either?

that's ok , no need to remove the pin

I take it you made sure to connect pin 1 on IDE port to pin 1 on cf ?

you need to get a working adapter and cf to try, to make sure the IDE port aint broke

[opossumita]

Pretty obvious i shold have a working device+card to test the IDE port, anyway it has never been utilized before now... All the 44 pins look ok.

[opossumita]

Well I managed to install WB 3.1 on cf card as ide0 making two partitons with pfs3ds...Once inserted in the Amiga for the first time the adapter's led started to blink but with a black screen result...i flipped the card, no result, i put it again in the previous blinking position and the adapter wasn't blinking anymore... The good side is that now the cf is always perfectly working as hd in WinUAE... After all thisi came to the conclusion, as Toni already pointed out, there must be something wrong with the CFtoIDe adapter hardware because the Amiga IDE Header is neither broken, ruined or oxidated, looks new... Further Amigans observations' are welcome

[Vot]

Originally Posted by opossumita

Well I managed to install WB 3.1 on cf card as ide0 making two partitons with pfs3ds...Once inserted in the Amiga for the first time the adapter's led started to blink but with a black screen result...i flipped the card, no result, i put it again in the previous blinking position and the adapter wasn't blinking anymore... The good side is that now the cf is always perfectly working as hd in WinUAE... After all thisi came to the conclusion, as Toni already pointed out, there must be something wrong with the CFtoIDe adapter hardware because the Amiga IDE Header is neither broken, ruined or oxidated, looks new... Further Amigans observations' are welcome

I have had cards prepped not be seen at all in an a600/1200 when i prepared them in winuae using ide0. However i cant remember what the circumstances were.

I do remember i ended up using dd to zero out the first few mb of the card and repartitioning it from scratch and it worked. The real machine was doing strange things like not seeing partitions to getting part of the partition names (like somehow it was missing a few bytes off the start of the partition name).

[FOL]

What happens, if you boot with no startup-sequence. What is seen under bootable drives in early startup.
Type set echo on, then execute s:startup-sequence.
As you said its flickering, so it sounds like its starting to load.

[opossumita]

Originally Posted by Vot

I have had cards prepped not be seen at all in an a600/1200 when i prepared them in winuae using ide0. However i cant remember what the circumstances were.

I do remember i ended up using dd to zero out the first few mb of the card and repartitioning it from scratch and it worked. The real machine was doing strange things like not seeing partitions to getting part of the partition names (like somehow it was missing a few bytes off the start of the partition name).

Hem what is "dd to zero" ?

[Jope]

dd is the unix device dump. Basically a tool for reading from/writing to raw devices. It's also available for Windows.

On Windows I'd use diskpart.exe and its clean command. Remember to select the right disk first so that you don't clean your boot drive.

[opossumita]

Ok, i tried to format again the card even with Darik’s Boot And Nuke utility via cdrom, diskpart, partition and installation of wb... Plugged in the Amiga, black screen, no blinking light from the adapter, and yellow led on as there's no tomorrow...Flipped the card, nothing all the same. I forgot to mention my 1200 mounts kickstart 3.0 roms, but as far as i have understood this fact shouldn't compromise anything concerning the CF hd...

I guess that yes, the V.B1 eastern adapter is faulty or not compatible with the CF I'm using... Hope there's nothing broken in the Amiga, really.

[Vot]

Originally Posted by opossumita

Ok, i tried to format again the card even with Darik’s Boot And Nuke utility via cdrom, diskpart, partition and installation of wb... Plugged in the Amiga, black screen, no blinking light from the adapter, and yellow led on as there's no tomorrow...Flipped the card, nothing all the same. I forgot to mention my 1200 mounts kickstart 3.0 roms, but as far as i have understood this fact shouldn't compromise anything concerning the CF hd...

I guess that yes, the V.B1 eastern adapter is faulty or not compatible with the CF I'm using... Hope there's nothing broken in the Amiga, really.

No early boot menu access ?

I dont know that brand of adapter but cf card adapters are not a smart device. They are just a pin converter. If anything the card is not compatible.

[Jope]

The CF adapter could also be shoddily built.. Solder bridges or flakes short circuiting some pins, cold joints and whatnot.