CTPCI + ATI GFX - Still long booting?

[FatRakoon]

Ok, I got a CTPCI. Had it a while now but its NOT being used.

I got an ATI PCI Card that I used with it... I got 2 in fact, I think one is a 7200 and the other a 9200 but either way, they both worked fine with the CT PCI when I played with them.

I had issues with the CT63 and my Falcon and I have gone back to the 1.3c Firmware. IIRC without loking at notes, I need the 1.4 Firmware in order to use the ATI Card.

The thing is, that even though I am thinking of giving it another play, I will need to re-flash it... I got a JTAG cable so I hope I will be able to do it again, but the thing is, that when I did do it for a bit, the Falcon took something like 20 seconds for it to register the ATI card and then boot up.

Now, is this still a thing? Does the CTPCI + ATI card still mean that it takes a while to start up?

If it does, then I simply wont bother.

[wongck]

Yes, it does take some time to detect and initialise the ATI card. But I never found out how long... may 15-20 seconds \?? IDK.

If you hook up your falcon VGA output to another LCD you will be able to see what's going on as it logs stuff to the Falcon VGA output.
Press D to see more information... like what LCD/monitor it detects on the ATI card, the support resolution... etc etc.

But a warm reboot after that takes less time as the ATI card is already initialised.

[foft]

A large part of the reason for the slow booting is because it runs the BIOS from the cards to initialise them. The BIOS is in x86 machine language so it needs to emulate that in order to execute it, along with a few important parts of the PC hardware.

Probably something could be written that detects/analyzes the reads/writes from the card in order to come up with a more minimal set of writes to init the card.

Also I wonder... is the 060 cache on at the time it emulates the BIOS?

[FatRakoon]

Hmm.. I understand that there is a certain amount of ... ok, maybe handshaking, and setting up. I get that and I fully accept it... To a point.

15-20 Seconds every time it boots up for me, is a bit excessive to be staring at a blank screen.

As for the Cache, I dont know? While there is the CACHEON/OFF PRG that an be used in the AUTO, the CPX module also can have it set to one or the other, so perhaps that might help?

The second issue I had, or perhaps I am wrong and mixing things up when I had the GFX card in my TT, but I had issues with compatibility with Magic.

I was ok with Mint or TOS, but not Magic.

I guess the only way that I can properly answer, is to plonk the latest Firmware on and bloody well have a play!

But since getting it back of Rodolphe a couple of years ago, when he fully overhauled the Falcon and CT63, its been rock solid but he has gone back to 1.3c and so I guess upping it might start me back on the slippery slope.. Paranoia Rules as they say!

[wongck]

As for the Cache, I dont know? While there is the CACHEON/OFF PRG that an be used in the AUTO, the CPX module also can have it set to one or the other, so perhaps that might help?

The Radeon is initialised before any HDD access, so those Cachon/cacheoff prg are not even loaded.

[mikro]

I think David Galvez mentioned somewhere that CT60 TOS 2.0x does enable caches automatically (in contrast to 1.0x).

[FatRakoon]

As for the Cache, I dont know? While there is the CACHEON/OFF PRG that an be used in the AUTO, the CPX module also can have it set to one or the other, so perhaps that might help?

The Radeon is initialised before any HDD access, so those Cachon/cacheoff prg are not even loaded.

Yes, thats true, but I meant in the CPX Module, you can set it to default even before booting... Thats what I meant. So, if the Radeon is initialised even before then, then maybe not.

[FatRakoon]

I think David Galvez mentioned somewhere that CT60 TOS 2.0x does enable caches automatically (in contrast to 1.0x).

2.0? Is that where its up to now? Sweet.
I have not tried anything for now, just not had the time to, and while thats a bit of a lie, I just was not in the mood today to do anything.

Went to Bangor to the Open night at the clubhouse, only for me to realise that the Fuel was not going into the tank, but on the floor ( The cap has a filler at the top, and the pipe goes into the tank, but its come lose, so I didnt see until close to £18 that he floor was covered in petrol.
I put pretty much ZERO fuel into the trike at all.
Hoped it would get me home, only for me to run out out fuel literally 500 yards from home.
Got my son to brring a can, but he didnt have the pipe, and there is a frame around the trikes filler cap ( Bad design ) and so I wasted about 6 pints by it not going into the top and then about 90% of whatever was left missed the tank because the pipe was not connected...

It got me home at least.

Spent the day sorting that out. not easy when I need to take the body off to get at it, and thast a 2 man job and I only have use of one arm.

So no, not been in the mood today, as I need it for tomorrows ride around Anglesey

That said however... 2.0? I might just go and have a play shortly, before beddie byes.

[FatRakoon]

Oh, one question before I do have a try out...

Does CuBase Audio ( The Fixed 060 version ) Still work through an ATI card?

Obviously, I dont need silly resolutions ( Although the extra 80 pixels when I went from STHIGH to TTMED was a great plus.

Clealry when I boot with Magic, it would be great to use tons of colours, but I only really need the basic 640x480

just wondering.

[marss]

Hi,
ATI works fine with latest drivers... too bad booting the ATI takes some time ;(
Does anyone safely update to CTPCI_1N with the flash tool?
Thanks!!!

[mikro]

I'd like to point out that those are not "latest drivers", just experimental drivers I happened to build for a test. Which failed (with HD Driver, IIRC). So using them you are putting yourself at risk of losing data.

[marss]

Thanks for the info So far, no data lost. Where to get the 'latest drivers'?