Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: on March 04, 2003, 02:11:13 PM
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Hello people, I picked up a Amiga 1200HD/40 at auction the other day, it was disasembled so I put it back to gether again. It has a 200meg laptop drive in it. The unit also has an accelerator card in it 'CSA Twelve Guage 1250'.
Link to the CSA 1250
http://planetcryo.com/amiga/csa12.html
Anyway I really don't know much about Amigas at all. My mate used to have an A500, whilst I had an AtariST. We forever argued about which was better. Obviously his was; with all the wicked games etc.
I'm really into PC and overclocking etc now.
I also picked up a cd disk with the unit, opening it up in windows 98, it shows over 600 megs worth of games. What I'd really love to do is to be able to play them.
The CSA card comes witha 25pin connector which is like the one a printer would use. I think this is a SCSI setup.
Can any one give me any advice on how to hook up a CD-rom, and would a SCSI-2 (50 pin)be ok. I've got an external cable which is a typical 'chunky' scsi at one end and a 25pin plug at the other. So I figure I'd get an external scsi drive and plug it in to the amiga. HMM, maybe a bit too much wishfull thinking :(, Would the Amiga pick the drive up? Or would I need a specific brand of drive.
Or is there another option?, inside the Amiga unit, it looks like someone has soldered a 'molex' power connector from the power socket. Could I use this in turn with the internal mini ide cable (looks to have a second channel on it, and might need a laptop adaptor ) to run a typical ide cdrom. Again would it be recognised.
:o :o :o
Sorry for all the questions :) but I still have more :)
There are a couple of problems as far as I know with the unit. The internal floppy comes up with DF0:???? when a disk is inserted. It also makes a constant tick.....tick.....tick.... noise. Is it stuffed? I've tried an external setup and it reads the disks ok. Could I replace the internal unit with a A500 internal unit? Or is maybe my onboard floppy controller dead?
Well that's about it from me for now, I hope some one can help me out.
One last thing, How do I reset the unit without turning the power off, is there a combination of keys I need to press etc?
Thanks,
Pete
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I think I can answer a few of these, as I have tried already to fit a A500 internal drive to a A1200 it doesnt work. That being said the A500's ive opened have a different height drives (I have 5 A500's) and its the height that was wrong for my A1200. Ctrl+A+A is your soft reset.
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pete_pumpkin wrote:
Hello people, I picked up a Amiga 1200HD/40 at auction the other day, it was disasembled so I put it back to gether again. It has a 200meg laptop drive in it. The unit also has an accelerator card in it 'CSA Twelve Guage 1250'.
Welcome to the Amiga community I'm sure you will enjoy it. We're all very friendly here.
Link to the CSA 1250
http://planetcryo.com/amiga/csa12.html
Anyway I really don't know much about Amigas at all. My mate used to have an A500, whilst I had an AtariST. We forever argued about which was better. Obviously his was; with all the wicked games etc.
I'm really into PC and overclocking etc now.
I also picked up a cd disk with the unit, opening it up in windows 98, it shows over 600 megs worth of games. What I'd really love to do is to be able to play them.
The CSA card comes witha 25pin connector which is like the one a printer would use. I think this is a SCSI setup.
Can any one give me any advice on how to hook up a CD-rom, and would a SCSI-2 (50 pin)be ok. I've got an external cable which is a typical 'chunky' scsi at one end and a 25pin plug at the other. So I figure I'd get an external scsi drive and plug it in to the amiga. HMM, maybe a bit too much wishfull thinking :(, Would the Amiga pick the drive up? Or would I need a specific brand of drive.
The Amiga will work with any SCSI drive. Just needs a filesystem and a mountlist. Have a look in your DEVS folder in your boot partition. Maybe there is a mountlist in there already?
Get the filesystem from aminet -
http://ftp.plig.org/pub/aminet/disk/cdrom/AmiCDROM-1.15.lha
You'll have to find out what the scsi device on your turbocard is called (maybe csascsi.device or so) and change the device = setting in the cd0 mountlist (or in the icon tooltype)
BTW If those games on the CD you talked about are ADF format you will have to write them back to floppy disk to actually play them on the Amiga.
Or is there another option?, inside the Amiga unit, it looks like someone has soldered a 'molex' power connector from the power socket. Could I use this in turn with the internal mini ide cable (looks to have a second channel on it, and might need a laptop adaptor ) to run a typical ide cdrom. Again would it be recognised.
The A1200 has only 1 IDE channel (PIO mode 0) and you can connect two devices to it (Hard drive as master, CDROM as slave) but you'll need to get IDEFIX from Aminet and use that to use an ATAPI CD drive.
:o :o :o
Sorry for all the questions :) but I still have more :)
There are a couple of problems as far as I know with the unit. The internal floppy comes up with DF0:???? when a disk is inserted. It also makes a constant tick.....tick.....tick.... noise. Is it stuffed? I've tried an external setup and it reads the disks ok. Could I replace the internal unit with a A500 internal unit? Or is maybe my onboard floppy controller dead?
Sounds like a duff drive. An A500 one will work but is the wrong size to fit in the case so you'd have to cut away some of the plastic.
Well that's about it from me for now, I hope some one can help me out.
One last thing, How do I reset the unit without turning the power off, is there a combination of keys I need to press etc?
Ctrl+Amiga+Amiga
Thanks,
Pete
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The drive doesn't have to be broken.
What kind of disks are you inserting? Does the Workbench disk work, for example? Most older games are stored on "non-dos" disks which means that they use their own kind of file system and boot block. To use PC floppies you'll have to mount the pc0 driver (in storage/dosdrivers). And the A1200 has a DD drive only, so HD floppies won't work.
The clicking noise is a well-known feature of the amiga disk drives. There are lots of "noclick" patches available on aminet (http://www.aminet.net), which is the biggest Amiga freeware/PD/shareware archive in the world.
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I've not use the CSA card, but it looks like the end connector is for SCSI.
Now, amiga-hardware.com says that SCSI is optional, so it may be that another card is attached before you can use SCSI (I know the Phase 5 Blizzard cards did that; its quite common).
You can add an ATAPI cd-rom to the internal IDE port with IDEFIX, but I would recommend at least getting a buffered IDE controller first, as you can technically damage your motherboard putting two devices on the internal port directly. The buffered IDE cards give you two IDE channels and proper 3.5" drive connectors. Click here for an example (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/power4wayide.html).
