Sam440ep-flex CD/DVD (software/hardware?) problem

Hi all,

I have a new (to me) Sam440ep-flex running AmigaOS4 Update 6. It has an ASUS (or an LG) SATA DVD/CD drive that I can't access from AmigaOS4. The SATA cable for the CD drive is connected to J23 as the manual status.

It seems to be OK at boot time:
http://cl.ly/image/0O0j040b1n0p

But then when I put in a CD… there's no change in AmigaOS4. Presumably I should see it mounted, or be able to access it in DirMaster or something. I can't.

When I run media toolbox… I get erratic behavior. About 50% of the time it only shows the HD on the controller:
http://cl.ly/image/1I3t1s1a2I3x

About 40% of the time, it shows a 2nd device that is the CD, but it's shown as jumbled garbage:
http://cl.ly/image/2e1C3z2E3K1n
http://cl.ly/image/0v060M3t1k3K

About 10% of the time, it seems to be ok:
http://cl.ly/image/0W413n3E3l1u
And in these OK instances I can use the "eject" and "inject" buttons successfully.

These different results are just from me opening media toolbox repeatedly. Each time I open it, it's one of these variations. I'm not changing anything when I get a different result, just opening it again.

Here is the printenv output from boot:
http://cl.ly/image/3J2k2z2F1a32

sii3114ide conf as 1002 seems correct. The "1002" code means:
1: HDD connected to port 0
0: nothing on port 1
0: nothing on port 2
2: a CD-ROM drive on port 3

As a final test, I tried booting the AmigaOS4.1 Final Edition CD. It's able to boot off of it, which is a good sign presumably, that the drive is hooked up properly and the hardware is all OK. I can't complete the install because it has a Radeon 5450 in it right now, so it freezes launching kickstart:
http://cl.ly/image/220p3z0q1e2m

I thought I'd mention it as an interesting data point as it seems to point to the hardware being OK and this being a software problem.

To be sure I'm not just dealing with a damaged/bad drive, I replaced the ASUS drive with a new LG drive, it had the exact same behavior. To further eliminate a hardware problem, I swapped out the SATA cable for a new one. Same behavior persisted.

Do you have any ideas? Anything else I should be trying in terms of setup or tests on the AmigaOS software side (this is my first experience with AmigaOS4… I'm a classic guy up to this point).

Cheers,
Sean

Are you sure you're not being too impatient? When you stick a CD in the drive, it takes some time to recognise it and try to mount it with every filesystem on your system. Only after it has failed with every available filesystem will it appear as an audio CD on the Workbench.

I would wait at least a minute before saying that "it doesn't mount". The fact that MTB (Media Toolbox) can see it means that it is at least connected.

You could have a problem with your SATA cable - those little connectors are vile and the designer should be sent to Guantanamo. Pamper them by bending the cable so it approaches the drive/mobo straight (not pulling the connector at an angle). If you can replace them with the variety that have little metal clips, even better.

Good luck.

Tony,

Thanks for the response. I put in a CD (data) and waited a few minutes. Nothing.

It could be a SATA cable, but I've tried 2 different ones. And the fact that it booted OS4.1 Final Edition makes me think the SATA cable is OK.

Cheers,
Sean

@tonyw

As another test, I put in an Audio CD and ran PlayCD. Nothing. As far as I can tell it behaves like there's no CD.

I also ran AmiDVD and it says "no CD/DVD devices found".

Cheers,
Sean

Also check the power cable, I had one that was loose and it gave random lockups and weitd things happening throughout the system. I fitted a tighter one (power adaptor cable) and everything worked as it should.

If the power cable is bad this can kill your DVD drive, LG aren't the best to start with. the multiple MTB changes suggest the drive could be bad.

Another thing to check is that the lens in the drive is clean, run a head cleaner cd through it (liquid based not dry) and see of that helps. If the previous owner was a smoker then a layer of tar over the lens won't help...

Personally I would:

Replace the power and data leads
Clean the lens
Replace the drive.

@Severin

Thanks, I did replace the drive. I get the same behavior with an ASUS drive and an LG drive.

I'll try a different power cable.

Cheers,
Sean

@BeLucid,
have you checked that your CD/DVD devs dosdriver is pointing to unit 3 usually they are set to unit 1 by default

@Swisso

Why would you have a CD / DVD dos driver in DEVS at all?

They are not needed on OS4.x The ones in Storage/DOSDrivers are for rewritable CD / DVD media formatted as SmartFileSystem, not ISO disks.

Have you tried plugging inot a different connector (and adjusting the vriable appropriatly if you are still using them) ? There is always the pssibilty of a fault on the board.

