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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: dougal on April 20, 2011, 06:55:19 PM

Title: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: dougal on April 20, 2011, 06:55:19 PM
The only way i can get games to load on my A1200HD through WHDload is by disabling the preload function. Loading is pretty slow.

Is there any way i can use preload with my A1200?


These are the specs:

Escom A1200HD (170Mb HD) KS3.1 and 2MB Chip ram
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: broken on April 20, 2011, 07:01:53 PM
You need either a fast ram card or an accelerator.

A basic 2 meg only A1200 is a miserable WHDLoad platform. You need more ram, period.

The ACA1230 28MHz card that AmigaKit sells is a fantastic value for a WHDLoad machine.
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: Derfs on April 20, 2011, 07:03:06 PM
you need more ram, whether its a 4mb expansion or an accelerator card is up to you

*edit*

gah! too slow ;-)
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: dougal on April 20, 2011, 07:11:35 PM
Damn.. It used to have a Blizzard 1230IV with 64MB which i regretfully sold :(
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: desiv on April 20, 2011, 07:31:40 PM
There are 3 options for you.
(Well, 4 if you count staying put :-)

1:  Get a PCMCIA RAM card:
This works (I've done it), but it does actually slow down your A1200.  Of course, as you only need it when you're generally playing games written for an A500, you won't notice (I didn't).  However, another negative is that the cards are rather difficult to find, and more desired by A600 users, whom it helps and doesn't slow down their machines.
2: Get a slot RAM upgrade.
Now isn't a bad time, as when the new ACAs were released, there are probably several people who replaced their RAM cards with the ACAs..  The only thing to watch out for is if your RAM card is more than 4M, it can conflict with PCMCIA devices. (Some allow disabling over 4M, and some of those allow you to toggle the extra on/off with software, which is nice..)
3:  Get an accelerator with RAM.
If you can get an ACA, those are great.  And with the release of the ACAs, as with the RAM cards, there are some people selling their older accelerators.  There are some compatibility issues with some accelerators and some Amgia motherboards, but there are fixes known.  Also, there are a very small number of accelerators that also have the PCMCIA conflict issue.

I went from removing PRELOAD to PCMCIA SRAM to RAM card to Accelerator.  All in about a year.  ;-)  I tend to be impulsive...

desiv
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: Claw22000 on April 20, 2011, 07:37:28 PM
Quote from: dougal;632623
The only way i can get games to load on my A1200HD through WHDload is by disabling the preload function. Loading is pretty slow.

Is there any way i can use preload with my A1200?


These are the specs:

Escom A1200HD (170Mb HD) KS3.1 and 2MB Chip ram


I think theres a new solution for ya check out this thread it started as a CD32 project and A1200 users are picking it up and makine WHDLoad HD compilations.  If you just want a WHDLoad machine then this is for you.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=40027
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: dougal on April 21, 2011, 06:47:58 AM
Hmmm from what i read here i think my best option would probably be to get one of those new ACA accelerators. 64MB of ram and an EC030 @ 28Mhz can't do much harm :)

I'll wait till i have some money though :(
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: Claw22000 on April 21, 2011, 09:13:02 AM
Quote from: dougal;632719
Hmmm from what i read here i think my best option would probably be to get one of those new ACA accelerators. 64MB of ram and an EC030 @ 28Mhz can't do much harm :)

I'll wait till i have some money though :(


This is free and can be done fast and easy.  Then when you do have an accelerator you can do even more!
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: Claw22000 on April 22, 2011, 11:27:41 PM
I have finally ordered my ACA030 28mhz card.  I have saved up extra cash for about 6 months now and am finally able to do it!  YES.  I can't wait to get my new Amigoodies!   Now does this mean I should consider upgrading from 3.1 to 3.9?  or is it not worth it till you have an 060?
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: Franko on April 23, 2011, 02:48:03 AM
Quote from: Claw22000;633158
I have finally ordered my ACA030 28mhz card.  I have saved up extra cash for about 6 months now and am finally able to do it!  YES.  I can't wait to get my new Amigoodies!   Now does this mean I should consider upgrading from 3.1 to 3.9?  or is it not worth it till you have an 060?


OS 3.9 will run fine on the card you're getting (just make sure you've got plenty of fast RAM for when you start optimising it) it'll be a wee bit slower in comparison to running 3.1 but once optimised you'll hardly notice the difference... :)

Of course an 060 will make a hell of a difference in everyday use but unless you're willing to spend a small fortune on getting hold of an 060 board then an 030 will do just nicely... :)
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: Claw22000 on April 23, 2011, 10:32:16 PM
Quote from: Franko;633176
OS 3.9 will run fine on the card you're getting (just make sure you've got plenty of fast RAM for when you start optimising it) it'll be a wee bit slower in comparison to running 3.1 but once optimised you'll hardly notice the difference... :)

Of course an 060 will make a hell of a difference in everyday use but unless you're willing to spend a small fortune on getting hold of an 060 board then an 030 will do just nicely... :)


I don't know anything about the optimising.  So I will be reading the manual soon.  I just assumed all the ram would just be availible to the system.  

