A1-XE Kickstart hang-up!

Hi all,
Merry Christmas!

This Christmas morning I thought I give the A1-XE/G4 another look. Went off-line in August and wasn't sure about what was wrong. Here's my A1's problem:
It will get to the end of loading the kickstart progress bar and end with that screen graphics and a blinking cursor. It doesn't matter if it's booting HD or CD. That's it!
Anyone experience this behavior?

If it's not switching into the OS after KS then what is it? The only thing that's master switch is UBoot rom chip. Yes/No? Or is it something that UBoot switches ON in the MOBO that isn't switching in the OS? I would appreciate any thoughts. (I'm using an Adaptec sii0680ide on a stock A1-XE/G4/800Mhz/256MB/9250PCI)

Id leave the mobo alone

If it loads the kickstarts and stops with a black screen check USB (i.e. USB stick still plugged, anything else still plugged?)

Goto UBoot prefs (or from UBoot itself) and turn off all USB.

A black screen after Kickstart means either USB or LAN

for LAN try to press both mouse buttons after kickstart loading to reach Early Startup.
Then edit startup-sequence and comment out the line where it loads the LAN drivers (not in front of my miggy and cant remember what line it is right now)

FIRST OF ALL OTHER THINGS THOUGH ... change the battery :-

EDIT: rereading your post it could also be the gfx card...do you have a serial connection possibility?
Then you would see if the gfxcard initialisation fails

Can you reach the Early menu? Press both mouse buttons or the Scroll lock key on the keyboard.
If you can then it's not a big problem.

Trying another graphic card maybe.

Hi all,
On the second day of Christmas my Amiga still doesn't...

Hi Raziel,
If it loads the kickstarts and stops with a black screen...

Doesn't stop on a black screen; the kickstart screen is still showing the last cursor location after the progress bar. That kind of means it isn't switching into the OS I would think!

Hi Elwood,
Trying another graphic card maybe.
The A1 originally came with a PowerColor ATI 7000 AGP. I pulled the 9250 PCI and installed the 7000 AGP. USB ports 0/1 and 2/3 are set to off. Doesn't change a thing!!!!!
Therefore it's something in the MOBO. Yes/No ?

OK, without blowing-up the forum with deeper thinking (OMG!), is it possible that NON VOLITILE ram is not working? In other words, I lost the IO vector to switch into the OS. Yes/No? BTW, where is nvram located? It can't be in UBoot; that's ROM or is it?

Do you all see what I'm trying see: what's causing the hang?

I even the CD is stopping it has nothing to do with the media (HD,CD) or corrupt files.

It could be the RAM (try it with a single module if posssible) albeit i doubt that it goes through UBoot unnoticed if it produces errors (for me all my RAM that didnt work due to being single-sided already blew the UBoot process)

Damn, i just reread your first post...stack A1 with no enhancements

Did you try changing the battery?
You could also try using the onboard IDE - everything is possible (plug the Sii out from the socket)

On the third day of Christmas Raziel said to me...

You could also try using the onboard IDE - everything is possible (plug the Sii out from the socket)...

OK, that's a good idea! That suggests maybe a BUS switching glitch in SII card. Worth the checkout! Thanks...

To remove the SII card requires a new UBoot configuration file though. ISTR, back towards the end of 2006, when the SAM came into existence: in OS4 Final there was a change to the VIA ide name -- "a1ide.device". So my UBoot configuration should show this ide device name. Yes/No?

Would you happen to remember how internal VIA ide was configured in UBoot? I don't have any old clear Files. Wait, October, 2007 shows some 'a1ide' references.

Well, I'll need to type back-in a new configuration and was thinking of this:

] setenv a1ide_maxbus 2
] setenv a1ide_conf 1122
] setenv a1ide_xfer DDB0
] setenv boot1 a1ide
] setenv boot2 cdrom
] setenv boot3 none
] saveenv
] reset

What do you think; is that about right? I'll give it a try tomarrow ...

Quote:
If you have two hard disk drives on the first port and two CD/DVD drives on the second one, your a1ide_conf looks right. But leave the a1ide_xfer underfined - you don't want to use DMA on that interface anyway, at least not if you want to use ethernet too (unless you had the DMA fix done), and if the variable is not set, the driver will default to best PIO mode for each of the units.

Edit: BTW, you could also leave a1ide_conf unset; the driver will then scan the bus and determine the correct settings itself.

As for the boot[1|2|3] variables, it's not a1ide, just ide. Also, why don't you set cdrom as your boot1 and ide as boot2? You want to be able to boot from CD if something goes wrong with your HD setup.

Best regards,

Niels

Did you try changing the battery? the old time fix for the A1. I've had that kind of stall when battery was low.


renoir

@Snuffy

If you like to test your configuration in UBOOT, drop “saveenv” and simply type “boota”

PS! some times USB can be total s**t on my computer, try unplugging stuff, AmigaOS4 does not like my USB kwm switch a lot, some times AmigaOS complains about signal noise, I guess it might because of my unfixed USB back ports.

On the fourth day of Christmas Snuffy got more busy...

I removed the SII 0680 IDE system and reconfigured the A1 back to its HW origins: 1 HD and 1 CDROM using VIA ide.I left the PowerColor gfx card in. OK, all that's need now is a new UBoot configuration. I finally decided on the 'default/fix' settings and updating anything from there. All I had to do is change boot1 to 'cdrom' because of this snag:

U-boot reads the last HD of OS4 Final:
]reset
...Dev 0...start...read sector 0...found HD...FLB:found something...SLB...found AmigaOS4 second level bootloader...A1 Second-level V2...loading...no config files found on any partitions...returning to u-boot....

