SAM460: 90% of the time crashes during soft-reset

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djrikki
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Re: SAM460: 90% of the time crashes during soft-reset

Post by djrikki »

Hi,

Well you can discount all third-party software, it happened from day one, not a great first impression.

A-eon keyboard and mouse, Radeon HD 4650, 2 GB RAM, 1TB HDD

Well I haven't tried reboot with the 'fast' argument before, but will give it a go.

I have noticed already that the reboot command isn't perfect with the SAM 460 - probably all related to the same issue.

1. Sometimes (on the rare occasion that I use it) the Workbench screen disappears (my monitor goes blue - aka loses input) and then re-appears a second later - at this point it either resets correctly or freezes.

2. Sometimes the Workbench screen disappears, monitor goes blue, bios screen appears the SAM logo and the tagline 'Free your mind' is scrambled - I don't watch what happens at this point and lean over and quickly hit the actual reset button on the unit.

So priority-wise, if the sound driver can be released out of beta all things working - no high pitch noise, correct volume levels and the driver loads correctly from hard-boot every single time I wouldn't need to perform a soft-reset every time - this would makes it less infuriating.
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Raziel
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Re: SAM460: 90% of the time crashes during soft-reset

Post by Raziel »

Have you tried to serial-catch this behaviour?

Would be interesting to see the log...maybe it's a OS component not working well on your SAM?
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xenic
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Re: SAM460: 90% of the time crashes during soft-reset

Post by xenic »

@djrikki
Even if you don't suspect 3rd party software, the process of elimination by disabling user-startup & WBStartup can be helpful in some cases. In fact, I would go a step further. Soft reboot to the early startup menu and select "Boot With No Startup-Sequence". That should boot you to a low-res Shell window but if it works with no screeching or crash, it's an indicator that something is going wrong in the rest of the startup process.
AmigaOne X1000 with 2GB memory - OS4.1 FE
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Re: SAM460: 90% of the time crashes during soft-reset

Post by tonyw »

Go back to the CD as someone suggested earlier. Try a warm reboot with that only. If it doesn't crash with a system that you booted from the CD, then there is a problem with the installation.
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ChrisH
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Re: SAM460: 90% of the time crashes during soft-reset

Post by ChrisH »

djrikki wrote:Well you can discount all third-party software, it happened from day one
Maybe the OS4 installation is corrupted somehow? Again, if you haven't tried a clean install, then please do so. Just booting from the OS4 CD should be sufficient to try a "clean install" of OS4.

If *and only if* you still get problems with a clean install, then we move on to suspecting a hardware issue (either installed badly, incompatible, or just failing). At that point you need to disconnect all non-essential hardware. If that doesn't help then ideally you would try replacing all essential hardware with alternatives (a local Amiga club could be handy in cases like this). Alternatively, if you have another computer which you can connect a serial cable to, it might help to see what is output by serial debug.
Tedzogh
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Re: SAM460: 90% of the time crashes during soft-reset

Post by Tedzogh »

Have you tryed another keyboard? I had the same problem crashed about 9 out of 10 keyboard resets, i bought a new keyboard and the problem solved itself.
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djrikki
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Re: SAM460: 90% of the time crashes during soft-reset

Post by djrikki »

@ChrisH

Not sure how to go about serial debugging that has been suggested to me a number of times for different things. When the computer arrived it was a 'clean install' from AmigaKit.
Tedzogh wrote:Have you tryed another keyboard? I had the same problem crashed about 9 out of 10 keyboard resets, i bought a new keyboard and the problem solved itself.
I use the A-Eon Technology AmigaOne keyboard that I purchased at the same time, I might just give my Apple keyboard a try.
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Re: SAM460: 90% of the time crashes during soft-reset

Post by ChrisH »

djrikki wrote:Not sure how to go about serial debugging that has been suggested to me a number of times for different things.
It only just occured to me that you may not have ordered a serial port with your X1000 (I don't think it is standard on First Contact systems???). If you DO have a serial port, then you connect it to another computer with a serial cable, and run a (Serial) Terminal Emulator on that other computer (needs a few settings to work). It will show everything that is output by the X1000 on it's serial port.
When the computer arrived it was a 'clean install' from AmigaKit.
I was basically suggesting that (although extremely unlikely) there was a problem with AmigaKit's "clean installation", and that is why you should try booting from the OS4 CD.

The wierd thing is that AmigaKit say they test every X1000 before it is sent out, so you'd have thought they would notice this... unless it isn't one of the things they test.
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djrikki
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Re: SAM460: 90% of the time crashes during soft-reset

Post by djrikki »

Hehe I wish I had an X1000... I suggest you read the subject title
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Re: SAM460: 90% of the time crashes during soft-reset

Post by xenic »

djrikki wrote:Hehe I wish I had an X1000... I suggest you read the subject title
Dont we all :-). When I received my SAM Flex from AmigaKit, I had similar problems; UBoot worked but OS4 would not boot. Despite the fact that AmigaKit hot-glued some of the connectors, some connections must have been jarred loose in transit. After I opened up the case, removed cables from the hard-disk & CD/DVD and reinserted them, OS4 started booting. It seems that every time I open the case to change something or remove dust, something goes wrong. I have to open the case back up and wiggle or reinsert all the drive cables (including the drive power cables). Here are some of the symptoms I have encountered after opening the SAM case:

Drive access dramatically slowed down (copies take 5-10 time as long) and CD/DVD drive didn't mount properly. When I reconnected the CD/DVD power cable everything returned to normal.

Initial OS4 boot failed when computer turned on but warm reboot worked. Reinserting the hard-disk SATA cable solved that problem. I determined which cable was responsible by reinserting one cable at a time with the computer turned off and turning the computer back on after each cable reinsertion. I am assuming that the last cable I reinserted before the system started working properly was the problem. That could be wrong; it might have been 2 cables.

My system stopped booting from my backup boot CD or the OS 4.1 CD. Reinserting the CD/DVD SATA cable fixed that.

Even though newer computer cables like SATA & power cables are easier to insert and remove, they don't seem to make connections as reliable as older ribbon and power cables. I don't know if it's the connectors, lower voltages or weak power supply that is at the root of the problem but I have had a lot more problems with the SAM's SATA drives than I ever had with my µA1. However, the SAM display is much better so the µA1 is in the closet as a backup.
AmigaOne X1000 with 2GB memory - OS4.1 FE
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