Amiga 2000 Owner

[cablemirc]

someone threw it away!
i went and dug it out. lol. i bought a new power supply for it on ebay, and by chance it boots!

i am now located at the screen with a big rainbow checkmark and an animated floppy disk.. it says..

3.00 ROM 39.186
Copyright 1985-1992
Commodore-Amiga, INC
All Rights Reserved

i used to own an Amiga 500.. it was fun!
i'd like to continue to breathe new life into her....

what's next?
what can i do with her?

[Matt_H]

Welcome back :-)

It's a bit odd that the Kickstart screen says you have a 3.0 ROM, as that version was never available for the A2000. You sure it's not a 4000 you have?

Well, regardless, the first step is to get yourself a hard drive and some Workbench version 3 disks. You should also take a full inventory of everything in the machine, such as any expansion cards, and chip revisions, if it's not too difficult.

Don't hesitate to ask if you've got more questions!

[cablemirc]

i looked again, it's not a 2000, it's an A1200
(i used to have the 500 when the 2000 was "the hot one to have", so i guess i just got mixed up)
it's got a Seagate ST9096A 85.3 MB
it's got the 3.0 ROM chips in it
a motorola processor on an expansion board with an additonal memory slot, a realtime clock, a BIOS battery and a copyright notice that reads: 1993, Microbiotics, Inc, Made in USA
next to the processor itself, written on the board it says MC68881/2.

[cablemirc]

i just noticed the big letters MBX 1200z under the expanded memory...

[artman]

Welcome back to the fold, always nice to see someone new start to enjoy something old.  I started with an A2000 my Daughter found for me at a garage sale for $25 USD, no keyboard or monitor.  Can't even begin to tell you how much I've put into it, but I can tell you that I concider it money well spent.  The old Miggy has given me many hours of enjoyment.  Hope yours gives you just as much.  Best regards...Art

[cablemirc]

thanks art. if my current hobby is any indication, i'll be around for quite a while.

i own a (now) "mint" 1991 Mazda Protege that i literally brought back from beyond the grave. lol.

[TjLaZer]

Damn why can't I ever find anything like that in a dumpster!!!?  I always freaking over spend on eBay for Amiga stuff just to win a bid.  People here in the US must be millionares for the prices Amiga gear goes for.  Even broken crap!!!!  Wish I was over at the EU, Amiga stuff sells cheap as hell over there....

[Matt_H]

Ah. 1200 makes sense for 3.0 ROMs.

The fact that you're getting the Kickstart screen means that the hard drive is either A) Broken, B) Blank, or C) Not connected. You'll probably want to get a slightly larger one anyway. You'll need a full set of WB disks (6) to prep and install it easily.

Other investments you may want to consider are Workbench/Kickstart 3.1 and an accelerator.

Have fun :-)

[cablemirc]

the hard drive is fully connected.
what is the max default hard drive i can use?
anyone have a decent one for sale?
and of course, the workbench disks.

[Holley]

A 2 1/2" harddisk up to 4 Gb should work with Workbench 3.0/3.1 (for larger you need 3.5 or 3.9) - should be cheap to get one on ebay, look for second hand laptop harddisks ;-)

You said it had a Motorolla processor, is that in the trapdoor card, or inside the case?  If it's on the trapdoor card the number on it is important ...

Oh, and welcome to Amiga.org :-D

[jeffimix]

the 68881 is a coprocessor of some kind, can't remember if it's the FPU or MMU or somethign else though, it complements 680X0 processors without that part built in. like... 030s usually I think. speeds up 3D ness or summit...

The stock 1200 doesn't have one!

(there got it out eventually)

[Ilwrath]

Wow...  Sounds like someone threw out a practical twin to my gaming A1200.  Good find.

The MBX1200z board is memory+math co-processor (FPU) board.  The FAST RAM speeds up the A1200 quite a bit.  The math co-processor will help speed the unit some on highly math-intensive operations, but there aren't many things you'd run on an A1200 that you'd notice the difference with.

The board takes a single standard 72-pin SIMM module.  If yours doesn't have one seated on it, I'd highly recommend adding one.  (Like I said, the FAST RAM on this board is where it generates it's speed.)  More information is available about this board on Amiga-hardware.com
MBX A1200z

As for a hard drive, I think you'll want to stay under 4GB, unless you update the kickstart to 3.1.  (OS 3.9 has built-in support for larger hard drives, but you need to update the kickstart in order to have the minimum system requirements.  You'd also need a CD ROM drive, which can easily be added by a Squirrel SCSI PCMCIA device.)  

In short, if you want a small-end sysetem, stick to a HD smaller than 4GB.  Going above that mark means needing a few extras.  I think you might be able to get by without them, using some tools available on Aminet, but I don't know how well they work under the 3.0 kickstart.  (And the problem is, if those tools fail, you can be faced with massive data loss, as there aren't many recovery tools...)

[TjLaZer]

I have some laptop HDs for sale.  60MB, 80MB and 2GB, 4GB in size.  All work in the A1200.  I am in the USA.  Where are you at?

[leirbag28]

@cablemirc

 You are one lucky dude to find that A1200!
I myself have found 2 A3000's in the garbage, an A2000 in the trash and 2 1084s monitors as well as an a500. the A3000's had an OpalVison Card and the other had a GVP IO card and Emplant.

By your name I assume you use mIRC on the PC to chat?  well wait till you try AmIRC on the Amiga! you will never turn back!

[Holley]

found 2 A3000's in the garbage

Lucky git