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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: FireflyST on December 11, 2007, 01:16:12 AM

Title: Problem with Amiga 3000, hard disk, and Mercury 68040 accel
Post by: FireflyST on December 11, 2007, 01:16:12 AM

Hi All,

I'm trying to install AmigaOS 3.1 to upgrade to 3.9 on my A3000.  It has a 68040/35 accelerator (PPI Mercury) with 32MB of memory on it.  I'm having issues where the machine seems to be completely unstable - the floppy drives don't read properly and are generally erratic (they read fine for awhile then they just start throwing errors), and when I go to format the hard disk using the built in SCSI controller the machine just locks completely with a red software error.

Any suggestions/experiences with this type of setup?

Thanks!
Julian

Title: Re: Problem with Amiga 3000, hard disk, and Mercury 68040 accel
Post by: AMC258 on December 11, 2007, 02:58:32 AM

Greetings from 40 miles north of you.  Is the 040 overheating?  I haven't tried that 040 board but every other board I've used in a desktop 3000 tend to overheat.  Are your clock jumpers set right?

Title: Re: Problem with Amiga 3000, hard disk, and Mercury 68040 accel
Post by: rkauer on December 11, 2007, 03:00:44 AM

 And, of course, do you have the 3.1 ROM?

Title: Re: Problem with Amiga 3000, hard disk, and Mercury 68040 accel
Post by: AMC258 on December 11, 2007, 03:08:57 AM

@rkauer

Really good point!!

-

Also, do a good test of your CHIP RAM (theres a good prog on Aminet, forgot the name, load it into FAST RAM and run it) and then disable your FAST RAM and see if you get the same results.

Title: Re: Problem with Amiga 3000, hard disk, and Mercury 68040 accel
Post by: FireflyST on December 12, 2007, 10:53:35 PM

I purchased the machine with WB 2.0 on it.  After installing the 3.1 roms is when this became a problem, though it does come up to a desktop.

Title: Re: Problem with Amiga 3000, hard disk, and Mercury 68040 accel
Post by: rkauer on December 12, 2007, 11:58:36 PM

 Check the voltage levels on the motherboard. Specially the +5V.

 And check the 040 CPU (for heating). Adding a good heatsink and a fan avoid much problems on 040s.

Title: Re: Problem with Amiga 3000, hard disk, and Mercury 68040 accel
Post by: rkauer on December 13, 2007, 12:43:30 AM

 Plus, check this pic (http://www.amiga.org/gallery/photo.php?lid=3252&cid=11).

Title: Re: Problem with Amiga 3000, hard disk, and Mercury 68040 accel
Post by: Computolio on December 21, 2007, 08:57:46 AM

    I've seen a variation on this problem before. Does the machine work fine if you pull the accelerator? I've noticed that this particular accelerator tends not to like certain A3000s, perhaps due to some sort of incompatibility with kickstart 3.1.