Does not boot after soft reset ACA500Plus

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.
  • I have a annoying feature/bug?

    I have a ACA500plus on a rev 5 Amiga 500 and a Indivision scan doubler.


    When a do a soft reset (A+A+Ctrl) and press F1 to boot, it starts to book abut after unpacking KS3.1 it stays on a black screen. I then need to do a hard on/off on the power supply, After that it boots as normal. But after each soft reset it never boots, I always need to power on/off.


    Any settings? Or a bug? or HW fault?

  • A soft reset won't take you back to the menu by default, so it will rely on the CF card to come back after a reset at fairly high speed. You may just be looking at a not-recognized CF card. If you have a spare one of a different brand, please try that. Also, please let it sit and search for a boot device for up to 30 seconds, as that's the time Kick 3.1 takes to look for a boot device before it switches to "floppy only".


    Another thing you might want to check is CPU speed - maybe it's just not liking the overclocked speed you've chosen?

  • Does not matter what CPU speed I have same result.


    It always works after power toggle, never after reset.

    If the CF card works at power toggle it should work at a reset, right?


    If I wait long enough (over a minute) the screen turn bark blue and the computer does not react on reset (A+A+Ctrl), the only power toggle works.

  • If the CF card works at power toggle it should work at a reset, right?

    What *should* work and what actually works isn't necessarily logical - CF cards are mass-produced things, and even if you have two cards of the same brand, you can never be sure that they are using the same controller chip inside (unless they clearly come from the same batch, which is only likely if you've bought them at the same reseller at the same time).


    So please follow that route and attempt a different CF card. Yes, it should behave the same on a cold- and a warm boot. However, I'd like to check this simple thing before we spend way too much time chasing ghosts.


    That said, our internal flash&test procedure does NOT contain a warm-start, as all hardware is designed to behave the same on a cold and a warm boot.


    The part that makes a difference between cold and warm boot is the DisMo, and that will only pass this information to the menu system when requested. If there would be an error, it would only mean that the menu system always believes that it's a cold boot (this is a one-bit piece of information: Cold start or not). The error would show by the menu system always appearing instead of only appearing on cold boot, and then only when the mouse button is held (modulo your global settings). From your description, you don't even get that far.


    So I can say for sure that the ACA500plus is designed to behave the same on a cold boot and on a warm boot. The one thing I can't be so sure about is your CF card, so once again, please try a different one. That'll be cheaper than international shipping.

  • Ok, tried with other card/brand, but same result.

    However my 1221lc came today, and with that installed reset works.

    So now it works.


    However a new behaiviour came what I also installed X-surf 500. I need to go offline in order to launch any WHDload game... Any one ecountered that problem?

  • Evening mate,


    That's normal. The hardware/drivers for ethernet generate interrupts which can mess with WHDLoad I think, it's the same if you use a USB ethernet adapter too. Some games will work fine but a lot will freeze or crash if the ethernet is left enabled.

    The WHDLoad-Startup and WHDLoad-Cleanup files (which are in your S: directory) have lines in them to stop and restart ethernet, you just need to edit the files and enable the commands in them by removing the semi-colons at the start of the line, and then edit your WHDLoad.prefs file to enable WHDLoad to run the WHDLoad-Startup and WHDLoad-Cleanup files each time any game is loaded, which you can aso do by just removing the semi-colon in front of the lines in that file.


    If you unsure how to do that, just do a search on Google or read the WHDLoad docs, it's all in there I think - at least that's how I figured out how to do it. There is also a post in the German part of this forum on how to do it which is quite detailed, just use Google Translate it if you don't speak German


    Hope that helps a little. :)

  • However my 1221lc came today, and with that installed reset works.

    So now it works.

    This points to a problem in the reset circuit of your A500. The ACA12xx accelerators are less sensitive to reset trouble than the 68sec000 CPU. I'd first check the electrolytic cap that is near the NE555 circuit of the A500.

  • This points to a problem in the reset circuit of your A500. The ACA12xx accelerators are less sensitive to reset trouble than the 68sec000 CPU. I'd first check the electrolytic cap that is near the NE555 circuit of the A500.

    Ok, i will check the cap next time I have it open. Thanks for the input.



    I found the original post in the German part of the forum...

    X-Surf 500 und whdload Probleme

    Yet another problem that I cannot find any reference on in a google search;


    Code
    1. The command you specified via ExecuteStartup has falied (ReturnCode=10 DosError=0)
  • Hehe, you're Google skills are no match for the dark side!

