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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: on October 26, 2002, 05:25:57 AM

Title: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: on October 26, 2002, 05:25:57 AM
gregstu@juno.com
A neighbor's tenant moved out and left behind an unwanted Commodore A2000 Amiga 2000 (this is what the manual shows on the cover).  It was shown to me once, weeks ago, but now the neighbor's brother is attempting to get it running.  He's won't ask my help due to pride in his efforts (i know, but that's the way he is, but in time may ask for help).  The neigbor tells me the brother is getting a screen stating the original owner's name and a prompt for a password.  Is there a jumper on the motherboard to cancel this prompt? He may discard the machine. When i gave it a quick looking over weeks ago, it appears  to have 2 floppy drives (same size), one to boot and the other for applications. It also has an internal tape drive. Best of all is that there are boxes and boxes and boxes of floppy disks that seem to be games. I'm not that familiar with this unit but it looks pretty interesting.
Other people are telling her to get rid of it, while the original owner said it is worth thousands. I agree with neither.
Would appreciate any help.

Greg
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: clark on October 26, 2002, 06:33:07 AM
Whatever you do don't discard it.  I hate to see good hardware get thrown away.

A description of the prompt would be helpful.  Is it just a screen of text (no window borders or anything like that.) or is it in a window.  Is there any mention of Unix or BSD?

Also, look for a disk labeled Workbench.  The guy might have several versions: 3.1 is the latest, although the system will probibly have 2.04 or 1.3.  If you put that disk in the left most drive, it'll boot off it, and will come up to a working screen.  However, it'll be working solely off the floppy, so there is still the problem of the password if you boot without.

Sorry,  I can't be anymore helpful.

Good luck.

Clark



Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: Quixote on October 26, 2002, 06:34:04 AM
;-) No model of Amiga supports a power-on password or such.  I've seen stuff on Aminet that will permit password protection, but it isn't very useful because it's so easily defeated; simply boot from floppy and remove any reference to the password tool from the startup sequence.

:-) It's not worth thousands, but it's not junk either.  with more expansion slots than other Amiga models, it has more potential for expansion.  With a X-Surf card, you could network it to other computers, and so on.  What you should add to it depends entirely on what you wish to do with it.
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: JimS on October 26, 2002, 07:18:55 AM
Quote

Quixote wrote:
;-) No model of Amiga supports a power-on password or such.  

DKB made a Zorro card that did power on password protection. At least I assume they did. Although I've seen it advertised, I never saw one myself.  Not that that would be any more difficult to defeat. Just use a screwdriver instead of a floppy.

Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: DonnyEMU on October 26, 2002, 07:32:15 AM
I used to work for an amiga dealer. I remember a long time ago this third party company (can't remember their name) was doing personalization of ROMs and were including their altered rom with such a name and password system..

The only way to defeat that if it's indeed what he has is to get new Amiga Roms for the machine, that should defeat it.. In the least they could re-install workbench on it..

Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: Quixote on October 26, 2002, 07:37:34 AM
Quote
JimS wrote:

DKB made a Zorro card that did power on password protection. At least I assume they did. Although I've seen it advertised, I never saw one myself.  Not that that would be any more difficult to defeat. Just use a screwdriver instead of a floppy.
:-o Really?  That would be so cool!  Of course, I hope the card did more than just that; it'd be quite a waste of a whole Zorro slot just for password protection.  Maybe it would be more practical to add that as a feature on an accelerator of something...

;-) Actually, now that I think of it, the A4000 did have a key switch which disabled the keyboard and (IIRC,) the mouse.  It's not the same as a password, but similar enough for most purposes.
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: Lo on October 26, 2002, 10:41:49 AM
Quote
He may discard the machine
Quote
Other people are telling her to get rid of it,


Tell her/him I want it! *grin* :-D
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: Darrin on October 26, 2002, 12:36:26 PM
I used to have an A2000 (R.I.P) and an A1500 (sold)... great machines.  I guess the easy test to see whether the password is on a ROM/Zorro card or is a hack in the startup sequence is to boot ANYTHING from the floppy - if the floppy boots with no password required then you can find some old workbench disks and reformat the hard drive and re-install workbench.  If you still get the password then remove the offending Zorro card or replace the ROMs with a couple of new 3.1 ROMS and buy WB3.1 while you are at it.  Infact, if it has a SCSI card for the Hard Drive then get a cheap CD ROM (replace that next-to-useless tape drive) and get OS3.9 too.

