Installing OS4 on Classic - Blank screen after boot up (I think)

I am trying to install OS4 on Classic on an A1200T (not my own)

It has IDEFix, PPC/Bvision/HDD/Floppy/CDRW/64mb Ram etc, etc.

When switching it on with the OS4 Boot floppy inserted and OS4 CD in Drive. It will cycle through the normal colours re-boot several times then depending on my display equipment either:

Hang on a black Screen via a Monitor (not Amiga Monitor)
or Give me a white screen via a TV.

Has anyone got any ideas? I'm really stuck here.

Cheers.

@Mikey_C

Tell me, please, this black screen, happens after that you installed amiga os or before ?

@nubechecorre

I haven't got as far as installing the OS. The HDD is blank (not even partitioned yet)

All I get is the cycling of colours, then the CD rom finishes booting and then I get the white screen (on a TV) or a black screen on an NEC multisync monitor (which I don't know if it syncs as low as needed tbh) - but, it does display the different colours.

@Mikey_C

Ok try to remove the ide fix and install os4 without it..

@nubechecorre

er...........
How?

@Mikey_C

The idefix ide adapter should be connected to the internal ide port of your amiga 1200, remove it and use a 2.5''->3.5'' ide cable and see if you can install the os.. after that edit the kicklayout file and uncomment the atapi/ide patch to use the idefix. Switch off, plug in the idefix and then switch on the computer again. Boot and it should load the operating system..

@nubechecorre

Thanks, I actually meant, HOW? If I remove the IDE Fix, I'm left with a single 2.5inch to 3.5inch IDE Cable, one end goes to the Amiga IDE Device, the other would have to go to the CD-RW

Where do I plug in the Hard Drive????

Cheers

Mikey C

@Mikey_C

tell us the cycling colors, might help us narrowing it down.

also, i had a motherboard which os4 never worked on , neither did Morphos for that matter although os3.5 and 3.9 seemed ok, i replaced the motherboard with another one and all was ok!.

@Mikey_C

A standard cable allow you to connect 2 ide devices and you can connect an hard drive and a cd-rom.. Modify the cable from 2.5'' to 3.5'' and see if you can boot

You can also simple try to see if the problem is the idefix.. use even a single ide device and put the cd-rom and the floppy and see if you can see the installation sequence.. if so, the problem is somewhere in the idefix interface.. if not the problem is something different..

@Mikey_C

Hold down the ESC when powering up the A1200

The blizzppc settings menu should appear on both the TV and your monitor.

Check the PPC RAM is at 70ns, MAPROM is turned off and there is also a setting for No 31Khz Video.
Make changes and save.

Do you get the bppc setting menu up on your monitor ?

Edit the startup-sequence on the bootfloppy and add the line

set echo on

before the set machine line.

What now ?

@all

Am unable to go any further with this, I have tried

1: Just the IDE interface direct to CDR (tried two)
2: No CD at all. Which pops up a requester to insert CD.

The colours it cycles through is Red/Blue/Purple
then it re-boots once more, CD activity, there is a Requester in there, I get one brief outline of one in the main screen (just a shadow) before the screen goes dark.
(on the TV it goes white)

The floppy disk does not contain any AmigaDos commands like DIR/List or even ed

Any other ideas welcome, but I must admit, I am stuck.

@Mikey_C

When it ask you to insert the cd, if you open and close the cd-rom what happens ??

@nubechecorre

Its starts to boot the CD. But it envitably leads to a Blank screen.

Now, there is a U-MON installed, It has (I think a scan doubler) which is mounted over some of the Amiga Graphics chips on the mobo.

However, its interesting that I can get the early start up screen, the PPC boot up screen, I can see a requester asking for me to insert the disk. But can get nothing after the 3 colours and the following re-boot

I don't have an OS3.0 disk to try either - I think I'm stuffed here.

@Mikey_C

I think that U-MON could be the problem. But you have Bvision so...

@Mikey_C

I don't know what umon is but try to remove it and see if it load amiga os..

@Mikey_C

Just to make sure, did you set the RAM speed to 70 ns and disabled the MapROM?

@Rogue

Yeah I did - Twice

There's no logical reason for this problem as far as I can see

*bangs head against wall

@Mikey_C

Ok try another thing.. remove the bvision and see if it runs under PAL screen mode..

@Mikey_C

Quote:

try to connect an Amiga RGB monitor.

edit- oops you have already a TV connected

@Mikey_C

Just a thought -- do you still have the original OS 3.x system on another HDD? If you re-install that instead of the new blank HDD, can you boot as before? And can you verify under 3.x that the PPC works okay? I.e. run a demo or game or whatever that you positively know uses the PPC.

If so, check that you have sufficient cooling on the PPC chip -- err, or check that in any case, actually. Remember that OS4 uses the PPC all the time, not just in short periods as under WarpOS.

Best regards,

Niels

P.S. I believe the clock on the Amigans.net server must be about ten minutes fast, isn't it?