As for DF0:????, what disk are you putting there? If you put an MS-DOS disk in there it won't work, and quite a lot of old games are not standard AmigaDOS disks.
Put a double density disk in that you don't mind losing the data on, and in workbench select "Format" from the Icons menu. If the disk formats OK, the drive is fine.
Remember; the Amiga 1200 can't read high-density disks without an expensive external drive (unlike its bigger brothers the A3000 and A4000).
If you want to get rid of the click, click, click when there is no disk in the drive, download a "noclick" utility from aminet (http://main.aminet.net/~aminet).
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@tickly
Aw, come on, what a ripoff :-D
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@carls
*shrug* just wanted to give a full answer, too. and there was a little bit of extra info in mine. I didn't actually read yours first, admittedly, which I probably should. I just read the top post and hit reply.
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aaand i've had another thought. If you didn't want to poke around with IDE CD-Roms, you could always get a cnet (or compatible) PCMCIA network card, and network the Amiga to the PC, to use the PCs CD-Rom. You need a TCP/IP stack like genesis or Miami, and a copy of cnet.device from aminet.
Edit: although, unless you get the motherboard fixed (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/pcmciamod.txt) (or its already been fixed), you might have to unplug and re-insert the network card every reboot.
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@tickly
I was just kidding.
I've done similar things quite a few times :-)
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Heh, just as the page was changing i caught your sig in the corner of my eye...
A small but loyal fan base of Amiga nuts is holding its breath
and read it as "A small but loyal base of Amigans is holding its nuts"
:-o :-D
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Came with a CSA Twelve Guage 1250, to bad. I'm guessing you've got 3.0 roms. Unfortunately if you ever wanted to upgrade to 3.1 roms you will not be able to due to a bug in the CSA Twelve Guage 1250.
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Small sidenote:
A500s had lots of differnt disk-drives during the 7 years
of production ... those lousy big Matushit(a)s the big Chinon
(most common I would guess) 1" Epsons and mine even came with
an 1" TEAC (board revision 6) the 1"s should fit in the A1200,
but you may get a prob with eject-knob if it is a different brand.
It may also be that Escom-A1200 make some troubles, but C= ones
should be no prob.
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Thanks people, I just woke up and got onto my computer and wow :-o , lots of replies :-)
Thanks for all the advice. It seems that I've got a lot of learning to do in regards to the basics , even using the work bench etc.
I'm just so used to the PC and using MS-DOS and W98 :-x
The disks I inserted were DD Amiga disks. Most were 'cover' disks, and yeah I think I remember some message saying 'non DOS disks' etc. So what I think I'll do is put one of the disks in and try and format it.
The games CD I got is full of directories (A-Z) with files ending in .dms and also quite a few LHA ; which from memory is amigas compression format ?
In a few days I'll be going to auction again and hopefully I'll pick up some more Amiga stuff, maybe some texts that explain the basics.
I also have another question. The power supply that I'm using looks to be an A500 type. The problem that 'm getting is that to turn my A1200 on I need to toggle the PSU switch several times. At first I thought that it was the power switch itself , but now my suspision in that maybe it's to do with the actual A1200. Any simillar problems?
Well thanks again people for the quick replies.
** I'm not too sure if I'm using this forum correctly. I clicked on 'reply' in the last answered post. I was hoping to be able to scroll thru some of the replies whilst I write this thread. Anyhow I'll have a little more of a mess around
Thanks again,
Pete
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Hi Pete,
I would say the problem is most likely with
your PSU; they're somewhat known for
problems. Also, I know this may sound
obvious, but I had a similar problem once
and it turned out that the PSU connector
needed a little extra shove into the
socket on the back of the machine.
You could also check your output ratings
with a meter I suppose...but a proper
voltage reading may not always ensure the
condition of the PSU, i.e it may fail
under a certain amount of load...you
could try it without the accelerator,
if it works then it's probably the PSU.
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Cool, I'll take the acellerator out and see how it goes. My suspision is that it's not powerfull enought etc. I'll try it in a sec.
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Who Hoo! :-P That did it. I took the accelerator out and the unit turned on first pop. :-P
What now?, I might leave the PSU at the moment and put up with having to flick the switch a number of times. Hopefully I'll see something down at my local auctions.
Any ideas with my DF0:????? problem?, is there any proven way to re-furbish the floppy?, ie dip it in metho or something like that :-D
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Well, if the PSU isn't providing enough juice, you are likely to get all sorts of weird problems. I'd fix that first! If you have an old AT PC case, you can modify the PSU from that to work with the amiga. You can use an ATX PSU too, but thats a little more work.
Instructions are on aminet (aminet is your friend :-D )
AT PSU hack readme (http://ftp.plig.org/~aminet/dirs/aminet/hard/hack/ExtraPower.readme)
AT PSU hack archive (http://ftp.plig.org/~aminet/dirs/aminet/hard/hack/ExtraPower.lha)
ATX PSU hack readme (http://ftp.plig.org/pub/aminet/hard/hack/atx_psu.readme)
ATX PSU hack file (http://ftp.plig.org/pub/aminet/hard/hack/atx_psu.lha)
Otherwise, A500 power supplies typically give more juice than A1200 ones (although not as much as the AT PSU hack), so that might be an option, too.
Also, if you decide to really upgrade your Amiga, and are looking around on ebay or amibench (http://www.amibench.org) for second hand gear, a very useful link is The Big Book of Amiga Hardware (http://www.amiga-hardware.com) where you can look up information on hundreds of Amiga hardware items.
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Thanks I'll ahve to look into it.
:-x :-x :-x :-x :-x
I've just noticed a burnt out/destroyed surface mount capacitor on my accelerator (CSA Twelve Guage). Strange thing is that the amiga still shows that I have a 68030 CPU and the 16 meg SIMM I've installed. Hope the damage isn't in the SCSI section :(. THere doesn't seem to be much hope in fixing it either. Where the solder pad was is totally destroyed :(. and by the looks of it the PCB is one of those multi layerd types. At least it's working for now. I might need to get hold of a 'benchmarking' program and see if the CPU is doing its job.
Tonite I'm having my first ever, reall play with the unit. I've got about a dozen coverdisks which I've got to check out.
