CF7 died, any suggestions?

[+InsaneMultitasker]

It's not clear to me if the CF7 is active when the power switch is off, as mine is an older version without such a switch. If you have a minimem cart go into the debugger and turn on the CRU at 0x1100. Inspect memory at 0x4000. That may give you an indication of whether or not the card and DSR are visible. I would be surprised if Jaime deactivates the CF7 if a CF is not installed. Maybe someone with a similar version can test that scenario.

 

When testing the Myarc controllers I will sometimes turn off the PEB until I am in the debugger, then turn on the PEB when I am ready. A similar sequence may work for you: (1) turn on console, (2) enter debugger (3) turn on CF7 (4)try to access the CRU/DSR.

[Stuart]

There is no way for me to plug a CF-card into the CF7 and power up a console, I simply can't get that far, no matter what kind of formatting I do to the CF-card on the PC side.

As you're using a CF card which seems good, I would suggest that your CF7 is damaged, and you'll need to get in contact with Jaime. Whatever data/formatting is already on a CF-card is pretty immaterial to the CF7.

[Stuart]

Just tried the following scenarios with my NanoPEB:

 

(1) NanoPEB power switch off: console boots irrespective of whether a CF card is inserted or not.

 

(2) NanoPEB power switch on: console displays a blue screen if no CF card is inserted (or presumably the CF card is duff or not detected for any other reason).

 

(3) NanoPEB power switch off, switch on console, then NanoPEB power switch on: using MiniMem to do C1100=1 then M4000 will read out the DSR, irrespective of whether a CF card is inserted or not.

 

[Manic1975]

No matter what I do, if the CF7 is attached to any of the 3 consoles I have, and the CF7 power switch is turned on, the 99/4A just presents a blank blue screen. Now, with the CF7's power switch off, yet still connected, I can power on a console but not have any 32K or disk available.

 

I have 3 CF-cards I am working with: the original 32MB card, a new 32MB card, and a borrowed 8GB card. I also have a second CF-to-IDE module that I have tried. All the CF-card, except the original that came with the CF7, can be accessed and formatted in my PC (running Win7).

 

There is no way for me to plug a CF-card into the CF7 and power up a console, I simply can't get that far, no matter what kind of formatting I do to the CF-card on the PC side.

Matthew you have to be shure that your CF card is exactly same like original CF card. New CF card won't work because of access problems with CF cards. New 8 Gb card will not work for shure! Try to buy exactly the same card like original. I learn that myself when I try to buy new cards for my CF7+. I found cards that are same like original and that cards work (Sandisk 2.0 2048 Mb). And not to forget that capacity of card must be exactly the same 32 Mb (in my case it have to be 2048 Mb or it won't work!). Don't forget that not all brand of cards work with CF7+. In my experiance it must be same card like Jamie put in yout CF7+.

[matthew180]

I got my CF7+ working, kind of. Custodio Malilong sent me a replacement CPLD, but when I put it in nothing changed. Doh! The only other chip on the board, besides the EPROMs, is a 7400. I never checked it because I was *sure* it could not be the problem. Well, I replaced it last night and it fixed the problem (part of it anyway). The 7400 was specifically a 74HCT00, the "C" meaning CMOS, which is static sensitive. Apparently during one of my CFcard inserts or removals I killed the chip.

 

Now my system will come up with the CF7+ attached and power on, but the original 32MB CFcard is toast. I can't format it in Windows since it reports the wrong geometry, which may be because it is bad.

 

I have an 8GB and a 32MB card, but neither work. The 8GB card is recognized by the FORMAT command in XB and with the CF utility that runs on the 99/4A, but the formatting of a volume does not "stick". I can format, then reboot and the card appears empty again. The 32MB card (same size as the original CFcard) is simply not recognized at all.

 

So, assuming I can get a pile of CFcards, what do I need to do to them before trying to format them with "volumes"? Do I stick them in a PC and format with FAT or FAT32? If so, what should the sector size be, etc.?

Edited March 5, 2013 by matthew180

[Manic1975]

Try with 2Gb CF card. Don't forget it has to be Sandisk 2.0 2048 Mb. Look for specifications of 32 Mb CF card. In my case CF card must be same specifications and memory size like the original one. Use FAT16 when you format CF card. If you try to make partition, programs like TI99dir format all card and put one partition. This partition have size of your CF card and CF7+ can't read this card.

