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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: mrmoonlight on February 18, 2013, 09:24:59 PM
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ACA 1232 Accelerator with 128MB RAM
Hi i know i keep banging on about Accelerators ,but still not sure what is good or bad ,so how about this one for my Amiga 1200 and will i need to upgrade my psu as i only have the standard one ,i have 3.1 roms ,os 3.1 and 4gb cf card fitted .,best wishes Brian.
Specification:
(http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/images/bullet.jpg) For Amiga 1200 and ACA 500
(http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/images/bullet.jpg) Full 68030 inc MMU running at 25MHz (not overclocked)
(http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/images/bullet.jpg) 128MB Fast Memory (32-bit) with burstmode support
(http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/images/bullet.jpg) 1MB reserved for MapROM feature
(http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/images/bullet.jpg) PCMCIA compatible
(http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/images/bullet.jpg) Optional Real Time Clock module (available separately from us (http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1101))
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This is the 10th time I have gone to Amigakit to look at the busspeed test to see if someone should buy the card or not. But every time I go there, the busspeed test mysteriously does not work. So I just assume there is a problem with the card that they don't want you to know about. Sorry.
If you find someone who has the card and will do a bustest then I will give u a new opinion.
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Didn't purchase the ACA 1232 bypassed it as it is slower than the ACA 1231, which I bought through Vesalia as they were still making them.
Plus the RTC is builtin to the card no addon. Although the RTC addon is great if you want to use it by connecting it directly to the A1200.
Nearly hitting the 10K mark :-)
Would highly recommend getting the timing fixes done as it makes a huge difference have only had one game not work since getting the fixes.
Also got the cap's replaced and the sound is crisper/cleaner than it was sounds a lot different.. :-)
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I have an ACA1232 - It works well :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni3SrjjiSB0
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I have an ACA1232 @ 33MHz as well, and it's a damn good card. 7.97Mips with SysInfo, and plenty of RAM (128MB). I softboot KS3.1, as the 1200 has original 3.0 roms in it. All works great, can even play doom at a reduced screen size. :elvis:
Preloading huge CD32 games in WHDLoad is pretty cool as well (Darkseed). You'll need timing fixes though with any A1200 cpu card depending on motherboard revision. What's your A1200 mobo revision?
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I have an ACA1232 - It works well :)
Agreed :-)
They're good reliable boards, WHDLoad just works. Apart from the timing fixes.
Although there are couple of WHDLoad games that just seem to need just a little more speed :-)
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Didn't purchase the ACA 1232 bypassed it as it is slower than the ACA 1231, which I bought through Vesalia as they were still making them.
Plus the RTC is builtin to the card no addon. Although the RTC addon is great if you want to use it by connecting it directly to the A1200.
Nearly hitting the 10K mark :-)
Would highly recommend getting the timing fixes done as it makes a huge difference have only had one game not work since getting the fixes.
Also got the cap's replaced and the sound is crisper/cleaner than it was sounds a lot different.. :-)
Thanks very much for your help ,can i do the timing fixes or do i have to send my Amiga off to say Amigakit,Brian
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I have an ACA1232 @ 33MHz as well, and it's a damn good card. 7.97Mips with SysInfo, and plenty of RAM (128MB). I softboot KS3.1, as the 1200 has original 3.0 roms in it. All works great, can even play doom at a reduced screen size. :elvis:
Preloading huge CD32 games in WHDLoad is pretty cool as well (Darkseed). You'll need timing fixes though with any A1200 cpu card depending on motherboard revision. What's your A1200 mobo revision?
Hi its a 104 revision
thanks for the reply,Brian.
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Thanks very much for your help ,can i do the timing fixes or do i have to send my Amiga off to say Amigakit,Brian
http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/A1200_Mobo_fix/a1200_mobo_fix.html
Can give it a go, I ended up sending it to Amigakit. Some of the fixes went a little over my head especially the version 2 board :-(
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mr moonlight, if I were you Id get a Blizzard, Apollo, Gvp, or some other 030 cpu that is known working no problem, so you probably wont need "timing fixes" as with the ACA boards.
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mr moonlight, if I were you Id get a Blizzard, Apollo, Gvp, or some other 030 cpu that is known working no problem, so you probably wont need "timing fixes" as with the ACA boards.
The timing fixes are an issue with the A1200 motherboard :-) Those other cards also show signs/faults.
The ACA cards however are pushing it further than the older hardware and if you go 040/060 later on the timing fixes will be needed.
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The timing fixes are an issue with the A1200 motherboard :-) Those other cards also show signs/faults.
.
