3.1 ROM upgrade

[psxphill]

Here is a pic of the rom, if you look carefully at the picture you will see in front of the ROM that there is 2 pins empty.

That is a picture of an a600 motherboard, they either have 40 pin or 42 pin sockets. I can't tell from that angle as there are too many optical illusions going on with the lighting and the angle. Here is a less insane picture http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/media/download_photos/a600mb_rev15_2.jpg

This is a rev 5 a500 http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/media/download_photos/a500mb_rev5_3.jpg, which only has a 40 pin socket (the a500+ has a 42 pin socket).

Normally you would only use 42 pin sockets for 1mb kickstart roms (i.e. 3.9 etc), 2 extra pins means there is up to 4 times the capacity. If he programmed each part of the rom with the same contents then you may get away with leaving the extra pins floating (1mb rom would need two copies, 2mb rom would need 4 copies). I'd personally bend the extra pins up and solder a wire to ground to avoid any doubt.

I believe the extra pins that don't go into the socket are the ones at the end with the notch, because when you go the other way and put a 40 pin rom into a 42 pin socket then these are the pins that are empty.

[psxphill]

Really? I got it from Amigakits website, here is the link. http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=157

Yes really, next to the rom is a square surface mount 68000. You won't find one of those anywhere but an a600.

I could only count 19 pins on the rom due to the lighting and angle, which makes it hard to tell what is going on. They may have stuck a sticker on a random 38 pin chip for the photograph, but it could also be that it's screwing with my eyes.

However the 2d sticker on their picture is a bit of a give away as it's obviously a 2d A600 and those have 42 pin sockets but only shipped with 40 pin roms. http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/media/download_photos/a600mb_rev2d_2.jpg

If you have a 42 pin rom and a 40 pin socket and the two halves (or four quarters) aren't identical then you'll need to wire up the extra pins to gary or the 68000.

[psxphill]

Must be a difference of your monitor.  His picture was clearly identifiable for me, on my phone and on my computer.  Either way, it's still good information.  

Ok, edit the picture and number the pins & upload it somewhere :-) I dotted them in paint as the pins and spaces between them turn into an escher style puzzle, what I thought might be pins furthest away from the camera don't look as if they would fit into the socket.

[psxphill]

This info does not address your problem but it might address the not working.
https://web.archive.org/web/19980524103433/http://www.softhut.com/31500.html

Yes, I forgot that a rev 5 a500 motherboard will also need the standard pin 1 to 31 3.1 strap.

A small piece of wire wrapped around the pins at each end will probably work. Although soldering would be better, but I'd still bend the extra pins up and ground them.

[psxphill]

and ordered a socket so I could do the soldering on it instead of the ROM chip in case I swap things around again :-)

You can also just solder a wire on the bottom side of the a500 motherboard. You need to be careful plugging sockets into other sockets as depending on which one you order, you could damage the motherboard socket.