Another case of slow IDE access, MuFastRom slowdown?

[aera]

Hello,

I finally finished modding my A500 and now have 1.5MB Chip RAM, with a 1MB expansion on the way. OS 3.2 is installed and running fine, together with WHDLoad and everything's set up nicely.

However, the IDE performance is pretty weak for me. SysInfo finds I get 820,000 Bps from IDE on both partitions (300MB system partition, FFS, 4096 block size, 0x1FE00 MaxTransfer; 7.5GB data partition, PFS3AIO, 512 block size, 0x1FE00 MaxTransfer).

I know there are quite a few threads discussing this, and I read several of them, but none address the strange behaviour I encountered: when adding MuFastRom to my Startup-sequence, my IDE performance is effectively halved to 400,000. It is noticeably slower in showing icons when opening a drawer.

My CPLD is running quite hot to the touch, too. Others have said that may be due to intense drive access, but this also happens with Kickstart 1.3 running WB 1.3 from floppy with no drive access at all. Is this a case of a bad CPLD, i.e., am I going to have to send it back to the seller (AmigaStore)?

Cheers,
aera

[terriblefire]

However, the IDE performance is pretty weak for me. SysInfo finds I get 820,000 Bps from IDE on both partitions (300MB system partition, FFS, 4096 block size, 0x1FE00 MaxTransfer; 7.5GB data partition, PFS3AIO, 512 block size, 0x1FE00 MaxTransfer).

Usually happens when the CPU does not have an MMU.

[aera]

Thanks, but the MMU seems to be present and running according to SysInfo. Maybe I have something set up wrong with MMULibs? I installed the most recent version (47.9) from Aminet to replace the ones supplied with the OS. I was considering trying another CF card, too. MuFastRom always leads to slowdowns.

How hot is that CPLD supposed to run? Because it burns my finger after a while.

[matt020]

SysInfo reports MMU on an expansion card I have that has an EC 030 CPU (no MMU).
Try WhichAmiga to confirm if your CPU has an MMU.

[dalek]

Hot CPLD is normal at least for me.

More intrigued as to how you are getting 1.5MB chip - can you describe your setup? Rev 8 A500+ board with trapdoor 512k expansion? Or Rev 6 or lower with megachip or equivalent?

Wondering if the extra 0.5MB is actually being seen as "slow fastram" instead of chip running at motherboard speed. This would be the case if a Rev 8 was configured as an A500 instead of A500+ and maybe the jumper pads are not correct.

Try removing any trapdoor ram and see what happens - things will be slow if mufastrom is putting rom in the "slow fastram" area thinking it is real fastram.

[aera]

SysInfo reports MMU on an expansion card I have that has an EC 030 CPU (no MMU).
Try WhichAmiga to confirm if your CPU has an MMU.

AmigaTestKit also reports MMU present, but I'll check, yeah.

Hot CPLD is normal at least for me.

More intrigued as to how you are getting 1.5MB chip - can you describe your setup? Rev 8 A500+ board with trapdoor 512k expansion? Or Rev 6 or lower with megachip or equivalent?

Wondering if the extra 0.5MB is actually being seen as "slow fastram" instead of chip running at motherboard speed. This would be the case if a Rev 8 was configured as an A500 instead of A500+ and maybe the jumper pads are not correct.

Try removing any trapdoor ram and see what happens - things will be slow if mufastrom is putting rom in the "slow fastram" area thinking it is real fastram.

Good to hear the heat is not totally out of the ordinary. I'll add a heatsink some time.

Yeah, it's a modded Rev8a with 1MB on board plus 512k expansion - to be replaced by a modern 1MB expansion. All of it is addressed as real Chip RAM. No changes in drive speed when removing the expansion, though.

What I also noticed is the Amiga seems to reset itself before ultimately booting after about 10 seconds. At this point, I wonder whether I should check the TF536 itself, or if I need to grab a different CF adapter/card. I guess I could ask if AmigaStore is willing to replace the accelerator for me.

Edit: MuFastRom shouldn't have trouble with switchable ROMs, should it? Because I have a 1.3/3.1 switchable ROM installed.

[Maximilian]

What I also noticed is the Amiga seems to reset itself before ultimately booting after about 10 seconds. At this point, I wonder whether I should check the TF536 itself, or if I need to grab a different CF adapter/card. I guess I could ask if AmigaStore is willing to replace the accelerator for me.

Softkick?
Or maybe a flaky PSU, or reset circuit with a bad cap?

[matt020]

There was a new version of MMULibs uploaded to Aminet this year, try this one. I do recall I had similar issues with my TF536 and had to use the latest version from Aminet...

The version of CPU librarys (MMU disk) that comes with OS3.2 also gave me poor IDE speed, along with other versions of MMULibs. Except for the latest on Aminet..........

[aera]

What I also noticed is the Amiga seems to reset itself before ultimately booting after about 10 seconds. At this point, I wonder whether I should check the TF536 itself, or if I need to grab a different CF adapter/card. I guess I could ask if AmigaStore is willing to replace the accelerator for me.

Softkick?
Or maybe a flaky PSU, or reset circuit with a bad cap?

Oh snap, you're right. Since I use OS 3.2 on Kickstart 3.1 it'll have to load some libs into RAM, right... Could this be connected to my MuFastRom issues? Hmmm.

[Maximilian]

With a softkick I mean that you boot with Kick 3.1 and then load for example kickstart 3.2 from hdd and reboot..
Maybe check..