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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: AmmoJammo on June 19, 2012, 03:45:37 AM
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Are there any clear instructions around on how to setup/configure this? as well as configure WB3.1 to automatically do this when it boots?
The hardware came with a disc, but no "you're a dumba$$" instructions, which is really what I'm needing.
thanks!
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arent there some files in the "Devs" folder on the disc you can copy over (iirc the HW drivers live in that folder but it might be called something else)?
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Boot off of the disk. That should configure it for you.
The RAM doesn't autoconfigure.
You need to use the program autoaddram.
autoaddram needs a file (s:memorylist.aar), which is a text file that lists the memory locations.
If you have a hard drive and you want to add the RAM to your hard drive boot, copy autoaddram to c:
Then copy the memorylist.aar from df0:s to your hard drive s:
Then add, as the first line in your s:startup-sequence
c:autoaddram
desiv
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Whats the easiest way to edit the startup sequence file? :p
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Shell window, type ED s:startup-sequence :)
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Nevermind...
Edit: Looks like they beat me to it...
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sorted, thanks!
the disc wasn't adding the ram, as the 1meg in the A590 was still enabled ;)
Only think is, ED Player wants more chip ram :(
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if you have the rev6 500 board with Fat_Angus 2MB you might be able to use Toms new 1mb trapdoor board to get 1.5mb chip ram.
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I have a REV 6 A500 with a standard 512k trapdoor.
A jumper cut and a solder dab and I had 1M CHIP and 8M FAST (with Toms 8M).
Then I managed to get a MinimegaChip, so now I have 2M CHIP and 8M Fast.
No hard disk tho. Running from floppy, although I do have an AEHD High Density floppy drive....
It's pretty workable actually...
I am thinking of going to WB 2.x (I have 1.x in my A1000 and 3.x in my A1200, so it kind of makes sense). That's the highest I can go and still use the AEHD apparently.
Oh, make sure you have the command FASTMEMFIRST fairly early in your startup-sequence to save some CHIP RAM.
Don't run you WB in interlace mode either.
desiv
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I was under the impression that if you did the 1meg internal hack, that the first 512k of the trapdoor ram won't be used anyway?
I'm probably wrong though :p
so, this "FASTMEMFIRST" line? just add it exactly like that, in the startup-sequence file? directly after the S:autoaddram line?
is FASTMEMFIRST a program/whatever that I need to also copy? :P
thanks
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The 1M CHIP ram mod takes the 512k trapdoor slowRAM and makes it CHIP RAM.
As for fastmemfirst, it comes with the OS..
Might be in sys:system (instead of c: ), my machine is off now and I'm getting braindead (cleaning the garage.. :-( )
Just add it in your startup-sequence somewhere after the autoaddram (probably right after would be fine).
It might already be in your startup-sequence somewhere...
desiv
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I didnt realise there was a difference between chip and slow, thanks. Got a link to the mod ?
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Got a link to the mod ?
Yes, but I can't find it now..
It's in my favorites on my laptop at home, so I'll post it when I get home..
desiv
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You can find the mod instructions for instance in the DKB Megachip manual http://amiga-manuals.xiik.net/hardware/DKB%20MegaCHIP%20-%20Manual-ENG.rar
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interesting... a piece of hardware that requires you to "hack" your motherboard... :p
I assumed you guys were talking about the mod where you add another 512k onto the motherboard in the spare spots...
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Yeah, this is the link I had.
http://s2.postimage.org/8o0x83w69/A500_6a_1_MBCHIP.png
It's the same info..
You don't need the DKB Minimegchip for this to work. Just that if you want to use the DKB, you need to do this first.
But you can do this just to get to 1M CHIP.
1M CHIP, for an A500 is plenty, and as long as you have FAST RAM, you'll never miss the slow 512k.
It was a bit nerve wracking for me to poke at my A500 with an exacto tho.. ;-)
desiv
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before motherboard mod:
(http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/8783/20120619130043.jpg)
after motherboard mod:
(http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/2296/20120620114241.jpg)
I reckon I'd still like a bit more, 2 meg total maybe...
knives are fun... I work in electronics assembly, its no big deal cutting tracks :p
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So if you have a 500+ with Rev8a and 1mb chip ram already and you put in a trapdoor 1mb ram board (TomThul has a new 1mb battery backed board) do you need to do anything to enable 2mb chip-ram?
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I thought "dumba$$es" only owned Apple products :)
no, the Rev8a mobo should auto config the 1meg trap door expansion as CHIP ram because its made for A500+.. it is constructed different to the normal A500 512K trapdoor expansions.
