Hi I purchased a flex mother board and 1 gig of ram back in January.

First time round I put it all together booted it up to begin installing AmigaOS4.1 U1 it began loading the kickstart files gets to the AmigaOS splash screen to continue the installation of AmigaOS then it does one of three things....

1. Hangs on the splash screen.
2. Crashes to a software failure screen.
3. Crashes to an AmigaOS shell screen saying it can't find CD0:

I tried multiple suggestions from Amiga User group friends, people on this forum, The Australian reseller I purchased it from and also from Acube.

In the end I got the board replaced by Acube despite them testing the first board and finding nothing wrong with it.

I received my replacement board yesterday assembled it and low and behold same problem.

I have tried the following to fix the problem.

1. Changed the DVD Rom drive with 3 different brands
2. Changed the hard drive with 3 different drives and sizes ie 1.5 TB and 2 x 320 gig
3. Changed the back up battery.
4. Changed Sata cables
5. Changed the PSU with 3 different power ratings the lowest being 300 watt
6. I tried changing the Sata drives to different sata ports ie J20 and J23 and vice versa
7. I could go on and on and on..........

Any help would be appreciated.

Last edited by Fairdinkem on 05-Jun-2010 at 11:51 AM.

_________________

@Fairdinkem

Did you try with other RAM componants ?

Did you build your own machine with only the motherboard bought from a reseller ?

@Fairdinkem

Have you tried burning OS4.x on another media?

_________________
Cuida tus piedras gordas.

A1200/030 32Mb
A4000D
A1-X1000.

@Fairdinkem

ok first off..why did you wait so long to ask for help???
did you try to burn the iso for update 1 again on a different cd and with a lower copy speed?
did you make sure to put your keyboard on the upper external USB port at the back of the case only? did you make sure to put the HD on J20 only?? and the DVD on J23??

Last edited by klx300r on 20-May-2010 at 05:41 AM.

_________________
____________________________
c64-2sids, A1000, A1200T-060@50(finally working!),A4000-CSMKIII
! My Master Miggies- Amiga 1000 & AmigaOne X1000 !
mancave-ramblings
X1000 I BELIEVE

@Fairdinkem

What speed is the processor on this mainboard and what RAM do you have in it? This can make a VERY large difference as if it factory clocked and you got the ram elsewhere as an example it may not run or work correctly.


Also is the mainboard resting on any standoffs that are NOT being used to screw the mainboard in?

Let us know.

@klx300r

Quote:

klx300r wrote: @Fairdinkem ok first off..why did you wait so long to ask for help???

He did ask for help earlier, before the board was sent back. I'm really surprised that he still can't get it working. The fact that this board also won't work properly suggests that he's doing something wrong, but I have no idea what.

Hans

_________________
Join the Kea Campus - upgrade your skills; support my work; enjoy the Amiga corner.
https://keasigmadelta.com/ - see more of my work

Probably not related.
But my SAM440EP was using a < 150W power supply.
If all else fails you can try using a pre-installed OS on a hard disk or USB right???

Also try holding down the mouse keys just before the splash screen etc...
Also try the middle scroll lock key...

Last edited by meet.mrnrg on 20-May-2010 at 06:40 AM.
Last edited by meet.mrnrg on 20-May-2010 at 06:37 AM.

_________________
Quote:

Easy Pocket Money, Freelancers & Experts Online

MiniMig FPGA, Sam440 Flex 733Mhz PPC, Amiga OS 4.1 Update 2, MorphOS 2.4, Other - AmiKit + Cloanto Amiga Forever 2008 + E-UAE, AmigaSYS

@meet.mrnrg

A 300 W power supply could be overdimensioned (depending on quality) for an embedded system which draws very few Watts, like the Sam one. Multiple outputs switching PSU sometimes don't work well if load power is 10% of peak power.

Good luck.

I'm with Stefanor. You may not be loading the power supply enough.

If you still have some hard drives spare plug them all in to the power supply and see if that helps. Load it up more.

If you have a volt meter handy check the 5V/12V on the 4-pin connectors.

@Fairdinkem

Maybe a strong (not so well built) ATX (?) PSU produces too strong and unshielded electro-magnetic fields. Try to move the components further away from eachother (in a test enviroment outside the case or something). Let's see if Sam works better then.

(That's no joke. My Sam440ep freezes every time I move the "old" power unit towards the main board.)

