Hi guys.

Must be that time of year. My machine has decided it doesn't want to boot. Usually
I solve it myself but this time I'm stuffed!

Okay. So it all started when my original HD was giving me grief and didn't like me writing to it one day. It was the master so I needed another master device to replace it with. Otherwise my system would be upset with Linux and all that.

So I put a 3GB HD from an old Windows95 machine that was working fine last time I tested it. It was okay for a while and then that started playing up! Delaying my boot process and even killing my good slave drive. Plus Linux froze when I tried to see what was on that Windows95 partition.

Tonight I decided to replace it with the next biggest drive, a 2GB. Bad move! I stick it in place and hook the cables up. All looks fine so far. Then I turn it on and the HD light is constantly on and there is no UBoot and no signal on monitor!

I hook up a debug cable to test UBoot. On again and UBoot is alive! But the damn thing won't switch on the monitor. I pull the IDE cable from the master drive, no change. Power. No change. Even as slave only UBoot should appear and run dots across the screen. Something is not right.

I decide to clear the NVRAM. I pull the battery out and BTW it was replaced recently. I switch on and confirm UBoot is dead without it. Off and leave for a minute then stick back in. Switch on and no change. Apart from my debug output my A1 is still acting dead!

On the output UBoot says hello then goes through my memory stats. It gets to the end and prints "2048 MB" with a newline. Then nothing else. No FLASH. No VGA.

What could be wrong? I forget what comes first. But without a FLASH line it's not good. And what about my VGA card? Without any VGA I don't know if it's even trying.

So what's the next thing to do? Rip out my card? Honestly it's so ridiculous a simple HD change could cause so much grief!

Last edited by Hypex on 05-Jan-2012 at 03:21 PM.

@Hypex

Quote:

Then I turn it on and the HD light is constantly on and there is no UBoot and no signal on monitor!

This is what happened when the battery (CR-2032) is dead...

Bye!

@Pierre55

Yes I'm familiar with that situation. However my battery is working with UBoot as proven by the UBoot debug output I am getting.

Unless UBoot will still output on serial on flat battery?

Last edited by Hypex on 30-Dec-2011 at 04:21 PM.

@Hypex

Either test the battery voltage for at least 3 volts while in the circuit to settle the question, or just replace that battery.

Ever since I started keeping a tested spare where my A1 can see it, I haven't needed to replace it (for about a year now...).

By the way I always shut my A1 off by using the butterfly switch on the back of the unit. NEVER the front push button. (More old fish wives stories probably, but too many battery changes brought me to this habit.)

_________________
..effects of civilization upon...nature, the growing gap between what education was supposed to accomplish and what it consisted of, the national debt and...high taxes, the problem of the excess cost of medical care -- Philip Wylie, 1951

@ggw

I think I've got major problems here. I hadn't turned off the power at the wall I realised. I wonder if something happened because of that? But I've done that sort of thing before with no trouble. I also wonder if I brushed along a dipswitch. Or something else. The CPU speed reported 800Mhz but could that be the CPU talking? Damn I can't find my manual right now!

Quote:

Either test the battery voltage for at least 3 volts while in the circuit to settle the question, or just replace that battery.

In circuit? I don't like prodding while my machine is on! Is this just a parallel test, negative to an earth, positive to buttery?

Okay well I did some tests. I got out my old battery and it measured 2.74 volts. I measured the current battery at 2.97 volts. The new spare I had from the twin pack I bought recently measured at 3.27 volts. Looks good. Mind you this is only a few months ago when I bought it and my current one was from the same pack.

I tested new one in my machine. It measured 3.30 volts with my machine on. So it looks like the power is getting through and the voltage looks good. The bad news is that my AmigaOne still won't boot!

Quote:

Ever since I started keeping a tested spare where my A1 can see it, I haven't needed to replace it (for about a year now...).

It's usually years before I need to replace mine but I already got a spare and it doesn't work! Mind you I didn't test it before either. But my machine tends to go flaky if it needs a change. The machine was working five minutes before it wouldn't boot. Maybe I should have left it. But it froze while trying to copy a file to USB then after a reset UBoot was stuck trying to read the IDE devices so I was just sick of it!

Quote:

By the way I always shut my A1 off by using the butterfly switch on the back of the unit. NEVER the front push button. (More old fish wives stories probably, but too many battery changes brought me to this habit.)

Is that like a power switch at the back? I'm afraid I can't do that. My PSU doesn't have one. I always shut down using my front tower power switch and haven't had a problem. Then I turn off at the wall. I like to shut down the board as we should even if we don't have the proper circuitry for power off.

