Amiga setup "woes," possible change-up ahead...

[blakespot]

I have had some kind of Amiga most of the years over the past 28 years. Usually more than one.

I currently have:

-- An Amiga 1000 system:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157621596272210/
-- An Amiga 2000 '060 system w/ Picasso II:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157604299491786/
-- An Amiga 1200 '060 tower:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157604300573758/
-- A SAM 440epFlex:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157621877406693/

But things are not ideal. I am thinking of selling and re-purchasing.

I love the Amiga 1000 and will never let that go. It's a nice little setup with 2MB FAST and a SCSI HD and is great with 1.3 on down.

The A1200 '060 was my main machine, but it started having issues with the Indivision AGA and so I had to drop back to the more limited FF I had before (Cammy inherited it!). And I have PSU issues, and being towered it's started to feel sort of not deeply Amiga. And, it has OS 3.9 on it which I dislike. I am trying to get the PSU issue fixed and then I may sell, maybe in parts. More on why later.

Then there is the A2000 '060. Lately I have spent all this time building up my A2000 with '060, Picasso II, etc. but it seems misguided. I wanted to use the Amiga 2000 for all kinds of things like IRC and terminal and web etc. but it's not nearly as practical as the SAM. And I'm having some compat issues with '060 on some apps. It's got lots of good stuff in it, ADSG dual serial, etc. but it feels like I've built it out beyond reason. It feels less good than it did when it was an '020 or a '000.

I love the SAM. Will keep and explore AmigaOS 4 onward.

I think what I want, in the end, replacing the A2000 and A1200, is a proper A1200 in its own case with an accelerator like the new 42MHz 030 on that white circuit board, with the fast memory. Something clean that I can attach a CF card to and and Indivision mk II to and have a great WHDLoad experience.

I am thinking I might be better off with a PAL unit, even tho I am in the states, looking at the games and demos out there. A friend just got a NIB A1200 on eBay. How often do they come along?

What do you think of my plan?




bp

[blakespot]

...I love all amiga's but it still puzzles me why people build on the 1200 as a base.Its not cheaper in the long run and many times not as reliable,and certainly not as fast as the expanded 4k. I have probably opened pandoras box saying this

I had always heard that the A1200 is a more stable, compatible machine. That the extra hardware in the A4000 pushes it further afield from the center of compatibility.

Is that not the case? And how bad _are_ the caps in the A4000? I've got a room full of computers...

http://www.bytecellar.com/photo_pano.html

...and I've never, ever had a caps issue in any of them.




bp

[blakespot]

Wow I strongly suggest you open up each case (well at least save the Amiga's :-) & examine each cap for leakage right away.

I lost my A1200 IDE port last year because a cap right next to it slowly leaked and destroyed a bunch of traces beneath it ! It took a while to get her sorted out so do yourself a favour and replace them caps now & save yourself alot of headaches

I just opened my Amiga 1000. No leaky caps. It's one of the oldest machines here. Why do I not have caps problems? Is everyone else?



bp

[blakespot]

Nice systems, and thanks for the opinions.

I am not sure what to do. I have this A2000 060 with 128MB FAST RAM, ASDG Dual Serial Card, Picasso 2, Indivision ECS, and HxC2001 installed. But...it feels too "much" for what I want, what I use. My A1200 '060 tower is unstable and I am not using it at all right now.

I could sell both '060 accelerators and then the A2000 in a reduced config and fund a clean A1200 wedge with Indivision AGA mk II, ACA 1231 (030 42MHz, 64MB FAST), and 4GB CF IDE. Might be better for my WHDLoad purposes (and AGA demos). I'd also have A1000 and Sam 440ep Flex.

Decisions....



bp

[blakespot]

WOW! Impressive Mancave! :biglaugh:

Are my eyes deceiving me or is there some witchcraft at play? I see your A2000 is running Gauntlet 1. Wasn't it only released on the ST? (16bit)

Cheers

No magic...

http://www.lemonamiga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=93233&sid=14f226f3153edbc8781ad5094ec05b30

:-)



bp

[blakespot]

Is a 68060 ECS A2000 more "compatible" with WHDLoad titles than an '030 AGA A1200? God knows I have to crank out the NOAUTOVEC action to run half the stuff I come across.

Thanks.





bp

[blakespot]

There was also a version of the phase5 processor library that caused problems with WHDLoad, might want to try another, or even better the mmulib library.

The which??



bp

[blakespot]

LOL, sorry

The "noautovec" tooltype shouldn't really be a necessity, at least I don't recall this issue when I had my my B2060 running. This might mean you have another piece of hardware in the system causing WHDLoad to bomb, or maybe a network interface online (always have them offline before launching games).

Latest version of the phase5 cpu libraries here. It's worth a check that your 68060.library is the last released, since one or more of the earlier ones causes problems with WHDLoad.

The mmulib package can be found here, and includes its own replacement processor libraries. These are the best ones (IMHO) and worth a try, but AFAIK, the latest phase5 library should work fine with WHDLoad.

Anyhow, didn't mean to drag things too far OT - your 2060 should be great for WHDLoad without requiring extra tooltypes, and nearly as good as a 1200/'030 (minus lack of AGA compatibility, obviously).

Reading up on MMUlib now. Had never heard of it. I had just installed the libs on a floppy that came with this accelerator. The link you give for MMUlib takes me to Phase 5 software where I do see their libraries, but not MMUlib specifically.

Where can I get it? And it is an alternative and preferable to Phase 5's 68060.library?

Thanks.




bp

[blakespot]

...This might mean you have another piece of hardware in the system causing WHDLoad to bomb, or maybe a network interface online (always have them offline before launching games).

Also, I do have an X-Surf card and use it under 3.1 with AmiTCP. I am sure to have "stop net"ed before running games.



bp

[blakespot]

I grabbed the new P5 68060.library set.

I still get NMI auto vec crashes on basically every demo I run. :-(



bp

[blakespot]

So I installed the new 68060, 68040 libraries mentioned a few posts up, yet Showconfig tells me I have a 68040 in the system. I have a Phase 5 Blizzard '060 board in this A2000.

SS loads the standard Setpatch with OS 3.1.

This may be my problem with crashes in WHDLoad, right?

Should Showconfig report 68060? I read on EAB that it should... Thanks.



bp