Stuck on booting - Reading Fat....

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Jimbob
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Stuck on booting - Reading Fat....

Post by Jimbob »

Hello, I have a new HxC REV C board connected to an Amiga 500 with booting issues. The HxC board gets stuck at Reading Fat and a red flashing led, nothing else happens.

I've read the other topics on this forum about the same problem and tried all the suggestions.

I've tried multiple power supplies (PC AT/ATX, Amiga and my bench supply) plus scoped voltage source and monitored voltage level to make sure it was "clean" and at +5V

Tried HxC board on bench not connected to any system - made no difference.

I have 2 SD cards, both 2GB.
Tried formatting with WinXP system formatter to FAT32. Tried different Linux distro's to format to FAT32. Tried the format program as suggested in another topic but that only formats to FAT16. Even used different computers and multi card readers to format SD cards...

The SD cards are Polaroid 2GB MMAGF02GWECA-MB (brand new) and Panasonic 2GB D4A9 SU1FA001023 RP-SDL02G (Brand new)

The HxC board recognises when a SD card is installed. It scrolls through its info screens when no card installed.

Once the SD cards are formatted, I extract the Amiga quick install disk images files onto each SD for testing..... I have tried with just the .CFG file also.

The board has firmware ver 1.6.0.0 installed as from new.

Does anybody have more suggestions? Am I right in thinking that if it can't read the SD card, the firmware can't be upgraded unless I have a PIC programmer?

Are the boards bench tested before postage? That way I could rule out hardware problem.....? Or that it did respond to a SD card at some time.

How many SD cards do people try before success? Is there a list of working SD card brands and sizes? I've seen some brands mentioned so far.

Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.

Jeff
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Re: Stuck on booting - Reading Fat....

Post by Jeff »

Jimbob wrote:
Does anybody have more suggestions? Am I right in thinking that if it can't read the SD card, the firmware can't be upgraded unless I have a PIC programmer?
No you cannot upgrade with a pic programmer.

Have you try to reflash the device ? :
https://hxc2001.com/floppy_drive_emulat ... rmware.zip

Another thing :
I hope that you have not powered the HxC with a +12V ?
this seems easy to make the mistake on Amiga 500 (the red wire is +12V...) :

http://www.forum64.de/wbb3/board314-au- ... -emulator/

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Re: Stuck on booting - Reading Fat....

Post by Jeff »

The MMAGF02GWECA sd seems to have a compatibility problem with the HxC (1KB sector size ?) :
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=733
Since i don't have this SD i have no way to correct this for the moment.

Try another sdcard (different size/brand).

Jeff
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Re: Stuck on booting - Reading Fat....

Post by Jeff »

Here is the list of SDCard i have :
Brand Series Type Size Class Model
ATP Pro Max SD 128MB AF128SDP ASD0511006
Emtec SDHC 4GB Class 4 SD-K04G
Fujifilm SD 128MB FH0533020eH0535Pa
Kingston micro-SD 2GB SD-C02G / SDC/2GB
Lexar Premium Series SDHC 4GB Class 6 MMAGF04GWDCA-DB
Lexar Premium Series SD 2GB 31102-2GBCSA
Panasonic SDHC 8GB Class 4 RP-SDP08G
SanDisk SDHC 4GB Class 4 BH1020916046G
SanDisk micro-SDHC 8GB Class 2 1013604147DJG
SanDisk Extreme SDHC 16GB Class 10 BL0918414348G
Transcend SD 64MB EH0527084cH0529Pa

Non Working ! >>>>Transcend SDHC 8GB Class 10 MMBGF08GWMCA-MB EDIT : Now working !

User SDCard know as working (seen over the net):
Apacer SDHC 8GB Class 2
Dane-Elec SDHC 8GB Class 4
Elite Pro SD 1GB
Hama SD 512MB
Integral SD 2GB
Kingston SD 256MB
Kingston SD 1GB
Kingston SD 2GB
Lexar SD 512MB
Lexar Multi Use SDHC 4GB Class 2
Panasonic HIGH SPEED SD 128MB
PNY SD 128MB
SanDisk Ultra-II SD 2GB Class 4
SanDisk SD 2GB Class 2
Transcend (Blue one) SDHC 4GB Class 6
Transcend (Blue one) SDHC 16GB Class 10
Transcend SDHC 16GB Class 10


EDIT : MMBGF08GWMCA-MB is non working. your SD is MMAGF02GWECA. This is probably the same issue. ( EDIT : Now working ! )
The SPI mode is working only during one sector read on these SDCard, after the sd communication is broken...
I need to test these SD on another SPI based device to check if the problem is the HxC or the SDCard...
( EDIT : Fixed ! )

Jimbob
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Re: Stuck on booting - Reading Fat....

Post by Jimbob »

Okay tried reflashing with firmware 1.6.0.0 again. No luck with reflash. I get error 4. UPD File not found! This is the same result with both SD cards.

I've taken note that the MMAGFxxxxxx card has had a problem before....

Would error 4 indicate SD card faults? I wasn't expecting a reflash to work and though maybe error 2 or 3 more likely.

Definatly using +5V. I read the warning in the user manual before I brought the board, and also use other psups besides the amiga one.

Jeff
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Re: Stuck on booting - Reading Fat....

Post by Jeff »

Jimbob wrote:Okay tried reflashing with firmware 1.6.0.0 again. No luck with reflash. I get error 4. UPD File not found! This is the same result with both SD cards.

I've taken note that the MMAGFxxxxxx card has had a problem before....

Would error 4 indicate SD card faults? I wasn't expecting a reflash to work and though maybe error 2 or 3 more likely.

