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A question about A500 memory please help!
« on: October 22, 2002, 09:03:39 AM »
I just bought two A500s one has 2422424 free ram and the other has 897232.  How does this convert to megabytes?  I am guessing one has 4 megs on board and the other has one meg, does that sound right?  I thought one meg was the max on board are no visable upgrades on either machine.  This is with booting up from workbench 1.3.  

Thanks!
 

Offline whabang

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Re: A question about A500 memory please help!
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2002, 09:09:39 AM »
I'd guess that the first one has 2 meg Chip-RAM and 512 Kb slow-RAM.
The second one probably has the "standard" A500 config with 512 Kb Chip and 512 Kb slow.

It's possible to upgrade OCS-Amigas to ECS; thus allowing the use of 2 meg Chip-RAM.
Beating the dead horse since 2002.
 

  • Guest
Re: A question about A500 memory please help!
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2002, 09:21:04 AM »
Ahh thanks!  I'm curious as to what else the A500 with chip ram has, is there a good way to find out what else it has?  (ie chipsets, what roms) the last time I had an amiga it was over 10 years ago.  I'm very curious as to what this baby has but unfortunatly I only have a copy of workbench 1.3.  Is there a good way to transfer .adf files from my PC to an Amiga 880K floppy?
 

Offline whabang

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Re: A question about A500 memory please help!
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2002, 09:27:19 AM »
Quote
is there a good way to find out what else it has?

Opening the case would probably be the easiest way.  :-)



Transfering ADF's to a miggy with OS 1.3 is very difficult, allthough possible.
The PC itself can't read amiga floppies without special HW, so you have to transfer the ADF-files to the miggy via a PC-720k floppy and write it to disk from there.
The problem is that OS 1.3-2.0x can't read PC disks without special SW.

Your safest bet would probably be to find a local Amiga usergroup, and see if someone there can help you.
Beating the dead horse since 2002.
 

  • Guest
Re: A question about A500 memory please help!
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2002, 09:35:25 AM »
Ahhh ok I just opened her up and i see the motherboard is rev 5 and there is a card thing under the keyboard to the right of the 512k ram thats on the motherboard...it says ICD and it is full of ram chips.  It also has a "swiss made lithium battery".  I don't see which roms this machine has though.  Hmmm a very interesting A500 I just got.  I appricate your help with it.
 

Offline whabang

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Re: A question about A500 memory please help!
« Reply #5 on: October 22, 2002, 09:36:50 AM »
No prob...
Beating the dead horse since 2002.
 

Offline Desmon

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Re: A question about A500 memory please help!
« Reply #6 on: October 22, 2002, 09:38:34 AM »
@Mr.Fresh
Quote

Ahh thanks!  I'm curious as to what else the A500 with chip ram has, is there a good way to find out what else it has?  (ie chipsets, what roms) the last time I had an amiga it was over 10 years ago.  I'm very curious as to what this baby has but unfortunatly I only have a copy of workbench 1.3

Try SysInfo. It's not much good for anything else (IE Benchmarking) but it will at least tell you which chips your Amiga sports.
Cache Ya,
Craig.


Busy playing with my Trainz and loving it!
 

Offline Desmon

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Re: A question about A500 memory please help!
« Reply #7 on: October 22, 2002, 09:49:53 AM »
@Mr.Fresh
Quote

Ahhh ok I just opened her up and i see the motherboard is rev 5 and there is a card thing under the keyboard to the right of the 512k ram thats on the motherboard...it says ICD and it is full of ram chips.  It also has a "swiss made lithium battery".


Sounds like an ICD AdRAM500
http://amiga-hardware.com/ramex.html
Should get you at least close to the hardware you're looking at.
 
Quote

I don't see which roms this machine has though.  Hmmm a very interesting A500 I just got.  I appricate your help with it.

Load up Workbench and check out the "About" menu item. It should give you a Kickstart version which someone here will interpret for you.
Cache Ya,
Craig.


Busy playing with my Trainz and loving it!
 

  • Guest
Re: A question about A500 memory please help!
« Reply #8 on: October 22, 2002, 09:53:55 AM »
Thanks, that does look like the card!  
 

  • Guest
Re: A question about A500 memory please help!
« Reply #9 on: October 22, 2002, 10:02:12 AM »
Ok I get kickstart 34.5

workbench 34.20

any ideas?
 

  • Guest
Re: A question about A500 memory please help!
« Reply #10 on: October 22, 2002, 10:09:50 AM »
ahhh where can I find sysinfo?  Is it on WB 1.3 or the extras disk?  

thanks
 

Offline odin

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Re: A question about A500 memory please help!
« Reply #11 on: October 22, 2002, 10:04:08 PM »
Try here for a copy of sysinfo ->ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/moni/SysInfo.lha.

Though how you're gonna transfer it from your PeeCee is a different matter I presume :-D.

  • Guest
Re: A question about A500 memory please help!
« Reply #12 on: October 22, 2002, 10:49:04 PM »
Hi,
I'd suggest you get a nullmodem cable from your local electronics/computer dealer (not very expensive) and hook up the Amiga's serial port to the PC.
With the lot of RAM you have in there it shouldn't be a problem to transfer .adf files or any other Amiga type archives from the PC via some terminal programs to RAM and write them to Amiga floppies.

If your PC runs on Windows, use Hypercom (well, it sucks, but it's there most of the time, there's a heapload of better stuff around though once you need something better). If your PC runs Linux or BSD, I don't need to tell you more about it any way. :)

The tricky part is the Amiga side, there're some good terminal proggs around, even for somewhat outdated 1.3 - I would prefer NComm (with free keyfile on aminet) - but still the problem to get it from the internet on your Amiga - it's like the hen&egg syndrom. ;)

Anyone knows if 1.3 shipped with a basic terminal just to transfer a better one???

Hope I had a good point here :)

- CubiQue -

EDIT: Mind you, it's HyperTerm rather then Hypercom - Freud around? :))
 

  • Guest
Re: A question about A500 memory please help!
« Reply #13 on: October 24, 2002, 04:53:25 AM »
Thanks for the help everyone.  I was just going through some discs and I a copy program called Discmaster says I have free:

chip: 846456
fast: 1425352

so would I be correct in thinking I have one meg of chip with 2 megs of fast ram?  How does k convert to megabytes?

thanks!
 

Offline DethKnight

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Re: A question about A500 memory please help!
« Reply #14 on: October 24, 2002, 06:21:43 AM »
Quote
Anyone knows if 1.3 shipped with a basic terminal just to transfer a better one???


My extras disk or the "AmigoTimes" freebie I got with my A500,,.. I think had a Baud Bandit terminal on it.
(which I learned later also had an SCA-byte-bandit virus onit) killed my testdrive game

also my A500 'had' an adram 540 full a.t.t.

"*free keyfile for NComm???** aarrgh

All that binary jiggery-pokery was for naught
wanted; NONfunctional A3K keyboard wanted