A2000HD - what can I do to upgrade....

[Rooster]

SO I had this big thing typed up and apparently tripped the timer for inactivity and lost my post..  (Will be copyign to notepad first this time..)

Hi..  I'm new to the forums here..  Been an avid Amiga 500 user in the past (when it first came out..), it's been garaged for a little over 10 years..

Came across an A2000 (2000HD, as it turned out) with a "Vid Tech Scanlock" unit, Commodore monitor, 2 3.5's, and key/mouse..  Got some questions for ya guys:

1.  Instead of using the scanlock device and a SVGA cable to my TV, I'd like to actually use the monitor.  Problem is, he did not have the correct 9-pin to (I'm guessing) 25-pin cable.  He did have a 95-pin to a rounded (maybe 5 or 6 pin) cable (looks similar to a keyboard plug) which he thought went to that monitor from either the scanlock or amiga directly (if I didn't want to use the scanlock).  Just kind of wanted to verify what the number of pins on a stock monitor to Amiga 2000 hookup should be, so I can start ebaying, or possibly cut and rewire a 9-pin connector on that unused cable he had..

2.  ROM is a 1.3, with a workbench 34.20.  Found a place that cerries em, not sure what to get..  One site listed the 2.04 as the latest for the A2k, others have reported using like 3.1's..  What can I use?  And related to that question, what workbench can I run on it?  I know my A500 was updated at least once, and I remember it being all gray, and 3d-ish, compared to the A2K.  Honestly not sure what the A500 had in it anymore - Getting ready to revive it tomorrow and find out!  

3.  Max RAM..  Read somewhere 8 or 9 MB is max..  What type/size of RAM does the 2000 use?  I can use 30-pin SIMM's (that era's PC memory) for instance?

4.  Tied in with #3..  I want to max this beast out.  Make it the baddest "farily-common part" A2K..  Nothing ultra rare, and therefore expensive, but..  What all can I slap in this to make it "the best of what it was"?

5.  When the system turns on, there's simply a white screen until a CLI with the ROM/version info comes up..  On the A500, I rememebr there being various logo's, dependig on which ROM or kickstart/workbench (whatever controlled that!!) was being used.  Is this white screen normal, or is it a side-effect of using this "scanlock" device?  By example, the animated disk going into the drive...  Even with my supra SCSI HD, I still remember seeing something.?

6.  The Vid Tech Scanlock VSL-A-N...  This was his method..  This device (made for an Amiga, it seems, though I've never heard of it) hooks to the video port on the Ami, and then offers various outputs and inputs..  Haven't monkied around with it, except to hook up a SVHS cable to it when I couldn't get anything to hook up to the monitor (see above).  Ironically, the documentation for it (a photocopy) shows the Amiga monitor sitting on top of it!  Ideas/comments welcome..  What I'm wondering is should I try and find a way to make this device work with the Ami monitor?  or bypass it completely with (hopefully) a computer to monitor cable (that is missing)?  Anyone use one of these things?  I read something elsewhere (some post about not having a RGB/Commodore monitor anymore) and they were saying some games/programs will not work because they need the RGB native resolutions or something, and that devices which seemed to fit the description of this one, prevent/cannot support that..  

Sorry for being so long-winded.  I'm all giddy about finding this..  Been going through disks all day long, checking out files, music/pics/games..  Can't belive after literally 10 years of sitting in a garage, EVERY one of the floppies I've tried has worked fine.  Maybe it was 10 years of use, not 10 years of life..  Anyway, tomorrow I'm off to dig up hopefully all the parts of my A500 (got it and the PS, gotta track down the SCSI expansion) and start tinkering/comparing the two..  I doubt I have the HD anymore that it came with (a 20MB, I believe) but I know I've got some old 650MB's sitting around..  Finding this thing has certainly brought me back to the scene..  Now I can show my son what a REAL computer can do, even though it's dated and aged..  

Thanks in advance for any comments/suggestions/ideas you may have.  I appreciate you taking the time!

   Rooster



 

[Rooster]

Wow, thanks for all the replies already!!  

First off, spent the morning digging up A500 stuff..  Luckily I DID find the RGB cable for it, so now I can use it (and my new A2K) with the real monitor instead of the TV via that scanlock device.  Yea!!

Second, can't track down my SupraDrive, lol..  Seems I didn't store it with my A500 or the peripheral box, so it's awol at the moment (sux because I'd like to see what I had on the drive).  It does have the 2.0 chip in it.  And I have the 2.1 Workbench disks..  So all I need is to track down that supradrive and that thing will be "running great" again, for now, it's the boot off floppy method.

Getting ready to crack the A2K case now, and check out among other things, that battery situation.  Will likely report back with the findings and what's in there if anything additional/unknown.  

Did have a question about to the person regarding the ROM boot..  How can I do that?  Would be interested in getting 2.0 on the 2K before I order that 3.1 ROM/Workbench..  If there's a site/link that'd be cool, don't need a step by step in here, at least I think..  hehe

Ohh..  Accelerators and vid cards that were mentioned..  IS the A2K limited to the 030 or can I use the 040 as well?  Also, what kind of vidcard options are there?  I'm assuming they are Amiga-based cards, not PC ones?  (Remember my life on Amiga has been a 500 - What's inside is what I had, lol)..  Well cept for the memory add-on port, and the HDD, and the digitizer (which I also can't find - though I found the camera and the color wheel...)

