Finally got my A3000 upto speed!

[tonyyeb]

Hi all

Anyone who has read my postings for the last week will know that I have been struggelling to get my A3000 running. It came to me with only a keyboard and a mouse. Bog standard. No easy of getting stuff from my PC to it. CrossDOS didn't work (KS is 2.0 not 2.04), no SCSI CD ROM to hand (was watching 20 on ebay at the time!).

So after buying a buddha IDE card from AmigaKit.com (great service, arrived next day!) and installing it with a 2.5" laptop hard drive, I eventually got HDtoolbox to partition it and then formatted it. A few glitches and simple (over eager!) mistakes by me later I was able to mount the newly partitioned drive in UAE using a 2.5" USB hard drive caddy. I could then copy files and ADFs to be written by TSGUI.

I had some great help and advice from fellow forum members, some even posting me disks! So here is the reward... some eyecandy of my naked A3000 running Oh No! More Lemmings! (it was the first one I got working!).





As for future plans:

* Some Kickstart 3.1 ROMs are on their way from the US
* About to order a CF-IDE adaptor for easier data transfer
* Tempted by a Amiga-PC networking kit (£15 from ebay, are these any good?)
* Failing that an X-SURF card
* Might remove the insides and mount in a new tower case to allow the install of CD/DVD Rom and new uprated PSU (are these available to buy or is it s simple mod of an ATX psu?) Keep the old case for when it is time to sell on
* Clean the keyboard and mouse with H202 (get new ones?)

Any other ideas / suggestions?

[tonyyeb]

alexh wrote:
I dont think you could have KS2.0! Either you have KS1.4 (SuperKickstart that loads kickstart files from the hard drive) which then loads KS2.0 or you have KS2.04!

If you had KS1.4 I could have sent you the 3.1 files ;-)

You are right. It is 1.4 but upon booting (without double mouse button hold) it goes into 2.0 - thats why I said that. You can still send me the 3.1 files if you want while I wait for the ROMs to arrive.

If you are going to order a IDE->CF adapter, why not consider a back panel one? Makes it relatively clean and easy to install and gives you access to remove, transfer to the PC and copy over files.

If you use the CF card as a way to transfer files to the Amiga you wont need a network card or transfer kit. You'll be able to transfer files 10x faster than either too!

I was thinking of a back panel one. And true it would do away with the need for the networking.

If you want an optical drive, why not... SNIP ...I've not used my Amiga optical drive in years and years!

You are right again. Waste of time/money if get the CF-IDE.

Unless they are broken... just clean your keyboard and mouse. If you take the keyboard to bits and wash them you'll be amazed how well they come up.

I'll give that a go.

I forgot to say in my original post that I have also got a replacement battery. The other one looks ok but as it will be getting on a bit i thought it best to replace it. Im guessing this is just a desolder old one and solder new one on? There was a disk for backing up settings that came with it to run first.

[tonyyeb]

alexh wrote:

?? You should not need to hold down both mouse buttons.

If you hold down both mouse buttons after you switch on the A3000 you will be prompted to choose the operating system version to use. You can either bootstrap Kickstart 2.x and Kickstart 1.3 from hard disk or from floppy disk. If you don't hold down any mouse buttons the boot ROMs will bootstrap the Kickstart from hard disk, using the partition with the highest boot priority. Normally, this is the Kickstart 2.x boot partition.

Yes that is what I meant. Maybe i didn't word it correctly. Basically if you dont do anything it boots to 2.x.

Sure, see PM (in 5 mins). Do you know what to do with it?

Cheers and no i don't!

The hard disk partitions must be named "WB_2.x" and "WB_1.3" ...SNIP

They are named correctly. So simply replace devs/kickstart with the one you have and away I go. Boot to 3.1?

[tonyyeb]

I have dual input on my monitor (HDMI to my PC and VGA to my A3000). Whats the difference between the two cards in relation to the monitor?

Whats the cost of the two cards?

[tonyyeb]

alexh wrote:
Very similar to the old Voodoo cards if you remember those?

Certainly do.

The CV64/3D is usually about £65-85 and the CV64 is £120-150. But they can both go for much more if there are two people who want one. Over £150 you are entering PicassoIV prices.

Hmmm, reality check. Bought a 8800GTS for my PC three weeks ago for £45 inc P&P second hand!

[tonyyeb]

Just a quick question about changing the kickstart file. If when I do it and I reboot, what do I do if it doesn't boot? How do i restore the old one?

[tonyyeb]

alexh wrote:
You are using a PC and UAE to transfer the file? Back up the old one to devs/kickstart_old during the copy process and if it doesn't boot (it will!) you just put the drive back in the PC and rename the old file back?

Once you've confirmed that the kickstart file works, put it back in the PC and install Workbench 3.1 (or 3.9) :-)

But I have workbench installed on the existing SCSI 100mb drive not my 2.5" drive.

EDIT: I can sort it by booting WB2.05 to the AmigaDOS screen and loadwb from the HD.

[tonyyeb]

All done! Kickstart 40.70 reported by version.

Now I guess installing Workbench 3.1 is a matter of putting in the install 3.1 disk and double clicking install?

Is there a way to virtually mount ADF's so they look like real disks to the Amiga? The reason I ask is that I only have a few floppies to write the ADFs too and I've had quite a few failures writing ADFs to them.

EDIT: To answer my own second question I found ADF Device. Going to try it now.

[tonyyeb]

Kin-Hell wrote:

Another option is to mount a couple of RAD drives & extract to them instead of floppies. Much much faster too, but non-DOS disks will still be unreadable!  ;-)

ADF Device worked like a charm. Now got Workbench 3.1 installed on my HD. Just wish the partition for system2.0 was slightly bigger than 10mb.

Also got all the buddha stuff installed now.

Thanks alexh for all the help and tips. Now off to order a IDE-CF for my Amiga and a Front panel CF reader for my PC... and a CF card of course  ;-)

[tonyyeb]

Is that price used? I can only see it for $75. The buddha was only £38 new. I'm guessing it would be faster than the buddha - but then it is still quick (in Amiga terms).

Next job is to look at installing WHDload along with my favorite games (might wait until CF stuff arrives). And yes they will be getting the registration fee when done... it is an excellent product.

[tonyyeb]

W.A.F. price?

Can you have multiple devices with that card? (I'm guessing not and you need multiple cards for multiple devices?)

[tonyyeb]

alexh wrote:
W.A.F. = Wife Acceptance Factor

It's the amount a husband can spend on random purchases and not get it in the neck by his wife. I work in the consumer electronics industry and they plot this W.A.F. on graphs to try to work out what price to make set-top-boxes, DVD-players, external hard drives, and all other impulse buys in supermarkets.

lol! Well so far my bill is:

* Buddha - £38
* Battery - £4
* Kickstart 3.1 ROMs - £22

So £64. The Amiga was free so I guessed if I was to sell I would be easily breaking even if not a little profit.

Bill will go up when I order the CF-IDE for my Amiga and CF reader for my PC but not by much, plus the CF reader and CF card will still be usable.

[tonyyeb]

alexh wrote:
It's some strange inverse bell curve. They get more upset the smaller and more expensive it is and bigger and less expensive...

Large inexpensive = "Large piece of worthless junk"
Small expensive = "How much?! For this tiny piece of crap!"