Of course, don't tell your friend this.  Wait for him to give up and throw it in the garbage and then salvage the machine for yourself.
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: Effy on October 26, 2002, 12:42:08 PM
No idea ?? I used to have a towered A1200 with 1230/50/50 and gfx card and X-surf. Now I got a A2000 too with only 2630 turboboard and Evolution-scsi device with hd. A1200 is dead now so I moved that CV64/3D gfx card and ethernet card into the A2000 together with a Buddha Flash IDE controller with 2 ports, and hooked up my A1200 20 Gb harddisc which works very fine without any problem. Now I only need to get much more memory. But if you only wanna play games then more memory is not needed.
About password protection. If it really are other roms that do the protection then there's no easy way out. If it's software at the beginning of the startup-sequence, then try to turn on the computer and hold 2 mouse buttons. You're supposed to get in a 'early startup menu' and then use mouse to click on 'boot without startup-sequence'. You're then supposed to land in some kind of primitive Dos. If that happens then the protection is not in the roms but only on harddisc and no screwdriver will be needed, only some altering of the Startup-sequence, and any amiga user can do that !!  :-)
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: on October 26, 2002, 08:54:28 PM
I'm not savy with getting this thread in the right place, but here goes anyway.  I want to thank everyone here for the great responses.  Likewise I hate to throw out good hardware or any for that matter. If its garbage bound i will try to take it off their hands.  Due to these great responses from everyone,  my neighbor will have to give me access to the Amiga and I will check what is suggested here. By the way, I happened to find on the net a rare card called "Nordsoft System Protect".  It fits into the 6800 socket.  If you go here-  http://www.amiga-hardware.com/nordprotect.html  you will see a picture of this card.
Thanks until later
Greg
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: KidIce on October 27, 2002, 01:30:54 AM
Curious, I had never heard of that device before. If it is indeed in the 2000 it will be under the left edge of the frame for the 5.25" drive bay, toward the front of the machine inbetween the 68000 and the motherboard.

What I would try...

1) Boot off any of the floppies. If it loads this password is not in hardware. Try sticking a bootable floppy (like disk 1 of a game or the Workbench disk) in the right drive first and turning the machine on, if you get the prompt power down and try again w/ the other drive as they may be wired backwards (most 2000's I have seen w/ two drives DF0: is on the right and DF1: is on the left, but they can be wired the other way).

2) Open the computer and check out the 68000k (in above described place black DIP chip ~1"x3") and make sure it's plugged directly into the socket on the the motherboard and that that device isn't between the two. If there is some other board sandwiched between the MoBo and 68k chip leave it alone as it's probably an accelerator like the CSA Derringer. If that device is there simply remove it, remove the 68k from it and resocket the 68k in the MoBo (take note of orientation).

3) The first slot to the left of the 68k chip is the accelerator slot, the other five (toward the front of the machine) are the Zorro slots. Try removing all the cards and powering up the machine if the password is gone, then it is one of the cards.

Depending on what result you get from these tests I can offer advice on getting rid of said prompt if I know what is causing it.
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: Castellen on October 27, 2002, 07:47:09 AM
Never seen one before either, but if the A2000 does have one of those
Nordsoft System Protect boards in it, it should just be a matter of
removing the board, and moving the 68000 from the Nordsoft board into
it's motherboard socket.

Anthony.
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: on October 28, 2002, 08:13:31 AM
The saga continues... (Password lockout)
This system has a hard drive and two 3.5 floppy drives. When turned on, a window appears. In the title bar at the top of the window it reads, "Amiga Dos."  In the window itself, text appears in this order -
"Copywrite 1985-1991 Commodore Amiga, Inc.
Amiga release 2.1,  Kickstart 37.175,  Workbench 38.21, ARexx Version 1.15 Copywrite by William S. Hawes.   Then- (something similar to...) This computer is under the control of John Doe (the actual name of the original owner, not John Doe). Then the word "Password" followed by a blinking cursor.   I can boot from a Workbench disk (using the right floppy drive) and the password info does NOT appear. I then have access to the machine. I think i saw the word Zorro somewhere on the screen, possibly a folder name.
Under the hood.  Motherboard-Copywrite 1988 Rev 6.2.  There is one card, the full length of the machine front to back. The card appears, if viewed from the back, with a D shell connector. (There is another small card that may be the Nordsoft card. I'll explain later.)  This long card has a Quantum hard drive sadled to the side of it.  Looks like an IDE. The ribbon data cable has two female connectors.  The middle one is attached to this card while the last one is attached to the drive itself.  See photo here -http://photos.yahoo.com/topperyh
Image is from another site with markings on it using Photoshop.  Open another browser window along with this one and note the following-The IDE card is located at the red rectangle. The black rectangle is a card that is not in my system.  The white circle is present with a black lead similar to a volt meter lead hooked to a leg on the chip shown. This lead goes to the underside of small card (the Nordsoft card?) the area marked in yellow.  The yellow arrow points to an empty chip slot; it is here that the small card (which has an empty chip slot similar to a bios chip slot) is attached with long legs (aprox. 1/4 inch ) on its underside.
Try this Yahoo photo storage location for photo. Sorry for all the Yahoo ads here, but click on the "Amiga" name to see photo.
http://photos.yahoo.com/topperyh

