OS3.2 Roms Installation

[Tumbleweed]

Hi all

Ive just tried installing OS3.2 Roms in my A3000T. I have two ROMS one marked LO the other marked HI. The LO one I put in socket U181 the HI one in socket U180.

When I switch on I get a black screen. I have reseated the roms a few times with the same result. Black  screen.

When I replace them with the previous 3.1 ROMS the machine boots fine.

Do I need to adjust any other settings like ROM timings etc?

Im running a CSMKII and its working ok.

Any ideas much appreciated.

If I swap the ROMS round and put LO in U180 and HI in U181 will I damage the ROMS and/or board?

Its possible that I could have been sent the wrong ROMS / defective ROMS but want to rule out any issue with settings before I send them back.

Thanks in advance.

Weed

[lionstorm]

did you check the FAQ ?
http://aminet.net/package/docs/help/AmigaOS_3.2-FAQ

[Tumbleweed]

Read the FAQ. Seems the issue is with how the ROMS are labelled on the CD. The LO ROM lfor the A3000 looks to be incorrectly labelled. See vid here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3R-7rJh9FE&t=13s

I think it only affects the A3000 ROMS haven't seen reports of other models havimg the same issue.

I'll be returning my ROMs for a new set.

Weed

[TribbleSmasher]

How do you test after swapping the ROMs?
If there is no floppy attached and no harddrive, you'll get a black screen too.

[Tumbleweed]

Tried pretty much all the same things as the guy in the vid. Im almost certain the ROMs I have are the issue. Machine boots and works perfectly with 3.1 ROMS installed.

Last thing to try is is to install the 3.2 ROMs in my A3000D but I'm not yet sure they are comaptible as the 3000D has the ROM tower and doesnt have the ROM sockets on the main board.

Using OS3.2 with 3.1 ROMs seems to work ok. The main reason for upgrading from 3.1 to 3.2 was for the upgraded scsi as I am running the A3000T from a SCSI2SD card. I know you can get access to larger SD cards using a software solution using pacthes but I was aiming for a hardware solution with the latest scsi.device in ROM.

I do have an alternative solution and that is to put the 3.2 kickstart on my deneb and run it from there.

But that kinda defeats the purpose of buying the 3.2 ROMs. I could just have got the OS3.2 CD without the 3.2 ROM.

Any one else upgraded a A3000D/T with 3.2 ROMS? What's your experience been? And where did you but your ROMs?

Weed

[Castellen]

I tried a quick sanity check using Blizkick to run the OS3.2 ROM image in a A3000D with CSmk2 060, it works fine.  Can't see any reason why the physical ROMs wouldn't work unless there was a problem with how they were written, or the two ROMs are exchanged.  The word-swapped EPROM binaries on the OS3.2 CD appear to be slightly mis-named, but the contents is correct otherwise.  i.e. if you recombine them and swap words, the resulting binary is the same as the A3000 ROM.

There's no harm in exchanging U180/U181 as there's a reasonable chance your physical ROMs have been mis-labeled.  So do give that a try, take care that pin 1 of the ROM matches that of the socket.

Shouldn't make any difference if the EPROMs are in a A3000T or A3000D.  The same ROMs should work in the A3000D, but you'll have to install them into the tower (adapter) PCB.

Unfortunately there's no easy way to tell if the ROMs have been written incorrectly without access to an EPROM programmer to check the contents of them.

A quick sanity check you can do is repeatedly press the caps lock key.  If the LED sticks (usually on) after 10 or so presses, it means the system isn't running at all; i.e. it's not reading in the keyboard serial data.  If the LED does turn on and off reliably, then the system is running (ROMs are working); though it's potentially waiting forever for scsi.device for some reason, or something else.

If you get stuck caps lock LED with the OS3.2 ROMs installed as you'd expect, or with U180/U181 positions exchanged, then there's most likely an issue with the data programmed into the EPROMs, in which case you'll need to return them.

In case you get stuck with the ROMs, send me a private message and I can put you in contact with someone local to you who can check the EPROM contents.

[Tumbleweed]

Cheers Castellen. I installed the 3.2 ROMs in the 3000D swapping out the existing 3.1 ROMS in the ROM tower for the new ones.

The "LO" ROM is in socket U180; The "HI" ROM is in socket U181.

Powered up and all ok. I get the OS3.2 boot screen - boing ball and animated floppy. So ROMs are good.

Suspect it has been a case (yet again!) of user error on my part. Its not very clear which ROM goes in whch socket. The 3.1 ROMs have the sockets detailed on the label on the chip ie U180 or U181. The 3.2 ROMs simply say "HI" or "LO" - how do you know which socket is for the "HI" and which for the "LO"? Doesn't mention it in the OS3.2 install booklet either. A section showing which ROM goes into which socket for Amiga's with two ROM chips would be a helpfull addition / guide.

Yesterday I ordered a second set of ROMs from a different vendor but they wont go to waste as I was planning on upgrading the A3000D to 3.2 anyway (just not at this juncture).

All good now (for now). Plan is to do a clean install of OS3.2 onto a SD card using my external SCSI2SD (repurposed Lacie JAZ Drive enclosure).

Out of interest why do some A3000Ds come with a ROM tower - whats the point of it?

Weed

[Castellen]

So it was just a case of the two EPROMs being exchanged, an easy solution then.

I'd agree that it's confusing labelling the ROMs only as high/low, which relates to which 16-bit ROM forms the first or second half of the 32-bit data; as on most machines this detail doesn't appear on the board.  Printing the component designator (U180/U181) on the ROM label would eliminate any confusion as the same designators are used between A3000D/A3000T.

The purpose of the ROM tower was that on earlier variants of A3000D main board, rev. 7 and earlier as I recall, connections to the ROM sockets were for a different type of ROM that used a different pinout.  The tower just changes the connections to suit the more popular 27C400 style devices that have the +5V supply on pin 21.

The last revision and more common rev. 9 A3000D didn't need the ROM tower since connections to the U180/U181 sockets were changed to suit the 27C400 pinout.  That's also the purpose of the second pair of (unpopulated) 40-way ROM sockets on the A3000D, it's so that the other type of ROMs could be used if needed, although it almost never was.

[Tumbleweed]

OS installed. Wasnt as straightfroward as I anticipated but was reasonably straightforward. Getting Picasso96 set up was a fiddle (it seems to always be for me!). All working fine though.