exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

A minor update....

After an absolutely insane sequence of very scary, one-slip-and-your-host-PC-is-toast incantations in DISKPART, I managed to get a 500MB partition created on a 4GB CFlash card, and visible on the Raven. I failed to get any other partitions working but after trying different combinations of primary/logical/extended and cleaning the disk 9 times, I figured I should quit while I'm ahead!

(Last time I had to do this on a PC was ...I don't know how many years ago! :p )
The disk isn't actually empty - it has the System Volume Information folder Windows likes to create and some crap inside. But hey, I can copy stuff now.

The CFlash is now loaded with the Raven software, Nova configured for W32i/256c and so far the machine appears to be working & stable in this config.

Have not seen the LineF thing since I packed the two other cards away (tempting fate!). I might bring them back out at some point to try with RVBIOS & drivers but they are banished to the cupboard for now :)

I always find using GParted to be the nicest way to partition disks. You can find bootable GParted Linux images.

Great to see you've got it working @dml

Be interesting to see why those other VGA cards caused the linef errors.

Steve wrote: 07 Aug 2025 08:31 I always find using GParted to be the nicest way to partition disks. You can find bootable GParted Linux images.

The problem with this kind of stuff for me is that it takes frickin' ages to figure out the magic incantations and then I don't need it for another 5-10 years and all memory of what I did is erased in less time than that :) So every time is just as confusing & annoying as the previous time!

I think I refreshed enough to get the Hyperdisk set up on a PC if I can pinheader my way around that F-F connector problem, or find a different adapter.

It's going to be even worse when I try to get the NeXT or the SGI up and running with SCSI and floppy/CDRom emulation and the 50+ forum threads which will be needed to decipher that mess - but a problem for another time. :p

PhilC wrote: 07 Aug 2025 08:40 Great to see you've got it working @dml
Be interesting to see why those other VGA cards caused the linef errors.

Thanks Phil! I'm also wondering what could have been going on with the LineF thing.... I have a few ideas to try still but I'll start by getting some more useful things set up on the Raven before enjoying those crashes yet again :)

I forgot I left the machine powered on yesterday and came back a couple of hours later to find the cooler quite 'warm' and the machine was still ticking over on the desktop. I haven't even fixed the cooler yet its just sitting on top of the CPU (oops - I had already thermal-glued the heavy copper shim to the CPU but the actual cooler with the fins is just sitting on that with no compound).

I did some of the same random tests and no crashing. That was at 96MHz so its looking good so far.....

dml wrote: 07 Aug 2025 11:07 It's going to be even worse when I try to get the NeXT or the SGI up and running with SCSI and floppy/CDRom emulation and the 50+ forum threads which will be needed to decipher that mess - but a problem for another time. :p

SGI? My ears pricked up! I didn't read anywhere that you had an SGI. I have quite a few SGI's so I can advise with things.

dml wrote: 07 Aug 2025 11:07 The problem with this kind of stuff for me is that it takes frickin' ages to figure out the magic incantations and then I don't need it for another 5-10 years and all memory of what I did is erased in less time than that :) So every time is just as confusing & annoying as the previous time!

I tend to write all stuff like that in my blog as I find it. It's searchable and has saved hours of time for things like this. Fortunately thanks to archive.org all the links I include tend to be recorded (even when the sites are gone) which is why I am a regular donator to them.

Hurray! That's awesome @dml !
So I can feel a bit less guilty for shoddy hardware now? :)

By the way, where did your ISA sockets come from?
I wonder if it could be a case of not quite German-engineering level of tolerance on the socket, coupled with slightly worn edge connectors on all these old cards?

There was a case where @Oldskool's w32i card wasn't happy in his computer but it worked in mine.
My w32i card, which was the exact same model, worked in both computers.
We had different brand ISA connectors so my take away was that it was probably related to that.

Steve wrote: 07 Aug 2025 11:39 SGI? My ears pricked up! I didn't read anywhere that you had an SGI. I have quite a few SGI's so I can advise with things.

That might be super handy!

It's an Indigo2 Impact (purple case) - but some PSU & backplane issues to sort out (and a blank, likely dead SCSI drive).

I'll probably start a thread sometime but I want to get all the Ataris in good shape first so I can get back to some coding :)