    How okay are you with AmigaDOS scripts and running stuff form the command line (cli)? I'm a bit rusty still after so many years of using Windows and Linux but it's not too hard to figure out usually...

    So I believe it's trying to tell you that one of the commands you enabled (or added) in the file that's being run at ExectueStartup (which will be the WHDLoad-Startup file by default, unless you changed it to something else?), is returning a code 10 and an error of 0. So the good news is: It sounds like the WHDLoad.prefs file is okay, and is trying to run the startup script, and it's just something in the WHDLoad-Startup file itself which is not quite right.


    You can figure out which command it is by opening a CLI and entering the commands in the file until one of them throws an error - it will almost certainly be something on one of the lines which you have changed, and so you should be able to ignore any lines in the file which you haven't modified.


    If you copy the contents of the WHDLoad-Startup file on here, I'll try and take a look but I probably don't have quite the same setup as you, so I might not be able to see anything, (no promises of an insta-fix!). It's probably just a path to a command that's not quite right or a typo, so don't get stressed - it'll be really obvious once we figure it out and fix it. Then you'll know what it is and won't have to deal with it ever again. Considering how old AmigaOS is, it is suprisingly robust and capable of dealing with expansions and addon hardware. Windows and Linux have 1000s of times more resource and people working on them and are still a dogs dinner even now.

    This is not something I'd personally expect Jens or anyone at iComp to sort out for us, because we're using a completely unrelated peice of software (WHDLoad), to load games (of at best questionable source), from a place most were never supposed to run (a harddrive). Even if they had an army of suport people answering such questions, the universe would end before they sorted them all out.

  • If you copy the contents of the WHDLoad-Startup file on here, I'll try and take a look but I probably don't have quite the same setup as you, so I might not be able to see anything, (no promises of an insta-fix!).

    Thanks for helping out.

    I have only done what was suggested in the links you posted (I think). Here are the files concerned:


    WHDLoad.prefs

    ;

    ; global configuration file for WHDLoad

    ; searched as "S:whdload.prefs"

    ;

    ; CLI-Arguments and ToolTypes will overwrite these !

    ;


    ;ButtonWait ;wait for button pressed (slave must support this)

    ;ChipNoCache ;disable cachebility of Chip-Memory

    ;ConfigDelay=400 ;wait to select options in splash window (1/50 seconds)

    ;CoreDumpPath=T: ;path for coredump files

    ;DebugKey=$5b ;rawkey code to quit with coredump (debug)

    ;ExecuteStartup=Execute S:WHDLoad-Startup ;command to execute on WHDLoad startup

    ;ExecuteCleanup=Execute S:WHDLoad-Cleanup ;command to execute on WHDLoad exit

    ;Expert ;selects expert mode

    ;FreezeKey=$5d ;rawkey code to enter HrtMon/TK

    ;FullChip ;save/restore complete chip memory

    ;LogBuffer=$40000 ;buffer size for logging facility

    ;MMU ;use MMU (for 68030)

    NoAutoVec ;ignore unwanted autovector interrupts

    ;NoFilter ;disable audio filter

    ;NoFlushMem ;do not flush memory

    ;NoMemReverse ;do not allocate memory reverse

    NoNetwork ;do not connect to the internet

    ;NoWriteCache ;disable the disk write cache

    ;NTSC ;force NTSC viedo mode

    PAL ;force PAL viedo mode

    ;Proxy=proxyhost:3128 ;use this HTTP-proxy, [user:password@]hostname[:port]

    ;QuitKey=$5a ;rawkey code to quit

    ;ReadDelay=150 ;wait after reading from disk (1/50 seconds)

    ;RestartKey=$5c ;rawkey code to restart

    ;SavePath=SYS:WHDSaves ;base directory for all saves

    ;ShowRegs=SYS:Utilities/MuchMore W WL=80 WT=80 WW=582 WH=700 ;command for Show Regs

    ;SplashDelay=200 ;time to display splash window (1/50 seconds)

    ;WriteDelay=150 ;wait after saving something to disk (1/50 seconds)


    WHDLoad-StartUO

    ;

    ; example script to be used with WHDLoad option ExecuteStartup

    ; stop all software which can cause interrupts with external hardware

    ; optionally free memory to allow WHDLoad better PreLoad

    ;


