GVP hc+ 8 series II and A2000

[Pat the Cat]

It's easy procedure to upgrade my rev6 A2000 to 3.1 rom?

Depends. It's a socketed chip, but the rectangular (DIL) kind. Aim for the gap between the socket and the bottom of the chip.

Levering either end, gently, alternately, a little bit at a time, it should just pop out. There are plastic tools to do this, but a small flat bladed screwdriver will do the job.

Plugging in a new ROM chip (only one on an A2000) is easy, just make sure you get the notch at one end the right way. Same way as the old one was.

Make sure it goes in flat, no bent pins. If one side is a little bit off, you can put one side in a little, bend the pins in a row to line up the other set, and press it in fully.

If you do bend a pin, it can be straightened out with small pliers - again, gently.

First time it's a big deal, but it's not that difficult really. Even if you never done electronics at all.

[Pat the Cat]

Not unusual, typically is a loose SIMM module or ROM chip on the card.

Also, check ROM to see if has a little adaptor fitted for 32K sized GuruROM, as opposed to more typical 16K GVP ROM. Even those sometimes need an update, for removable media I think.

http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/impact2000hc8

Ralph Babel page for download of ROMs and updated gvpscsi.device files;-

http://babel.de/amiga.html#gvp

[Pat the Cat]

As far as I recall, that only goes for some A500 boards. The more interesting question is now: Is this a ROM for an A2000? And which board revision are we talking about?

A3000 or A4000 ROMs cannot be used in A2000's, for example.

Very important point. There are several versions of the "A2000" out there, and while they can all be modified to rev 6, on some of the earliest versions it is a long, tough job. Most are Rev 5, but there are still rev 4 German made units out there that have NEVER been modified.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_2000#Amiga_1500

Bottom most link off that is slightly more detailed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_2000#Amiga_1500

In all honesty - I have yet to meet an "honest trader" when it comes to selling retro computer hardware, in the sense of knowing exactly what kit they are selling. Maybe I just met the wrong people.

[Pat the Cat]

If not yet said, some old A2000 computers need a connect two rom's pin with jump wire.

A2000 revisions below 6 can need pins 32 and 21 connecting. On the ROM connector. It's hardly a major fix.

; For the revisions 3 and 5, pins 1 and 31 must be connected to the base. To the
  ROM pin 31 and connect it to pin 21. No additional connection is required for revisions 6A and higher.

If the machine is OK with Kickstart 2, it can use 512K ROM, so that does not need fixing.

So maybe is 1mb size 3.1 ROM. Or just broken 3.1 ROM in 512K size. What is part number on chip?

If it is 1mb ROM, can be implemented less easily with this (necessary if 3.9 ever installed on machine);

http://members.iinet.net.au/~davem2/overclock/A2000Kickstart.html

[Pat the Cat]

One oddity I noticed - the part no. covers all 3.1 ROMs fitted to A500, A600 and A2000 by Escom... but...

... Amigakit don't appear to sell an A600 version. They do separate versions for A500 and A2000?

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=157

So  maybe it's a pull from an old A600, an original part - but if your  Amiga doesn't have a PCMCIA interface like a real A600, it won't start  up. Because it's trying to initialize a port that isn't fitted?

That's another possible reason. I guess if you did it the other way around, an A500 ROM would startup  an A600 OK, but you wouldn't get the PCMCIA port working in a hurry... Something like that, maybe.

[Pat the Cat]

Which is no miracle, since the ROMs of all three machines are identical. Even the A2000 and A500 include the IDE scsi.device, except that it is not used.


If these are original 3.1 ROMs without any "improvements", then there is no need to.

Somewhat bad news if people want to run an A570 with 3.1 - surely they have to cook their own ROM to remove the "new" SCSI device?

I do so hope this is the case. Because I have an A570....