No probs :(
Pete
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Well, the CSA twelve gauge isn't a very good card, tbh, and it sounds like its had a rought life. I'd keep an eye out for cheap second hand Blizzard or Apollo cards on ebay if I were you.
030 based cards are nice because they give you a bit more power, but are still pretty compatible with old games (although if you install the games to your hard disk with WHDLoad (http://www.whdload.de) it generally fixes lots of bugs in the process.
040 based cards will be more pricey, but they allow you to run lots of slightly more up to date software.
060 based cards are expensive, but they'll give your amiga a real kick up the backside and bring it kicking and screaming into 1996 :-D This is the most common processor for "power" users, short of a PowerPC upgrade.
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If showconfig shows the 68030 and 16Mb fastram, the CPU is working.
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Cool. I'm having a mess around now with a few coverdisks and sort of got the hang of copying onto the HD using Directory Opus. Some of the programs wouldn't run, giving me a message 'need bla bla library', so I copied the library files of the coverdisk into the library folder on the HD, saying 'no' when wanted to replace files allready there. Is this the right thing to do?
I ran a progy named 'aminfo' and it done a benchmark of my video. It came up with 17866 characters per second; and 11904 Dhrystones per sec. I've heard of the 'dhrystones' on the PC, but really don't know what its about. Hopefully the 'aminfo' program does an acurate comparison.
It's starting to get more fun now taht I sort of know what I'm doing.
Pete
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Yeah, if a program needs a library, just copy it into your libs dir. If there are two versions, its best to put the highest version on your hard disk. The way to tell is to do this from a shell:
Version whatever.library
(this will show the version installed on your computer)
Then do:
Version DF0:Libs/whatever.library FILE
(this will show the version of the library you are thinking of copying).
If the version you are thinking of copying has a higher version number, copy it over.
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What about size?, I figure if the new file is bigger then it's newer. Probably not a safe way of doing things tho :-)
The 'shell' apears to be like the MS-DOS prompt on a PC. Where can I get a list of commands from?
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Size is not a reliable way to tell; for starters what if the library author optimised all his routines and they ended up smaller? It should be possible to add a button to DOpus so that you can highlight a file, and click it to get the files version number. I haven't reconfigured Directory Opus in years, and i'm at work now, so i'll let someone else explain that :-D
As for the shell, believe me, its about a gazillion times better than the MS-DOS prompt on the PC. For starters, you don't even need to type "cd" to change directory, just type the directory name, eg:
1.Work:> Apps/
1.Work:Apps>
But thats just the tip of the iceberg! A quick google turned up this AmigaDOS online reference manual (http://www.nethkin.com/bmori/amiga/dos1.html)
Also, if you find (or download from Aminet) a program called KingCON, it will make your shell a million times nicer. You can do things like type part of a filename, and hit tab to complete it. It will also give your shell window a scrollbar so you can see things that whizz off the top.
Once you have KingCON, it is a little tricky to install for an amiga newbie, but here is a step-by-step guide:
1) if the file is LHA archived, unpack it to ram by typing this:
1.Work> lha x KingCON.lha ram:
(this assumes you have the lha program, but i would be surprised if the previous owner didn't have it installed).
2) in Directory Opus, find the file in "Ram Disk:" called "KingCON-mountlist" and copy this to "Devs:"
3) find the file called "kingcon-handler" and copy it to "L:"
4) Now, still in DOpus, go to "S:", and edit "user-startup" (usually DOpus has some sort of text editor configured to one of the buttons)
5) Go to the bottom of the file and add this line:
mount kcon: from devs:kingcon-mountlist
6) Reboot
7) From workbench go to Project->Execute (or hit Right Amiga + E)
8) In the dialogue box, put "NewCLI window=KCON:"
you should now get a shell with filename completion, and a scrollbar. If you right click you also get some menus.
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Wow sound a little bit confusing. I think I need to check out that nline reference manual. For instants I don't really know what directories are used for what ie, devs, l etc or even the RAMdisk. I figure it's abit like the windows directory on a PC or maybe the way the autoexec.bat and config.sys file need to be in the root directory etc.
:-D I usually hang out on a site called Overclockers Australia. http://www.overclockers.com.au/ They have some pretty good forums aswell, but I think like most , you need to register first.
Wicked thing just happened. I posted a wanted add for a external SCSI drive and a dude replied offering me one for free. I'ts an old 'apple' one. :-? I hope it will be compatible :-?
What keeps me going at the moment is the thought of being able to play all those cool classic games such as fire and ice and turrican and xenon etc. In fact I remember when I was just doing year 9 in high school and my best mate (with the amiga) just got hold of 'fire and ice'. We thought that it was a pretty cool game.
Another hing I remember was all those cool graffix demos we'd come accross. I think one group was called 'assembly' or something like that.
Pete
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Well, the AmigaDOS online reference manual teaches you what all the directories are, but here is a quick rundown:
The "Ram Disk:" (or "RAM:") is a virtual drive that is always present on 2.0 ROM based amigas (and newer). It is for storing temporary files, which all get lost on reboot.
On a basic workbench partition, you'll have the following directories:
"C" (also a "virtual drive", known as an assign, called C: )
This is where all the shell commands live. Some commands are in the ROM, but others live here. You can copy useful commands here, and they will always be available in your shell.
"Libs" (or assign "Libs:")
This is where shared libraries live. Shared libraries allow many programs to use the same routines without each program having its own copy. Its a bit like windows DLL files, except that they aren't given quite so cryptic names.
"Devs" (assign "Devs:")
The root of devs is where we keep "Devices". Devices are like libraries, but they generally provide a standard way for programs to access actual hardware (for example parallel.device to access the Amiga parallel port).
Inside Devs, there are various other directories:
"Devs:DOSDrivers". These are text files that contain information AmigaOS needs to access a drive, for example a CD-rom would put an icon called "CD0" here, containing information about how to access the CD drive. These are called "Mountlists". (the action of adding a drive to the operating system is known as "Mounting")
"Devs:Monitors" contains drivers for different graphics modes, or even different graphics cards if you have one.
"Devs:Storage" is where you put DOSDrivers, Monitors etc. that you want to keep handy, but you don't want to be active every time you boot your amiga.
There are various other dirs in devs, but refer to the online reference for that.
