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USB problem

PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 7:55 pm
by RommelJunta
Apple IIgs, Rom 3, cffa3000 (v3.1) in slot 7 (disk ii virtual - slot 6, smart port - slot 7), 4mb RAM. other slots empty.

Problem:

with both cf and usb connected to card, upon cold boot, it will be stuck on boot screen (ie: Apple IIgs, copyright, rom 3). pressing openapple-ctrl-esc, it does not show cffa3000 menu. doing cold boot and pressing M also does not get me into cffa menu, as well as breaking into monitor and calling for slot 7.

I have found through item elimination, by disconnecting the USB stick from the card, but keeping the CF attached, the card will operate as it should. The CFFA menu will appear in the CDA, and on cold boot, it will load up GS/OS from CF card.
Only way i can use the USB stick is once computer is booted and either GS/OS or dos is loaded i can then re-attach the USB stick to the card and i can then choose disk image from USB. Although i have noticed on a few occasions that by doing this method, in GS/OS environment it will sometimes break into monitor.

I have used another USB stick, different brand, different capacity, formatted, and it will do the same thing.

I dont know whether it is card related or if the firmware is somehow corrupted. I had deleted the cffa firmware files from the cf card and replaced it with a downloaded v3.1 firmware to no avail.

Has or had anybody experience this? What is the exact steps to re-flashing the firmware? Any help will be appreciated.

Re: USB problem

PostPosted: Fri Nov 07, 2014 3:23 am
by dlyons
Hi,

Re-applying the firmware sounds like a reasonable thing to try. If the version number was larger than what you already have installed, the menus would automatically offer to upgrade. But since the version number is equal in your case, it's not automatic. You can force the prompt by holding down the Apple and Option keys when entering the menus. It should show "Found firmware update in CFFA.BIN on the Compact Flash card," tell you the version it found, ask ask if you want to go ahead and apply the update.

(The documented DIP Switch method will also work to force the update, but I'd keep that as a last resort, because with that method there's very little feedback available about what's going on...just a blinking light on the card, no interaction with keyboard or screen.)

If that doesn't clear up your USB problems, I'm running short of other ideas (it could be a hardware issue with your board).

Cheers,

--Dave

Re: USB problem

PostPosted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 5:13 pm
by RommelJunta
sorry for not giving an update:

I got the card and usb working by first reflashing with an older earlier version firmware then reflashed with latest firmware. This did the trick, i can cold boot with usb attached.

Re: USB problem

PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 4:49 am
by dlyons
I'm glad it worked!

It leaves me wondering what had gone wrong...I'm noodling on what we could do in a future firmware revision to get more info in cases like that. I'm thinking of displaying some checksums of the pages in the firmware, and maybe a Debug-menu option to write the firmware onto CF or USB so it could be compared against the expected image. (Some, but not all, cases of firmware corruption would prevent the CFFA3000 from working well enough to write out a file.)

Cheers,

--Dave

Re: USB problem

PostPosted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 5:47 am
by RommelJunta
so.. unfortunately the 'fix' did not last long. I am encountering problems with Disk II access. I can access and boot from my smartport but when i put in a dos3.3 image disk and boot it will say 'Not a startup drive' I have re-installed the firmware but this does not seem to solve it. I think my cffa3000 for whatever reason is buggered up. I will try and put up a video of what i am encountering.

cffa3000 in slot 2
Smartport (usb) is slot 2
Disk ii (emulated slot 6) cf card, which holds my dos 3.3 images. (s6,d1 - dos 3.3 image disk, s6,d2 - empty)
boot from slot 2 - fine boots and loads gs/os
boot from slot 6 - 'not startup disk/drive'