I hear ya about the 060 I barely had the cash for this 28Mhz board.  Wanted the 56Mhz but just can't make the extra cash availible.  

Someday
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: runequester on April 24, 2011, 05:40:33 AM
Quote from: Claw22000;633158
I have finally ordered my ACA030 28mhz card.  I have saved up extra cash for about 6 months now and am finally able to do it!  YES.  I can't wait to get my new Amigoodies!   Now does this mean I should consider upgrading from 3.1 to 3.9?  or is it not worth it till you have an 060?


Awesome. 64 megs of RAM is basically unlimited RAM for an amiga anyways :D

I'd check out 3.5 too as it'll run pretty good.
3.9 runs decent on my card (030/56) though it starts up a bit slower.

3.9 gave me a lot more headaches with the updates though.
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: Claw22000 on April 24, 2011, 05:45:37 AM
Quote from: runequester;633326
Awesome. 64 megs of RAM is basically unlimited RAM for an amiga anyways :D

I'd check out 3.5 too as it'll run pretty good.
3.9 runs decent on my card (030/56) though it starts up a bit slower.

3.9 gave me a lot more headaches with the updates though.


What kind of updates the boing bags?
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: runequester on April 24, 2011, 05:53:07 AM
Quote from: Claw22000;633327
What kind of updates the boing bags?


yeah, those.
The second one broke my system, trying to use the updated kickstart rom file. Without that, things were fine, and the installer will let you skip it.
The unofficial BB3 also broke my system.

It was fixable but took some fussing about.
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: Claw22000 on April 24, 2011, 06:06:38 AM
Quote from: runequester;633329
yeah, those.
The second one broke my system, trying to use the updated kickstart rom file. Without that, things were fine, and the installer will let you skip it.
The unofficial BB3 also broke my system.

It was fixable but took some fussing about.


Just to make things easier on me since I'm am going to attempt this what was wrong with boing bag 3 and what did you have to do to fix it?  Also did you have any problems with Boing bag 4?  

I haven't used either of those updates yet as they were unofficial and I didn't want to find out the hard way they needed an 060 processor or something like that.
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: runequester on April 24, 2011, 06:13:02 AM
Quote from: Claw22000;633332
Just to make things easier on me since I'm am going to attempt this what was wrong with boing bag 3 and what did you have to do to fix it?  Also did you have any problems with Boing bag 4?  

I haven't used either of those updates yet as they were unofficial and I didn't want to find out the hard way they needed an 060 processor or something like that.

with BB3, once I edited my startup-sequence with what the install script suggests, the system refused to boot properly.
WHen I removed those sections, everything seems to work fine. I dont know if there's something I am losing out on.

You could probably do fine with BB1 and 2.

I havent tried 4 yet, as I am pretty happy with my system, and dont experience any crashes.

The Dock that you get looks a bit iffy in AGA, but its not so bad. I can see why they suggest RTG I guess. Its fully usable though and very easy to configure.
UnArc is awesome. Very easy for unpacking all sorts of archives that took different apps to do before.
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: Claw22000 on April 24, 2011, 06:31:34 AM
Quote from: runequester;633333
with BB3, once I edited my startup-sequence with what the install script suggests, the system refused to boot properly.
WHen I removed those sections, everything seems to work fine. I dont know if there's something I am losing out on.

You could probably do fine with BB1 and 2.

I havent tried 4 yet, as I am pretty happy with my system, and dont experience any crashes.

The Dock that you get looks a bit iffy in AGA, but its not so bad. I can see why they suggest RTG I guess. Its fully usable though and very easy to configure.
UnArc is awesome. Very easy for unpacking all sorts of archives that took different apps to do before.


Thanks for all the heads up.  I can't wait to get this but I do have a project to work on till it arrives.  I was rummaging though old broken parts at the shop and found an A4000 w/Toster built in.  It looks as though the battery is leaking and I don't know much about cleaning up/repairing the damage.  But were going to try :D.
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: runequester on April 24, 2011, 06:43:30 AM
well, if it works, you have an 040 already, so thatd be awesome :)
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: Claw22000 on April 24, 2011, 07:17:38 AM
Quote from: runequester;633338
well, if it works, you have an 040 already, so thatd be awesome :)


is the 040 that much faster than an 030 at 28 mhz?
Title: Re: WHDLoad and standard A1200HD
Post by: runequester on April 24, 2011, 07:21:36 AM
Quote from: Claw22000;633342
is the 040 that much faster than an 030 at 28 mhz?


I havent compared side by side, and you won't see the speed difference in all app's but from what I can gather, an 040 is going to be effectively at least twice the speed of a 030 clocked at the same mhz.
Theoretically it'd be faster, but other things slow things down (RAM access and other blather).

So yeah, it'd be a lot snappier for things that take advantage of it.
That being said, the 040 is also less compatible with software, where the 030 generally plays very nice.

Ive seen the ACA cards perform a bit faster than a comparable older 030 card, probably due to using faster RAM, so there's that too.



Im sure one of the tech wizards will jump in :)