"S" (assign "S:")
This is where scripts are kept, such as "startup-sequence" (like autoexec.bat), "user-startup" (also like autoexec.bat, but for the user to mess with).
It is also the default place to store ARexx scripts, and some programs keep their preferences here.
"Fonts" (assign "Fonts:")
As the name suggests. You can put Amiga bitmap fonts here.
"L" (assign "L:")
This is where filesystems and things like that live. For example, the CD0 mountlist might reference a CD-Rom filesystem kept here. (e.g. L:AllegroCDFS)
"Prefs" (no assign)
This is where all the AmigaOS preferences editors lives.
"Prefs/Env-Archive" (assign "ENVARC:")
(short for "environment archive")
This is where workbench, and other programs, permanently save their preferences files. They also save a temporary copy in RAM:Env (assign "ENV:"). This allows you to change preferences temporarily, and have your stored defaults restored when you reboot.
There are various other dirs, but once again, refer to the AmigaDOS online reference manual.
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Oh thanks, yeah it all makes abit more sense now :). Just wondering, you mentioned that the Devs:DOSDrivers directory would contain 'mounting' info for drives etc. When I install a SCSI cdrom, will a file be automatically be created or will I need to make one directing it to the drive. I suppose it all depends on the SCSI interface and wether it autodetects the cdrom etc. Any how I don't know what time it is where you are, but here in Adelaide its just turned 11pm, and my back is totally killing me from sitting on this chair all day. It's been good talking to you, I've learnt a bit. I'll have to catch up with you sometime tommorow :-P
pete_pumpkin
Oh yeah, shouldn't you be workin? :-D :-P :-D
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Hmm... when i said the CD-Rom puts the file there, i was totally wrong. What i should have said is that YOU put it there.
What you'll have to do is this:
* Download a CD-Rom filesystem, such as AmiCDFS and install it
* Find the CD0 icon in Devs:DOSDrivers. In workbench, click once on the icon and go to "Icon->Information"
There should be a list called "Tooltypes", and in there should be "Device" and "Unit".
Device should be whatever the CSA twelve gauge scsi device is called (i don't know offhand, sorry) it could be csascsi.device or something else... i really don't know.
Unit should be whatever SCSI unit number the drive is
With a bit of luck, upon reboot when you put CDs in the drive, an icon should appear on workbench.
BTW, to transfer the files you download to the amiga, you need to format a disk to 720Kb MS-DOS on the amiga. To do this, you need to make sure CrossDOS (which comes with workbench) is installed.
In L:, there should be a file called "CrossDOSFileSystem". If not, you'll need to find your workbench disk and copy it from DF0:L/
In DEVS:DOSDrivers, or Workbench:Storage/ there should be a mountlist called "PC0". If it is in Storage, double click it to mount PC0.
A new icon should appear on workbench, called "PC0:????" or "PC0:Bad disk" or similar. Insert a disk you want to format, and click once on the PC0:???? icon. Then right click, and select "Format Disk" from the icon menu.
If it formats OK, you should now have a disk both the PC and Amiga can read.
Edit: oooops! I just remembered that Storage isn't in Devs: at all, its in the root of your workbench partition.
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Hi,
I've finally got a external SCSI CDROM :-D but yeah, setting it up seems to be proving pretty hard.
I downloaded a file setup program from this link:
http://ftp.plig.org/pub/aminet/disk/cdrom/AmiCDROM-1.15.lha
which was provided by Lando in a previous post. I copied the appropriate files to where they are supposed to be etc( I think :)), but I've hit a snag. I don't have a clue what the name of my SCSI.device should be. I get an error come upo at boot time 'CD-ROM Handler error / Cannot open 'csascsi.device' unit 1 . I've been searching the web for the last few hours hoping to find a manual or some text regarding CSA , but also with no luck.
Is there some kind of generic name that I could use instead?
My head hurts
:-x :-x :-x
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It sounds like you're nearly there. The amigas operating system traditionally provides "scsi.device", which controls onboard SCSI and IDE drives (the name is still scsi.device for legacy compatability, even though it also gets used for IDE drives). Is the drives SCSI ID definately 1?
You're right though, it doesn't seem like anywhere on the internet has any documentation for setting up the SCSI... :-( When I get home (which will be around 6:30pm GMT), i'll write a program to list all resident devices on your system, and you can post the list back and we can look for likely candidates.
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Thanks Tickly.
I'm not 100% sure on what the SCSI ID should be. At the back of my drive there is one of those little click...click buttons which selects a number form 1 to 7. I had it set on 1, so I figure this was the ID.
I edited the actual cd0 file (in my devs/dosdrivers/) using DOpus. I tried using the method described above (from the WB/icon etc) but all what came up in the window was the text 'DONOTWAIT', so yeah hmm I left it how it was.
Man all this is so confussing. I admit I haven't really done any work on the amiga in the last few days, so I still have lots of things to learn ie, functions,uses and meanings of commands in the shell etc.
Any way it's 11pm at my end and time to say goodnight.
Thank again,
Pete
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"DONOTWAIT" etc.
Yes, some mountlists place the unit and device inside the text file, others place it in the icon tooltypes. Either way should work fine.
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Tickly wrote:
It sounds like you're nearly there. The amigas operating system traditionally provides "scsi.device", which controls onboard SCSI and IDE drives (the name is still scsi.device for legacy compatability, even though it also gets used for IDE drives). Is the drives SCSI ID definately 1?
You're right though, it doesn't seem like anywhere on the internet has any documentation for setting up the SCSI... :-( When I get home (which will be around 6:30pm GMT), i'll write a program to list all resident devices on your system, and you can post the list back and we can look for likely candidates.
Hey Tickly, have you had any luck finding a progy that might help me identify what devices are attached to my A1200. I've got a feeling that i don't have any drivers installed for the csa1250.
Pete
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pete_pumpkin said:
.....The disks I inserted were DD Amiga disks. Most were 'cover' disks, and yeah I think I remember some message saying 'non DOS disks' etc. So what I think I'll do is put one of the disks in and try and format it. ......
What they meant was- games disks commonly use a custom boot block; the way to use THESE is to insert one while the machine is off and thus, BOOT from that floppy itself! Another way, if the machine is running from its HD System Partition then; after inserting that game disk do a System Reset (Ctrl+Left_A+Right_A. The system will BOOT from the internal Floppy Drive as the FIRST preference.
