$dff Four F'ken Hundred Quid!?? $8ff By AMIDA $bffAt first I could have rephrased the title of this article as "A4000 problems PT2" (continued from TW16), or much better, "A4000 is back!". For those who probably don't know what the hecks going on, well its simple, over the last issue I wrote an article giving a detailed account of the problems I faced with my A4000. Now this article continues with that story... My Quantum ST Ultra IDE 4.3GB Hard Drive arrived on delivery. It was tested on the A4000 using HDToolbox, the A4000 managed to detect the type of Hard drive with all its heads/cylinder values, once I had given it a single partition I then attempt to save changes to the drive but unfortunately it couldn't and reported "Drive Write Error -1". I retried and "sometimes" it works (about once in every 30 retries!). I rebooted the system into the Amiga Early Startup and found non of my created HD partitions, all devices was empty but for df0:! Once rebooted the system crashes displaying a black screen with the power LED flashing constantly. The hard disk was then tested on my A600 using the same procedure: 1. Read Drive Configuration 2. Create Partition 3. Save Changes 4. Reboot 5. Locate Partitions on AES 6. Format Hard drive For the first time all 1-6 procedures above have worked without a problem for the A600. The A4000 failed on point 3,4 and 5. The A600's 1.1GB was then tested on the A4000 which could be not recognised whatsoever! After this problem was discovered I then realised that this was no ordinary problem, now serious action must be made. With no choice I had to contact Wizard Developments for them to collect my Amiga. The techs./engineers seemed OK as they seem to know "everything" about Amigas even though their repairs department has only just been opened, I had confident in their work and have a fully working A4000 back in no time. Collection and Delivery costs £29.99 + repairs, chips range from £15 onwards. The only and most expensive repair is to replace the main motherboard if problems are found within the circuitry itself, because with the A4000's motherboard being multi-layer, repairs to damage are impossible. Later in the week the A4000 was collected and delivered to Wizard Developments by courier for full examination. It required three weeks before they could work on the job, since they had so many other jobs to take care of, there wasn't much I could do but waited, and hoped it was only a small repair. 4.1Gb Limit on Amigas? Who's telling the truth? =============================================== I was speaking to one mate, he mentioned that Amigas could only operate hard drives up to a certain capacity (4.1GB) and was related to the OS limitation. I say that's bull, I have never came across any HD limit since owning an Amiga, but I certainly wouldn't risk on any OS below 3.0. Actually it was the first time I've heard of such myth. But this thing about HD size limitation made me think as to how my 4.3GB worked with my OS3.1 A600? Was it because my A4000 was using OS3.0? Then how come the 1.1GB was incapatible on the A4000? Just as mentioned before the A4000 could not always save changes to the HD. For a working computer system it could either DO one thing OR it WON'T, it can't have SOMETIMES (if you get what I mean) - otherwise theres a hardware fault (or unless the machine you're using happens to be a PC). Whatever happens now - there was nothing I could do as the A4000 was at the hands of Wizard Developments and wait for answers. Eyetech's Advertisements on the limitation ========================================== I asked my mate on how he obtained that information about HD limits. In fact it was quoted from Eyetech's advertisement of Amiga Hard Drive products. Can be found on recent issues in every Amiga mag. It only gives brief mentions that due to the Amiga's OS limit, it can only handle Hard drives up to 4.1GB. That was it! No mention of other figures and details as you would expect from a dealer that does "hard to find Amiga products". Later in that week my mate attended a computer fair and bought himself a 3.2 Gb HD for his A1200 telling me its a safety precaution, I say "You bastard!". NEWZ from Wizard Developments :( ================================ I was woken by a morning phonecall by Wiz. Dev., a full description of the A4000 problem was announced. I couldn't barely wait. I was told that everything had been tested, the 030 CPU, the custom chips, all chips, all worked... But the guy told me the VERY BAD NEWS! The system still crashes even that some of the chips had been replaced. Tracing the problem lead to broken tracks on the IDE data bus. Causes two main problem, unable to recognise the HD and constant system crashing. Repairs were impossible because of it being a multi-layer board, therefore replacing the motherboard was the only option. A4000 motherboards cost a fortune because of their rareness. You be lucky even to find a brand new motherboard at under £350! I had no choice but decided to go ahead with the replacement. Although a 90 day warrenty is also included. I also questioned about my Quantum 4.3GB Hard Drive which he said worked fine on all his spare Amigas. There was something incorrect about Eyetech's statement made about the drive limitations and AmigaDOS. The limit does not apply to AmigaOS 3.0 and above (which has a far much better FFS). How I felt from then for the rest of the week thinking about the situation and repairs, you understand. My mate was pissed when I told him about what