Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: whabang on April 04, 2003, 04:47:21 PM
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OK, I'm fed up!
The last month has been a total nightmare; I lost my job, my graphics card for the PC died, I got a virus in the PC ( so much for Norton... , and, worst of all, my miggy died.
I'm not going to get it repaired. I'm tired of this crap, so I'm going to sell it all ( actually, I'll keep the A600 for games ).
I'm not going to ditch the community ( I'd miss the politocal discussions too much :-P ), and I'm going too keep using UAE, but hardware wise the amiga is now dead for me...
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Bugger!
Glad to see your sticking around here though.
If you don't mind my asking, what happened to it?
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Sorry to hear about the problems with your system (not to mention the job, et al). Let's be honest though, even in the best of cases, it's 8 year old hardware with a designed shelf-life of 5 to 7 years. I am very, very afraid that this will start happening to lots of people at an alarming rate.
Wayne
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Let's be honest though, even in the best of cases, it's 8 year old hardware with a designed shelf-life of 5 to 7 years.
Actually, the motherboard wasn't much older than a year, though it has proably been on a shelf for a while...
I am very, very afraid that this will start happening to lots of people at an alarming rate.
True. Good thing that emulators exist. I allready use it for all things amiga, except older games.
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Karlos wrote:
Bugger!
Glad to see your sticking around here though.
If you don't mind my asking, what happened to it?
Couldn't leave. This site is to addictive. If it handn't been for AO I wouldn't be around the amiga anymore.
I have no idea what happened to the miggy. One day it worked, the next it didn't. The acc. wasn't in the computer at the time, so it's still working.
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I hardly ever touch my miggies now, for fear to killing them... 10 years of abuse has taken it's toll... Though the machines work fine, I'm just scared.
:-(
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Sorry to hear that, always a bummer to hear an Amiga dies.
As for how long one can get out of an Amiga, i wouldnt go with that, i know people who still use there A1000/A2000 alot since they where released and there still going strong, thats not that far of 20 years!
My A1200 Mobo is now on the verge of 10 years old, used heavily and it has no probs besides timing, fingers crossed.
Not that poorly designed then.
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Nope.
I think the C= stuff has better quality than the Escom stuff though...
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@whabang
bad stuff :-( but when my Amiga died (only had an Amiga, nothing else) went to x86 with Windows 2K and ran WinUAE, Amithlon and looking at it now it was the best move i ever did, running AOS programs at speeds as they should be, doing more stuff with AOS under emulation than i could ever do on a real Amiga without paying hundreds on old hardware and still it would not be as fast.
So looking back it was a shame but now it was 100% the best move i ever did.
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What I'd like to know is if the ESCOM manufactured A1200s (subcontractor solectron???) was based on Commodore made AGA chipsets or if (solectron?) had the plans to make AGA chips???
Anyway,sorry to hear about your bad experiences. I hope things get better for you! :-D
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Darth_X wrote:
What I'd like to know is if the ESCOM manufactured A1200s (subcontractor solectron???) was based on Commodore made AGA chipsets or if (solectron?) had the plans to make AGA chips???
Anyway,sorry to hear about your bad experiences. I hope things get better for you! :-D
Solectron just Assembled Amiga using the parts that they got out of the C= factory in the Phillapines.
A few changes to the Motherboard layout.
EG: the power smoothing and Panasonic Floppy Drive.
I remember reading that either C= in the last months or it could even been Escom, it was that long ago, got AGA into one chip.
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What should I say ? I'm trying to no avail to overcome the 4Gb barrier, my main miggy is open and useless since 3 weeks !
I've been told to upgrade to SFS, witch did'nt cure anything and even made things worse...
Fact is, I've been told a LOT of things, and sometimes they were not true. Looks like *nobody here* knows how to use big HDs with a GVP adapter.
And please, stop telling ppl that OS3.5+ solves the 4Gb problem, that simply is FALSE, at least with a (up to date) gvpscsi.device.
Grr, I'm relly pissed off. I WON'T settle for "not use the drive beyond the 4Gb limit" like I've been told too :) because 1:I need the space 2 : I got another big HD waiting 3 : that plain bugs me.
I'm the man, she's the 'puter. She will eventually do what I want her to.
This morning in the tube I was envisioning the worse scenario... Well NO, I won't give up.