WARNING- ReFORMATING a Games Disk with a CUSTOM Boot Block will render that game inopperable!
The games CD I got is full of directories (A-Z) with files ending in .dms and also quite a few LHA ; which from memory is amigas compression format ?
DMS Files will self-extract to Floppy. ie: Create a complete (sometimes- Self Booting) Floppy!
LHA Files are compressed and can be expanded to Hard Drive or to Floppy!
The power supply that I'm using looks to be an A500 type.
A500 PSUs have a higher output than the original A1200 ones, and are prefered for use with an expanded A1200!
I clicked on 'reply' in the last answered post. I was hoping to be able to scroll thru some of the replies whilst I write this thread.
THAT puts you in a POST-with-the post being replied to-visible ONLY-mode!
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A500 PSUs have a higher output than the original A1200 ones, and are prefered for use with an expanded A1200!
Are you sure of this? I've got an A500 - could I use the PSU to give the 1200 extra juice?
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Edit: although, unless you get the motherboard fixed (or its already been fixed), you might have to unplug and re-insert the network card every reboot.
There is a software fix for this on Aminet. Using it myself :)
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pete_pumpkin asked:
Hey Tickly, have you had any luck finding a progy that might help me identify what devices are attached to my A1200. I've got a feeling that i don't have any drivers installed for the csa1250.
May I commend a Tool (Amiga-speak for "progy") called- SysInspector?
(http://home.iprimus.com.au/vortexau/images2/SysInspector.png)
Various areas of your running system can be examined with this tool. As can be seen from THIS Screen Grab; the Tasks running on my A2000 include the actual tool- SysInspector itself, gvpscsi.device and 2060scsi.device (forth from bottom). These TWO scsi.devices are the ones on my system (the GVP one currently is non-functional).
The trackdisk.devices are for my two Floppy Drives.
-
alx asked:
A500 PSUs have a higher output than the original A1200 ones, and are prefered for... an expanded A1200!
Are you sure of this? I've got an A500 - could I use the PSU to give the 1200 extra juice?
Short answer- YES! On the base of many A1200 PSUs can be seen the words: "A600" or "A300". The A300 was the ORIGINAL A600 designation.
Meaning: An A1200 is sold with a PSU no more powerful than an A600's!
Long answer- A modified XT(or AT) PSU is an even BETTER proposition!
Diagram (http://home.iprimus.com.au/vortexau/images2/PC-XTPS.GIF)
Use J1 & J2 to obtain the +5V, +12V, -12V, GND & GND.
"On the bottom of the Amiga 500 power supply, as well as in the user's
manual, the following diagram of the Amiga 500's connector appears:
+--\___/--+
| 3 4 |
| 5 |
| 2 1 |
+---------+
where:
pin 1: +5VDC
pin 2: Shield Ground
pin 3: +12VDC
pin 4: Signal Ground
pin 5: -12VDC
With the power supply disconnected from the Amiga, turn the power supply on
and verify these voltages, BEING CAREFUL NOT TO SHORT OUT ANY PINS! All
voltage readings should be performed with the voltmeter's ground cable
connected to the connector's Signal Ground. Record each pin's Voltage.
Once satisfied with the Pin versus Voltage supplied, turn off the power
supply and unplug it from the wall.
Cut The Amiga 500 side of the power cord leaving approximately 10 inches
sticking out of the original power supply. Carefully strip back 1 inch of
cable insulation from each side and then strip each wire, leaving about
1/4 inch of the wire showing.
Crimp then solder onto each wire on the power supply side, a female
connector. Do the same on the side normally attached to the Amiga 500
except use MALE connectors. Each side should have a total of 5 wires with
connectors.
Now insert the female connectors into the Molex-style female connector.
Do the same for the male connectors, BUT MAKE SURE THAT THE WIRE COLORS ON
EACH SIDE OF THE CONNECTOR ARE THE SAME WHEN THE MOLEX-type CONNECTORS
ARE PLUGGED INTO EACH OTHER.
Once completed, verify that there are no shorts between the various wires.
Plug the two MOLEX-style connectors together, plug in the Amiga 500's power
supply and re-verify the voltages. They should be the same as previously
measured.
Once satisfied, your Amiga 500 will operate with the original power supply.
(This allows the A500 PSU to be put back into use as a backup)
Now on to the PC-XT power supply. Referring to the picture, PC-XTpwr.pic,
1) Cut the 3, +5VDC power wires on connector J1 and then wire all
three to a single female connector. Label this +5V.
2) Cut the +12VDC power wire on connector J2 and then crimp and
solder it to a female connector. Label this +12V.
3) Cut the -12VDC power wire on connector J2 and then crimp and
solder it to a female connector. Label this -12V.
4) Cut the 4, GND power wires two on J1 and two on J2 and then
wire all four to a single female connector.
5) Connect on end of the multistranded hookup wire to a female
connector and crimp the ring connector on the other end.
Using the Ohmmeter and the previous diagram, determine which pin in the
Amiga 500 power cable MOLEX-type connector carries the +5 volts. Connect
the PC-XT wire labelled +5V to the same slot in the remaining plastic
connector. Repeat this procedure for +12V, -12V and Ground.
The multistranded hoodup wire should be inserted into the slot where
connection will be made with the pin labelled SHIELD GROUND. Remove
one of the screws in the PC-XT power supply, attach the ring connector, and
the put the screw back.
****************************************************************
** WARNING!!!!! **
** **
** IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT THE SHIELD CONNECTOR BE SCREWED **
** SECURLY TO THE PC-XT POWER SUPPLY. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY **
** DAMAGE THE AMIGA 500. **
****************************************************************
Plug the Amiga 500 power cable into the PC-XT power supply, BUT DON'T
ATTACH IT TO THE 500 YET. ALL POWER CONNECTIONS MUST BE VERIFIED!
Plug the PC-XT power supply into a wall outlet, power it on and using the
voltage meter verify that all of the power connections are the same as
previously checked.
Once satisfied, turn off the power supply, unplug the power supply from the
wall, install the power supply in a suitable case and connect to the
Amiga 500. If you wish, you may plug the monitor into the switched AC
connector on the power supply.
IF YOU WERE CAREFUL AND VERIFIED ALL CONNECTIONS, TURNING ON THE PC-XT
power supply should result in the complete powering of your system.