[Rooster]

"The innards revealed"

Ok, after a finger slicing incident on the last card and a bandage, I'm back to report the findings...

Card #1 - 8-UP! Memory expansion Board. Many empty slots in both vertical and horizontal rows, but 1 row in each direction is filled.. (Time to find that IC # and max it out, woot!!)

Card #2 - Modem!  Made by Supra Corp.. Model 30-0053-4..  Not a fullsize card, incidentally - has a seperate cord to the bracket..

Card #3 - SCSI Card - GVP HardCard A2000 HC2 Model # 015-HC-13701.  Thinking maybe my find was not a A2000HD, but an A2000 with an add-on SCSI..  Assumedly an A2000HD would ship with a Commodore SCSI card, right?  Still, a card is a card at this point..  FWiT, also has external SCSI hookup (time to dig out my old 6-disc scsi cd-rom changers...)  I could not fidn this card in the amihardware website..  Found reference to it on a site doing a google search, but the site was being redone/or moving or something..

Card #4 - An Accelerator card!! (woot) The Commodore 2620.  At first this made me very happy and suprised, till I read the AmigaHardware websites data on it, specifically:

"boot ROMs below rev 6 are incompatible with Kickstart 2.0 and above
the ROM address space overlaps the upper 256 kB of the 512 kB Kickstart ROMs (Kickstart 1.3 is 256 kB only)
by the time AmigaOS loads, the boot ROMs are supposed to be off but due to a bug in the A26x0 ROM code they remain active, causing an address space collision
fitting a rev 6 or 7 ROM pair solves the problem
some boards are reported being incompatible with the newer ROMs either"

And as you may have guessed, my chips are labeled top one as a V5, bottom one as a V4.  So I'll either be ROM hunting or just not worry about it if I can still snag a faster card..

Am curious about a slot that sits right next to the power supply.  Silkscreen says CN203.  Board rev. is 4.2..  I thought this is where the accel. card would've gone until I found an accel card in my system!  Now I'm wondering what this is, all by itself..  Only other thing I can think of is some type of additonal RAM slot or something?

Also - Took digital pictures of everything..  All cards, various case pics, some of the IC's, etc..  Just in case anyone wants to see something, or if someone is trying to match up real photos with components..

Took pics of the battery..  Looked fine, but I think I'll take the advice on desoldering it anyway, and rigging a replacement.  The guy used it fairly often for video work (text overlays, I'm guessing, unless he removed a card to sell (toaster/digitizer/something)..  There is an open slot in the back, by the connecters that are close to the brackets.

[Rooster]

regarding the Skick345--

Had already downloaded it and was reading the docs on it (just here on my PC).  Thought about grabbing the null-modem (got one from the A500 days, lol) but didn't, becuase everything in the docs says you have to have a 2.0 ROM to start, and that it's used to boot back in the 1.3 or 3.x's..  Since it seems the 2.x ROM's were incompat. with 1.3's that games were written for?  Or something like that..  I'll send the file over and see what options/abilities it has just in case.

[Rooster]

@ adz:

Wow, so the video card upgrade options go there, eh, and not to a slot by the traditional slots/brackets? (love those technical terms)

The SCSI as a Pioneer 6-disk changer..  Actually have 2 of em..  Used em for when I ran a BBS on the 500 (think it was GAP BBS, or at least I have alot of GAPBBS disks...) then eventually they moved to a PC for running WorldGroups/Major BBS.  

The driver lurks on my SupraDrive, which still hasn't turned up yet, though I might(HOPE) have a driver for it on floppy.. Got like 100 floppies to go through!  TO be fair, I believe the "driver" tricked the ami., Not certain anymore..  Just remember it worked, but not always, when it came to switching disks..  Always read disk#1 though.  Had other various SCSI cdrom's but all the rest have been pitched or donated to other buddies in years past.  

[Rooster]

(from me)> Would be interested in getting 2.0 on the 2K before I order that 3.1 ROM/Workbench.

>Take the ROM from your A500 and fit it in your A2000. That will work.

Thought about that.  But I'm going to end up with 3.1's in it anyway, and don't know if I want to remove and reinsert them twice (out of the A500 and then back in to it later).  It is an option though.  I just liked the idea of trying that softkick to "see" 2.x on there till I got ahold of 3.1's..  Who knows..  Maybe I'll just do it that way anyway.  Less headache trying to make things work I suppose!

>If you are thinking about Internet-surfing with an Amiga you should try to get an 68040 or faster processor and much ram on the accelerator board (at a minium 8-16 MB).

Got a hot board I'm trying to scrape money together for.  Bit steeper than I planned on, but it's a hot deal.  Just going to take some time to get the money - Hopefully it won't be too late (sold)!

>You should not spend money to maxout your memory-expansion board, if you use an accelerator, the Zorro-II memory-board will slow down your processor Fit additional memory on the accelerator board (this memory will be accessed 32-bit wide and with faster MHz than the 16-bit 7,xx MHz memory on the memory-board).

That's true..  Didn't really think about that, wasn't sure how the architecture would work, but what you said certainly makes sense.