Az
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Great AmmoJammo!!
Looks nice (WB 2.x there?)...
If you can find a DKB MiniMegaChip, you can pretty easily get to 2M chip.
They aren't common, but they pop up fairly frequently.
So if you have a 500+ with Rev8a and 1mb chip ram already and you put in a trapdoor 1mb ram board (TomThul has a new 1mb battery backed board) do you need to do anything to enable 2mb chip-ram?
Not familiar with the 500+, sorry...
I think it already has the Agnus for 2M CHIP support, but I don't think the MiniMegaChip works on it (based on a quick google search, but that could be wrong)..
As for Tom's new board, I'm not that familiar with it yet...
I helped him beta test some of his other boards, and he asked me about this one, but I had already modded and MiniMegaChip'ed my A500, so I didn't have a good test machine anymore..
desiv
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no, the Rev8a mobo should auto config the 1meg trap door expansion as CHIP ram because its made for A500+.. it is constructed different to the normal A500 512K trapdoor expansions.
Az
Cheers. :)
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Great AmmoJammo!!
Looks nice (WB 2.x there?)...
its WB3.1, which means it doesn't come with fastmemfirst.
I copied it from the WB1.3 floppy, to C.
added C:fastmemfirst to the startup sequence, then tried C:fastmemfirst >NIL:
neither left me with anymore free chip mem once WB had loaded. oh well.
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If you have a harddrive on your system, if you need more chip ram reduce how many addbuffers you have in the s/startup-sequence.
each buffer eats way 30k of chip ram if I remember correctly.
The buffers are there to speed up directory searching and loading of small files. If you have a CF adapter on your machine then you should only have a few buffers because the CF is much faster than older XT or AT harddrives which were common, or slow old scsi-50pin which the addbuffers command was there to help speed up.
Az
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If you have a harddrive on your system, if you need more chip ram reduce how many addbuffers you have in the s/startup-sequence.
each buffer eats way 30k of chip ram if I remember correctly.
The buffers are there to speed up directory searching and loading of small files. If you have a CF adapter on your machine then you should only have a few buffers because the CF is much faster than older XT or AT harddrives which were common, or slow old scsi-50pin which the addbuffers command was there to help speed up.
Az
ah yes, this isn't my picture/info thread, so that would explain.. I didn't go into much detail in this thread :p
but I did in this thread!
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=61854
thanks for calling my scsi HDD slow :(
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Running an A500+ with the same 8MB board. Have 1MB in expansion, but no hacks needed as the A500+ will configure 2MB chip.
New battery has turned up but waiting on a better condition A500+ motherboard to turn up to solder it to :-)
I get 1.7MB chip with WB 3.1 and 1.9MB chip with 2.1. So might downgrade as all I do is play WHDLoad games :-)
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Running an A500+ with the same 8MB board. Have 1MB in expansion, but no hacks needed as the A500+ will configure 2MB chip.
Nice to know. :cool:
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The A500+ is like an A600 but cooler :-P
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pfft! the A500+ is like the A500, but with corrosive stuff poured on the motherboard :p lol
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A600 has PCMCIA, you can add networking! It also has inbuilt IDE and 2meg chipram and FULL ECS chipset. So its MUCH better than an A500, and only slight better than an A500+
But I would love to own an A500+ because I know from experience that 2meg chip ram is always much nicer than just 1meg :)
It is why I like my A3000's so much!
Az
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The A500+ is like an A600 but cooler :-P
Indeed! :biglaugh:
pfft! the A500+ is like the A500, but with corrosive stuff poured on the motherboard :p lol
hehe, makes restoration that much more satisfying when complete. :cool:
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It is why I like my A3000's so much!
Az
Now that is an Amiga I'd luv to own! :cool:
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A600 has PCMCIA, you can add networking! It also has inbuilt IDE and 2meg chipram and FULL ECS chipset. So its MUCH better than an A500, and only slight better than an A500+
A500+ is full ECS, comes with 1MB standard just like the A600. Only two things missing from an A500+ internal IDE and a PCMCIA slot.
A500+
IDE = A590 or internal mod
Network = very hard to do :-)
A600
No numeric keypad :-)
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A500+ is full ECS, comes with 1MB standard just like the A600. Only two things missing from an A500+ internal IDE and a PCMCIA slot.
A500+
IDE = A590 or internal mod
Network = very hard to do :-)
A600
No numeric keypad :-)
Im planning on adding an IDE68k which adds the missing a600 IDE controller and I'll prolly use an IDE-CF converter mounted under the floppy drive so I can remove the CF Card and copy files to it in WinUAE. :)
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A600 does have a missing numpad.... but then again not many games use numpad but lots of them are hard drive installable :)
pcmcia networking rocks, netgear ma401 for wireless = win!
