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[ArchM]

Hello guys, I recently bought a CD32 with SX1 addon. It also came with a mouse, a floppy drive, and the SX1 had a hard drive built in and Workbench (I think?) installed. So last night I finally got my first non-CD32 game in the mail, and I set out to test out my stuff.

Well, when I finally get the SX1 situated (touchy little thing), I can hear it start moving and humming inside, but no OS screen comes up. I tried turning everything off, and rebooting it, but all I am getting is a default CD32 screen that it just sits at. I have the floppy drive connected to the floppy port on the SX1, and the mouse is connected to the controller 2 port on the CD32 itself. The mouse seems to be working just fine.

Does anybody have any suggestions for getting my Workbench (or is it Kickstart? I can't remember, too many Amiga terms in too little time) to boot up?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Wayne]

all that you say is normal
btw, have you installed a hardisk on the sx1 ?
have you got workbench 3.1 floopy disks? ..there are 6

[ArchM]

I personally did not install the hardisk, but it was installed by the previous owner. I also unfortunately do not have any Workbench disks.

When I VERY first got this unit about a month or so ago, I checked everything, and Workbench booted up just fine. I didn't have any Amiga games at the time, only CD32 games, so I wasn't able to test much.

I have since then moved it out to my main living room TV, and now it won't load up Workbench. Is it possible something just got jostled around in the move from the bedroom to the living room?

[lou_dias]

make sure the switch on the back is set to enabled

hold both mouse buttons to get the early boot menu when powering on or resetting

make sure you have no CD disc in the CD32 and select the hard drive to boot from

click use
click boot


did you get a bigfoot PSU with it, I hear the stock Commodore unit may not power the drive well...

[ArchM]

Good call on the disable switch on the back, I forgot all about that. Unfortunately, that wasn't it. :P
When I hold down both mouse buttons, I get to a gray screen with some text options, one of which being boot options. When I go there, I get a button on the bottom that says "boot" but there is nothing in the two larger boxes above that.
I checked and there is no CD in.

I have to wiggle the SX1 itself a LOT to get a connection, but I know when I do, because it starts humming. Once I get it to start humming, I reboot the whole system, but I still get a CD32 screen with some music, and then nothing.

It seems like it isn't recognizing the hard drive. Any suggestions?

[lou_dias]

make sure you power down after a good wiggle and power up again.... a simple reset won't cut it there

I had to elevate my CD32 about 1/8" higher than the SX-1 to get a good connection...

[charliestu]

Apart from theoretically ensuring that you are booting correctly into legal OS on SX1 HD, the most important advice I can give you (having now remaining only 1 of 4 CD32s) is to be VERY VERY careful when using SX1.

Mine killed (joey connection...) lots of memory/2 CD32s and occasionally was a bit of fun.

To run CD32 software now (lots of CDs) I use legal under £30 Cloanto Amiga Forever emulator on well-proven reliable PCs.

I apologise to anyone who feels that I must use only my original Amigas - they are my favourite computers WITH FLOPPY programmes, but PC emulators are indubitably cheaper/more reliable/better for running programmes that needed CD or HD installation.

Good luck with careful use of SX1 - my advice from expensive experience is to sell it/keep your CD32/use PC for Amiga CD32/HD emulation ...

[ArchM]

OK, this weekend I will open it up and take a look. I know the connection between the SX1 and the CD32 is good, because it is reading the floppy, which runs through the SX1, so the problem must be with the hard drive installed in the SX1 itself.

I really don't know whether the OS would be legal or not, I just got it and it was already installed. Is there a place that I can buy legal copies?

Hopefully I just have a loose connection between the SX1 and the hard drive installed inside. Like I said, I moved it around a lot, and maybe it just got josteled loose. I'm crossing my fingers.

[Erol]

The SX1 has an install disk was this provided with the unit?

[ArchM]

Unfortunately no, there was no disc with the SX1 or for the OS.

Also no on the power supply, but I didn't have any trouble booting to the OS when I first got it, it's only now that I have been moving it around for a couple of weeks that it isn't recognizing the hard drive.

Does Amiga make any external hard drives, so that if I can't get it up and running, I could just buy an external with an OS on it, and run it through my SX1?

[Erol]

ArchM wrote:
Unfortunately no, there was no disc with the SX1 or for the OS. ?

Theres one selling on ebay now.

[ArchM]

Unfortunately no, there was no disc with the SX1 or for the OS.

Also no on the power supply, but I didn't have any trouble booting to the OS when I first got it, it's only now that I have been moving it around for a couple of weeks that it isn't recognizing the hard drive.

Does Amiga make any external hard drives, so that if I can't get it up and running, I could just buy an external with an OS on it, and run it through my SX1?

[Chain]

on that disk is only ram-testing program, nothing useful

[lou_dias]

are you using the Bigfoot CD32 power supply?

I bought mine because I called Paravision (back then) and they said the stock Commodore unit didn't have the juic to power a hard drive.