You couldn't boot from it then, but if it should work, it would suggest the issue is not with the drive.

@broadblues

I tried using connector J21 and adjusting the conf variable (I tried both 1200 and 1020 as the value, as I wasn't sure which was right). No more luck that way then when it was on J23... which makes me think connector J23 is OK (I can boot the OS4 FE CD off J23, so that seems to me a sign the hardware is OK).

Cheers,
Sean

@Swisso

I haven't checked that the CD/DVD devs dosdriver is pointing to unit 3 rather than to unit 1. I didn't know to do that, but I also don't know how to do that. Can you describe the steps to check that?

Cheers,
Sean

@Severin

Thanks for the suggestion on the power cable. It was the last remaining thing that I hadn't swapped out. I swapped it out, and still have the same behavior. So I don't think the cable was bad.

I'm also swapping between an ASUS and a brand new LG, so I don't think it's a case of a bad drive or a dirty lens (both will boot the AS4.1 FE CD for example).

Cheers,
Sean

Thanks for all the replies so far everyone. There's been some good suggestions of things to check.

At this point. I think we have data points to all but rule out a hardware problem (maybe... but tell me if I'm wrong) since I've:

* Replaced the CD/DVD drive.
* Replaced the SATA cable.
* Replaced the power cable.
* Tried it on J21.
* Successfully booted a bootable CD off the CD/DVD attached to J23.

and since:

* MediaToolbox sometimes sees a 2nd device on 3 (~40% of the time), it just has garbarge for the device name
* MediaToolbox sometimes sees a 2nd device on 3 with the correct name (~10% of the time), and on these occasions if I use the "Eject" and "Inject" buttons, they work


I think it's pretty fair to say at this point that we have a working CD/DVD that the SAM440 sees as OK (it boots OS4.1 FE off it after all) but that OS4.1 Update 6 doesn't see it correctly.

So... any ideas or thoughts on diagnostics I should run in OS4? Or configs I should look at?

Am I simply misunderstanding what should happen when I put in a CD in OS4? I'm using a commercial Audio CD and a ISO burned CDR as my test disks. I'd expect both to get mounted to the Workspace after inserting them. When I insert them, there is about 5 seconds or so of activity on the drive, then nothing. Should I be doing something else after inserting them?

Anyone have any hypothesis for the odd results from MediaToolbox? I get mostly no 2nd device and occasionally it sees the CD/DVD cleanly, and occasionally it sees it with a garbage device name (see the screenshots from the original post).

Thanks for all the help so far. I hope to get this solved. I'm eager to use my new Sam440, but most the software I have for it is on CD!

Cheers,
Sean

@BeLucid

You have s4sii_maxbus set to 1. I'm not 100% sure what that does, but it might be restricting SATA to just one port.

Added to that, sii3114ide_xfer = G000 is probably not a good idea. That sets all ports on the Sii3114 card to the slowest PIO mode, except for the first one. This shouldn't cause the trouble that you are having, but there really is no valid reason to be restricting your DVD drive to PIO-0 when it's more than capable of DMA (which is much faster).

Hans

@broadblues
as it happens I too am having problems accessing my dvd rw drives after OS4.1 Final is installed and the only way I can get the install disk icons to show up is with one of the dosdrivers from storage now in Devs. and also plugging in non usb mouse and keyboard
If I boot from the install disk everything works ok, but the installation has created problems wih my sound, I can't get the boot tune to play although the card works and with usb aswell. I had no such problems before installing final.
I'm not complaining, but it also knocked out my cygnix partition and I had to completely reinstall that.
work in progress.

@Hans

I tried s4sii_maxbus set at 2 and at 3 and didn't have any different results accessing the CD/DVD.

I tried GGGG and G00G rather than G000 for sii3114_ide_xfer and no difference either.

Cheers,
Sean

@Swisso

Let me know if you solve this. Other than Update 6 vs. FE, it sounds pretty similar to my CD/DVD situation.

The original owner suggested I remove the CMOS battery for a few minutes to reset the motherboard.

I stared at the battery for a bit and tugged on it a little. It seems pretty secured in there. I googled around on Sam440 battery replacement/removal and didn't find anything. The Sam440ep-flex manual doesn't discuss it either.

Any suggestions for the right way to remove it without breaking anything. Is there a release tab/lever/catch or something? I don't want to make a bad situation worse by breaking the motherboard.

What do you all think of the suggestion as well? Any shot of working? Is there a software option to reset to factory settings w/o removing the battery?

Cheers,
Sean