M4 board - Drive A disc missing

Strike4711 · 07:48, 10 May 24

Hi guys,
this week I received the M4 board from Duke.
Great device... WIFI with a 40 year old computer...crazy

I tested loading a few games and again encountered the issue of games not loading with the error message "Drive A disc missing".
Had the same problem with the GOTEK drive in the beginning. Before I found out about the ABBA change.

Can someone tell me what I need to do to be able to load such games (e.g. Meltdown) via the M4 board.

Thank you

GUNHED · 16:59, 21 May 24

Switch on your B-drives PSU!

Brocky · 17:02, 12 August 24

Quote from: GUNHED on 16:59, 21 May 24Switch on your B-drives PSU!

ive just acquired a 6128 and im encountering this same issue....
stuff like Batman forever, R-Type remake, and Pinball dreams, all try to access drive A...even when using the large M4 dsk images for these titles...

but i dont have a B drive connected! so cant power it up!..

GUNHED · 21:03, 12 August 24

If there is no B-drive connected, then the problem is a different one.

Brocky · 03:58, 13 August 24

Quote from: GUNHED on 21:03, 12 August 24If there is no B-drive connected, then the problem is a different one.

yes youre right... it doesnt say "Disc Missing"... it just continuously tries to read from the A drive...

GUNHED · 14:30, 13 August 24

In this case the software is made that way. Contact the programmer to change it.

Brocky · 16:55, 13 August 24

Quote from: GUNHED on 14:30, 13 August 24In this case the software is made that way. Contact the programmer to change it.

sorry im struggling to believe that... considering the 3 titles i mentioned all have large single dsk images and even a specific M4 image (pd)

cpc power is currently down so i cant link to them....
but looking at files on my PC..
PinballDreamsCPC/M4/pd.dsk (421kb)
BATMAN_FOREVER_(ONE_DISK_VERSION).DSK (839kb)
R-Type (UK) (128K) (2012) (Version double size) [Original].dsk (420kb)

these large images actually work perfectly fine on a 464 with ram expansion!

just some additional information...
ive tried running the M4 in "clean" config with no roms loaded
ive tried the "modified lower rom for 6128" and moving the M4 rom in slot 6 like mentioned on the M4 wiki page
both with the same result...

ive contacted Duke and im awaiting his reply..

Brocky · 13:23, 14 August 24

ok duke pointed me to the compatibility list....
seems batman forever and rtype both dont work....
when i read that list previously, i didnt realise it was a list of NON compatible games

still weird.. i could swear i had them running on a 464 with 6128 roms and ram expansion...

Shaun M. Neary · 14:11, 14 August 24

Doesn't the AMSDOS and BASIC ROMs have to be in certain slots to prevent errors like this from happening when loading from M4?

Also I believe there's a modified 6128 ROM available for the M4 as well which has helped me run some games that caused trouble.
Also are you using ParaDOS or AMSDOS? Some games didn't work as well on the M4 with ParaDOS so I reverted to AMSDOS.

Might be worth looking into?

Shaun M. Neary · 11:00, 15 August 24

Also if you're on a 464, you'd be better off using a 664 ROM if you want BASIC 1.1 even with the RAM expansion.

Brocky · 17:09, 15 August 24

thanks Shaun...
yeah i have tried the modified lower rom config on the 6128 with the same results...
i have amsdos and parados onboard (switchable).. both doing the same thing...
but it seems to be just the titles i was trying ..eg batman forever demo will never run on M4 without changes to its code, and i found an extracted version of rtype (2012) that runs beautifully, where the DSK version doesnt

and yes my 464 has a modified 6128 rom installed
i could swear i had batman forever demo running on the 464...maybe coz there was no amsdos/parados and floppy controller present....

Shaun M. Neary · 11:44, 16 August 24

Quote from: Brocky on 17:09, 15 August 24thanks Shaun...
yeah i have tried the modified lower rom config on the 6128 with the same results...
i have amsdos and parados onboard (switchable).. both doing the same thing...
but it seems to be just the titles i was trying ..eg batman forever demo will never run on M4 without changes to its code, and i found an extracted version of rtype (2012) that runs beautifully, where the DSK version doesnt

and yes my 464 has a modified 6128 rom installed
i could swear i had batman forever demo running on the 464...maybe coz there was no amsdos/parados and floppy controller present....

I'd strongly recommend using the 664 ROM in a 464 for BASIC 1.1 with the expansion, a 6128 ROM can (and probably will) cause crashes and instability.

R-Type remake, I do remember an extracted version being done for the M4 as the protection was pretty heavy for that game, and the M4 doesn't do protection well, which is why the cracks are the way to go for that device.

No idea on the demo though, I don't do demos personally. My Amstrads are for gaming!

Brocky · 12:10, 16 August 24

.. i need to get a chance to setup the 464 and test it again.. too busy with the 6128 currently!

ive seen no issues with the 6128 rom.. i do know there are some different call locations tho.. but havent had any crashes and instability with the 464 and 6128 basic 1.1 at all with the M4.. i dont play an extensive amount of games just my old favs.. and a few of the newer demos and music... and i can swap back to basic 1.0 rom easy enough..

Duke pointed me to this thread which was a help!...
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/technical-support/the-compatibility-of-the-m4-card/msg179930/#msg179930
i had seen it once before but it got lost in the forum... ...i read the first list as compatible games at the time as well.. not, non-compatible! SMH...hence Batman demo.. working R-type can be found in there too.. theres actually a nice collection of working and converted games to unpack to blank SD hosted on Dukes site that is nice!....

so yeah..seems im done with this issue! ..thanks for the help!

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M4 board - Drive A disc missing