Amiga 3000 boot issues

[scuzzb494]

Hi

The Amiga 3000 hard drive finally died. Seems I lost more in the process. I now get the floppy boot options for1.3 and 2.0x and no hard drives. There are two SCSI ancient drives. The rear one gives out a nasty click and refuses to boot. Anyway, if I click either 1.3 or 2.0x I need the special A3000 boot disk which I install and 1.3 boots no problem but 2.04 refuses to boot. I get the 2.0ROM boot screen and the disk starts to load. It goes past the part where it tries to load drives and onto the next section and then halts. When I try to load 1.3 with the 2.04ROM it halts at the point where it says no clock found. I removed the battery ages ago.

So the machine will run 1.3 but not 2.04. I even tried using an external drive.

The computer has an AMAX II+ card and suspecting this I bypassed the floppy connection to the AMAX. The second Conner drive is a MAC drive formatted hard drive and I don't want to muck that hard drive up.

So why is the computer refusing to boot. I did ask nicely and pressed down on the ROM chips. SysInfo under 1.3 shows everything other than the hard drives and does a speed test. So odd.

[scuzzb494]

Thanks for the reply which I will study....

Couple of things. There is no ROM tower. Just the two ROM chips. The A3000 Kickstart is working fine I can get to the boot screen no problem. I have tried other copies of the disk and they work fine. The problem starts when the computer tries to boot into 2.04 off the floppy disk. Again I have tried several versions of 2.04 and even the 1.3 WB off the 2.04 boot but doesn't work. There is an issue with loading 2.04. I can load 1.3 from the 1.3 boot screen.

The one drive has a failed motor and the other I think is still working. I may swap them over and see. For now I would be happy being able to boot into the Workbench. There is another issue and that is with the screen when I try to play a game from the 2.04 boot. Here is the blog I just posted on the website.

https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_february21/scuzzblogdfebruary21_2001.htm

I'll read what has been posted thus far and will take another stab at it later

[scuzzb494]

Sadly the little green corrosion around the Denise is probably the cause of the graphical issues. I was greeted today with a pink screen backdrop and garbled text. I removed the Denise and stripped back to the motherboard and when done I managed to go from pink backdrop to grey and white. And the mouse is hopping over the selection icon for floppy disk and I have had this before and it was the Denise that was broken. Whether this happened at the same time the hard drive popped or earlier don't know. There are two issues at play and I will swap the Denise tomorrow and see how I get on. The SCSI needs another drive.

I had disconnected the SCSI completelyfrom the board and was able to access the early boot but the floppy refused to get past that point in the boot process.  When I rebooted I was in pink screen mode and then grey sadly. She is falling over fast. Hopefully start climbing out the hole tomorrow. Or not. Its fun either way.

[scuzzb494]

I swapped out the Denise and I am back to the correct graphical display and the mouse is not now hopping over the icons so the Denise fixed. I do sense that the computer may have had a leaky battery at some point dunno. Thats all working now.

I installed the ECHO in the start up and it boots and halts at this line ....

copy ENVARC: ram:env all quiet noreq

This is after the line Makedir ram:T

When I use my own A500Plus boot disk the machine crashes after it tries to create the RAM disk.

Interestingly the computer works fine in 1.3 Workbench. Just been playing Desert Strike on joystick. Also 1.3 has the RAM disk and I can see both CHIP and FAST with SysInfo. There isn't a jumper for loading RAM to the hard drive. Seems a longshot.. scratching my head cus all this happened when the hard drive stopped working.

[scuzzb494]

I have checked all disks I have of 2.04 [ originals ] and they are identical Part Number 367813-01. I also took them into DOpus and all file sizes are the same. They all also have identical startup sequences. 1985-1991. I am not aware of different versions of 2.04. All as Greg Donner Workbench guide http://www.gregdonner.org/workbench/wb_204.html.

The startup creates all the assigns but are prevented from doing so as it appears the process halts at the point previously noted. I suspect RAM failure.

The link given didn't work for me for the memory test.

