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Author Topic: A2000 big hardware problem or not ?  (Read 10024 times)

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Offline EffyTopic starter

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A2000 big hardware problem or not ?
« on: October 08, 2002, 03:34:36 PM »
Have received an A2000 with scsi card and 2030 turboboard, but it didn't boot up. Only get black screen without any colours, so it means that da processor might be crashed. So I opened up an old A500, removed da processor and then opened up da A2000. But, and now comes the problem, this computer has got a MiniMegaChip that gives it 2 Mb chip memory. In real life this means that an A2000 chip is placed onto a little board that is inserted onto the motherboard, but also a black wire that is connected to two pins of the processor, somewhere in da middle of the processor. So now it becomes complicated. Is da processor malfunctionning or is it that MiniMegaChip with its black wire that is causing the problems ???? I don't wanna damage anything so I ask it here to get useful information.
I still wanna use that A2000 to insert an X-Surf and a CV64/3D so don't tell me that it's old stuff and that I need to get rid of it. It may be slower than my A4000 and towered A1200 with Z4, but it's still a great machine that only doesn't have AGA or da possibility to insert PowerPC cards, that's all !!
So please, if somebody has got experience with my problem then please help me out !!! This is da first A2000 I ever have and I wanna keep it !!

Offline Kronos

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Re: A2000 big hardware problem or not ?
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2002, 03:48:11 PM »
Don't think that changing the 68000 will have any effect at
all as it is turned of by the turboboard.

Remove the turbo and try again. If this helps, check the turbo
for loose RAMs or so, and try to figure out the exact name/model
of your turbo.
1. Make an announcment.
2. Wait a while.
3. Check if it can actually be done.
4. Wait for someone else to do it.
5. Start working on it while giving out hillarious progress-reports.
6. Deny that you have ever announced it
7. Blame someone else
 

Offline artman

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Re: A2000 big hardware problem or not ?
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2002, 02:58:34 AM »
Seems's to me,  a good place to start, might be to remove any, and I mean any add on's whatsoever.  Put the A2000 in absolute bone stock configuration.  Does it boot up.  Yes!  That's a good thing!  Then go from there.  Your A2000 is a great machine, I love mine, so keep on working with it.  It's a labor of love to say the least! :-D
 

Offline spihunter

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Re: A2000 big hardware problem or not ?
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2002, 03:16:39 AM »
I used to have A2000 that would not boot
unless I pushed down on the accelerator
for a second!!

I eventually just left the case off beacause
I had to do it alot, even after cleaning the
connections.
 

Offline vortexau

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Re: A2000 big hardware problem or not ?
« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2002, 08:11:00 AM »
First.. are you using a monitor with the correct scanrate?

The standard on an A2000 w/o a Display card is a PAL or NTSC 15MHz RGB.
An alternate is a composite (PAL or NTSC) attached to the Mono-RCA port beside the Audio RCA ports.

Second.. have you tried to boot off a floppy (such as a game)?

Third... have you tried to boot up in 68000 mode (possibly through holding the '0' key down at boot-time .... that's the one with the ')' on it)

What KickStart-OS is installed?
-vortexau; who\\\'s still waiting! (-for AmigaOS4! ;-) )
savage Ami bridge parody
 

Offline Desmon

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Re: A2000 big hardware problem or not ?
« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2002, 09:46:18 AM »
@Effy
Quote

Have received an A2000 with scsi card and 2030 turboboard, but it didn't boot up. Only get black screen without any colours, so it means that da processor might be crashed. So I opened up an old A500, removed da processor and then opened up da A2000. But, and now comes the problem, this computer has got a MiniMegaChip that gives it 2 Mb chip memory. In real life this means that an A2000 chip is placed onto a little board that is inserted onto the motherboard, but also a black wire that is connected to two pins of the processor, somewhere in da middle of the processor. So now it becomes complicated. Is da processor malfunctionning or is it that MiniMegaChip with its black wire that is causing the problems ???? I don't wanna damage anything so I ask it here to get useful information.
I still wanna use that A2000 to insert an X-Surf and a CV64/3D so don't tell me that it's old stuff and that I need to get rid of it. It may be slower than my A4000 and towered A1200 with Z4, but it's still a great machine that only doesn't have AGA or da possibility to insert PowerPC cards, that's all !!
So please, if somebody has got experience with my problem then please help me out !!! This is da first A2000 I ever have and I wanna keep it !!

As per another suggestion here, I'd strip the machine of all the third-party addons, including the '030 board AND the Megachip. Take careful note of where that black wire clips on. The Agnus chip out of your A500 will easily replace the Megachip and drop the machine back to it's standard configuration.
From there, start adding things back in, checking that the machine boots properly at each step.
I have several A2000s, but the main machine sports a Blizzard2060 w/ 32MB, X-Surf, extra Oktagon SCSI card and 2032 (Amber) Flickerfixer. A great workhorse that's run 24/7 for the last 8 years. :-o
Cache Ya,
Craig.


Busy playing with my Trainz and loving it!
 

