Yet another new Amiga user.

[macto]

I finally snagged my first Amgia after many, many years of waiting.  Well, actually, it sorta fell into my lap.  It looks like a pretty nice box: an A2000 with a GVP Combo 030 (40 MHz, 16 MB RAM) and a Supra RAM card which was recently upgraded to 8 MB.  Now, if you ask me, 25 MB is a little skimpy for a 68030.  I mean my Mac SE/30 has 32 MB.  

The problem is this: I've waited so long that I've forgotten why I wanted it.  Well, my first task is to get it working reliably.

[blobrana]

Welcome!
And
Good to hear that...
(er, getting it tuned etc...)

[cecilia]

The problem is this: I've waited so long that I've forgotten why I wanted it

let me refresh: to have fun with a computer  :lol:

and people keep telling me there are no "new" amiga users!!! :-o

ps, welcome! :-P

[Karlos]

Welcome :-D

Skimpy eh? :-D I'd bet that 25Mb of ram on your 030 powered A2K will definately stretch way further than 32Mb on any old mac incarnation :-)

[graffias79]

It would knock your socks off what an A2000 is capable of even with only 16 MB fast ram!  You could browse the internet, send/receive email, use your FTP client and even play music modules.  Theres a lot of those on the Aminet, oh and you'd have a few MB left over for PPaint or something :-)

[Quixote]

:pint: Welcome, Macto!  The first one's on me.

;-) That's also a nice model of Amiga that you've come across; it has more room for internal expansions than any other model.  It was also the first Amiga I owned, aside from the A500 that I shared with my brother.

[amiwalker]

Welcome!

[QuikSanz]

Hi macto,

when I got my machine,I'm second owner, it came with that accel card.It served me well for a couple of years till I went 060. It's very reliable, runs old games well and has fpu. It will allow reasonable web speed and Some MP3 play. You may want a high speed serial port or better. Enjoy.

Chris

[macto]

It looks like it is a nice machine, but I have to get some bugs out of it.  It likes crash randomly after 30 minutes or so.  This is giving me fond memories of running Windows 95.  

What I have seen in those thirty minute breaks impresses me.  Software seems to be lean and fast and the multitasking is great.  I have OS 3.9 on this critter, its loading some of the toys while I'm using it, and I'm not seeing a performace hit.  Whee!  But I suppose you already know about that ...

Anyhow, back to searching for the problem.  Troubleshooting an unfamiliar machine is very difficult.

[QuikSanz]

@macto,

Start by checking memory, if all 3 are secure, make sure all other cards are. If they are then first remove extra ram card. This is slow mem anyway because it's on the bus not the accel card. Try again and see. It could be a memory stick not all the way in or bad. The holding tabs for mem on the GVP are wimpy plastic and they can come loose.

Chris

[macto]

Thanks for the tips.  I've pretty much tried them, but not in a very systematic way: I removed the Supra card, crash; I replaced the Supra then removed the three SIMMs, crash; but I didn't ensure the crash was from the same problem.  My plan is to repeat what you suggested, but try to give each step a day or so.  But I really want to remove the GVP card, and see if the problems pop up with a stock systems.

Anyhow, I opened up a thread on the hardware forum.  It's probably more appropriate.

[voxel]

Welcome aboard :-)

[HopperJF]

Welcome to Amiga.org and congratulations on your first Amiga, it sounds quite a nice setup; better than any Amiga setup I have owned in fact so it should deliver pretty impressive performance, however like most things, it can get better!
I hope you have fun getting your machine working again, and continue to seek new and exciting ways to expand it and making it faster; the Amiga has always been a fun machine to enhance, thanks to all the fun and exciting expansions available for it you wouldn't even think could be possible.

Enjoy and hope you have many  years of happy computing with your Amiga. :pint:

[Holley]

Hi, The A2000 is the only Amiga I ever sold, and I've regretted it since!

After checking memory other things to check are weather any chips are getting too hot, if any push-in type chips arn't seated right, any corrosion on connectors (you can get connection cleaner in a spray can from electronics stores), and finally inspect for dry joints!  Any A2000 is getting old, and areas that go through a hot-cold cycle are prone to this problem (basically the solder joints come 'unstuck' and need re-soldering, sometimes they also pull a bit of the circuitboard track up with them too).

Remember to earth yourself before touching stuff inside the case (by touching any bare-metal part of the chassis with the mains plugged in), and if you're not used to soldering get an expert to do it!  One nice thing about the A2000 is it's much easier to fix physical faults than later models!