[SOLVED] Help with XVI CF setup

[edcross]

First of all, thank you for everything you guys have done over the years, the images, translations, faqs and the amount of information on the x68000 is just fantastic.

I recently bought my own X68000 XVI and some accessories such as the Aztec Monster CF adaptor. Today I completed building the scsi cable for it but i seem to be running into issues and unable to get the system to boot.

I'm certain that the CF adapter and card are being detected but I get random errors with different messages as shown in the images attached. Any ideas why this could be happening?

Thank you in advance.

[eidis]

Hi Edcross !

Welcome to the forum ! It looks like the transferred image is corrupt or there could be issues with the CF card which you are using. Try using Dane-Elect or Kingston. Have you already recapped your X68000 ? If not, then it is advisable to do it as soon as possible. Recap everything. It will save you a lot of headaches in the long run.

P.S. There could be problem with grounding on your homemade cable. Try tying all ground pins together and see if it helps.

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

[edcross]

Hi Eidis, thanks for the reply. I suspect this is a data transfer issue, holding HELP during boot time shows the partition listed but beyond that point everything is quite random, I have managed to get a Human 68k command prompt twice, but most times I don't get that far, just those random errors.

Card
I'm using a 4GB generic CF card I bought from ebay (was advertised as Kingston but it wasn't....)

Recap
I did fix and and recap the power supply but nothing else. You think I should be doing the IO board too?


Attached go a couple of photos of the setup and cable.

Hi Edcross !

Welcome to the forum ! It looks like the transferred image is corrupt or there could be issues with the CF card which you are using. Try using Dane-Elect or Kingston. Have you already recapped your X68000 ? If not, then it is advisable to do it as soon as possible. Recap everything. It will save you a lot of headaches in the long run.

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

[eidis]

 Hi Edcross !

The pinouts of your cable seem to be correct. If you are getting random data integrity errors then it could be either not enough ground or due to unsupported CF card. Try tying all grounds together on your cable or using a different CF card.

Regarding the recap. Yes, it is mandatory that everything is recapped. Those capacitors are way past their life expectancy.

P.S. Try clearing SRAM and running Mtest

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

[edcross]

Update

SRAM
Cleared it and nothing changed. I dont have a floppy disk to run Mtest, will try sourcing one this coming week.

Ground
I have revised how the Aztecmonster is wired and all ground pins are correctly interconnected. In any case tried adding several hooks with jumpers to the key ground connections and nothing changed.

CF card
Just ordered a 2GB Dane-Elect from Ebay

IO board
I have cleaned and rinsed the IO board (it was VERY dusty) and it's now clean as new, also replaced the dead battery with a holder + cr2032. The cleaning and new battery did not improve the situation. Inspecting the capacitors they all look in great shape and no leaks visible, I will replace them if the new CF doesn't fix the issue.

Will report back as soon as I get the new card.  Thanks again for the help.

Hi Edcross !

The pinouts of your cable seem to be correct. If you are getting random data integrity errors then it could be either not enough ground or due to unsupported CF card. Try tying all grounds together on your cable or using a different CF card.

Regarding the recap. Yes, it is mandatory that everything is recapped. Those capacitors are way past their life expectancy.

P.S. Try clearing SRAM and running Mtest

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

[edcross]

Update

Floppy disk
Got a box of brand new 5.25 HD disks today and with the help of Caius (thank you!) we recorded a raw dump of Human 68k (enhanced by Eidis) using Kryoflux. The computer boots perfectly using a floppy disk and that's very good news.

CF card
Also suggested by Caius, I tried formatting the CF card once inside Human 68k, but unfortunately without success. Scsiformat seems to do its job but afterwards the drive cannot be found under c:, or when it does any operations on it (eg: dir) report an "invalid media used" error dialog.

I am waiting for the new CF card to arrive and hopefully that will fix the situation.

[eidis]

 Hi Edcross !

Here is another thing to try. The following thread, courtesy of BlueBMW, and article discusses SCSI termination.

Super HD : Soft Power on/off problem
http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=5494.msg37717#msg37717

How SCSI Works
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/scsi4.htm

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

[edcross]

Morning, I do have termination on those sockets, a couple of sil resistors.

Hi Edcross !

Here is another thing to try. The following thread, courtesy of BlueBMW, and article discusses SCSI termination.

Super HD : Soft Power on/off problem
http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=5494.msg37717#msg37717

How SCSI Works
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/scsi4.htm

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

[edcross]

Success! the new card worked perfectly! The computer now boots fine and i'm able to execute just anything. 

Thanks a lot for the help in making my X68k work. 

[caius]

Success! the new card worked perfectly! The computer now boots fine and i'm able to execute just anything. 

Thanks a lot for the help in making my X68k work. 

Great.So, welcome to the wonderful and weird X68000 world!

P.S.
Which is the brand of this working CF?