Shapeshifter partly boots and only after using WHDLoad

Not Here Long · 05 October 2020, 11:46

Hello

I'm trying to run Shapeshifter from a CF card on an Amiga 1200. It works through UAE but not on the real Amiga. On boot I get a grey screen, unless I use WHDLoad first in which case, when booting from a card partition, I get a desktop screen with icons but no options along the top.

The desktop icons cannot be interacted with and when booting from a hard file I just get the desktop screen without the icons.

It might be worth mentioning that when I set the Amiga up at the end of last year, after it had been in storage for some time, it produced an acrid smell which I was lead to believe could be a sign of capacitor failure, only for the issue to persist after I had the capacitors replaced.

It now seems a voltage regulator in the power supply must have failed with age. This meant the +12v pin was putting out close to 20 volts, which seems to have melted an IC on the floppy disk drive, likely for controlling the motor. This appears to have happened to the hard drive as well, and I've been told the serial port chips may have been affected.

If anyone had any ideas as to how to get Shapeshifter running I'd be grateful to hear them. Also, any thoughts on the voltage issue would be appreciated; in particular how might I test the serial port for damage?

Cheers

daxb · 05 October 2020, 13:50

ShapeShifter needs at least 4MB of RAM. I would not try with less then 16MB.

Not Here Long · 05 October 2020, 13:54

Thanks! The Amiga is fitted with a CSA 12 Gauge accelerator card, which has 32mb of RAM installed.

Not Here Long · 06 December 2020, 23:44

In case anyone ever has the same problem; the issue turned out to be the missing internal floppy disk drive. The drive was removed because, as I said above, the IC for controlling the motor was melted by a voltage increase, resulting from a failed voltage regulator in the power supply.

Only when I plugged the lights back in could I see the internal floppy disk drive light was on when Mac OS froze. Setting the internal floppy disk drive option to none, in Shapeshifter's floppys configuration window, fixed the problem.

05 October 2020, 11:46	#1
Not Here Long Registered User Join Date: Oct 2020 Location: Here Posts: 34	Shapeshifter partly boots and only after using WHDLoad Hello I'm trying to run Shapeshifter from a CF card on an Amiga 1200. It works through UAE but not on the real Amiga. On boot I get a grey screen, unless I use WHDLoad first in which case, when booting from a card partition, I get a desktop screen with icons but no options along the top. The desktop icons cannot be interacted with and when booting from a hard file I just get the desktop screen without the icons. It might be worth mentioning that when I set the Amiga up at the end of last year, after it had been in storage for some time, it produced an acrid smell which I was lead to believe could be a sign of capacitor failure, only for the issue to persist after I had the capacitors replaced. It now seems a voltage regulator in the power supply must have failed with age. This meant the +12v pin was putting out close to 20 volts, which seems to have melted an IC on the floppy disk drive, likely for controlling the motor. This appears to have happened to the hard drive as well, and I've been told the serial port chips may have been affected. If anyone had any ideas as to how to get Shapeshifter running I'd be grateful to hear them. Also, any thoughts on the voltage issue would be appreciated; in particular how might I test the serial port for damage? Cheers

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05 October 2020, 13:50	#2
daxb Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Germany Posts: 3,303	ShapeShifter needs at least 4MB of RAM. I would not try with less then 16MB.

05 October 2020, 13:54	#3
Not Here Long Registered User Join Date: Oct 2020 Location: Here Posts: 34	Thanks! The Amiga is fitted with a CSA 12 Gauge accelerator card, which has 32mb of RAM installed.

06 December 2020, 23:44	#4
Not Here Long Registered User Join Date: Oct 2020 Location: Here Posts: 34	In case anyone ever has the same problem; the issue turned out to be the missing internal floppy disk drive. The drive was removed because, as I said above, the IC for controlling the motor was melted by a voltage increase, resulting from a failed voltage regulator in the power supply. Only when I plugged the lights back in could I see the internal floppy disk drive light was on when Mac OS froze. Setting the internal floppy disk drive option to none, in Shapeshifter's floppys configuration window, fixed the problem.

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