I need help for compact flash using...

[Durand]

Hi everybody

I'm asking help because i try to boot on a kingston compact flash and i have
got a problem that i can't explain.

I use a kinston ElitePro 2Go compact flash.

What i have already done is :
- Formatting my CF with an HP utility and copying some DOS file on it. My CF
boots well and i obtain a DOS screen, as well on my development Pc and my
target device (wich is an embedded PC).
- I have used bootprep because the system file is FAT16.
- To see what has changed, i have booted on it on my target device. As i
obtained the "NTLDR is missing" message, i supposed the MBR and the boot
sector might be good.
- I have copied my XPe image (wich works well on a typeII CF (a microdrive))
on it and try to boot :
the only thing i obtain is when the POST screen appears (the table with the
configuration resume) everything seem to freeze : only the cursor keep alive
and nothing happens, neither error message nor blue screen...
After a while, the screen becomes black and then... nothing else happen.
I have tried some different configurations in the BIOS but it seems there is
no way to solve it...

If somebody can give me a clue to solve my problem..... it would be
wonderful !

Thanks,
Caroline

 

[Durand]

Hi it's me again...

I would like to precise that after a long while (about 10 minutes), i
finally obtain the following message :

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt :
<windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Please re-install a copy of the above file"

I have re-installed the file but nothing better happen. As the image works
well on a microdrive, i gess the problem comes from the CF, but i can't
figure out the source of the problem.

Thanks for your help,

Caroline

 

[Guest]

We've had a similar problem (with another manufacturers CF card). We just
get a blinking cursor in the top left of the screen.

What we found was that the Compact Flash card has incorrectly told the BIOS
that it can transfer dtaa using DMA.

the way to fix this is to go into your BIOS setup, select the drive that is
your CF card and change the disk type from Auto to USER. You will find a
heading for 'Transfer Mode' which is probably set to something like "FPIO
4/DMA 2" change it to just be FPIO. This will disable DMA transfer to the
drive.

I think that what is happening is that the system is trying to transfer
using DMA and timeing out. The problem is that it's re-trying several times
and has a long timeout to allow a disk to spin up.

Let me know if this fixes the problem.

 

[Guest]

I'm having the same problems as the others. When I saw your statement I
thought that's it, but it wasn't. The BIOS setup in the ebox association
with DMA or FPIO. Setting it USER did not change anything, except did not
recoginize the Master CF.

Anyother ideas?

 

[Guest]

Changing the disk type from Auto to User does tend to mean that the when the
BIOS starts up it does not display the disk manufacturer and type. It does
not do this because it does not have to try and find what type of disk it is.
That information is now fixed in the BIOS.

Are you sure that the transfer mode is set to Fast PIO and not to any mode
which uses DMA. just changing from Auto to User is not enough.

If you definately only have PIO set then sorry i can't help any further.
The information below is based on what i've experienced.