Even if sometimes, it feels very lonely...
pX
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you never specified what kind of amiga you had (that died). . . ?
as for old hardware still going strong, I'm amazed about the reliability of the A2000/060-50/64mb RAM webserver i'm using, that thing keeps going and going for months on end without a reboot.. . .
kevin orme
amiga university
www.amigau.com
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Hey, I know how to solve that one, xaccrocheur :-)
Don't use GVP ;-)
Oh, that's not the solution you wanted? :-P
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Good one olegil... Excuse me if I don't laugh too loud, I'm a little tired today ;)
I'd sell my sister for a Cyberstorm PPC & SCSI... In the meantime I only have the GVP option.
If anybody knows how to get out of this trap, please mail me.
pX
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Hmm, if I had a CPPC I might have taken you up on that trade ;-)
My sister has started to produce offspring, and somehow I get the feeling my parents think I should have beaten her to it, being older and all. So I need either: a girlfriend, or: a less backstabbing sister :-P
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Well, what do you *really* need (http://www.forefronttechnologiesinc.com/Products/?item=103) ? :-P
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Not right now, thanks. The G3 is enough for me for some time yet :-)
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the definitive article on the 4GB barrier is from dhomas trenn at www.youngmonkey.ca, but in trying to post the URL here his site may not be online at the moment, so just put in
'beyond the 4gb barrier'
in Google, and you can view the cached version instead.
kevin orme
amiga university
www.amigau.com
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and additionally, I'm using a 4.5GB quantum viking drive on my A2000 webserver with a TekMagic card, that is essentially a GVP card, it uses GVP utilities, after all.
the key is having the TD64 FFS version, that allows you to do it, as outlined in the article from the previous post. Keep partition sizes under 2GB, too - so for a 4.5 GB drive, I have a 500MB boot partition, and then two ~2GB storage partitions, and it works fine.
kevin orme
amiga university
www.amigau.com
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@whabang
Have you thought of picking up a good used mobo
for your 1200? Maybe you could find one cheap
somewhere.
I found my 1200 new about a year ago in the
States. I'm very careful with it as it was
made in 96/97. So far though I've had good luck
with computer hardware. My old 64,128 and 500
still work fine....and I used the 128 for
years on end back in the day. I even have a
relic 8086 around somewhere that still works,
even its original hard drive (an old -
school HUGE one) is still operating.
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What? I use the Barracuda 18Gb HD on my 2000 w/Tekmagic 060 combo accel. The sys "boot" partition is 300Mb the others range from 4 to 4.4Gb. I may end up merging some partiones and adding to there size but if there is a failure it may be a little harder to restore the drive. ALWAYS have an up to date emergency boot disk around!;)
Chris
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whabang wrote:
actually, I'll keep the A600 for games ).
A wise decision ;-)
I did the same (the space previously occupied by the A1200T is now assigned to the A1), though I couldn't stand WinUAE for very long. Roll on Umilator and AOS4. If I'd got rid of the A600 my children would never have forgiven me.
Have you seen this
site (http://www.amiga600.de/) on expanding your A600 safely? I tried the ventilator fan mod and it works beautifully with my Viper 630. Now the A600 is much more stable, for only 5 USD/euros and a bit of insulating[1] tape .
Rose
[1] Why on earth did I type "insulting tape" first time round???
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ive been lucky so far all of my machines still work fear of a my cdtv dying is the worst but im not going to stop using it, i use it as a cd player as well as a machine for playing old games and i have the hardware mp3 device, bought from eyetech had to do my own bootdisk to run the software though .the only machine i have wich has a fault is my cd32 which does not spin disc properly disc seem to slip stupid sony cd mechanism.and my a1200 my first one for some reason stoped booting with my blizzard ppc and ide controler if i disconnect ide interface it would boot i presume something is playing up a bit with powert circuit, eyetech used to sell a device for getting extra power to ppc board. I can see why your fed up the world seems to be against you at the moment i hate it when things keep going wrong but things will get better just try not to let it get you down to much. :-D
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I'm really getting sick of all of you guys crying on how you`re gonna leave Amiga for ever.
Amiga is THE reason I ever got into computers and therefore I`ll probably never abbandon it, no matter how hard times are.
If you are about to drop your interest in Amiga, that`s your decission and mistake, but PLEASE, just go and don`t make tragedy bigger than it really is.
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Nobody said that anyone is abandoning the Amiga...
I'm just ditching my A1200. I'll still hang on to my A600 ( if it still works :-D ).
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I think the C= stuff has better quality than the Escom stuff though...
Agreed, and the older models( A500/2000) is better than the surfacemounted models (A600/1200). I´m very scared everytime i open my amiga that it´s not gonna start again.
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Nobody said that anyone is abandoning the Amiga...