I have run the following board with ZERO problems on many rev a1200s with no "timing fixes"
Blizzard 030
blizz 060
Apolllo mk3 030
Dkb cobra 030
Gvp 030
Ematrix 030
Magnum 030
etc etc
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A couple of those have worked fine for me too, but every A1200 motherboard is different. Most of the time the older hardware is fine, but I've noticed small little faults on a couple of different A1200's (and so have others).
Actually some A1200's have sound problems and video tearing issues, but the problems don't show up on all motherboards even version numbers seem to be not a guide either to determine if fixes will be needed or not.
Some 1200's work fine with the ACA cards even though it's stated that timing fixes are needed.
It appears to be luck of the draw.
There are long technical posts about this issue on EAB and Amibay which explain it better than me.
040/060 cards have a tendency to show the timing faults more often than 030 cards, especially when clocking the 060 at 80MHz +
Just need to do a google and find a lot of people having timing issues.
The best advice is to get the card you want, try it and if the amiga shows faults then get the timing fixes.
TBH I find the ACA card's to be faster than the Bliz 030. Must be the faster more modern RAM that they come with. The ACA 1231 is a very good card.
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I'd buy an acc card with 50MHz 030+882 and 128MB RAM to upgrade from the Blizzard 1230 III, but so far all the ACA cards would have been downgrades.
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Could someone with an ACA1232 and/or other related accelerator please run Bustest and copy/paste the text here for me to look at? Thanx!
And you must state the exact video mode that your Amiga was in when you ran the test, in order for the test to be valid. And tell us the Mhz of your ACA card.
If the ACA is as awesome as Jens says it is then it should produce really outstanding bustest results, but I will wait and see.
p.s. I have run Blizzard 060 50Mhz and Apollo 060 50Mhz in 2 A1200s and never needed any "timing fixes". I never even heard of "timing fixes" before the ACA cards came out.
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Hi its a 104 revision
thanks for the reply,Brian.
A 1D4 A1200 motherboard WILL require a fix. See below link for information and instructions:
http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/A1200_Mobo_fix/a1200_mobo_fix.html
My ACA seemingly worked fine on my rev.2B A1200 without the fix. But with WHDLoad on some games I had freezing problems, or graphics corruption. Like Breathless would freeze after 2 minutes, as did AB3D after a while.
At the time I read over at eab that Mad Professor Mariarti was a good game to test whether timing fixes are needed and whether (after fixing) fixing was successful. I loaded the said game...before the fixes the graphics became trashed in the intro...so I knew I needed fixes. I performed the fix and hey presto...no graphics corruption, and no more freezing either on those other games I mentioned.
As for the timing fixes with non ACA cards, the problem is not a new one and not unique to the ACA series. Not all A1200 motherboard revisions require the fix, so that's why a lot of people never needed the fix to begin with (back in the 90's for example). AFAIK it's only the 1D4 and 2B motherboard revisions that require these fixes, and yes, even non ACA cards (not ram expansions) will require the fix as well in order to work correctly.
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Thanks to all for there help ,still not sure if i have done the right thing ,but having aE-Matrix 1230-50 Accelerator Card years ago i had no problems apart from i remember some thing being loose on the underside of the board or was it the top side ,so i pushed it back in and never troubled me again,so i have bought a E-Matrix 1230-50 Accelerator Card ,and i was hoping i would not have to fix the timing
any way thanks again.Brian
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A 1D4 A1200 motherboard WILL require a fix. See below link for information and instructions:
http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/A1200_Mobo_fix/a1200_mobo_fix.html
My ACA seemingly worked fine on my rev.2B A1200 without the fix. But with WHDLoad on some games I had freezing problems, or graphics corruption. Like Breathless would freeze after 2 minutes, as did AB3D after a while.
At the time I read over at eab that Mad Professor Mariarti was a good game to test whether timing fixes are needed and whether (after fixing) fixing was successful. I loaded the said game...before the fixes the graphics became trashed in the intro...so I knew I needed fixes. I performed the fix and hey presto...no graphics corruption, and no more freezing either on those other games I mentioned.
As for the timing fixes with non ACA cards, the problem is not a new one and not unique to the ACA series. Not all A1200 motherboard revisions require the fix, so that's why a lot of people never needed the fix to begin with (back in the 90's for example). AFAIK it's only the 1D4 and 2B motherboard revisions that require these fixes, and yes, even non ACA cards (not ram expansions) will require the fix as well in order to work correctly.
Most informative message I have read all day. I hereby award you
Amiga Science Merit Badge
For service above and beyond the call of duty. :idea:
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A 1D4 A1200 motherboard WILL require a fix. See below link for information and instructions:
http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/A1200_Mobo_fix/a1200_mobo_fix.html
My ACA seemingly worked fine on my rev.2B A1200 without the fix. But with WHDLoad on some games I had freezing problems, or graphics corruption. Like Breathless would freeze after 2 minutes, as did AB3D after a while.