 

I found this about Xilinx and formating CF cards:

 

Formatting Requirements:

Sector-Per-Cluster Size

For the System ACE controller, a problem occurs when CF cards that are formatted with one sector (512 bytes) per cluster are used. When the Windows OS formats the CF card, it uses a formula to determine an optimal sectors-per-cluster value based on the size of the CF partition and other values. This is known behavior with Windows 2000 and 32 MB CF cards, and Windows XP appears to behave similarly. (Other operating systems, including Windows NT and Windows 98, do not exhibit this problem.)

FAT12 or FAT16 Format

The System ACE CF controller does not recognize the FAT32 file system; it was designed to recognize the FAT12 or FAT16 formats.

Reserved Sectors

Reserved sectors are the number of reserved sectors in the reserved region of the volume starting at the first sector of the volume.

The System ACE CF controller reads a CF card that is formatted with only one reserved sector in the Master Boot Record, as specified in the Microsoft White Paper FAT: General Overview of On-Disk Format:

"For FAT or FAT12 and FAT16 volumes, this value should never be anything other than 1. Microsoft operating systems will properly support any non-zero value in this field."

In Windows XP, the DOS format command automatically formats the CF card with 2-8 reserved sectors depending on the density of the CF card. (Since other operating systems, including Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Windows 98, use the default of one reserved sector when formatting, there is not a problem when formatting the CF card using these operating systems.)

For Windows 2000, you can correct the formatting problems described above by formatting the CF card with a sector-per-cluster size of more than one (UnitSize greater than 512), and specifying the FAT format. You can do this by using the command-line "format" command with the "/fs:" and "/a:" options as follows:

format volume [/fs:file-system] [/a:UnitSize]

UnitSize should be specified as 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K, (128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes).

For example:

For CF cards 0 MB - 64 MB: format D: /FS:FAT /A:1024

For CF cards 65 MB - 128 MB : format D: /FS:FAT /A:2048

For CF cards 129 MB - 255 MB : format D: /FS:FAT /A:4096

For CF cards 256 MB - 511 MB : format D: /FS:FAT /A:8192

For CF cards 512 MB - 1023 MB : format D: /FS:FAT /A:16K

For CF cards 1 GB : format D: /FS:FAT /A:32K

For CF cards 2 GB - 4 GB : format D: /FS:FAT /A:64K

NOTE: The disk geometry determines the point at which a larger cluster size is needed because the number of clusters on the volume must fit into 16 bits.

The third problem listed above is a problem specifically caused by formatting the CF card using the DOS format command on Windows XP because more than one reserved sector is automatically created. The DOS format command does not allow you to specify the number of reserved sectors needed, so an alternate disk formatting tool should be used. Some CF card readers are delivered with a disk formatting (or disk initialization) utility included that formats the CF card with the expected default value of one reserved sector. You can install this utility or other third-party disk format utilities (that allow you to specify the number of reserved sectors) on your Windows XP machine and use it to format the CF card. Alternatively, you can use a non-Windows XP machine or a digital camera to format the CF card. Once the CF card is correctly formatted, you can use Windows XP to perform normal file access (read/write) operations without causing any additional problems.

The "mkdosfs" formatting utility has been successfully used to correctly re-format the CF card for use with the SystemACE CF controller when using a Windows XP machine. This freeware is available for download at:

http://www1.mager.org/mkdosfs/

 

Use the default "mkdosfs" command to format the CF card.

For example:

c:\> mkdosfs D:

The default "mkdosfs" command automatically formats the CF card in either FAT12 or FAT16 format, with at least two sectors-per-cluster, and only one reserved sector.

[+Lee Stewart]

...

Formatting Requirements ...

 

As @Stuart said somewhere above, the CF7+ does not care about the format of a CF card if it is other than TI DSK volumes of 1600 256-byte sectors. You're wasting time formatting with anything other than Fred Kaal's Ti99Dir.exe on a PC or the CFMGR program on the TI with the CF7+ plugged in.

 

...lee

[matthew180]

Formatting a FAT file system on the PC is just a way to make sure the card is working.

 

So I received a new 32MB CFcard today, SanDisk specifically, and it worked. The original CFcard that came with my unit was a Kingston, but it died (probably when the 7400 IC went out), and the first replacement 32MB CFcard I tried was a Fuji brand and does not work at all.

 

Anyway, I'm back up and running. Thanks everyone for the help!