I'm just ditching my A1200. I'll still hang on to my A600 ( if it still works ).
well that makes sense, but ggsdata has a1200 mobos for 850SEK if you want one.
Anyway since you aren´t abandoning the Amiga will you buy an AmigaOne???
I mean when OS4 is released of course.
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amigau wrote:
the definitive article on the 4GB barrier is from dhomas trenn at www.youngmonkey.ca, but in trying to post the URL here his site may not be online at the moment, so just put in
'beyond the 4gb barrier'
in Google, and you can view the cached version instead.
kevin orme
amiga university
www.amigau.com
@amigau
@whabang
thanks guys. I read through all this, and tried almost everything. when I'll finish to hack NSDPatch.cfg out it will be safe to say that [color=CC0000]gvpscsi.device, patched or not, is absolutely incapable of handling >4GB DRIVES (not only partitions)[/color]
Mind you, I even tried to "prep out" the >4Gb part of the drive, thus abandonning 300Mb :-( by making a 3rd 300Mb partition @ the end of the drive, a ticking out "automount" well at reboot, it STILL Does not recognize properly the second partition.
What do you think of that ? Damn, it's the 1st time on the Amiga, that I see something so big that is not yet addressed by clever hacking.
Again, I did not try all the possibilities of the MAMMOTH NSDPatch. If anybody knows anybody using SCSI drives on a gvp HC+8 controller, please, ask him to send me his DEVS:NSDPatch.cfg thru xaccrocheur at halluci dot net.
What I want now is ANOTHER SCSI controller.
I browsed through the web but this is complicated, as only a SCSI adapter is not what I want, and it's not even available separately. What would be a major upgrade to this 4K would be a DCE Cyberstorm PPC /w 060 @ 50MHz, 604e @ 233MHz (http://www.amigainnovations.com/hardware/hardaccelerators.htm)
With a SCSI module... Damn, I want this.
but I found it listed at very different prices ! Can somebody post a place, pref. In europe, that sell the thing at a normal price ?
Is there an alternative solution ? What I want is a fast, reliable machine for my 2D works.
thanks to all of you
pX
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Dan wrote:
Nobody said that anyone is abandoning the Amiga...
I'm just ditching my A1200. I'll still hang on to my A600 ( if it still works ).
well that makes sense, but ggsdata has a1200 mobos for 850SEK if you want one.
Anyway since you aren´t abandoning the Amiga will you buy an AmigaOne???
I mean when OS4 is released of course.
Well, I purchased one of each of these, and am not regretting it :-)
(1 A1200 motherboard from GGS-Data, and 1 A1G3-SE last year).
At the moment I am also considering spending 200EUR on an Access 1200 to put in the A1 tower (neat solution for old software, I think :-) ).
And I played Hybris on the A500 last night :-)
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Dan wrote:
well that makes sense, but ggsdata has a1200 mobos for 850SEK if you want one.
Anyway since you aren´t abandoning the Amiga will you buy an AmigaOne???
I mean when OS4 is released of course.
Actually, I sold all of my amiga hardware this morning. A couple of guys came and picked it all up for 500:- ( a little bargain for them :-) ).
The A600 was picked to pieces, and I don't feel like assembling it again.
I also sold the trusty old A500 and every single game I had lying around.
UAE only from now on!
I'll probably going to buy an A1 as soon as my finances look a little better, though... :-D
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I never understood how anyone can sell his amiga stuff. I couldn't, no way.
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I have a 20Gig Maxtor in me 1200T (OS3.9 BB2)
which is working fine ATM - aside from having trouble building a new partition around the halfway mark (although I am actually on IDE - IDEfix'97 board from Power.)
Rose - might that have been Freudian ?! :-P too much time on ANN methinks... :-D
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Wayne opinioned that:
it's 8 year old hardware with a designed shelf-life of 5 to 7 years
Balderdash! The "designed shelf-life" usual with x86 maybe!
Amigas are made of sterner stuff .... Like my 1989 A2000HD where only DF0: has died!
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@ xaccrocheur
I think I know whats going on here. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT use GVP's prep utilities, it's old junk, use HD Tool box for this. I belive thats where your incompatabilities are comming from. Preped and formatted one way and trying to patch in another. I gave up on these utilities long ago. Warning: This is a pain the first time you switch but don't give up, you'll be rewarded for your efforts
Chris
PS. No kidding, a time consuming process. one slip and your starting over. If your getting frustrated let me know I'll help walk you thru it.