    ; stop the IP-stack via ARexx

    ;C:rx offline.rexx


    ; stop Genesis with a X-Surf card

    AmiTCP:bin/offline x-surf0


    ; stop Roadshow

    ;C:NetShutdown


    ; stop Poseidon USB-stack

    ;C:AddUSBHardware REMOVE ALL


    ; set compatible speed and disable JIT for UAE

    ;uae-configuration cpu_speed real cachesize 0






    WHDLoad-Cleanup

    ;

    ; example script to be used with WHDLoad option ExecuteCleanup

    ; restart all software which has been stopped previously with ExecuteStartup

    ;


    ; start Poseidon USB-stack

    ;ENVARC:PsdStackLoader


    ; start Genesis with a X-Surf card

    AmiTCP:bin/online x-surf0


    ; start Roadshow

    ;AddInterface DEVS:NetInterfaces/(#?.info) Quiet


    ; start the IP-stack via ARexx

    ;C:rx online.rexx


    ; enable max speed and JIT for UAE

    ;uae-configuration cpu_speed max cachesize 8192

  • No worries, I'll do my best to be of help, apologies in advance if I get something wrong! All of this is definitely in the original post I linked to in the German section of the forum, I can really recommend just checking with that, (via Google Translate if you need to of course), in case I missed something.

    I believe what you need to do is the following:


    In your WHDLoad.prefs file, remove the semi-colons from the start of the following lines, changing...

    Code
    1. ;ExecuteStartup=Execute S:WHDLoad-Startup ;command to execute on WHDLoad startup
    2. ;ExecuteCleanup=Execute S:WHDLoad-Cleanup ;command to execute on WHDLoad exit

    ...to...

    Code
    1. ExecuteStartup=Execute S:WHDLoad-Startup ;command to execute on WHDLoad startup
    2. ExecuteCleanup=Execute S:WHDLoad-Cleanup ;command to execute on WHDLoad exit

    ...and then WHDLoad should run those script files each time a game is started up and shutdown.

    The NoNetwork line that you've uncommented doesn't stop the Amiga's network, I don't think, I believe it just stops WHDLoad from doing a network check to see if the game you are trying to load has an updated loader:

    Code
    1. NoNetwork ;do not connect to the internet

    I think it's safe to put the semi-colon back in front this to disable it again, it won't stop you from stopping the network connection while a game runs, and WHDLoad will kindly tell you if there's a new loader before shutting the network down, so you can go and grab it from the WHDLoad website if you want to.


    Also, I don't think these two lines matter, almost any of the time. I guess the NoAutoVec might in certain circumstances but the PAL one will probably just crash any NTSC games that rely on any specific timings. Unless you have a particular problem, I'd re-insert the semi-colons in front of them and disable them until you know you need them...

    Code
    1. NoAutoVec ;ignore unwanted autovector interrupts
    2. PAL ;force PAL viedo mode


    Next, you need to change the following line in your WHDLoad-Startup from...


    Code
    1. AmiTCP:bin/offline x-surf0

    ...to...


    Code
    1. AmiTCP:bin/offline x-surf-500-plus.device 0


    ...in order to tell AmiTCP to shut down the connection on your x-surf-500-plus, (just to double check... this is the device you have installed and are trying to disable, right?). The zero is just the unit number of that type of device in case you have more than one connected (but I don't believe you can for an x-surf-500-plus). People who have a different type of network device, they have to change this to match whatever device they have, and also have set it up previously in AmiTCP but for you, it should already be done by iComp's installer.

    Lastly you need to change the following line in your WHDLoad-Cleanup from...

    Code
    1. AmiTCP:bin/online x-surf0

    ...to...

    Code
    1. AmiTCP:bin/online x-surf-500-plus.device 0

    ...so that it starts your x-surf-500-plus device back up again after the game is shutdown.

    If this is all working okay, you might well have a window pop open when a game starts or shuts down that says something like "AmiTCP is put offline", and "AmiTCP is put back online" - I can't remember the exact wording but it pops up whenever I run a game on my ACA500+ machine.

    Hope this helps and isn't too full of errors, let me know how you get on.

    Happy trails! :)

  • No worries, I'll do my best to be of help, apologies in advance if I get something wrong! All of this is definitely in the original post I linked to in the German section of the forum, I can really recommend just checking with that, (via Google Translate if you need to of course), in case I missed something.

    Hope this helps and isn't too full of errors, let me know how you get on.

    Happy trails! :)

    Ok, thanks.

    I missed the additions needed on the startup and Cleanup files.

    I had re-inserted the ";" in the conf file, while looking for a solution,


    Now it works!

    Thanks alot!

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