A1XE Fix

Hi All,

Is there a place I can find the data on doing the repairs myself or is there a USA dealer still around that can perform this?

Chris

@QuikSanz

Don't do it !! That is, if you want to run 2 GFX cards... I guess not as much of an issue if you had a MicroA1...which is pre-fixed from factory...

:)

@QuikSanz

Quote:

I think Kurt Grach at Revanche LLC is back to doing these again. He fixed mine and I have had no problems at all with it.

I just got OS 4.1 from Revanche a few weeks ago, so I know they're still in business.

Paul

@Paul

Just checked out their website ( Thanks for the heads up ).
$35.00 seems reasonable for this service. Worth it for me to not try this myself.

Chris

@QuikSanz

Speaking as one who has done the mod for several people, $35 sounds like a good deal.

On the other hand, it's about the same cost as a PCI interface card would cost you. The card would also give you the freedom of SATA over PATA (if that's valuable to you).

The PCI card would certainly give you slightly faster transfers.

@QuikSanz
The VIA IDE controller is really rather pitiful. It would be better to invest in a SATA IDE controller or similar instead. www.amigakit.com sells known-good cards with instructions or you can try and find your own.

@ssolie,

But wouldn't I still need the fix for DMA/ Ethernet? Maybe both would be prudent.

Chris

@QuikSanz

using the sata ide controller allows full ethonet
and dma on the ide controller working do yourself a favour get an pci ide card :)

@QuikSanz

Kurt's work also includes the USB fix in the deal, if I remember right. My USB is fixed too, at any rate.

As others have noted, the VIA IDE isn't the best. But I use a Sil card for my hard drives, and run the optical drives from the VIA. Best of both worlds.

Paul

Hi @Paul
I done my own USB repairs on the front ports when I dumped that original case. The Anatec Ultra ATA card was a reasonable solution. No discourtesy to Kurt's repairs, but the risk of sending MOBO for repair was too high.

@ssolie

Quote:

Hmm, i have the fix (both IDE and USB) and i'm using my HDs with mode 69 (100) as my HDs doesn't do more without throwing up a lot of read/write errors (checked with an IDE PCI card and mode 70) although they COULD (says the manufacturer).

What would be the disadvantages on still using the VIA IDE after the fix was performed?
Could it be that, even if it was DMA fixed, can bring up unreproduceable lockups and such? (It's not heat related, nor RAM - i only have one 512MB stick installed)
I'm asking because i get such lock-ups occasionally and i'm really tempted to plug in the card again to see if those are VIA related, or is a chance for that rather slim?

@Raziel

Raziel i haven't had the A1XEG4 fix done instead i have the sii680ide and powered USB hub so far i have not had stability problems at all
i also have 1 gig ram running
sblive
radeon 9000

and its been clocked @1000mhz for nearly 4 years now
runs 24hours a day every day too :)

i run 2 dvdrw drives and 2 80gig drives on sii680ide device no issues

usb works perfect too
be interesting too hear from those who have had the fix done as to the stability of their systems as well for information purposes :)

@poweramiga

I would be interested in the different configurations as well, of course if I'm going to do something like this, I'd like to get it right.

Chris

@poweramiga

I've got one hacked XE and one unhacked. I use a Sil card with the hacked board. I have a DVD/CD-RW and an IDE ZIP drive on the on-board primary bus, and two HDDs on the Sil primary bus. Naturally that all works just fine.

On the unhacked board, I use only a single HDD on the VIA primary bus. Most of my transfers between the two machines are done over Ethernet. I've not had any problems copying stuff over the Ethernet to the HDD (which should be problematic). I infer that the errors are either so rare that I haven't seen any yet, or the drivers are smart enough to retry and sort out any errors.

I get far more errors from memory sticks than from disk transfers. For instance, I have one 512 MB DIMM here that (in one machine) always gives two errors within 20 minutes of starting memtester, but it will then run for days without another occurence. It gives no errors at all in the other machine. It's the best 512 MB DIMM I have.
All my 256 MB DIMMs are error-free in both machines. I don't run more than one DIMM, every time I have tried it I get nothing but errors and lockups.

@tonyw

So I'm not the only one to still own an IDE Zip drive ?

Okay i recently (after installing OS 4.1) get out of my desktop drawer my old ZIP disks and I have experienced some strange things : sometimes the system refuse to go down a drawer (both from WB and from DOpus4) giving me a lock error IIRC. If you wish I can try to reproduce it and give you more details in order to fill a bug report, just let me know.
Also I have experienced problem (only after the above error IIRC) when ejecting the ZIP disk and reinstering a new one with same name : the icon of the first disk still remain on the WB and no new icon pop up for the new disk...

Oh and I almost forgot to say that disks are MSDOS formatted (I used them to transfer Aminet programs from work to home when I only had a slow time limited dialup connection).

@QuikSanz

I?m specking as technician in electronics and computer technology.

I like to point out one thing about Via686b vs 3COM conflict fix, is that via686b does not only control PATA disks, but VIA686b does also controls the USB ports.

I don?t know if you should worry about any possible USB vs 3COM problem, but if network or USB is intermediate state, locks up, crashes disconnects problems whit transfers, I seen some commons on garbage being sent on the USB ports, I don?t know if its related to some USB devices, or its really bigger problem.

About 13K pull down resistors on D+ D- pins, they are need to set proper signal level, if not connected signal can be detected as logical 1 or 0, just because your mobile phone is too close to your computer, that?s because when no resistor is used on input connection the average voltage is some where in between +5 (logical 1) and GND 0V (Logical 0), so about 2.5V this is a illegal voltage for digital signal, components are not that accurate in this that some components might think it?s a logical 1 on other devices its detected as logical 0, and if add tiny bit of signal noise, the signal might shifting between logical 0 and logical 1 in random order producing signal garbage.

The long wires/signal tracks will act as an antenna, normal you attach a capacitor to remove any hi frequency (HF) noise from the signal lines, but this comes as an addition to the resistors.

@tonyw

Quote:

Good to hear, so i can skip bothering with testing a SIL card and two DIMM's.

Saves me some hassle, thanks

I too have only one DIMM (512MB) installed.
Funny thing is, i tried with a 1GB DIMM aswell and it threw errors at me instantly i turned on the machine (UBoot). When i reduced the size (the one case i was able to get into UBoot) to 512MB it worked without problems - go figure, seems my machine is limited to 512MB whatsoever.

@abalaban

If you want to talk ZIP drives, please start a new thread.

@Paul

Quote:

I like the idea of your set up. What is your experience with errors?

I recall seeing somewhere that AOS only supports 512MB
so I'll leave that alone. I just hope it doesn't mind a 9250 AGP card with 256MB, We'll see.

Chris

@QuikSanz

I had Kurt test my board with one of his special A1 DIMM's in addition to my current 512MB DIMM. With 1 GB of memory, it tested good after he performed the fix. I just haven't had the money to buy the additional memory yet.

I just recently put my Radeon 9250 into this setup. It has 256MB of memory and works fine.

I haven't seen any problems with transfers on this setup. I've transferred some large directories from a USB stick to hard drive and vice versa using Workbench and drag 'n drop with out problems. I do backups of whole partitions from one hard drive to another via CLI without any problems. Transfers of large, whole directories from a CD to a hard drive via Worbench have also gone without problem.

The only problem I've been having ---just recently--- is URL's not finishing loading in OWB. But similar behavior is happening on the XP box on this same network, and coincidently after my ISP had to go to another provider to them because of a broken line. So I don't think it's really an A1 problem.

Paul