Offline EffyTopic starter

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Re: A2000 big hardware problem or not ?
« Reply #6 on: October 09, 2002, 03:16:05 PM »
Sorry dudes, I really have forgotten to tell that I already did strip everything I could !! At this moment I doesn't have any Zorro2 card inside so no turbo. I even tried disconnecting the discdrives one by one and even with no discdrive connected at all. The monitor connected is a cool Amiga M1538S which shows about everything that can be required, but even with the monitor disconnected I get no result.
Okay, now one step further. I (accidently) removed the black wire that was attached to one (or two ??) pins on the upper part of the processor, somewhere in the middle but don't ask which pin. I booted up again, or at least I did put the power on, but still a black screen and after about 20 seconds the green light of the floppy (only one connected) goes on but nothing else happens, no matter what disc is inserted or not. That MiniMegaChip board is still at its place, so that is the last thing I wanna remove. It's also possible that this board is causing all the trouble and that it also made the processor crash. In that case I need to get that Agnus chip from my A500 as you said and the 68000 too but it's not exactly something I'm looking forward too ...

Offline Kronos

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Re: A2000 big hardware problem or not ?
« Reply #7 on: October 09, 2002, 03:19:14 PM »
@effy
Since you don't seem to get an output onto the monitor, you
may also try to fit the A500's Denise into the A2000.
1. Make an announcment.
2. Wait a while.
3. Check if it can actually be done.
4. Wait for someone else to do it.
5. Start working on it while giving out hillarious progress-reports.
6. Deny that you have ever announced it
7. Blame someone else
 

Offline EffyTopic starter

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Re: A2000 big hardware problem or not ?
« Reply #8 on: October 09, 2002, 03:52:33 PM »
Desmon my man, if you were here I would give you a kiss, even if ya're a man !! It works !! I just took the Agnus out of the A500, took the MiniMegaChip out of the A2000 and placed the A500 chip in return and it worked !! I now get the kickstart 3.1 screen !! (that kickstart also comes from that A500)
And now another question, not so urgent or mega important, but in that A500 I have got ECS installed instead of the original OCS. I might be nice to put that in the A2000 too, but which chip is that ??
Kronos : is that the Denise chip you just talked about ?? I've seen that the chip in the A2000 is a CSG chip and the A500 has got a MOS chip ...

Offline EffyTopic starter

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Re: A500 Denise (ECS chip) in A2000 (with OCS)
« Reply #9 on: October 09, 2002, 04:14:40 PM »
Kronos : I decided not to wait too long and try it out myself, so I just replaced the Denise chips and my new baby still boots up !! Cool !! I may have only 1 Mb chip memory but at least now it's ECS and it does boot up while that 2 Mb chip didn't !! Okay, now I can finally start building it all up according to my own taste !! I shall use the scsi hardcard and 2030 to begin with and add a C64/3D, X-Surf, a scsi cdrom and then see if it'll all work !!! Thanx guys !! You really helped me a lot !!!
Now I still have got an old A500 (not a A500+) from which I can only use the floppy and the 68000 ... but it didn't work well anyway ...
Final question for now, a bit difficult. When I open up the A2000 I see on the left the bunch of Zorro2 slots but on the right there's one single slot too. What's the purpose of that one ?? It doesn't look familiar ...

Offline Kronos

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Re: A500 Denise (ECS chip) in A2000 (with OCS)
« Reply #10 on: October 09, 2002, 04:17:38 PM »
Nah thats easy  :-P

It's the video-slot and you can use it for a flickerfixer or
an internal ganlock.
1. Make an announcment.
2. Wait a while.
3. Check if it can actually be done.
4. Wait for someone else to do it.
5. Start working on it while giving out hillarious progress-reports.
6. Deny that you have ever announced it
7. Blame someone else
 

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Re: A2000 big hardware problem or not ?
« Reply #11 on: October 09, 2002, 07:58:28 PM »
  Does your Megachip 2000 have two RAM chips or four?  I have the later version (with 2 chips) and it has proven to very tempermental about corrosion on pins of the daughter board! Every few months my A2000 acts just like yours did, but all I have to do is remove the board and brighten the contacts with an erasor, or contact cleaner then it works fine for a while.
I also use a GVP Spectrum graphics card in the "old" A2000, that gives excellent displays on newer monitors.
Because of these additions, I use the A2000 as much as the A1200 I have! It's still a great machine.
 

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Re: A2000 big hardware problem or not ?
« Reply #12 on: October 09, 2002, 07:59:06 PM »
  Does your Megachip 2000 have two RAM chips or four?  I have the later version (with 2 chips) and it has proven to be very tempermental about corrosion on pins of the daughter board! Every few months my A2000 acts just like yours did, but all I have to do is remove the board and brighten the contacts with an erasor, or contact cleaner then it works fine for a while.
I also use a GVP Spectrum graphics card in the "old" A2000, that gives excellent displays on newer monitors.
Because of these additions, I use the A2000 as much as the A1200 I have! It's still a great machine.
 

Offline QuikSanz

Re: A2000 big hardware problem or not ?
« Reply #13 on: October 09, 2002, 11:06:13 PM »
I too use a mini mega chip and the black wire should go to one pin only. hwen i get a chance I'll remove my power supply and refresh my memory to see wich pin it is
 

Offline AdMartin

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Re: A2000 big hardware problem or not ?
« Reply #14 on: October 09, 2002, 11:42:58 PM »
That's correct, it should only be connected to one pin or it will malfunction. According to the description in http://ftp.sunet.se/~aminet/dirs/aminet/hard/hack/2MegAgnus50d5.lha "you must connect the clip lead to pin 36 of the GARY chip or pin 48 of the 68000 chip". I think it's best to connect it to the Gary chip, since any accelerator would disable the 68000. Or maybe it doesn't matter.

/Martin