GVP G-Force 030 + SCSI HDD + SCSI CD?

[LuigiThirty]

I just got my first Amiga, an Amiga 2000 with a GVP G-Force 030 accelerator. It came with a hard drive connected to the SCSI controller via a 68-pin to 50-pin adapter. I've got a few SCSI CD-ROM drives (an AppleCD 600 and an old 8x OEM CD burner) sitting around that would be helpful for loading Protracker sample disks. Tried to hook them up to the other plug on the SCSI cable but couldn't get any of them to work.

 I tried connecting them adapter - HD - CD and adapter - CD - HD. The adapter is ID 7, the HD is ID 0, and the CDs I set to ID 3. All that would happen is the hard drive light would be stuck on full after it spun up and the computer wouldn't boot. It's been forever since I had to set up any SCSI devices, and those were in Macs. What else should I be looking at?

[LoadWB]

Termination.  I had a two different SCSI CD-ROMs (albeit 50-pin) connected to my GForce 030 back in the day.

[LuigiThirty]

I figured it was something like that, I'll play with it some more. Do you remember if I need to provide termination power or does the GForce do it on the adapter end? I can't find the 030 manual, just the 040 manual.

[QuikSanz]

I figured it was something like that, I'll play with it some more. Do you remember if I need to provide termination power or does the GForce do it on the adapter end? I can't find the 030 manual, just the 040 manual.

All SCSI CDRW units I've seen have a terminate jumper. Make it the last thing on the cable and don't forget to attribute properties where needed, gvp.scsidevice and all.

[LoadWB]

I figured it was something like that, I'll play with it some more. Do you remember if I need to provide termination power or does the GForce do it on the adapter end? I can't find the 030 manual, just the 040 manual.

Good question.  I don't remember, but I have rarely seen a controller which doesn't provide it.  In any case, just about every drive I've had can provide TERMPWR if needed.

[LuigiThirty]

Might as well ask this while I'm here, what's the best way to upgrade my A2000 to 2MB of chip RAM? I've got an Indivision ECS and a Fat Agnus.

[LoadWB]

MegAChip.  Turn up on eBay from time-to-time.  Also check AmiBay.

[LuigiThirty]

My problem was the 68-pin adapter. The hard drive died not long after I bought the machine and I replaced it with a SCSI2SD - my CD burner works perfectly now.

And just to be sure, I can drop in a full 68030 as long as it's rated for 40MHz or higher right? I'm doing assembly programming and I really want to use Enforcer. I found some authentic CPUs locally from a reseller but want to make sure I won't blow anything up by doing it. This board was expensive and my expertise is in 1990s Mac hardware, not Amiga.

[Iggy]

MegAChip.  Turn up on eBay from time-to-time.  Also check AmiBay.

Yes, a pricey option, but I bought the last one I saw listed myself (and wound up paying about $130).
But, if I had been focused on an RTG system, or was using a Vampire accelerator with video output, the extra chip ram would not have been as necessary.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

And just to be sure, I can drop in a full 68030 as long as it's rated for 40MHz or higher right? I'm doing assembly programming and I really want to use Enforcer. I found some authentic CPUs locally from a reseller but want to make sure I won't blow anything up by doing it. This board was expensive and my expertise is in 1990s Mac hardware, not Amiga.

I assume you're replacing a processor without the MMU ("EC") with one that has one, yes?

Make sure your board is socketed and that the processor is removable, GVP made a ton of different accelerators and not all of them were, AFAIR.  Other than that you should be good to go.  Yes, if it's a 40MHz board you'll want a 40MHz or greater processor.  Might be able to overclock it to 50MHz but as you say, why risk it, right?  At least until you decide you want to try to eek a little more speed out of it, lol.  

Edit: this would probably also be a good time to make sure you have the latest ROM on the board.  4.15 is the latest for most GVP accelerators, unless you can find one of the super-rare "Guru-ROM's".  Somebody was selling them on Amibay a few months ago.