New problem: Apollo 1240/25 accelerator won't boot correctly

[dweomer]

Now that I think I have the problem with the PCMCIA ethernet card licked (spend more money on another card, that oughta fix it), I installed the accelerator and it's acting wierd: Guru errors, Workbench boot-up errors. It keeps trying to boot, but no go.

 I tested the 16mb simm that came installed in the Apollo in something else, to make sure that worked fine, then I tested the Apollo without the memory in the A1200. Boots fine, no problem.

I thought it might be giving me grief because I was using the wimpy original power supply, so I upped the p/s to an A500 35watt unit--no Bigfoots (Bigfeet? Proudfoots/Proudfeet?) to be had at Software Hut, if anybody has a spare, I might be interested), but got the same results as before, with an old simm that I'd used in my A2000 with A2630, and with the simm that shipped with the Apollo.

 :-? Hmmm. Held down mouse buttons for early startup, disabled the CPU caches, and everything boots up fine, all ram is recognized. The thing seems happy as a clam.

How much speed am I sacrificing here with the caches disabled? Is there something loading at boot that's causing this error, that I could alter and still use my caches? It's kind of a pain in the rear to always boot with both fingers down, too.

I have no previous personal experience with the Apollo 1240, but it seems to get mediocre reviews. I just wanted to get some fast ram going, and this was a fairly inexpensive way to do it.

Current system configuration: A1200, 8mb 2.5" ide hard drive, OS3.1 on 3.0 rom, Apollo 1240/25 with 16mb fast, no scsi.

Any assistance is appreciated.

DWMR

[dweomer]

Yes, I think so.  When I installed the OS on the 8mb drive it seemed to be there by default. Unless it's corrupted (seems unlikely) or there's a better version for Apollo boards that I don't know about (entirely possible).

DWMR

[dweomer]

The documentation for the Apollo calls for 70ns or faster. It's been
quite a while since I've seen anything _slower_ than 70ns, but I
suppose it's possible. I'm shopping around for some simms that will
fit the slot(chips only on one side), 32mb fast page mode. Everything
I have laying around is sdram.

[dweomer]

From original post:

"Current system configuration: A1200, 8mb 2.5" ide hard drive, OS3.1 on 3.0 rom, Apollo 1240/25 with 16mb fast, no scsi."

Showconfig reports : Kickstart version 39.106, Exec version 39.47, Disk version 40.42. It also shows the accelerated "CPU 68040/68040fpu." Interestingly enough, it breaks down the 16mb simm into two 8mb nodes, which I don't remember my old A2KHD doing, but it's been awhile.

Also, I'm not using a double sided simm. I tried one out (8mb) and it had the same issues as the single sided 16mb that shipped with the Apollo

The only patch installed is a newer version of setpatch from Aminet, installed based on earlier advice in this thread, which doesn't seem to be causing any new errors, but doesn't solve the problem either.

[dweomer]

Swing and a . . .  miss.

3.1 runs fine on 3.0 roms, in my experience. 3.5 _requires_ 3.1 roms, but you only get a few cosmetic diffs with 3.0 roms and 3.1 on top.

Anyone care to correct me? That's a cheap fix if it's the real problem, but I've always (for years) heard that 3.0 roms ran fine with the upgraded disk versions.

by the way, I booted w/out startup sequence, got to the prompt, and genetic species runs very nicely, so I'm tinkering with the startup-sequence now, to narrow it down. Is there a good debug util for this process on aminet--i'm looking, but if anyone can save me spending precious brain juice, that'd be great.

[dweomer]

The memory turned out to be the problem.

I was rebuilding a couple of 486 based systems, digging around in my storage boxes for parts, and happened upon my box of jumbled ram that I thought I'd given away. I think I actually did offer it to someone, but they just sniggered and said, "No thanks, man."

I had been calling around to various memory companies looking for a single sided simm that met my spec, and was having no real luck, so I decided to try all the 72 pin simms in the Apollo. One at a time. To see what happened. Boy, I  need a real life.

The last simm I tried was the keeper. 16mb single sided were plentiful in the box, but apparently none of them were high quality enough until the very bottom of the stack. I'd still like a 32, just to max it out, but I can hold off and browse a bit before buying now.

Interesting tidbit: I'd had the 1200 null-modem cabled to my pc to use the Amiga Explorer software bundled with UAE. It doesn't work with the accelerator plugged in. Ah well. I'm better off than I was before.