After many years away from the Amiga world, I have come home. :) I regularly visit here, but this is my first ever post!

I have recently purchased a nice white A1200 with a 1942 monitor, which now has an ACA1231 card and a 4gb hard disk (this baby even has the power of the internets!).

Everything was looking good, until the hard disk started to have lot of checksum errors, so it was time to have it replaced. I opted for a CF->IDE adaptor with a 4gb transcend card...

And so the hell began.

Classic Workbench installed fine on DH0 (500mb) and a separate partition was setup for WHD Games (DH1, 3.5gb). No matter what I seem to try, WHD games do not work.

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...that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!

Amiga 1200 | 1942 Monitor | ACA1231 | CF 4Gb | Wifi!
Fallen Worlds Online

@Gaeokerena

Welcome back to Amigaland I use WHDLoad on various A1200's and have never came across such a problem before...

Doubt it has anything to do with your Hard Disks Max Transfer...

It's hard to say really as I have no idea just how you have set up your HD for WHDLoad but a couple of things spring to mind...

As your using a 1942 monitor have you enabled any sort of mode promotion that might be interfering with WHDLoad and causing the black screens !!!

How are your WHDLoad game files set up, I mean have you got all the correct files (disk images/ data files etc...) in the correct directories for each game !!!

Perhaps you could post a short (edited) listing of how your WHDload partition is set up, as it pretty difficult for now to guess at what could be wrong...

EDIT: Just noticed... you said hard disk at first but then you say your using an CF card, which is it , a real hard disk or CF card your actually using, as CF card can be a pain in the butt and cause problems like your having...

Last edited by Franko on 10-Jun-2012 at 04:36 AM.

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@Gaeokerena

Just to add to what Franko said, also check that you have the ROM images for WHDload correctly named and in the draw in DEVS.

While ClassicWB comes with WHDLoad already set up, it doesn't come with the ROM files you need.

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A4000(T), A3000, A2000, A1200(T), A1200, CD32, Minimig+ARM, FPGA Arcade, Chameleon64, C-One, C128, C128D, C64C, C64, VIC-20, CBM 8032, Efika.

@Gaeokerena

Welcome back to the land of the best computer ever invented and the best (most devoted) computer users ever to place fingers to computer keyboards and click their two button mouses (mice?).

I purchased my WHDLoad keyfile probably about a year ago, but have never played a single WHDLoad game, or even read the installation directions yet. It has been on my list of things I want to do for maybe a year before I purchased the WHDLoad keyfile, so I am probably almost 2 years behind schedule in trying out WHDLoad, and several years behind everyone else in trying it out.

Please keep this thread updated when you resolve your problem in getting WHDLoad to work on your computer, just in case I have the same problem.

Good luck and I am sure that someone here will be able to help you get things working.

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@Gaeokerena

I think ROMs aren´t problem here (WHDLoad would complain). I had similar outcome (black screen) when I tried to promote to DBLPal OCS games (Abandoned Places in my case). However, you wrote that you installed plain 3.1, that rules out problem with some screen promotion.

And of course...

Welcome!

Thanks for the welcome guys! :)

@Franko

I had a real hard disk, but started to get a lot of checksum errors, so I replaced it with the cf card.

-----

I have started again with a clean install of the following.
- installed wb3.1
- installed both Lha and installer 43.3
- unpacked and installed Whdload and the a1200 and a500 roms.

I believe this is the minimum install I can try?

Unfortunately I have the same issues.

I didn't realise just how much trouble the cf card would cause with Whdload...maybe I should buy a real hard disk again?

Can anyone recommend a very basic game I can test with WHD?

Last edited by Gaeokerena on 10-Jun-2012 at 09:23 AM.

_________________
...that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!

Amiga 1200 | 1942 Monitor | ACA1231 | CF 4Gb | Wifi!
Fallen Worlds Online

@Gaeokerena

For starters - there is nothing wrong with your Amiga or WHDLoad. The problem lies within a CF card (try different card to see if the problem is solved) or a CF->IDE adaptor (maybe pins got rusty or dirty and they need cleaning).

Did you format a CF card on real Amiga or on PC (emulated Amiga)? If the latter, then you also should try formatting it on real Amiga.

Does HDToolbox see you CF card correctly?

What brand is the CF Card? Is it Kingston?

Do you have any expansion board like Blizzard or Apollo? If the latter, then the problem can also be caused by it.

I presume you have Kickstart ROM 3.1 but if you have Kickstart ROM 3.0 problems with CF are common place and you should think about replacement.

After all, I would suggest to look for some cheap HD 2,5" instead that will do just fine and saves you from struggling with CF card.

Last edited by mailman on 10-Jun-2012 at 09:33 AM.

@mailman

- the cf card and adaptor are brand new
- the card was fully formatted to ffs on the Amiga. I also tried sfs.
- HDtoolbox could not identify it as a real disk (error 7) but was able to partition it.
- the cf card is transcend
- I have an aca1231 installed, but this has been fine with the real hard disk.
- kickstart rom 3.1 installed

I have managed to find an old 16mb cf card (no idea where that came from!). I'm not sure if it has enough space but I will give it a go

_________________
...that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!

Amiga 1200 | 1942 Monitor | ACA1231 | CF 4Gb | Wifi!
Fallen Worlds Online

@Gaeokerena

- the cf card and adaptor are brand new

Is the adaptor connected directly onto IDE or maybe there are some cables connecting IDE and adaptor?

