TF 1230 and hard drive checksum errors

[Blackpaws]

Hi,

I recently installed a TF 1230 (64 MB) into my A1200 (Kickstart 3.1) which has a classic 240 MB Conner IDE drive since many years. Unfortunately, with the card activated, the hard drive always pops up multiple "checksum errors", whereas if I deactivate the card or remove it, the hard drive works perfectly as usual. Booting and running Workbench from floppy works well, however any hard drive access will throw up checksum errors.

I have removed and reinserted the card several times, as well as cleaned the contacts in the trapdoor, to rule out contact issues.

In HDToolBox, I have tried to set "Maxtransfer" to 0x1fe00 and 0xfe00, but that makes no difference. I can't find or think of anything else to try, unfortunately. Does anyone have any ideas what could be wrong?

[terriblefire]

Does the TF card have anything on the IDE port? if not try that.

[supaduper]

Try a Buffered adapter as I had a buyer with a similar problem who was using CF card, some cf cards do not play ball with some accelerator cards( compatibility ) I told him to try the IDE buffer that I bundle with the TF1232 on the A1200 IDE and that solved his problem,

I take the timing fixes have been done on the A1200 ? if the two smd components E123c and E125c are there they need removing so remove them

also I always recommend the use now of IDE to SD adapters which work really well with a lot of accelerators

[alenppc]

Hi,

I recently installed a TF 1230 (64 MB) into my A1200 (Kickstart 3.1) which has a classic 240 MB Conner IDE drive since many years. Unfortunately, with the card activated, the hard drive always pops up multiple "checksum errors", whereas if I deactivate the card or remove it, the hard drive works perfectly as usual. Booting and running Workbench from floppy works well, however any hard drive access will throw up checksum errors.

I have removed and reinserted the card several times, as well as cleaned the contacts in the trapdoor, to rule out contact issues.

In HDToolBox, I have tried to set "Maxtransfer" to 0x1fe00 and 0xfe00, but that makes no difference. I can't find or think of anything else to try, unfortunately. Does anyone have any ideas what could be wrong?

How long is the IDE cable? The TF1230 is extremely sensitive to cable length and anything longer than 5cm will not work, in fact, the machine won't even boot, even though it will work on an unexpanded machine with longer cables. The only way around this is to add a buffer.

[Blackpaws]

terriblefire wrote:
Does the TF card have anything on the IDE port? if not try that.

The TF's IDE port is unused, but I seem to understand that it can not be used for auto-booting, which I do need for this hard drive.

supaduper wrote:
I take the timing fixes have been done on the A1200 ? if the two smd components E123c and E125c are there they need removing so remove them

I haven't checked if these SMDs are on the motherboard, since I only heard that they are a problem in connection with the card itself not working, which mine technically does -- just not the HD. But it may be something to try (although I'm wary of de-soldering components from the motherboard). I may also try a buffered IDE adapter, but I would first try solutions that don't require buying additional hardware.

alenppc wrote:
How long is the IDE cable? The TF1230 is extremely sensitive to cable length and anything longer than 5cm will not work, in fact, the machine won't even boot, even though it will work on an unexpanded machine with longer cables. The only way around this is to add a buffer.

The IDE cable is only 3 cm long, so I guess that's not the culprit in this case.

Just to be clear, the card does accelerate the machine to the proper speed, and provide the extra RAM, but any hard drive activity will fail with checksum errors.

[supaduper]

.....Or just buy a IDE to SD adapter and a micro SD card, they are really cheap these days :)

[alenppc]

Just to be clear, the card does accelerate the machine to the proper speed, and provide the extra RAM, but any hard drive activity will fail with checksum errors.

I don't believe anyone has tested an actual mechanical drive with this card, but I don't think there is a reason why it shouldn't work, someone can correct me if I am wrong. Perhaps you should check with your builder and see if they can reproduce the issue on their end. A firmware update might help as well, especially if the card has been built a while ago, as the latest firmware does have some IDE bugfixes included.

You can also try running MuFastROM before accessing the IDE drive (e.g. load it from floppy), and if that solves your issue, then a firmware update might do the trick.

[supaduper]

I just found an old 30+ year A600 20mb connner HD that aint been used since Jesus was around and I tried that with my TF1230 and it was just giving me the click of death , I hit with it a lump hammer and it burst into life PMSL, so yeah it should probably work with a spinning Dinosaur HD or rock for that matter :lol:

[stephen_usher]

If it’s a Conner drive then the rubber bump stop for the heads will have turned to goo and have stuck the head arm.

[terriblefire]

If it’s a Conner drive then the rubber bump stop for the heads will have turned to goo and have stuck the head arm.

But it works with the TF disabled. My guess is bus reflections and the Connor is more sensitive to it that other CF cards