Very strange
My SAMflex (see sig) works very good with 120W PicoPSU and 90W brick. Is is turned on for many hours, no feezes at all. I tried 180W PSU and 350W PSU. All worked flawlessly too.

Last edited by mr2 on 20-May-2010 at 08:21 AM.

_________________
Sam440ep-flex 800MHz 1GB RAM R9250 128MB SB Live!

@Fairdinkem
Other have made some good suggestions. So that you don't miss any of them, I just want to briefly list them all, as well as add some of my own:

1. Have you tried downloading & burning OS4 Update 1 in a different way? DId you verify the burnt disk? A faulty ISO or faulty burning process could cause corrupt files, and hence wierd problems.

2. Did you try using the original OS4 CD that you bought? That can't have any errors, although it might be a bit unstable due to being "beta". If it works better with the original CD then I'd suggest your burnt Update 1 CD is at fault.

3. Please *only* put the HD into J20, and the CD into J23. And they must BOTH be connected. Do not try changing this, it will only make matters worse!

4. If you are using a high power PSU, then that might not cope well with your low-power Sam440.

5. Dodgy RAM might explain it. Are you using different RAM or the same as on the last board?

6. If all else fails, try disabling DMA for the HD & CD drives. Someone can tell you how to do this in U-boot.


There is clearly something wrong with what you are doing or what components you are using. Only a careful & methodical approach is likely to solve it - don't try things "at random" (e.g. don't connect the HD & CD to the wrong SATA ports).

Please list all makes & models of harddrives & CD drives that you have tried (and which ones you are currently using).

Last edited by ChrisH on 20-May-2010 at 08:57 AM.

_________________
Author of the PortablE programming language.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...

@Fairdinkem

Quote:

Changed the hard drive with 3 different drives and sizes ie 1.5 TB and 2 x 320 gig

How big partitions, and what file system did you use??

SFS/1 can not handle partitions over 120GB! It will crash and burn in various strange ways.
You need JXFS or SFS/2 to use 120GB+ partitions but these cannot be booted from, so the question remains.

_________________
- Don't get fooled by my avatar, I'm not like that (anymore, mostly... maybe only sometimes)
> Amiga Classic and OS4 developer for OnyxSoft.

@Deniil715

And SFS1 should not be used (unless one want to use this same partition from an OS3 system, i.e. not on Sam).

As far as I remember, you can now boot from a SFS2 partition.

Last edited by elwood on 20-May-2010 at 10:19 AM.

_________________
Philippe 'Elwood' Ferrucci
Sam460 1.10 Ghz
AmigaOS 4 betatester
Amiga Translator Organisation

@elwood

Why? I had my tiny 1GB boot partition preped in SFS1 without any problems on my sam...

_________________
X1000|II/G4|440ep|2000/060|2000/040|1000

@cha05e90

Because SFS2 is more advanced. What I mean is "if you don't need, don't use it"

_________________
Philippe 'Elwood' Ferrucci
Sam460 1.10 Ghz
AmigaOS 4 betatester
Amiga Translator Organisation

@ChrisH

Please add to your list: Don't burn the ISO to a CD-RW, it's always been problematic in the past.

_________________
cheers
tony

Hyperion Support Forum: http://forum.hyperion-entertainment.biz/index.php

@corto

Quote:

corto wrote: @Fairdinkem Did you try with other RAM componants ? Did you build your own machine with only the motherboard bought from a reseller ?

I have not tried other RAM components simply because The motherboard and ram came from Acube via the reseller and Acube stipulated to me in an email they thoroughly test there motherboards and match the ram to suit.

_________________

@Ami603

Quote:

Ami603 wrote: @Fairdinkem Have you tried burning OS4.x on another media?

I have tried other copies of OS4.x also known working copies one from another SAM 440ep user Gebrochen from Blitterwolf.

_________________

@klx300r

Quote:

klx300r wrote: @Fairdinkem ok first off..why did you wait so long to ask for help??? did you try to burn the iso for update 1 again on a different cd and with a lower copy speed? did you make sure to put your keyboard on the upper external USB port at the back of the case only? did you make sure to put the HD on J20 only?? and the DVD on J23??

Yes I did have the keyboard in the stipulated USB port as per the instructions in the supplied manual and I did have the hd and dvd in that configuration and vice versa because I had no luck in the first configuration

_________________