Greg
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: Quixote on October 28, 2002, 08:40:15 AM
;-) If you can boot from floppy without reaching the password prompt, then it’s (probably) just a software thing added to the startup sequence.  You could remove it from the startup sequence by booting from floppy, then using an editor to edit the file DH0:s/startup-sequence (assuming the hard drive’s device name is the usual DH0:  Failing that, just use the hard drive’s volume name, which would be given under the hard drive’s icon.)

:-) The card sounds like a hard drive controller.  If it uses a forty pin connector, it’s an IDE, if it uses a fifty pin connector, it’s SCSI.  Empty chip sockets are not uncommon on add-in cards; they’re to allow for future expansions that may never have been produced.

;-) In your position, I think I’d just boot from floppy, reformat the hard drive, and then install Workbench from scratch.  

:-( Of course, I might regret it right away….
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: Castellen on October 28, 2002, 08:47:38 AM
Yep. I'd also agree the big card sounds like a hard drive controller.

Not sure where to find the images you are are saying about, but the
smaller board with the wires going to it may be a ROM switcher, they
were pretty common.

Sounds like the computer is running through it's startup-sequence then
executes some password program.

Either edit the S:Startup-Sequence to make it not run the password
prog, or send me a copy of the Startup-Sequence and I'll do it for
you.

Anthony.
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: Quixote on October 28, 2002, 09:04:29 AM
Quote
Castellen wrote:

Either edit the S:Startup-Sequence to make it not run the password prog, or send me a copy of the Startup-Sequence and I'll do it for you.
:-D Or he could post it to the list and we can all chip in...
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: on October 28, 2002, 09:36:19 AM
Much appreciated to all...
I placed the photo at a Yahoo photo storage location.
http://photos.yahoo.com/topperyh
Take a look at that black jumper wire in the photo.
What about that ARexx reference in the boot screen?
Is this start-up sequence simply a text file?  I'll take a look. Tuesday or Wednesday I may be able look.  This guy is funny. He compares it to a government PC with similar protection, rendering it inaccessable. I told him its probably a piece of cake to someone in the know.
thanks again - Greg
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: Lo on October 28, 2002, 10:12:27 AM
Quote
Or he could post it to the list and we can all chip in...


Yeah! Don't be embarrased, show us your panties!
Seriously, we can all learn this way?  :-D
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: Quixote on October 28, 2002, 10:52:34 AM
;-) Okay, the red rectangle indicates the processor slot, so your card is probably an accelerator card with a built-in controller, which is almost certainly SCSI.  The card in the black rectangle and the wire soldered to one leg of the chip on the mother board looks to be a Chip RAM expansion set-up, which would give you two megabytes of Chip RAM instead of the default one megabyte.  Likely an earlier owner had this installed and sold it off separately, leaving the wire behind.

;-) And yes, the startup sequence is simply a text file called, appropriately enough, startup-sequence.  When AmigaOS starts up, it looks for a file with this name, in a directory called “s,” at the root level of whichever drive you’re booting from.
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: on October 28, 2002, 11:54:18 AM
I placed a photo of another MB with my markings at this url-
http://photos.yahoo.com/topperyh
My previous wordy msg may help. The yellow square is where a small card (not shown) lays flat and connected via a set of long pins. The yellow arrow is pointing to where these pins are connected, an empty chip slot. The black lead appears to be connected to the underside of the small card.
Greg
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: Amigadude on October 28, 2002, 01:58:06 PM
Restart the machine and hold both mouse buttons down.  A grey screen should appear, press the 'Boot With No Startup-Sequence' button (bottom right)

When/if a '1> ' prompt appears type 'Ed s:startup-sequence' and write down what it says and post it here (or look for a obvious command like 'password')
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: xeron on October 28, 2002, 04:24:36 PM
Quote

Amigadude wrote:
Restart the machine and hold both mouse buttons down.  A grey screen should appear, press the 'Boot With No Startup-Sequence' button (bottom right)


Ummm.... did Kickstart v37 have this early boot menu?
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: on October 30, 2002, 12:28:49 AM
I don't know how to post this message for everyone to read.  The owner of the password protected Amiga that I was trouble shooting said to me today that he didn't want me to go near his machine, and  that I was not qualified and may damage it and abandon it claiming it was already damaged.  I should have known that I was delving into the realm of the ridiculous with this guy.  I'm sorry that I wasted everyone's time.  I got a little angry and he likewise responded with the same.

