A2000 video and network expansion

[sez11a]

Hi everyone,

Been lurking for a while, but now I definitely have a reason to post. My uncle worked for Commodore (actually, MOS Technology) back in the day, and a few weeks ago he gave me his old A2000, which had been sitting in his basement for a decade.

When he gave it to me, it had a 2.0 ROM, two floppies and two SCSI hard drives, and it uses a ROM switcher (a 1.3 ROM is in the other socket). It has a 68030 upgrade board and a flicker fixer, so I can plug it into a VGA monitor.

I have since upgraded the 2.0 ROM to a 3.1 ROM, and have removed one of the hard drives (it was going bad) and replaced it with an old server hard drive I had lying around in my basement. The other drive has his data on it, and I took it out of the machine to make sure the data is preserved while I try to get this thing upgraded and working.

Using my copy of AmigaForever, I created floppy disks from the 3.1 workbench images that come with that, and at the moment I'm posting this, I'm trying to get the new/old hard drive partitioned (it's taking a long time; it's a 9GB drive--circa 1998, if I remember correctly).

I'm in a little over my head, so I need some help. Is the 2320 flicker fixer something I can use with Picasso 96, or do I have to get something else? (I ask this question because I already went through the Green Amiga Alien Guide on my emulator as a dry run). There's also a missing card; presumably there was a network card in there, because I found a hosts file on my uncle's hard drive with a bunch of Commodore server names in it. Is there a network card I could stick in this thing? I'd love to get it on the Internet. What other cool stuff could I do with it?

Any help is greatly appreciated; thanks!

[sez11a]

Thanks for the help! I was always a PC guy, so I'm having to learn about this platform. I'm teaching a class in the fall on the History of the Microcomputer, and I'm trying to get this machine into a state where I can show the kids an Amiga that was well-equipped for its day vs. a "home" Amiga (I also have an Amiga 500 from ebay).

So if I want better video I have to get a different card. I think I'll hold off on that for right now, because I have a more pressing issue:

It's looking like my Amiga doesn't like the SCSI drive I was trying to use; I left it trying to partition for 24 hours and it never got past 0%. I have various old IDE drives lying around; I'd love to use one of those, but I'm having trouble finding an IDE adapter for the Amiga 2000 at either AmigaKit or Vesalia. Google also isn't helping. Or am I barking up the wrong tree, and I should just stick with SCSI?

[sez11a]

What SCSI controller do you use? and what SCSI drive do you use? What other cards are installed?

It's a Commodore A2091. Originally had a Quantum ProDrive mounted on the card itself. That's the drive that has my uncle's data (and the hosts file), and which I've taken out so that nothing can happen to the data while I mess around with the machine. The other cards are a flicker fixer (A2320), a 68030 processor card, and a memory expansion card. Everything in the machine is Commodore stuff, from what I can tell.

Sitting in a basement for 10 years?  Check the battery ASAP, while doing  all this other work on it!  Also might be neat to post that Commodore  Hosts file online somewhere, with all the old CBM server names.  

Yeah; I checked the battery. Small amount of corrosion on the battery contacts themselves, but hasn't spread anywhere. I'm terrible with a soldering iron, but within a month I will have a friend replace with one of these and a CR2032.

Once I get a clean HD installed and working in this system, I'll reconnect my uncle's hard drive and copy his data. I do remember one of the server names, though. It was enterprise.commodore.com :-)

Most older Amigas will have problems with a 9GB drive. Depending on the  controller card, the firmware may not even deal with drives bigger than  1GB.

That is very helpful to know. Somebody is selling this on ebay, but I'd much rather go IDE if I can. The Ebay drive is a 4GB drive; are you saying that it won't work either? Do you know of any IDE cards for this machine? I haven't been able to find one.

Thanks!

[sez11a]

So are these the ROMs I'm looking for?

Thanks!