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@whabang
Take a little time away from the Miggy, but don't sell it yet. Maybe with a little help from people in the community you could figure out what the problem is and fix it? I like to "tinker" with things, I'm by no means a technician and usually end up doing something that causes a problem, but in most instances, I've been able to get help and fix the prob. Thats how come my old garage sale A2000 is still ticking. Help from people willing to help, and a good quality soldering pencil! Sometimes a good bright flashlight and a magnifying lens helps, found some burned keyboard caps that way, easily overlooked by just eye-balling to mobo. Keep the faith. :-D
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why don't you just simplify your life and get a Buddha card and IDE drive? far simpler and performance isn't that much less, if you got a really new IDE drive, probably all but equal on an Amiga, actually.
I spent many an hour dealing with SCSI termination issues in my old A3000D before I got rid of it - in my current A2000 I have a DKB wildfire with one drive, and a Buddha with a second. The also nice thing about the Buddha is then you can put in IDE CD-ROM drives, etc., FAR cheaper than SCSI CD drives.
And since it's an Individual Computers product, the Buddha is completely, utterly reliable, and not 15 years old, either.
good luck!
kevin orme
amiga university
www.amigau.com
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xaccrocheur
Here is the problem GVP makes CRAP. Mike should be shot for not even following a 15 year plus old C= standard for RDB. You ask him it is everyones fault but his. Idiot!
Okay this is the problem GVP does not read the RDB properly and load the Filesystems that you have installed on your HD. Trick one is a simple one install a IDE drive on your Amiga with the Filesystems installed on the RDB and bingo you can now use PFS or SFS. even on your SCSI drives attached to the GVP controller because now the Amiga can read the filesystem.
or you can make a mountfile entry and call it from your Startup-Sequence problem with that is you have to make you first partition a FFS partition in the lower part of your HD. but it still will work.
hope that helps
Kurt
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@ Kurt
I've found GVP stuff to be OK. The utilities are definitly real cxxp. Kill them before they spread. Forget that old software. They work just fine w/HDTools.
Chris
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@whabang
hey where did they come from (the purchaser)... from LA? members of SyntaxSociety perhaps?
BTW: why don't you come and visit us and meet Amigans IRL :)
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hey where did they come from (the purchaser)... from LA? members of SyntaxSociety perhaps?
Yep! :-D :-D :-D
BTW: why don't you come and visit us and meet Amigans IRL :)
I might do some day... :-)
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@whabang
Great, we will have a "computer party" soon...:-)
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Muffin wrote:
@whabang
Great, we will have a "computer party" soon...:-)
Cool! Mail me when it's time.
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@whabang
Ok i will :-)
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vortexau wrote:
Wayne opinioned that: it's 8 year old hardware with a designed shelf-life of 5 to 7 years
Balderdash! The "designed shelf-life" usual with x86 maybe!
Amigas are made of sterner stuff .... Like my 1989 A2000HD where only DF0: has died!
Which proves nothing really. Sure, there are plenty of old Amigas out there that are working fine, but equally there's a whole bunch of them that have long since failed. It's not just the basic systems, but all the additional cards etc one gets to rely on in their Amiga. These are failing at an increased rate, and replacing them is simply not financially viable for most people.
Generally speaking Wayne is right. As for the build quality of Amigas, this tends to vary quite a bit from model to model, and even between revisions. Some are very sturdy, and some are complete pieces of #@$%.
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The good news is that all the systems that still work are not those who failed immediately :-)
The bad news is they're now also approaching the normal life of a doohickie-thingie. I'm on the second A500 and the second A1200. The Apollo 1240 has needed some fixes already, but I'm not afraid of working the old soldering iron on it (I've already fitted an extra memory-slot I got from a non-working RS/6k motherboard (I still have two working ones, so no biggie :-) )
The thing is, for some of us these machines represent a lot of past and present fun, and should not be thrown out just because they might fail. However, once they DO fail, there's sadly not much you can do. That said, the thing that most often does fail is CIA chips, and these can still be fixed.
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What I'd like to know is if the ESCOM manufactured A1200s (subcontractor solectron???) was based on Commodore made AGA chipsets or if (solectron?) had the plans to make AGA chips???
They had plans to make them I believe. I remember a big statement by Bill McEwan that they'd finally gotten rid of the chip masks from Escom, so that there would be no more AGA chips. (really stupid IMHO, considering how expensive a chip mask is)
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I remember reading that either C= in the last months or it could even been Escom, it was that long ago, got AGA into one chip.
In an interview with Dr. Hepler, they discussed the single-chip AGA design a bit. Essentially they were going to put AGA and a 68k core onto a single chip for laptops. But that project faded away with the shift ot Hombre.