On a more bizarre note - I'm employed at Lincoln High School in Jersey City, NJ.  A student shot another student today.  I've been on an unpaid leave from there since early September because I was assaulted and threatened to be shot by a student.  I refused to report to work and later had to submit to psychiatrc evaluation.  I kid you not!!!!    What a wonderful system we have.  I need a new profession. ( I knew I wasn't in Kansas anymore Toto) Thanks for everything.  It was getting so
interesting.
Greg


   
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: Amigadude on October 30, 2002, 09:18:09 AM
Quote

Tickly wrote:
Ummm.... did Kickstart v37 have this early boot menu?


37 is KS2 IIRC & =>2 had the Early Startup
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: xeron on October 30, 2002, 09:49:50 AM
Quote

Amigadude wrote:
37 is KS2 IIRC & =>2 had the Early Startup


Yes, I know it had an early boot menu, but i don't think it had boot without startup-sequence.

Kickstart 2.04 details (http://www.gregdonner.org/workbench/wb_204.html)

Oh wait, I looked at my own link and yes it does.. but its different, you have to change the cycle menu to "disabled" (see the second boot menu pic).
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: xeron on October 30, 2002, 10:00:35 AM
Quote

topperam wrote:
The owner of the password protected Amiga that I was trouble shooting said to me today that he didn't want me to go near his machine, and  that I was not qualified and may damage it


Thats a shame. Fixing this sort of problem with Amigas really isn't hard, and I can tell you now that the password system was completely software and all you would have to do is delete a line (or a couple of lines) from a simple text file... Oh well, his loss. If he decides he can't fix it himself, try to obtain the Amiga for yourself :-)


Quote

I'm employed at Lincoln High School in Jersey City, NJ.  A student shot another student today.


Oh my god :-o Will the student be OK?

Quote

I've been on an unpaid leave from there since early September because I was assaulted and threatened to be shot by a student.  I refused to report to work and later had to submit to psychiatrc evaluation.  I kid you not!!!!


That is awful!  :-(
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: Amigadude on October 30, 2002, 12:06:55 PM
Quote

Tickly wrote:
Oh wait, I looked at my own link and yes it does.. but its different, you have to change the cycle menu to "disabled" (see the second boot menu pic).


Long time since I started the A500+ or A600...

BTW how is the file share thingy doing?
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: xeron on October 30, 2002, 12:15:25 PM
Quote

Amigadude wrote:
BTW how is the file share thingy doing?


Not touched it in months. Basically, I always have a bunch of projects on the go, and flick between them when I'm in the mood. Who knows if it'll be finished?

My current projects are:

1) videobrewery.com
2) Atari 7800 devkit for AmigaOS
3) Atari 7800 game using said Devkit
4) SuperTV
5) HauppaugeIR

With the following having no work done for the past few months, but actively intend to finish at some point:

BoingConnect (DC client, connects and others can get your files but you can't get theirs. The MUI gui looks quite nice though :)

Arcadia 2001 emulator (works, but not enough to play any games yet)

TitleShadow (some user suggestions need implementing, but I'm having trouble being arsed to do it. Basically hoping OS4 will make it obsolete :)


And 100s of other projects which i've not touched for years and will probably never finish.
Title: Re: commodore amiga 2000
Post by: on October 31, 2002, 05:57:01 PM
If he discards the Amiga, he'll probably do it in a way that I don't get my hands on it.  I would certainly like to have it.  He claims to have a nephew who can fix it.  Everybody has a nephew or an uncle or a brother or a sister or a.....   It's a pride thing??? Some people are like that.  I've written simple command lines in the past on my PC in the autoexec.bat and config.sys files, so I'm kinda capable with this sort of thing.  I'm no expert but...
The school thing... I failed to realize that the forum users here are from various parts of the world and that New York metropolitan news and events may not be known to everyone.  I'm so close, the World Trade Center towers loomed in the sky just across the river.
The student is in critical condition.  Yesterday, two students were caught bringing knifes into school.  It was described as an isolated incident by school officials?????  I would hate to be a victim of an isolated incident.
Greg