IF YOU FAILED TO CHECK THE VOLTAGES, IT IS LIKELY THAT YOU MADE A MISTAKE
AND TURNING ON THE POWER SUPPLY AT THIS TIME WILL RESULT IN THE COMPLETE
LOSS OF YOUR SYSTEM.
(AT PSUs colour-coding is different .... varify pins with an Ohmmeter)"
-
Thanks. I've downloaded sysinspector but it wouldn't work . It says : 'can't open 'window.class v4.20 or better'.
The site which has the 'sysinspector' tells me that I need 'classact' so I downloaded that, so I done that but I don't know how to install it. when I double click the 'install_classes', it come up with text saying :
'Please copy this procedure along with the strings it uses to the installer script of your classact application. It will take care of installing the classact classes you provided with your application to the user's system'.
What is this 'installer script'
I really don't have a clue where to start :(
So close now :)
Pete
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Disregard the above please :). I've been using DOpus too much and the WB not enough. I've managed to install both of the above tools.
But now :) I don't know if the 'sysinspector' is showing me what I specified in the 'cd0' device or what.
Basically the only mention of anything SCSI is 'scsi.device' and 'csascsi.device' I know that the first one is the stock standard one which is assigned by dos, but the second one , is it coming up because the actuall device is 'csascsi' or because that's what I put in the device list (and doesn't work)?
I hope you can understand what I'm saying :)
Pete
-
Hmm... it sounds to me like csascsi.device might be the right device, but that something else is wrong (possibly hardware). Try copying the CD0 icon to SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers and rebooting. When you reboot, it won't try to mount CD0, and you can have a look in the list to see if csascsi.device is still there (i'd put money on it being there).
One thing that worries me is that most sites call the connector on the CSA 12 gauge "Feature connector for optional SCSI controller", which makes me think you need an extra bit of hardware for SCSI to work...
-
Yep, I've removed it from the devs and left the one in the storage. No error message at stsrtup now. And yeah sysinspector still shows the two devices under 'tasks'. the csascsi.device comes up with a 'pri' no 11 (same as the scsi.device), 'type' task, 'state' wait.
Hmm, the actuall board has a 25 pin connector , with a ribbon cable attached to it, ending in a db25 plug type thingy screwed to the shell of the A1200. Hmm, maybe it's got to do with the 'scsi ID' number ?
Any way thanks, I'll have to have a bit more of a mess around.
Pete
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Tickly wrote:
One thing that worries me is that most sites call the connector on the CSA 12 gauge "Feature connector for optional SCSI controller", which makes me think you need an extra bit of hardware for SCSI to work...
Oh, I see what your saying. I hope not, does seem unlikely tho as I've never seen an external scsi interface. Besides why would sysinspector pick it up then, Hmm.
I guess that blown SM capacitor could be the problem also.
-
Well, all the Blizzard cards required an extra module to be plugged in for SCSI to work. It wouldn't be at all surprising if the CSA card did too.
Then again, why would it autoconfigure a csascsi.device without the SCSI module present?
OK, things to try:
1) All possible units from 0 to 7
2) A different SCSI CD-Rom drive
3) Shaking your fists and shouting at it
4) Getting some nimble fingered person to put a new capacitor on
5) Get a PCMCIA network card and copy things from the CD-Rom in your PC
-
I like #3 :), yeah I'll try those things. But I guess in probability the capacitor could be the problem. I don't think there is any way to fix it tho. The board is like double layerd or somthing and one of the pads are totally desinigrated. It would probably require some kind of schemetics to do the job.
I lot of the .dms files on the CD are over 720 K, (being the limit of the PC0/1 disks), so that's annoying. I guess I could look around for a pcmcia type NIC or something; although I don't really like my chances of installing it properly :(. What about a 'null' modem cable thingy? that sounds alot easier?
Anyway I might leave all this for a couple of days as it's just to frustrating. Damn computers: My lite-on burner died today and I've lot the receipt. And the Australian distributer doesn't want to deal with me either : (they only deal with retailers), so G RRR.
Any way I'll try that ID thing for now.
Thanks for the help :)
-
A null modem cable will also do the trick. Download NComm from aminet, and set it up to use serial.device, unit 0, 38400 baud (thats probably the best speed to use on the Amigas internal port).
Then use HyperTerminal (or something better :) to send files with ZModem.
-
Yeah , that might be the way to go. I've tried changing the IDs etc. What I keep on getting is some 'scsi handler error' at startup.
I might be getting a couple dozen assorted amiga cds in the next few days. Disks such as aga demos, amiga format coverdisks, cd32 disks etc. What are the chances of the PC being able to read them?, and with the nullmodem , would that be only usefull for file transfers or could the amiga possible use the PC's CDROM to boot the coverdisks etc
Umh also my CPU on the amiga gets so hot, that I'm getting worried that it'll melt a hole in the carpet etc(I'm missing the expansion cover), is this normal?
Pete
-
pete_pumpkin wrote:
Yeah , that might be the way to go. I've tried changing the IDs etc. What I keep on getting is some 'scsi handler error' at startup.
I think it basically means the csascsi.device is being opened OK, but it is failing to get any response back from the CD drive.
with the nullmodem , would that be only usefull for file transfers
Just for filetransfers. Autobooting from CDs on an A1200 takes quite some doing, to be honest. There is a CD32 emulator on Aminet which attempts to boot CD32 games, but the CD drive has to be connected locally (IE on the IDE or SCSI bus).
Umh also my CPU on the amiga gets so hot, that I'm getting worried that it'll melt a hole in the carpet etc(I'm missing the expansion cover), is this normal?
Hmmm... 68030 based cards usually get hot enough to be uncomfortable to touch, but usually run OK without any heat sink or fan. It might be an idea to put the A1200 on a couple of blocks or something to get some airflow under the case.
-
Its common for external SCSI Ports, on an A1200, to be a D25 fitted to a knock-out plastic port just behind the Floppy Drive.
The BASIC Driver and File System go in DEVS/DOSDrivers (often CD0) and L/ (AmiCDFS, CacheCDFS, or other).