This machine has the 2000 part numbers for ROM 390629-02 and 390630-02 and not the 3000 03 version. There are no jumpers at J180-181 to select compatibility mode with the 2000 so I am guessing by the time this motherboard was made the 2000 mode wasn't necessary and the chips are correct as there are two and the 2000 doesn't have the two chips.

The only other oddity was a noticable pin snapped off to PIN 3 on the AMAX. This would mirror the vacant pin header for the ribbon to the internal floppy. The pin isn't just removed as there is quite a bit of it left. I sense the break was deliberate. I bypassed the AMEX anyway going straight for the floppy. The 3000 has all its teeth... sorry all its pins on the floppy header unlike say the 1200 or maybe 2000 where 3 is missing.

Remember that this computer was primarily set up as a MAC emulator. The model of the floppy is the Chinon MODEL FB-354 RevE which is identical to the Amiga 500 where there is no Pin 3. So again I think the broken pin 3 is deliberate. The floppy loaded three disks of Desert Strike so I think its safe to say its being read OK.

I don't see a software error as I believe the various original Kickstart disks are authentic as is the Workbench and the ROMS. There may be an issue with the floppy and ribbon and the most likely is bad RAM/memory. I'm gonna go for memory. I've put the computer away now having got the Denise fixed and I'm giving up for now. I think there is little else to do until I can swap out the memory or atleast check. Not a today problem.

Thanks. I need to read my thick 3000 manuals and see how the machine deals with memory I think.

[scuzzb494]

Like you I think this is a RAM issue. Maybe ROM also but I'm leaning to a busted chip. I'm about done for now. I cleaned up like you suggested and when I get some more time with the 3000 I will run a diagnostic on the RAM. I have some spares so may have a go. Workbench 1.3 is running fine which is strange to me but dunno, that's why I need to get my big manuals out for the 3000. Just happy I got the Denise back.

This was the latest blog below with that ECHO message and that chip replacement.

https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_february21/scuzzblogdfebruary21_2201.htm

PS The busted hard drive I used doesn't look too bad. Sadly it has a massive cut across the back face. I bought it broken and for spares. Maybe time has come to rejuvinate the board given the rarity now. Sadly it now has a broken Denise and an ECS at that.

Thanks for the help.

[scuzzb494]

Yeh that was my thinking and so that's why I loaded three disks of Desert Strike and few more heavy games requiring disk changes. Desert Strike was fine but R-TYPE II threw up a GURU and reboot. So I think it is memory and I plan on running a diagnostic on memory when I get a moment.  Difficult going forward without 2.04 booting so that is my first priority.

I can soak 1.3 and I am pretty sure it'll junk out at some point. I just need to know which of them nasty blighters on the mobo is causing the problem.  Haven't been able to recover my A3000 manuals yet.

PS I think the Amiga Org certificate has expired. I just got refused entry by Norton.

[scuzzb494]

Quick update. I have been working on an A2000 that was totally dead and put in store a few years ago. I set too checking the CPU pins as they are located next to a previously removed battery and were looking a little green. Seems the clip that holds the leg on the connector is probably broken to the first pin nearest where the battery was. Anyway I cleaned up and pinged the legs on the CPU as wide as possible before inserting back and like magic she fired up and is working no problem.

OK to the point ... I used my 2.04 disk with the echo on the 2000 and this ran through the boot proces no problem. However I tried the SHELL and the results were a garbled mass of lines booting in and then clearing to the prompt. Also various keys are incorrect even though this is the correct keyboard. Checking a bit deeper I found a program on the disk called SCION.

http://aminet.net/package/biz/dbase/Scion508

So I went and got another Workbench disk for 2.04 and this didn't have the garbled text or the SCION program. I did get a little troubled cus there was no red on the screen until I checked the colour palette that some one had changed. I fired ip 1.3 and the colours were all there and the keyboard was working fine and the SHELL didn't have this string of garbled text. Dunno how this would affect the A3000 cus she was hanging. On the 2000 the WB did not hang with SCION on it. Weird.

Dunno what to trust to be honest.  So many of my 2.04 disks have this SCION on. I had to dig real deep to find one that didn't. The disks appear identical till you look deeper.