DAMN, the HD was left on-line, but not as a boot disk...
But, that's OK, it can be set from a CD boot-up...
I used my pristine store bought AmigaKit OS4.1 CD to bootup the orginal A1-XE hardware now and ....
nothing changed!
This can only mean a MotherBoard problem, but what? I'm all ears for some ideas about what to do next....

Hi Niels,
As for the boot[1|2|3] variables, it's not a1ide, just ide.
You're right! It's be sometime (Jan 2007) since OS4 Final was installed and I stopped using Internal VIA. The old brain is rusting up!

Hi Renoir,
Did you try changing the battery?
Yes, first thing always no matter what the problems is.

Hi NutsAboutAmiga
If you like to test your configuration in UBOOT, drop “saveenv” and simply type “boota”
Yep! U-boot has a menu item -- USE for this Session Only.

@Snuffy

Sounds like you have some boot priority problems in Media Toolbox.

You should be able to boot from CD, unless you have too high boot priority on your HD.

Try pressing the Scroll Lock or Left and Right Mouse button like crazy when screen goes black, maybe you get in to the kickstart boot menu.

@Snuffy

Now thats a problem

If you are not able to reach Workbench (or Early Startup or, as Liveforit mentioned, Kickstart boot) at all, you do need to get a serial connection and post the output.

btw: are you able to switch to another ram just for a test?

Hi Raziel & all,
On the last day of the Christmas and the last day of the year, I give up. I have a theory about the A1's problem-- it's a CPU connection.

My A1 went out about a week after Brandonlee's A1 stopped booting. He claimed that it was the MegArray structure of the MPC. It's kind of one of those things that needs to be varified in a repair facility. Well, there were none here, but I'm going say that after all my attemps to reboot under a different environment setup, this is my malfunction too. I guess the life expectancy of eight years from the A1 wasn't that bad. I'm with Brandonlee about doing nothing about repairs or replacement -- it's all too expensive to pursue and technologically being behind the times.

@Snuffy

If it loads KS, it then loads startup-sequence & user-startup next, watch the drive light to verify this. If it then hangs, you could have something in user-startup that the system doesn't like. If you can get into the early startup menu, try booting without the startup-sequence.

Another way to boot is in the uboot menu, set the cd as the only boot device & see if it boots off the CD.

It just doesn't sound like a cpu problem if it loads files. Uboot is a bugger if something is set wrong.

A little late to the game..

@sundown

Second

@Snuffy

Just don't give up yet.

You still could have ram issues.. i had them when switching to a 1 GB module...everything was fine upto Workbench...but when i started using the second 512 MB of that module the system went bust/grimed...everytime.
I pulled out and used my 512 MB module again and everything was fine.
(The 1 GB module was from the same manufacturer and even from the same line, but still it wasn't liked by my system)

My miggy don't work with more than 512 MB...well

Could be your problem aswell...*did* you change the RAM?
I didn't see a comment about this?

Also do you have the possibility to use serial on a PC?
I wouldn't give up just yet when you have still a few possiblilites to check (without spending lots of money) and can't be sure *what* exactly is causing your lockup.

Keep on, mate

i have a A1 XE since 8 years
if you see something on your screen,this not the battery or the graphics card,this is a loose contact somewhere on your amiga

with the time the CPU module move,try to push it(or pull) little bit the corner hight-left of your CPU-module ......

Hi all,
On the OS4th day of the new year 2012, a new idea has come into light:

Hi powermetal,
i have a A1 XE since 8 years
Nice to hear! thanks. I got one those Early Birds deliverd end of April 2003. I year after purchase on-line!

if you see something on your screen,this not the battery or the graphics card,this is a loose contact somewhere on your amiga...
Yes, I agree. It's all about good connections! Thanks for the connection

with the time the CPU module move,try to push it(or pull) little bit the corner hight-left of your CPU-module ......
I've heard rumors about this MegArray thing where the CPU mounts as the possible problem. Sounds like some heat warpage may have caused my peculiar disconnection. I'm treading lightly around this area. Don't know how to "touch" the problem! Do you think an Apple computer shop could fix this better than my 'stumbling around' and guessing ?

OK, I'll take a look into this at a later date. Thanks for the big idea!
-----------------
Hi Sundown,
If it loads KS, it then ...
blinking cursor on next line after progress bar...

... set the cd as the only boot device & see if it boots off the CD.
Same as above

It just doesn't sound like a cpu problem if it loads files. Uboot is a bugger ...
That's the problem, Uboot doesn't know what to do next....

I had a similar problem five years ago: black screen & winking cursor. I had Uboot chip checked and re-installed ten days later and it booted fine. Maybe I should do that again!
---------------------
Hi @ Raziel
You still could have ram issues...
It's fine at 256MB. UBoot chip is fine too...

Also do you have the possibility to use serial on a PC?
Shows a normal bootup, but doesn't...

I wouldn't give up just yet when you have still a few possiblilites to check ....and can't be sure *what* exactly is causing your lockup.
Keep on, mate
I hanging along with the hang-up! =:o

Hi all,
Hot times these days and July the OS4th is tomarrow; eight years now!
My A1-XE PPC board was sent to Amiga Center, France in May, and I just heard that it's ready to come home...WOW...tres bien! I've started arrangements and look forward to closing this thread on a good note soon!

I won't get into details because it's a Dr. to client confidentiality. Best thing to do to get your A1 fixed is make an arrangement with Amiga Center!

Happy July 4th Holiday to all...

@ Powermetal,
if you see something on your screen, this not the battery or the graphics card,this is a loose contact somewhere on your amiga...

Very true, but there also physical hardware switches that can breakdown... as in my case to switch on the operating system.