- HDtoolbox could not identify it as a real disk (error 7) but was able to partition it.

That shouldn't have happened.

- I have an aca1231 installed, but this has been fine with the real hard disk.

So the problem seems to be in the CF card or in the adaptor.

My advise - HD will solve all the problems ;)

@Gaeokerena

Look at the top 2 entries

http://www.whdload.de/docs/en/bugs.html

Also you should be using sfs not ffs

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Well...

I tried the 16mb cf card, with a whopping 10mb still available after I finished! (hehe I love the Amiga!)

However, I still the same problem, so Iguess the adapter may be an issue. How is it possible to identify one that will work without buying it first?

Although, after all this I found a 20gb travelstar hard disk lying around which works fine, apart from the hd access being always on. :s

I'm not ready to give up on cf cards yet...

_________________
...that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!

Amiga 1200 | 1942 Monitor | ACA1231 | CF 4Gb | Wifi!
Fallen Worlds Online

@Derfs

Cheers pal. I already tried the workarounds mention on the bugs page with no success :(

_________________
...that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!

Amiga 1200 | 1942 Monitor | ACA1231 | CF 4Gb | Wifi!
Fallen Worlds Online

@Gaeokerena

What version of whdload do you have as 17.1 is out

Also what version of p96?

Last edited by Derfs on 10-Jun-2012 at 11:20 AM.

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@Gaeokerena

I would try to keep Partition sizes below 2 Gigs each. Even though the Filesystem and OS may support lagrer partitions some prohgrams may have issues with it. Unless you are running OS 3.5 or 3.9 with the latest scsi.device patch greater than 2G partions and drives over 4G will not be reliable let alone recognized.

My A1200/030 has plain old 3.1 OS installed witha a 4Gig SD Card that is partioned at 100 MB for the OS, and 2 x 1.8G partions. It works well.

Drewlio77

@Gaeokerena

That's good advice that Drewili77 gave you...

With OS3.1 by itself and FFS the partition size has to be just under 2GB for it to work properly, though you did say you tried SFS which should have worked with the bigger partition size without problem...

As you have ACA1231 card installed I assume you have plenty of Fast RAM then, if so copy an entire game folder into RAM and try launching it from there. If it runs from RAM then that at least rules out that there isn't anything wrong with your Amiga or it's set up (mode promotion etc...) interfering with things...

To me it sounds like the CF card is the source of your problems here, I never liked those things myself (more trouble than their worth) and always use real Hard Disks myself. May well be worthwhile getting hold and fitting a small 4 or 6GB HD on eBay (You can pick up refurbished ones for a tenner)...

I've used the 6GB ones from this guy quite a few times on some A1200's, they work well and I've never had any problems with them...

6GB IDE 2.5" HD...

(PS: Use "make an offer" as he's often open to cutting the price)...

Probably not the ideal solution for you after buying the CF card but to be honest those things can be a real pain in the but to get working properly...

If you can't get things working I could email you an old PD game that runs with WHDLoad and set up correctly on one of my A1200d so that it's known to be working, which you could try to run on your machine. Which should help solve your problems...

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Quote:

Drewlio77 wrote: @Gaeokerena I would try to keep Partition sizes below 2 Gigs each. Even though the Filesystem and OS may support lagrer partitions some prohgrams may have issues with it. Unless you are running OS 3.5 or 3.9 with the latest scsi.device patch greater than 2G partions and drives over 4G will not be reliable let alone recognized. My A1200/030 has plain old 3.1 OS installed witha a 4Gig SD Card that is partioned at 100 MB for the OS, and 2 x 1.8G partions. It works well. Drewlio77

+1 on the partition sizes keeping them under 2 GB on CF cards. My 1200 has got a 4GB CF (Sandisk) working fine with max 1GB partitions.

btw, what make is your CF card ? (many are known to cause problems in our classics)

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@klx300r

I am not sure since there is a custom label on it. The seller said it was a Transcend 4 GB 133x CompactFlash Memory Card (TS4GCF133). Or something like that

Drewlio77

@Gaeokerena

Quote:

(this baby even has the power of the internets!).

Just a shot in the dark but do you have Miami or similar actually online whilst you're trying to run these games? The only time I've had hanging WHDLoad games is if the stack is still online.

Apologies if you've already tried this, I'm just thinking out loud.

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This fire is burnin' and it's out of control
It's not a problem you can stop, It's rock n' roll - GN'F'N'R

This is why I like Amiga community so much :)

Thanks for all your suggestions and help.

I've literally tried every possible combination and installation and still no luck, however it has dawned upon me that the Amiga is not recognising the card as a fixed disk (type 7). Could this be the cause of it all?

It is a 40x transcend card, and I have since discovered that only the 133x and above cards from this manufacturer correctly identify themselves.

Does any have any experience of this?

_________________
...that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!

Amiga 1200 | 1942 Monitor | ACA1231 | CF 4Gb | Wifi!
Fallen Worlds Online

Just to follow up on this, I found some interesting info here: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=61666

However, I may have given up on the idea of using a CF card. :(

Many AGA WHDload games simply do not load up correctly with the CF installed; some even fail when trying to run from Ram. However, the same setup and the exactly same games work perfectly from a 'real' hard disk!

Has anyone come across this before?

As a side request: The hd light is always on when the 'real' hard disk is used. Any ideas on how to fix this?

_________________
...that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!

Amiga 1200 | 1942 Monitor | ACA1231 | CF 4Gb | Wifi!
Fallen Worlds Online