What's disconcerting is that when I switch on the power at the wall my machine doesn't turn it self on anymore. At random it would switch itself on. But now I have to press the power button on my tower. Of course it doesn't matter right now as the machine still doesn't boot!

Oh BTW I found from older debug log that FLASH appears before VGA. And I still get none! Wonder where that NVRAM is?

I also stripped my machine down to bare minimum. I removed all PCI cards one by one, then my AGP 9200SE, then my RAM. No change. Except ti complained when it had no RAM and said to reset the board! But the reset switch made no difference!

Last edited by Hypex on 31-Dec-2011 at 01:58 AM.
Last edited by Hypex on 31-Dec-2011 at 01:55 AM.

@Hypex

Well, I have to agree that the 3.27 volts means that whatever the problem is, the battery matter is settled.

I guess I am getting lost about exactly what takes place now. Can't get anywhere without the RAM, the 3.27 volt battery, a monitor, a keyboard, and a CD reader to read your installation CD. I'd leave everything else out of there while you have this much trouble.

Alas, I have never dealt with the serial port messages and so have no familiarity with that.

Anybody else out there with that experience?

If you can, I guess post the verbiage that does come across.

ggw

_________________
..effects of civilization upon...nature, the growing gap between what education was supposed to accomplish and what it consisted of, the national debt and...high taxes, the problem of the excess cost of medical care -- Philip Wylie, 1951

@Hypex

have you tried to replace the IDE flat cable?

_________________

@Hypex

What happens if you disconnect all HDs, including power to them?
Maybe your PSU is getting bad..? Although I find it a bit unlikely to cause this behaviour.

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

@Hypex

You could try pulling the Flash chip, clean contacts of chip/socket and replace.
BE CAREFUL though, and be sure to pull only the chip and not the socket aswell!

@ggw

Quote:

Well, I have to agree that the 3.27 volts means that whatever the problem is, the battery matter is settled.

Yeah, it seems so. Although an A1SE I know of recently had a loose battery contact causing trouble.

But given UBoot was dead when I pulled the battery out and came back when I put it in confirms the battery is activating UBoot. At least on serial.

Quote:

I'd leave everything else out of there while you have this much trouble.

I took it all out including RAM sans battery just to make sure that wasn't causing trouble. But since UBoot reported is as okay I suppose I could cancel that out.

Quote:

Alas, I have never dealt with the serial port messages and so have no familiarity with that.

Oh I couldn't survive without serial debugging. If I didn't have that I wouldn't know the machine was working at all. I'd be blind and would do things on a whim like replacing batteries in the hope it came back. The serial lets me know the machine is actually alive.

@Framiga

I haven''t actually because I ended up pulling the cables right out. Well so to speak. Something I didn't mention, I don't know use the internal IDE at all, I use a Sii 0680 IDE card so I just pulled that out to remove the drives.

@Deniil715

Quote:

What happens if you disconnect all HDs, including power to them? What happens if you disconnect all HDs, including power to them?

I need to try that out. I did remove the replacement HD I had with power and also the floppy cable. But I was thinking to remove all power leads except to motherboard as well.

@raumfahre

Quote:

You could try pulling the Flash chip, clean contacts of chip/socket and replace.

That's a good suggestion! Thanks. Now I just need to locate it.

Is it in an obvious spot? When I saw FLASH was missing from serial I did wonder if it had some chip nearby. I check guides on internet. Right now at friends place to test my A1 but didn't locate manual before I left. Don't you hate it when you leave something in one place all the time but when you need it it's been shifted?

@All

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. Will put them into practice today.

@Hypex

I think you should try some of these suggestions today, since new years eve and recovery is in order, may as well also try to recover your miggy.....

Meanwhile, your lucky Merv let you borrow his a1 to interchange parts temporarily to see what the beef is with your system....

Cheers

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@Gebrochen

Wow Merv is very brave or he doesn't know you guys took it LOL

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@Hypex

At what stage does the serial debug halt?

@Gebrochen

I agree we should try these today. Since now today has become tomorrow.

@Fairdinkem

All I know is when I got to Philip's there was Merv's A1 sitting on the floor. That's all I know.

@Rob

I wanted to post a serial log but it's stuck on the PC at home. From working logs I gathered there are three stages in a row: Memory, flash then VGA.

UBoot tells me about the memory and then stops. It stops on the line:
2048 MB

FLASH should come next but here it doesn't. And so of course no VGA so the VGA isn't even activated.