I installed the ma401 into my A1200
One of my a500's has KS2.04/WB2.1 and an internal IDE, the ICD AdIDE40 + 240meg harddrive.
The other A500 has an A590 attached, KS3.1/WB3.1, 2meg-fastram, 2gig scsi and external Cd-rom
Neither has 2meg chip yet, when I finally get an expansion for that it will go into one of my A2000's
I would like to own one of Tom Thul's internal IDE solutions, CF would be much nicer than the internal AdIDE40 I have now. ( it will not do CF, barely does older IDE drives )
Az
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I would like to own one of Tom Thul's internal IDE solutions, CF would be much nicer than the internal AdIDE40 I have now. ( it will not do CF, barely does older IDE drives )
Az
I think MKL's IDE68k* is a better solution as TomThul's IDE board is not auto config.
*emulates the a600 Gayle IDE adapter.
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The only thing I worry about with the IDE68k is it clashing with what I already have internally. i.e. The indivision, and also there's a few people mentioning issues with some accelerator cards.
Tom's doesn't auto boot, although you can use a floppy to boot it from what I understand, not sure if it has the same conflict problems?
Plus at some point the keyboard and top case isn't going to close :-)
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Tom's doesn't auto boot, although you can use a floppy to boot it from what I understand, not sure if it has the same conflict problems?
Yes, there's a boot floppy which loads the IDE driver, then it transfers control over to the HD and you finish the boot of the OS from your HD.
I have it for my A1000 and it works pretty well.
Especially since I use a "kickwork" floppy to kickstart the 1000, and then load the driver on the A1000. Since I needed a floppy for my kickstart, it's still just one floppy in the system when I boot.
Not sure about size conflicts, as the CF/IDE card I have is a sidecar (Tom made a few different types).
desiv
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Yeah I think he had at the time was the side car version. At the moment I'm trying to get everything inside the a500 case. Which is harder than what I thought, height wise and the gap between the indivsion ecs and anything I plug into the CPU socket is very close.
Then the keyboard is pushed up just enough that the case wont close :-( So I don't know how some people can do it.
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Hello All, I don't look at this site much...I should!!!!! I have been working
on a 1mb battery backed chip ram board. I think I have a working prototype!!! I will do some more testing.....I am going to make a small
test batch. This board will allow you to boot the amiga without a floppy disk. It does this by using a recoverable ram disk RAD: it takes about
100k of chip ram....and yes I agree that Mika's auto-booting ide controller is way better!!!! I have one and it works great!!!! I will have some 8mb
ram boards for sale in the next few days....also I made a couple of 8mb
boards for the A600...they clip onto the 68000.... there is a jumper
to configure the board as 4mb or 8mb so you can still use the pcmcia slot.
the chip ram board is going to cost about $50.00.... the hxc floppy emulator is alot nicer...but it costs about $125.00..this could be a cheaper way to boot the amiga without the use of a floppy.
tom
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Yeah I think he had at the time was the side car version. At the moment I'm trying to get everything inside the a500 case. Which is harder than what I thought, height wise and the gap between the indivsion ecs and anything I plug into the CPU socket is very close.
Then the keyboard is pushed up just enough that the case wont close :-( So I don't know how some people can do it.
Hiya Lurch, I have seen the end of the cpu that touches the keyboard ground/sanded/shaved at a 30degree angle to give clearance. Its not pretty, but then again all your removing is the plastic part, the carrier so its not essential for the cpu to have this :)
Az
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Hiya Lurch, I have seen the end of the cpu that touches the keyboard ground/sanded/shaved at a 30degree angle to give clearance. Its not pretty, but then again all your removing is the plastic part, the carrier so its not essential for the cpu to have this :)
Az
Have been very tempted to do something like this but knowing my luck I'd hit a trace LOL. Will see how it all goes together once I get my indivision back.
My poor A500 is in parts all over the table at the moment :-(
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I recall grinding down the plastic inside the bottom of the case to make the board sit an extra millimeter or two lower when I installed an IDE68k and a VXL-30/32 combo in my A500+.
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Just like to say making some great hardware there Tom. Glad I could the chance to purchase one.
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I recall grinding down the plastic inside the bottom of the case to make the board sit an extra millimeter or two lower when I installed an IDE68k and a VXL-30/32 combo in my A500+.
Now that's a good idea, the case is quite thick so could get some space there. BTW lucky you have the 30/32 combo I just have the vxl-30. :-)