To A1200 owners... I need help PLS!!!

[Karlos]

What LinchpiN said :-)

Shove a hard disk in there and that boot delay will all but vanish.

The problems with the 1240 could be down to

1) Overheating - make sure your machine is well ventilated and that the fan on the apollo is working properly.

2) Insufficient / varying power - depending on what other peripherals you have, your PSU might he straining. The old A500 power bricks are tated at 60W, which should be enough but also bear in mind they are likely getting quite old and perhaps (especially due to drying capacitors etc) may not be delivering their full potential. If you have any spare AT or ATX PSU's lying around, you might convert one of those.

If you do opt for a PSU conversion, consider using 2 cables to the amiga, one to the normal power socket and a second (using a spare molex connector is a good choice) to power any internal drives. This reduces the current flow through the motherboard.

3) Ropey timing issues (not uncommon for older Apollos) -
trickier to diagnose and fix, but usually this prevents the system from starting at all, so with any luck it isn't this.

4) Software incompatibilites / hacks / improper setup - you say you are not booting from a Hard Disk? It is quite likely that whatever software you run from floppy is not fully aware of the 68040. The 68040 and 68060 require special libraries that configure their MMU, setup software emulation for missing instructions etc. Without this support code loaded, you can expect some weirdness with various applications. These libraries are typically installed when you install AmigaOS 3.x to a hard drive.

[Karlos]

@Starf81

When in doubt with any accelerator card, first of all ensure that all connections are completely clean. The motherboard edge connector, the accelerator card socket, SIMMs and their sockets. Dust, grease etc, some of which might even be virtually invisible to the eye can result in a flaky contact.

Cleaning with a cotton swab and some proper contact cleaner (or Isopropyl alcohol) can be a good place to start.

Also check the mechanical rigidity of the cards attachment to the motherboard, a slightly loose or wobbly card is a common source of problems, usually resulting again in a poor contact. Same with memory too.

Does your 1240 have a socketed ROM chip (the one adjacent to the SIMM socket)? Early revisions, like mine did. And a total pain in the arse it was too. If so, check it is seated firmly. Mine used to get pushed by the SIMM once installed and it is now as good as dead due to mechanical strain this caused.

I am not familiar with the 1D4/31kHz screen issue, so I can't really say.

[Karlos]

Doobrey wrote:

Well, as he says in a later post it sometimes crashes on the insert disk screen.

Aye, but an unrelable contact would show similar symptoms too. Always better to eliminate these things systematically.