Amiga A2000 + GVP SCSI HD Controller

[AF-Domains.net]

A few weeks ago I won an Amiga A2000 off ebay.
The other day I tried to install a GVP CSI HD Controller but every time I tried booting I kept on getting the software failure on the first floppy click.

what could the problem be?
how could it be fixed?
does the A2000 support a hard drive?

Thanks

AF-Domains.net

[Azryl]

All A2000 with revision 4 and above motherboards should have NO problems with the gvp scsi harddrives

check the "big book of amiga hardware" to check your jumper settings, if a memory jumper is incorrectly set then trying to boot from the installation floppy might cause software crashes

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/gvpimpactii2000hc8.html

I assume that is the GVP card you are trying to setup
also, try downloading the install disk again or a later version of the gvp install software.

hope this is of some help

[AF-Domains.net]

is that revision4 and above on the B2000 or A2000 Motherboards?

[BoingBoss]

Hi AF,

Yes, the Amiga 2000 computer does indeed support a hard disk.  My advice to you is to sell the GVP controller and buy yourself a Commodore A2091 SCSI Controller board.  You can usually pick them up on eBay for around $10.00 to $15.00.  Or if you personally like GVP then get a GVP 68030 or 68040 Combo board.  If you do get an A2091 card, make sure that it has at least the 6.6 boot ROMs and at least a revision 04 Western Digital controller chip.  Also make sure it has at least 512K of DRAM installed for faster disk access.  The A2091 board autoconfigs, so the Amiga 2000 Series computer will recognize it immediately.  It is truly "Plug 'N' Play".   :-D

[AF-Domains.net]

Ok Thanks for the advice.

AF-Domains.net

[Azryl]

motherboards from version 3.9 and above were the B2000

here, read this to get a better understanding of when and why the amiga 2000 had changes to the motherboard design.

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/a2000.html


if you could supply a few more details about your machine

kickstart version
GVP scsi controller series I or II  etc

the GVP install software works with kickstart 1.3 and above
usually kickstart 1.2 does not support autobooting from scsi harddrives without the drive controller providing extra boot logic on the card etc

[AdMartin]

By no means should you get a Commodore controller. It will most likely be necessary to upgrade the ROMs and/or the WD chip on it for it to work properly. Stick with the GVP, which can also have up to 8MB fastmem and of course it autoconfigs. Obviously the best would be a Blizzard 2060 w/SCSI, but even then I'd keep a HD on the GVP if I'd ever want to boot into 68000 mode.

I've used a GVP with both an A2000 German rev A and a with my current rev 6 A2000, so compatibility is most likely not a problem. As Azryl mentioned, check that the jumpers are set correct.

Is there any memory on the GVP board? If so, what size? If there's memory on another board in your system and the total exceeds 8MB that could be your problem...

/Martin

[AF-Domains.net]

I just tried the GVP card out.
(The A2000 RevA is Kick1.3)
On autoboot the a2000 gets as far as the first click then gives me this requester saying program suspended to cancel to reboot or retry to retry.
with autoboot off i boots normally onto the floppy dirve.

the HD is set for ID 0
what ID should the GVP Board be?
If that is the problem.

If it is not what could it be?

Thanks

[AdMartin]

Actually, my German rev A A2000 that I used to have read rev 4 on the mobo... I guess it's popularly called rev 3.9 because the rev B A2000s started with rev 4 also...

I think KS 1.2 supports autoboot if the boot partition uses OFS. Kickstart 1.3 added support for RDB, so that FFS could be put in the RDB. But maybe I remember incorrectly.

/Martin

[AF-Domains.net]

There was an A500 HD Controller that used something different to RDB that autobooted on 1.2.

my A2000 is definately 1.3 since I checked the number on the rom with one on the BBoAH.

[AdMartin]

The GVP board is SCSI ID 7, I think, unless you set it to something else. Run the prep tool on the GVP install disk and you'll be able to scroll through the IDs of all SCSI units. I think there's one basic version and one expert version (or pro or something). Run the expert version to get the info.

Also, if you format the HD with FFS (which is recommended), you have to put FFS into the RDB, because kickstart 1.3 only has OFS in the ROM, IIRC. I think there's an 'add file system' or similar option in the prep utility somewhere. FFS can be loaded from the Workbench 1.3 disk.

/Martin

[AF-Domains.net]

so the error could be caused because the ID is set incorrectly on the board?

[Azryl]

GVP scsi cards are usually factory set to ID 7

okies, you will probably have to setup the harddrive itself again using the GVP software faaastprep

I'm sure kickstart 1.3 will allow harddrive capacity of sizes upto 1 gigabyte on most gvp bootroms (my memory might be failing me there.. doh!) so how big is your scsi drive?

try this link for the setup software
http://www.amiga-hardware.com/drivers/drivers/SCSI_Controllers/GVPImpactSeriesII.dms

some hints once into the faaastprep
most amiga users have 2 partitions setup.. a smaller boot partition and a larger storage partition. The reason for a small boot partition is for when the volume becomes invalid for whatever reason, a small partition validates itself quicker. Make sure its large enough to install workbench onto, around 50meg is ideal (if your drive is larger than this. lol)

first partition DH0
second partition DH1

thats DHzero
DHone

you need AmigaOS device names.. use the above as a rough standard

once you have setup your partitions, write them to the drive ( small button up along the top right of the faaastprep software says.. "write" this will lock the changes to the drive )

you will now need to "format" the drive with a filesystem, FastFileSystem or FFS is what you should use for kickstart 1.3

Once the drives are formatted (prolly take ages!) you then can install your workbench disks onto the drive and reboot, now you should not have any more crashes unless we have missed something

best of luck

[AF-Domains.net]

If this works then thanks.

If it doesn't I will reply back again.

[BoingBoss]

Hi AdMartin,

By no means should you get a Commodore controller. It will most likely be necessary to upgrade the ROMs and/or the WD chip on it for it to work properly.

This is simply NOT TRUE!  About 99% of all of the A2091 boards that I have tested work really well and I have never had any problems with them.  In fact, they are such good SCSI boards that many Amiga 4000 owners use them.  The Commodore A2091 SCSI Controller board IS one of the best and was specifically designed for the Amiga 2000 and 3000 computers (the Amiga 3000 has the A2091 circuitry on its motherboard).  I myself have had more problems with the GVP boards then with the Commodore boards.  I have tried other SCSI controller boards, but I find myself always going back to the good old reliable A2091 card.  IT WORKS AND IT WORKS REALLY WELL !!!! :-D