The Driver is actually a TEXT File similar to this:
/* $VER: CD0 2.36 (22.08.96)
*
* CD-ROM filesystem mount entry
*
* Created by CU Amiga CD AmiCDFS installer
*/
Device = 2060scsi.device
FileSystem = L:AmiCDFS
Flags = 0
BlocksPerTrack = 32
BlockSize = 2048
Reserved = 0
LowCyl = 0
HighCyl = 11000
Surfaces = 1
Buffers = 64
BufMemType = 1
Mask = 0x7fffffff
GlobVec = -1
Priority = 10
DosType = 0x43444653
StackSize = 600
Mount = 1
FORCELOAD = 1
Control = "LC BL=8 FB=32"
/* Unit number is given in icon tooltype
*
* Control field template:
*
* LC=LOWERCASE/S,CS=CASESENSE/S,
* HF=HFSFIRST/S,TD=TRACKDISK/S,
* BL=BUFFERLINES/K/N,FB=FILEBUFFERS/K/N,
* DC=DISKCHANGE/K/N,MT=MOTORTIME/K/N,
* SD=STARTDELAY/K/N,TDC=TDCHANGE/S,
* TOSHIBA/S,OLDMODE/S
*/
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Device = MUST match your own {NAME}scsi.device
The FileSystem = MUST point to your own CD Filing System.
The Unit number is the ACTUAL SCSI Unit No switched on the CD Drive itself. This can be a VALUE after a = or, as in my own case, indicated in Icon Tooltype. A Single LMB click on the CD0 Icon will activate a data-field when the RMB Opens Icons/Information with the THIRD Workbench Menu item. My own shows UNIT=0 in the Tooltypes field.
A Default Tool- C:Mount can be shown here too. This makes the Driver visible to the system.
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this migth be a stuped question but is the read wire on the ribbon cable on pin 1. ?? :-?
@Tickly
Well, all the Blizzard cards required an extra module to be plugged in for SCSI to work. It wouldn't be at all surprising if the CSA card did too.
not all, on my Blizzard 603+ it's one the card. :-P
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edderkop edged in::
this migth be a stuped question but is the read wire on the ribbon cable on pin 1. ?? :-?
;-) Not a stupid question at all, sir. Always check the simple things first.
@ Pete_Pumpkin:
;-) You may wish to check Aminet for a program called "SCSI inquire." This tool will probe your SCSI bus and report what it finds at each address. If it fails to report your CD-ROM drive, then something may be amiss with your hardware. Check that the CD-ROM has power, that the SCSI cable is connected securely to the CD-ROM and the Amiga's SCSI port, etcetera. Also, always check over old hardware that you buy. The SCSI ID gadget on the back of your CD-ROM may not be connected to the CD-ROM itself, on the inside, etcetera. Little things like that can trip you up.
:-) To answer an earlier question, yes, you can use old Mac SCSI stuff, so a trip through your local charity thrift shop may prove fruitful.
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:-P :-P :-P :-P :-P
I can hardly beieve it, after almost giving up, I've finally got it to work :-D
Today I bought a SCSI cdrom of a bloke. After chating with him for a bit, he started going into the topic of SCSI terminators. Anyhow I sort of understood him. I figured that maybe there is a pin terminator selector inside my external apple cdrom and it needed to be enabled etc. So I got home and unscrewed the case. Looking around, I couldn't see anything of that nature. The only thing I saw was the usual power cable ,scsi cable and a connector which had a cable going to the little 'click click' SCSI ID selector at the back of the case. The little connector also had a little bit of wire linking two pins which I think said 'parity'. So anyway I thought I'll just unplug the whole lot and give it a go. AND to my absolute suprise, WB presented me with the 'CD0' icon :-P :-P :-) Just before that I also changed the ID value in the CD0 file from 1 to 0, so really I wasn't sure wether it was this or that which fixed it. I plugged the connector back in to see what was the deal. It turned out to be the connector which went to the ID selector that was the thing causing the problem.
Anyway I'm excited :-D I just need to read back in the previous posts and work out how to unpack the .dms files onto my HD; when using DOpus, I'm prompted to insert a floppy into DF0:, for starters, my DF0: is totally buggered, and secondly I don't want them on floppy, I want them on the HD. Anyway I think a solution to this was posted a little earlier, just need to have a good read.
Well thanks everybody (inparticular Tickly) for helping me out with getting this machine up and running the way it should :-)
Thanks,
Pete
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pete_pumpkin protested:
...I just need to read back in the previous posts and work out how to unpack the .dms files onto my HD; when using DOpus, I'm prompted to insert a floppy into DF0:, for starters, my DF0: is totally buggered, and secondly I don't want them on floppy, I want them on the HD.
;-) If the drive were working, it'd be easy: just unpack the file to floppy, then copy the floppy to the hard drive.
:-( However, I suspect that .dms files need to use DF0:. On the other hand, I do wonder whether it would be possible to redirect its output to another device if run from the Shell. Something like:
[Filename].dms >DF1:
:-? -Though I suspect I'd just get an error. I'll have to try it to be sure. Redirecting it to hard drive or Ram: probably wouldn't work, though, since IIRC the .dms archive includes formatting data for the compressed floppy image, as well.
:idea: Now, a dedicated HD partition of 880k, on the other hand...
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pete_pumpkin wrote:
I can hardly beieve it, after almost giving up, I've finally got it to work :-D
HOORAY! :-D
Anyway I'm excited :-D I just need to read back in the previous posts and work out how to unpack the .dms files onto my HD;
You can't directly unpack a .dms file to your hard disk. DMS files are compressed track-by-track floppy disk images, and can only be unpacked to real disks (or virtual disks).
In fact; if you don't want to have to use a real disk, we could use RAD. RAD is the Amiga's "Recoverable Ram Disk" (dunno why it isn't RRD, but hey...).
If your workbench install is fairly standard, you should be able to type this into a shell:
1. Work> Mount RAD:
If no error appears, you have created a virtual floppy disk! If an error appears, come back and we'll try and fix it :-D Next:
1. Work> dms write CD0:whatever.dms to RAD:
If the disk is a valid AmigaDOS disk, you can now copy files from RAD: to your hard disk.
!IMPORTANT! Before rebooting your amiga, type "RemRAD" into the shell, otherwise the Amiga will try and boot from the RAD disk instead of your hard disk. (or shut the power off, that'll kill it, too :)
Well thanks everybody (inparticular Tickly) for helping me out with getting this machine up and running the way it should :-)
No problem! I'm always happy to help people keen to learn about my favourite computer platform!
