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[bertambala]

Hi everyone,

My trusty Amiga 3000 (25/030) will no longer boot. More specifically, when I turn it on the HDD flickers for a moment like usual, but then turns on solid and I'm unable to even access the boot menu by holding down both mouse buttons. Here's the lead-up to how I got in this situation:

1) The machine was running fine with 1.4 ROMs (booting 2.x from the HDD). I recently got an external CD-ROM working with the help of a newly acquired Asim_CDFS v.3 disk, and after that success I got an external SCSI HDD working as well.

2) After living with a nearly full 8 MB boot partition for the past 13 years, I finally decided to do something about it. I backed up both partitions on the internal HDD to my external, and then repartitioned the drive. So far so good. I used my Superkickstart disk to load a 2.x ROM, and then used one of my 3.1 disks to get to the desktop.

3) Once in WB again I realized that the format program in 3.1 is not compatible with the 2.x ROMs. I decided against rummaging around in the attic for my 2.05 floppies, and reinstalled my 3.1 ROMs. Booted into 3.1 and formatted both internal partitions. Things still work.

4) It was at this time that I realized I could not get either my external CD-ROM or HDD to work, even though they are connected in the same manner as before. Actually, when running HDToolbox all seven positions were recognized as my internal HDD, and a warning came up that "Some drives have been removed from the system, and this information needs to be recorded somewhere" (or something to that effect. I ignored this many times, and kept powering down and hooking up the two external devices in different configurations...all to no avail.

5). I installed 3.1 on the internal drive and proceeded to use HDToolbox - this time clicking "Save Changes" for each of the 6 mysterious Quantum drives in hopes that they would go away. When I rebooted I was greeted with a non-functioning computer.

I'm assuming that the trouble I'm facing is due to improper SCSI termination...most likely on the motherboard or on the internal drive. I'll readily admit that I don't know much about this matter, so I'm hoping someone here can give me some advice on how to proceed.

If I recall correctly my daughterboard says it's a revision 7.1 (in case that's the same number for my motherboard), though I'd have to check again to make sure. I don't currently have a passive terminator, but I do have an active one for one of my external devices. Thanks in advance!

[patrik]

If you are using an external CD-rom, the SCSI-chain should be terminated on the internal scsi-chain, after the harddrive, have no termination on the motherboard itself (as it then is in the middle of the scsi-chain) and be terminated on the external scsi-chain after the CD-ROM.

At what IDs have you set your HD and CD-ROM?

Also do a search for "Specific Troublesome Devices" on this page and see if any of these issues applies to your A3000. There are also some good termination guidelines and examples there.


/Patrik

[MrZammler]

Generally, I've found that scsi termination stuff on the A3000 do not always work. It's kind of a hit and miss situation.

Do as patrik said. Overall, you should have your last devices terminated, use the proper jumper on each device. Check your id's so that they wont be the same on devices on each end of the chain.

[motorollin]

Welcome to amiga.org :-)

What makes you think it's a termination problem? If the SCSI devices are connected and terminated the same way they were before, then why would re-partitioning cause a termination problem?

Why don't you try disconnecting everything form the SCSI chain and see if you can get to the early startup screen. If you can, then connect your devices one at a time and terminate the chain, checking you can get to the early startup screen each time.

--
moto

[Tahoe]

Okay, I thought the problem was me... Now I realise it might be a little more complicated....

I have the same SCSI woes in an A3000 as you do.... Without changing anything physically with the drive I have found that one of my drives:
1. Works and is recognised but won't boot if I load a Super Kickstart from disk; either 1.3, 2.0, 2.04 or 3.1
2. Works, Boots, Formats and it generally runs perfectly fine running Kickstart 2.0 from hard drive
3. Does NOT work when replacing the kick2.0 hardfile with a 3.1 one. the machine boots; loads it's Kickstart file, reboots and then hangs the same manner as yours does; SCSI light won't go off and it just sits there. Much like a termination problem, however hardware wise nothing has been changed....

This happens to me with ONE specific type of IBM (200MB) hard drive. A 2GB Seagate works fine in the above scenario....

Almost as if the IBM drive is NOT compatible with Kickstart 3.1... I have tried al manner of things concerning termination; it simply will not work using Kickstart 3.1...

Using a rev 8 SCSI chip BTW, on a rev 9.03 A3000...

[Noster]

Hi,

> What makes you think it's a termination problem? If the SCSI devices are connected
> and terminated the same way they were before, then why would re-partitioning
> cause a termination problem?
If I've read right, he previously used Kick 2.x and now switched to Kick 3.1. Maybe the scsi.device has been changed and now his configuration doesn't work?

How about softkicking Kickstart 3.1 and using HDToolBox from OS 3.1 or softkicking Kickstart 2.0 and using HDToolBox from OS 2.0? I think you have some troubles because of mixing the Kickstart and Workbench versions. How about purchasing an Kickstart 3.1 ROM? This would also speed-up coldstart and reduce your problems.

Generally as already said: Remove all external drives, terminate the internal drive, add the termination resistors to the mobo or add an external (active) terminator and try to access your hd through HDtoolBox. I wouldn't partition the drive using OS 3.1 HDToolBox if I want to install OS 2.x, this might result in troubles with the version of the filesystem.

Check your cable! I've had mysterious fallouts of my drive because of an (invisible) defective cable.

Noster

[motorollin]

Noster wrote:
If I've read right, he previously used Kick 2.x and now switched to Kick 3.1. Maybe the scsi.device has been changed and now his configuration doesn't work?

Could be! Maybe the RDB is trashed and it's causing problems under 3.1 which didn't occur unter 2.x? How about low level formatting the drive in a different machine, and then trying again with 3.1?

Noster wrote:
How about softkicking Kickstart 3.1 and using HDToolBox from OS 3.1 or softkicking Kickstart 2.0 and using HDToolBox from OS 2.0?

Can't softkick if the machine won't boot :-(

--
moto