Kickstart not loading [SOLVED]

Hi,

Has any one else had a similar problem, I have look through the forums and not found anything.

For the last few days my Amiga One has been behaving very erratically and today totally given up the idea of booting up so I am forced to use Firefox on my Mac Mini to type this

During my boot process, UBoot is working fine (I have reinstalled the latest version again just in case) it will find a valid boot source and read the SLB from either a hard drive or a CD and load the kickstart modules. It loads them all and gets to the point where it is "Launching Kickstart" and hangs.

The behaviour is also erratic, because for a couple of days it would fail on the first switch on but boot normally after the reset button was pressed. Two days ago like today it decided not to launch Kickstart at all. I stripped the A1 down reset everything to factory settings and got it running again. I noticed that somehow UBoot had reported on 64Mb available rather than 512Mb. I corrected that and thought the problem was solved as I could boot again as normal.

Yesterday I started getting the failure to run Kickstart on the initial switch on again and today I am back to not being able to get beyond the loading of the SLB. Note this is from the Final Update CD too so it is not a case of corrupted files on my hard disk.

UBoot is reporting the full 512Mb is available so maybe that result before was a red herring and my original thought of the memory becoming mis-seated was not the cause.

Any UBOOT/FLB/SLB experts around that would have any ideas ?


Still using OS4.0 - not got around to getting OS4.1 yet and if I cannot load an OS there would be little point


I can DISKBOOT the UBOOT install disk OK, and will check sonn see if I can boot into Linux which I have not yet tried.


Is there a way to slow down the info UBOOT presents. I have no way of capturing any serial output. Modern computers it seems do not have serial ports, my Mac Mini doesn't nor does the wife's PC laptop.


I hope to get my Amiga One back running soon - using a Mac is just not the same - it is so unresponsive in comparison. And the USB keyboard I use with it sticks !



Bill

@BillE

One word: Battery!

Simon

@Rigo


Been there done that. Battery was 2.87V so pretty good, replaced with a new one at >3V and it makes no difference.

UBoot is OK, the battery kills that off totally, it happened before some time ago.


Weird thing is after pulling everything apart and putting back together again it is now working OK - for the moment - but it was OK yesterday too. So fingers crossed I am typing on the A1 again now.

The only thing now is my mouse is in a different USB slot - could that make a difference ?

Bill

@BillE

No, it shouldn't matter which USB slot it's in. Obviously if it's a PS2 mouse, then yes, it does :)

Simon

@Rigo

I thought one slot may be damaged.

Anyway its decided to play silly buggers again. When a fault is erratic it is very difficult to track down.

I am once again using the Mac as I cannot get beyond the message:

"Loading done, now launching kickstart" when nothing at all happens.

I did have one brief boot when WB loaded but then back to the annoying hangs again.

Back to the drawing board.

@BillE

pull your ram and clean the contacts, even try it in the other slot...

@Severin

Quote:

Done it, using the second slot worked - for a while - but as the problem seems entirely erratic that was no doubt just a coincidence. I have tried using both slots since and still no joy.

Last night I managed to boot to WB from scratch with no resets but the KB and mouse did not respond.

It looks as if my A1 is finally dying and thanks to that turd McEwen there is nothing to replace it with

@BillE

If there are any corrupt entries in your UBoot it can cause this, even if every setting you go into appears correctly. Similar thing happened to me, only mine couldn't find the SLB. All the UBoot settings were exactly as they were before I replaced the battery, but it refused to boot until I did a factory reset in the UBoot settings screen and enter all the settings a second time.

Hi,

I think I may have found the answer but have had so many false starts am keeping my fingers crossed and I'm not even superstitious.

The CPU temperature seems to have been the problem.

Domeone suggested cleaning the CPU fan as it can be a problem. I had already done that of course and it was clogged but made no difference as I think the damage had already been done.

At one point when workbench loaded I put the CPUTemp docky in my dock and saw a horrific 85 degrees (and I mean centigrade not the degrees F my granny used to use). Ouch, you could get a nasty burn off that !

I think the temperature is over reported as I would certainly have felt that heat near the fan and I had tried to test for that too and it was no more than luke warm. Yet something must be wrong and too high even if not the 80C or above reported.

I took the fan off totally and there was a bubble where the previous thermal contact had become detached.

I did have some thermally conductive tape which I hope is adequate so removed the old coatings and applied a new layer of tape to stick the CPU to the heatsink.

The CPUtemp docky is now reporting a CPU temp of around 61 degrees maximising at 64 before cooling again. This is in spec thankfully.

I booted OK and have no nasty lockups so far and am hoping that next time I turn on the A1 it will boot up and not hang like it has been doing in the last few days.

At least todays good news was some consolation if my A-One does die, I can at least buy a replacement in the form of a SAM with OS4.1.

If my A1 is stable over the next few days I can now think about getting OS4.1 for it, there was little point even thinking of it when I couldn't boot an OS of any kind.

Nice - gone down to 60C now



Bill.

Wahaaaayyyy!

CPUtempdocky still at 60 degrees

I have not dared to turn off the A1 yet, but tomorrow if it boots I will be buying a copy of OS4.1 straight away


Bill.

Despite my luck yesterday and the A1 running very stably and cool all evening I am back to square one again this morning.

No matter how many times I reset the thing I cannot get beyond that dratted "now launching kickstart" message

Back to using the Mac again

I was sure the CPU running high would have been the problem, anyone got any further ideas other than give up and buy a SAM.


Bill

Hi @BillE

...anyone got any further ideas...
A theory and fact -- HD IDE in UBoot is not switching. I couldn't bootup when OS4.0-Final came. It would all die out when KS came around. Hmmm...
Went and looked at the UBoot HardwareTAB>0680 IDE TAB from the Install CD. Yes, I can boot the Install CD, but not the system. All the drives in Harware were set to "automatic"! Well, isn't that cute... NOT.
I set my HDs to "Hardrive" and the dummies to "CD/DVD ROM" in the new installation. The system booted-up fine!
I don't trust parameters marked 'automatic'.

@Snuffy

I am in one of my random "able to boot" moments and answering on the A1. I just wish I could be sure that next time I try it will work

The drives and CD are reported correctly every time. If I select to boot from an HD it will read the SLB and kickstart files off an HD, and if I select CD it gets them from the CD. That part is working OK, it is once that part has finished that I am left in limbo with the "launching kickstart" message remaining on screen - except for the very rare occasion when it just does what it is supposed to and boot up the OS. Unfortunatley the rare events are getting more rare as time passes

bump



Still wanting some new ideas to try out


Bill

@BillE

Hmm, i remember having this strange behaviour on one of the
pre-final installations. I don't remember what the cure was,
though :-/

Anyway it could be flaky hardware on the HD/CD side.

Do you use the onboard IDE or a Sil card?

Switch the two, read, plug the HD into either of them and
check. Also check with degrading the read speed from DMA to
PIO on the related device.

Hi,

I think this time the problem is solved and it WAS to do with the CPU temperature and cooling.

Though better than before the thermal tape was not adequate, nor was using thermal paste as the fastenings on the Sunon heatsink were not good enough to get good contact.

Replacing the springy type holders on the Sunon fan by nuts and bolts rather than thermal tape ensures a good solid contact and has led to a much cooler CPU running at more than 20C below the temperatures I was getting before.

Previously (at least on occasions I could manage a boot) CPUdocky was saying around 59C now I am not getting any higher than 24C which is much better.

So far so good, all boots have been sucessful.

Finally I can get around to buying OS4.1.



Bill.