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A Recoverable RAM disk is a bit more than THAT;
It will require an ENTRY in Devs/DOSDrivers like THIS-
/* $VER: SD0 37.2 (29.1.94)
*
* Recoverable RAM disk mount entry
*
* The maximum size of the disk is controlled by the value of the HighCyl
* line. Increasing this value by 1 consumes an additional 11K of RAM.
* So the default value of 79 consumes, when the disk full, around 880K of
* memory.
*/
Device = statram.device
Flags = 0
Surfaces = 2
Reserved = 2
Interleave = 0
LowCyl = 0
Buffers = 5
StackSize = 600
Priority = 5
Mount = 1
/* The Unit, BlocksPerTrack, HighCyl, BufMemType and DosType fields are
* controlled by tooltypes in the icon.
*
* Unit = 0
* BlocksPerTrack = 11
* HighCyl = 79
* BufMemType = 1
* DosType = 0x444F5303
*/
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
and an associated {NAME}.device in Devs/, as in my case;
statram.device.
So, as can be seen, in THIS case the RAD's Icon is named: SD0
How this Icon appears under OS3.5 can be seen in the TOP Left corner of
this image (http://home.iprimus.com.au/vortexau/images2/Partitions&Disks.jpg)
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Grrr sounds really complicted. Is there a tool which will deal with these .dms files and make life easier ?
BTW )S3.5 looks really good compared to mine :) Is that only available with AMIGAS running 3.1 ROMs?
I think I'll leave it for a day, let my brain recover.
-
OS 3.1, 3.5 & 3.9 require 3.1 ROMS.
OS 3.5 & 3.9 additionally require:
° A CD-ROM (ie. Installed from CD-ROM)
° At least 4Mb of FAST Ram
° At least a 68020 CPU
° At least 1Mb of CHIP Ram
° A Hard Drive
OS 3.5 CDs include OS 3.1 for 3.5 installs as an update to 3.1
Not sure about 3.9's position, here.
3.9 is as much of a leap over 3.5 as 3.5 is over 3.1
-
IIRC, a standard WB3.0 or 3.1 install has everything installed and ready to use RAD, you just have to mount it. I could be wrong. Your "SD0" appears to be some strange 3rd party RAD, which Pete probably won't need.
Just the standard, included with WB3.x RAD should do the trick.
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Another amazing occurence :-o
I've sorted the .dms problem. I had a play around with the .dms program in the cli 'shell' and read the help (dms ?) on it. There i discovered that I can specify the out put location etc. I then used this new found knowledge to edit the DMS's 'button' in DOpus.
(((These are the drives that I have mounted (as far as I know): HD0: CD0: PC1: DF2:
DF2: is an external drive and it comes of of the other external PC1: drive (which is attached to the A1k2)))
Ok so I found a couple of DD disks which didn't have bad sectors and Formated them in my DF2:
I used the DMS program to extract two .dms files (game) onto the floppys. So far so good :)
But you guessed it :-o More problems (oh not more problems)
Yeah I think this might have been answered in another thread/post, It comes up with a damn message 'NOT A DOS DISK" (or something like that)
So as you can see it's one problem after another (silly me) :-P
Any ideas people?
Thanks,
Pete
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hehe, better sell it to me..... :)
-
ok ive not had an amiga for years but lots of knowledge still resides in my skull.
right... im glad you got your head around unpacking to DF1: etc..
do you want to unpack to a 'virtual' floppy drive?? at the height of my amiga skills i almost NEVER used floppies for unpacking DMS files (although in theory this is the only way).
Go to aminet and get FMS (FileMasher I think was the name) or a similar solution.
This works much like the DOS driver solution you've been poking around with, which is used for CD0 and PC0 etc. The drive name created with this solution is FF0: and FF1: etc.
The difference being it copies the data to a 'virtual' floppy which can be placed on your hard disk or even in RAM. The virtual floppy, simply put, is like a virtual memory file in windows.
If you place this virtual file in RAM, you will obviously destroy the virtual floppy when you reset. There is one difference between FMS in RAM and the RAD disk mentioned earlier.. RAD should still be there when you reset (accelarator permitting) and FMS placed in RAM isn't.
If you place it on your hard disk, when you mount it next time, it'll be as if you inserted the disk in the drive!!
However, if the disks have non-custom boot-blocks (the NDOS disks the you can only run with ease when you put them in your floppy drive and reset the Amiga), you won't be able to read them much like you can't when you use real floppies in Workbench.
And the best bit? No bad blocks and the floppies unpack in seconds!
And I REALLY recommend you install KingCON from Aminet. It's not hard, you just have to add a few (simple) lines to your user-startup or startup-sequence (found in S:). these are the autoexec.bat's in Workbench.
It will totally amaze you with the control and ease of use it provides! Imagine if you can't be bothered to type the path or filename of a command or file.. you just press TAB and a file requester pops up prompting you to find it.
Or just type in the first few letters and press it.. it'll autocomplete it!! great for mathiieeedoubbas.library or whatever it was! ;)
Sigh... I miss my Amiga and it's shell..
Another tip.. get OS3.9
-
dude u seem to have a lot of stuff plugged into yer amiga considering the PSU u are using.
If u start running into problems, try unplugging a floppy or two as the PSU you have seems to be rather pushed..
I used to be able to get replacement internal floppy drives easily back in the day.. don't know about now.. but I really don't see why not!
btw have you noticed how your computer's speed is TOTALLY unaffected when you format or copy files around from floppies?? try that on ANY overclocked PC even at 3GHz for a laugh... hehehh :-D :-P
-
Thanks everybody for the help and advice I've been given in the last month or so. But the time has come where I need to sell of a heap of my gear, including two of my Pee Cees and my Amiga1200 setup. I've run into some financial problems after running Folding@Home for the last few months 24/7. The power bill is extraordinarily high :-o
I have advertised my Amiga on a few different sites and this has brought a lot of interest from some die-hard Amiga fans. I wish I could say that I'm one of these fans but really my experience with Amiga was very breif ; as you can probably see from when this thread started.
Anyway I'd like to thank everyone again, I enjoyed being a part of the closet Amiga community , if not only for a short time.
Pete
:-)