Definatly using +5V. I read the warning in the user manual before I brought the board, and also use other psups besides the amiga one.
Try another SDCard:
EDIT : MMBGF08GWMCA-MB is non working. your SD is MMAGF02GWECA. This is probably the same issue.
The SPI mode is working only during one sector read on these SDCard, after the sd communication is broken...
I need to test these SD on another SPI based device to check if the problem is the HxC or the SDCard...

Jimbob
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Re: Stuck on booting - Reading Fat....

Post by Jimbob »

Thanks for the SD Card list Jeff. Much appreciated. I will try and buy another card that has been successfully used by others.


Did I mention that TWO different cards are not working..... Both give exactly same results..... hummm

If there is anything you need me to test/check with these SD cards, I maybe able to help....
If you think its worth further investigation of the SPI fault, I could send the card - Its no use to me (it don't work!!)
Last edited by Jimbob on Sat Dec 17, 2011 12:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Jeff
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Re: Stuck on booting - Reading Fat....

Post by Jeff »

Jimbob wrote:Thanks for the SD Card list Jeff. Much appreciated. I will try and buy another card that has been successfully used by others.


Did I mention that TWO different cards are not working..... Both give exactly same results..... hummm
Maybe there using the same samsung controler...

Both MMAGF02GWECA "SanDisk" and MMBGF08GWMCA "Transcend" come from Samsung...

I don't have the info about your panasonic sd.

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Re: Stuck on booting - Reading Fat....

Post by Jeff »

Jimbob wrote:Thanks for the SD Card list Jeff. Much appreciated. I will try and buy another card that has been successfully used by others.


Did I mention that TWO different cards are not working..... Both give exactly same results..... hummm

If there is anything you need me to test/check with these SD cards, I maybe able to help....
If you think its worth further investigation of the SPI fault, I could send the card - Its no use to me (it don't work!!)
Do you have another device using the SPI mode ? for exemple something like this :
http://jderogee.tripod.com/project1541.htm

or something else ?

i want to know if this SDCard is working on another device using the SPI mode.

Jeff
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Re: Stuck on booting - Reading Fat....

Post by Jeff »

mmhhh something interesting :

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9555 ... -interface
I seem to have found the issue. When I calculate the correct CRC for CMD55 and send that instead of a dummy CRC the command is accepted (result 0x01). If you look at the physical layer specification at sdcard.org (http://www.sdcard.org/developers/tech/s ... r_Spec.pdf) in section 7.2.2 is it explicitly said that: "The SPI interface is initialized in the CRC OFF mode in default." (except for commands CMD0 and CMD8). This doesn't seem to be the case with this series of Transcend cards, thus violating the specification. Also in case of CRC error the reply should be 0x09 instead of 0x05. I've tried to explicitly turn off CRC checking with CMD59 but that doesn't seem to help.

=> Calculating the correct CRC for (all?) commands makes the card work.

I'm in contact with Transcend support about this. If i learn something useful I'll you know here.

Note that I used other 2GB Transcend cards before, but they were made in Taiwan, while the new one is made in Korea (and seems to be a Samsung card (MMAGR02GUDCA)).

Jimbob
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Re: Stuck on booting - Reading Fat....

Post by Jimbob »

I've had a look around and everything I have uses bus mode to read a SD card not SPI - maybe a project in the making for me :-)

Interesting info found by Jeff on CRC checking and failures.
Is there a debug mode or a need for one in the HxC to view program results?

My MMAGF02GWECA-MB 2GB is made in Korea also, while the Panasonic RP-SDL02G is made in Japan. Reading the article Jeff found and info at www.sdcard.org suggests these cards are non compliant to SD standards. Is this becoming more common or are short cuts taken to make SD cards cheaper?

Jeff
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Re: Stuck on booting - Reading Fat....

Post by Jeff »

Jimbob wrote:I've had a look around and everything I have uses bus mode to read a SD card not SPI - maybe a project in the making for me :-)

Interesting info found by Jeff on CRC checking and failures.
Is there a debug mode or a need for one in the HxC to view program results?

My MMAGF02GWECA-MB 2GB is made in Korea also, while the Panasonic RP-SDL02G is made in Japan. Reading the article Jeff found and info at http://www.sdcard.org suggests these cards are non compliant to SD standards. Is this becoming more common or are short cuts taken to make SD cards cheaper?

Finally i think that i have found . Can you test the firmware present in your email box ?

Jimbob
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Re: Stuck on booting - Reading Fat....

Post by Jimbob »

Okay, to update the story. I have had success! :lol:

First I was able to "borrow" two SD cards from a neighbour down the road. (from her digital camera).
The first SD card was a 256MB of unknown origin. Had no serial numbers. Just 256MB SD Card written in white on black casing.
Next card is a "Dick Smith" brand SDHC 4GB class 4 No# 2F2DAR104504G and this worked!!

I was finally able to boot the HxC as per its design. This was a great relief as I had thoughts of hardware issues.
I run my HxC as an external drive off the A500 but have a external switch to select drive 0 or 1. I also made a custom board and cable to sort out the external floppy drive select configurations. I new this board worked with any external amiga compatable drive but was never sure with the HxC board. Success here too!

This now working SD card allowed me to flash a new firmware version sent by Jeff and success here too!
First try of flashing failed but a reformat of the working SD card and only the UPD file on the card allowed the HxC to upload perfect.

Now both my non working SD cards are able to be read, boot etc. We have a fix to non compatable cards.

I wish to thank Jean-François DEL NERO for his fine work on producing the HxC board and support. Without his help I would not have had success so quickly or even had success at all without purchasing more SD cards....

I don't think I have to remind everyone of this great product and all those computers with failed drives it revives.... but I will. The HxC Floppy Emulator is GREAT!

Thanks again.

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