At the time I read over at eab that Mad Professor Mariarti was a good game to test whether timing fixes are needed and whether (after fixing) fixing was successful. I loaded the said game...before the fixes the graphics became trashed in the intro...so I knew I needed fixes. I performed the fix and hey presto...no graphics corruption, and no more freezing either on those other games I mentioned.
As for the timing fixes with non ACA cards, the problem is not a new one and not unique to the ACA series. Not all A1200 motherboard revisions require the fix, so that's why a lot of people never needed the fix to begin with (back in the 90's for example). AFAIK it's only the 1D4 and 2B motherboard revisions that require these fixes, and yes, even non ACA cards (not ram expansions) will require the fix as well in order to work correctly.
Hi thanks for all the info ,very interesting but i have gone for the E-Matrix 1230-50 Accelerator Card ,i had one a long time ago and i was very pleased with it ,i will let you know how i go on with it after it arrives ,very best wishes Brian.
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As for the timing fixes with non ACA cards, the problem is not a new one and not unique to the ACA series. Not all A1200 motherboard revisions require the fix, so that's why a lot of people never needed the fix to begin with (back in the 90's for example). AFAIK it's only the 1D4 and 2B motherboard revisions that require these fixes, and yes, even non ACA cards (not ram expansions) will require the fix as well in order to work correctly.
That is not 100% factual.
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That is not 100% factual.
my NOS 1D4 came from Amigakit and it looks like those components were never populated, so some did not need the fix.
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Yeah a lot of ppl repeat information the see elsewhere posted on the internet. Its kind of funny how nobody needed "fixes" until these ACA cards came along..
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Yeah a lot of ppl repeat information the see elsewhere posted on the internet. Its kind of funny how nobody needed "fixes" until these ACA cards came along..
That is not 100% factual?
There are posts prior to the ACA cards re these issues. Google is your friend :-)
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Yes not even close to 100% actually. The point was is I know many a1200s running for years now with all kinds of diff cpu cards. This whole "timing fix" thing really became popular with the introduction of these aca boards afaik
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I needed to do these fixes on both my 1D4 and 2B motherboards to get a GVP 1230 and Blizzard PPC working properly.
It is nothing new.
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I have a e-matrix in a Commodre 1200 I bought 18 months ago from a boot sale and had no problems! In my old miggy (another Commodore) I had to get it fixed when I upgraded from a blizzaed 1220 to an Apollo 1240/40. I think Amigakit did it for me back in the day (if they are the same Kingston based company). Miss the old miggy - towered with lots of gubbins and was excellent fro Doom etc
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I have a e-matrix in a Commodre 1200 I bought 18 months ago from a boot sale and had no problems! In my old miggy (another Commodore) I had to get it fixed when I upgraded from a blizzaed 1220 to an Apollo 1240/40. I think Amigakit did it for me back in the day (if they are the same Kingston based company). Miss the old miggy - towered with lots of gubbins and was excellent fro Doom etc
Well that is good news ,i hope you are right,as i too had a e-matrix years ago and that ran like a dream and i was well pleased which is why i bought another one ,just wondering where more memory can be bought from.
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Yeah a lot of ppl repeat information the see elsewhere posted on the internet. Its kind of funny how nobody needed "fixes" until these ACA cards came along..
I speak from personal experience. I never repeat "stuff I see on the internet". I have other Amiga 1200's. I have a 1A with a Blizzard1260 (doesn't require a fix), I have a 1D3 with an Apollo 1260 (doesn't require a fix), and I have a 2B with an ACA1232 (did require a fix). The ACA1232 will work fine in any A1200 board revision except for 1D4 and 2B. You could also say the same for a lot of other accelerator cards (like Havie's Apollo1240 for instance, and UberFreak's GVP1230 and his ppc card).
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my NOS 1D4 came from Amigakit and it looks like those components were never populated, so some did not need the fix.
Amigakit more than likely did the fix for you before dispatching your A1200 (they don't want returns or hassle I suppose).
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Most informative message I have read all day. I hereby award you
Amiga Science Merit Badge
For service above and beyond the call of duty. :idea:
Thanks Chaos! :laugh1:
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I will have to double check what revision board I have for my A1200. Bought me the ACA1232 a few weeks back and worked like a charm so far..... Only thing I did was replace capacitors... I will have to try out a game or two to see if it locks up.
What games should I try to see if it crashes often?
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I will have to double check what revision board I have for my A1200. Bought me the ACA1232 a few weeks back and worked like a charm so far..... Only thing I did was replace capacitors... I will have to try out a game or two to see if it locks up.
What games should I try to see if it crashes often?
Any WHDLoad game should show it up. :-) Mine also had the occasional pink screen on booting.