Wiz.D said about the compatibility large hard drives using AmigaDOS 3.0, as for an extra £10 he could have bought himself a 4.3Gb HD over his 3.2Gb Fujitsu. Hehehehehe!!! What about my 040? ================== I considered sending in my 040 to Wiz.D for testing but I presumed that it was completely damaged and there was no need. In the following week I contacted Wiz. to give full details of my payment account (£430), redirecting the delivery to my new address. During that moment the new motherboard was being tested fully. I questioned about my 040 processor and how it behaved with the old motherboard. He told me to try the 040 with the new motherboard and it should work, as 040 CPUs differed a lot from 030s technically and has different necessary requirements from the main motherboard to get to work. Uses of Hard Drives that won't boot from cold ============================================= Despite the problem of the 4.3GB not booting from cold, it is still has large capacity and its a superfast IDE! Most users see that unable to cold boot as a bad point but now I found a use for this. It only works if you own an A3/4000(T) (or tower A1200 with locking mechanism). That's right, security advantages. Both my keyboard and mouse can be locked using a key. Once powered the HD will never boot into WB and all you get is the purple Amiga boot screen that can't be bypassed. Insert a WB disk, once booted all you see is that WB and RAM icon and nothing else because your system still does not know that a Hard disk is present. Both keyboard and mouse are inoperatable to reboot the machine. Disadvantages: ALL keys + locks are industrially standard (my key will work for locking/unlocking any PC). As a last resort, remove the case and tear out the HD into an A1200. KS3.1 addresses these HD cold boot problems as its partly designed for hard drives which takes its time to spin from cold. KS3.1 contains instructions that waits for a slight pause during boot up for hard drives. Most, if not all hard drives have jumpers for Master/Slave etc. Depending on your HDtool box set up, this also affects how your HD boots, whether from cold or not, but this takes some time to mess around with. Did I make the right decision? ============================== I definitely think so. I desperately needed my A4000 now and more than anything else on this planet. How much is it to buy a S/H A1200, 040 trapdoor acc. and a tower case? How about a S/H A4000? A brand new A4000T for less than £2000? People sell S/H A4000s of the cost, much more than a brand new m/board, plus theres nothing much to sell to make up for the costs of the replacement. Keyboard, £10-15? 030 CPU? A4000s can't do without the processor (its not an A1200 that rely on the 020@14Mhz). Hi-density drive? £50? 4MB SIMMS? A S/H A600/A1200 you can buy cheap, keep the motherboard and sell the rest: PSU, keybd, KS chips, FDD, HD. I made some profit only keeping an A600 m/board after selling off all its parts. Well you win some and you lose a lot. Unfortunately Wiz.D could not have done the board for a much better price by part exachanging my older m/board (or use the chips). They already have 5 faulty A4000 m/boards! Perhaps the motherboard only costed less than half the price? ============================================================= How much did I pay for the 4.3GB drive? It costed me nothing, its an arkward story about mistakes and errors which I won't go into. I already owe £100 to a company which they have no knowledge of. Working things out, the new A4000 m/board only costed me about £100. Presumably I've paid towards for the HD and £100 for that company. Makes me feel better to think that way. 040 back in Action :) ===================== I received the A4000 with a spare A4000 keyboard and the old motherboard wrapped in a bubble bag. The A4000 was tested, boots and the new Hard drive fully partitioned without problems. I then attempt to test the 040 if compatible or not. It can take serious risks if testing a CPU processor on a new motherboard if you're unsure if the expansion module has faults or not, but the m/board is in its warranty. I changed the 030 CPU for the 040 after setting some jumpers, the moment after pushing the "I/O" switch, no longer did I receive the red screen as occurred with the faulty m/board. The system entered the early startup as I held down the LMB + RMBs. Later inserted all my controller cards (even still curious about the SCSI controller), CDROM Drive and Tape Drive. It powered without problems and no faults have occurred. WB was fully configured and boots at Superfast speed (being Ultra IDE + 040), the CDROM was installed and tested, the Tape Drive was tested. Formatted all the other partitions, ported everything from the A600's HD onto the A4000 through Master/Slave dual HD connection. All worked - only now can I spend time sort out 2Gbs of unorganised data as ported over from my laptop and A600 and storing them onto Tape. This will take some time... With a working A4000 it makes me forget about the amount I had to pay for the replacement m/board. I've just also upgraded to a Cybervision 3D for only £140. Unfortunately all these spendings won't help repaying the £1500 which ends next year. Well what would you expect from a top-end Amiga with faults? My Amiga A4000 is "the most" important part of my life and its what I need to live with! Ask Kei if you don't believe me. I'm actually one of those guys that would need to undergo mental treatment if things go wrong with my Amiga. $cffend